The first few days of the campaign have been amazing. We freaked out a little when Paypal suddenly stopped processing contributions for almost a day (just our luck), but once everything was fixed we saw that quite a few people were actually supporting us. It’s slowed down now, but we’ve already reached more than $7000! Which is amazing. Seriously. Wow. Thank you. THANK YOU!

We’ve also made it into the press – RPS, PC Gamer, Adventure Gamers, IndieGames.com, even Eurogamer. At this point it looks like Ithaka is getting more attention than The Sea Will Claim Everything!

It’s still a long way to reaching our goal, though, and we could really use your support. Not just in the form of contributions, but also in spreading the word. There are a lot of websites out there that have never heard of the Lands of Dream, or that can’t imagine that games like these could have fans. There are also many people who might hugely enjoy Ithaka of the Clouds, but who don’t generally think of themselves as gamers and who normally would never hear about a project like this one. You can do a lot to help make Ithaka happen by tweeting about it, sharing links on Facebook, and letting your favourite sites that haven’t covered it know that it exists. Don’t spam anyone, but retweet/share/submit buttons do exist for a reason. (They do, right? Because otherwise I may have been doing it all wrong…)

We’d like to do a video giving you a bit more information about the various perks, but before we do: does anyone have any questions? We’ll gladly answer them, in the comments or in the video. We’ve put a lot of care into making each of these perks as cool and unique as possible, because we really don’t want to feel like we’re ripping you off. If you’re going to pay a lot of money, you should at least get something special.

We will, of course, also answer questions not related to the perks! Several people have asked when the game is set, for example, to which the answer is “a long time before any of the other games”. So you will be returning to many of the locations you’ve seen before, but they will be quite different.

Ah, I’m rambling again. Do feel free to ask if there’s anything you want to know, and see you in the next update.

This is it, everybody. Ithaka of the Clouds, the ultimate Lands of Dream game.

Can we make it happen? We’re counting on you.

The Endearing Forest

Yes, the Oneiropolis Compendium is finally being updated again! Today you may learn the curious history of an entirely unique forest.

Ithaka of the Clouds has been on my mind for a long time. It began as a tiny seed of an idea: a game about a troll. From there it grew over the years, never withering despite the hardships that we faced. It became the tale of two trolls: a tale of love and life and long journeys. But it still wasn’t quite ready – until suddenly a title appeared, and everything fell into place. Καβάφης showed me the way.

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933) is widely considered one of the greatest Greek poets, and I agree with that assessment. Poems like Ithaka, Waiting for the Barbarians and Thermopylae have been a huge influence on me. I wish I could share with you how wise Ithaka is, how relevant the satire of Waiting for the Barbarians remains, how well Thermopylae expresses my understanding of struggle and principles. Sadly, Cavafy’s poetry does not translate well into English or any other language that I know. But while I can’t share the beauty of his poetry with most of you, I can share the paths to the Lands of Dream that it opened up for me.

—

Ithaka of the Clouds will not be a direct adaptation of the work of Cavafy, but it will be thoroughly entwined with its themes. His poems are often divided into three categories: the sensual, the historical, and the philosophical. Ithaka of the Clouds will draw on all three as it tells the story of two lovers travelling across the Lands of Dream. (Those of you who have played previous games of mine will recognize that these themes have been there since the beginning.)

But what will it be like? Well, I’m not going to tell you everything. As usual, you can expect a game that doesn’t draw a line between the serious and the silly. You can expect a game that is more interested in people and places and details than it is in complex puzzles. You can expect colourful handdrawn graphics by Verena Kyratzes and another astounding soundtrack by Chris Christodoulou. You can also expect it to be big – bigger even than The Sea Will Claim Everything, which was much bigger than a lot of people expected. The gameplay will remain simple and focused on the exploration of spaces (literal and metaphorical), but there will also be new elements – trolls are builders and craftsmen, after all, and in this game there are two of them. And because the story is about journeys, it will be more focused on moving forward; you will wander across many lands.

There’s more, of course, but I’m not going to tell you. Enjoying the journey is the whole point.

—

Very soon there will be an Indiegogo campaign to help make this game possible. We’ll be asking for a lot less than most projects, but we will still need a lot of support to make this happen. Ithaka of the Clouds is really, really important to us. It may be the last major Lands of Dream game, and it will play a very significant role in the greater tapestry of stories; if the funding campaign works out, it will not only significantly improve our lives (so we can make this game without starving), but it will also allow us to create something that we are deeply invested in.

These strange, bittersweet games have probably been our most significant contribution to the medium. They mean a lot to a lot of people, in a very personal way. For me, they are probably the main reason that I haven’t abandoned the medium yet; when I’m depressed by the difficulties of being an indie game developer, it’s the fact that people care so much about the Lands of Dream that keeps me going. Being able to make Ithaka of the Clouds would be more than just wonderful; it would be life-changing and life-affirming.

As you may know, the Lands of Dream are not wholly harmless, for in them there are many creatures that are quite terrifying. Lovecraft understood this, as did Howard – who also wrote of the beasts that are our subject today – but few described a species of monstrosity with greater scientific accuracy than Robert Benchely did in his famed article Down with Pigeons.

Hi all,

As this website’s official Announcement Fox, I am pleased to announce that The Fabulous Screech and The Sea Will Claim Everything have both taken first place in their respective categories in the Best of Casual Gameplay 2012 awards. This makes me happy, and makes up for the fact that Jonas is being a lazy bum (or sick with a jaw problem, if you want to use different words) and hasn’t posted the new Wanderers’ Tale yet. But still! Awards! Isn’t this nice?

I’d tell you that Screech is really happy and grateful, but ever since his show won the Katsouli’s Choice award a couple of years ago he considers all human praise to be beneath his notice. You know how cats are.

Love to all,

Julian

It was my intent to post a different tale this week, but recent events have brought the story of Chu-bu and Sheemish to mind. It is a story worth remembering.

Hi,

Julian the Announcement Fox here again. Jonas just posted this on his site:

So the time has come again for the Best of Casual Gameplay awards. These awards are voted for by the public, so winning one last time for The Book of Living Magic was quite meaningful to me. This time I have more than one nomination – as a matter of fact, four out of five games I made in 2012 are nominated. That’s rather awesome, isn’t it?

Anyway, it would be highly appreciated if you went and voted! You can vote once per day until the 23rd.

(Arcadia: A Pastoral Tale and The Fabulous Screech are under Interactive Art or Experimental, Traitor is under Shooter and The Sea Will Claim Everything is under Narrative. But please do vote in the other categories as well.)

The competition this year is fierce – so many excellent games – and I don’t actually expect to win anything, but if you enjoyed these games, why not throw some love their way?

Thanks.

I don’t know why the people of your world insist on calling your transdimensional portals “games”, but do go vote. I’d love to have another award for my den.

- Julian

Rarely did that troubled, brilliant man dream as brightly as when he dreamt of Celephaïs. If you have visited the Lands of Dream via the windows that I helped create, you will have found echoes of this dream; you will have heard, even if you do not remember it, of the Valley of Ooth-Nargai and the Cerenarian Sea.

Young Howard, incidentally, much later learned to let go of the hateful illusions that mar some of his writings, and became a friend of famed magician/inventor Old Man Bill.

It is said that Samuel Taylor Coleridge did not understand the importance of his vision of Xanadu until, more than thirty years after setting it down, he came to Oneiropolis and met the mighty Khan himself. A great adventure then followed; but that is too long a story to be told here. For those of you in our world, however, who are intimidated by the pronouncements of the critics (or even worse, for those who are in thrall to them), I direct you to this collection of amusing historical anecdotes.

“As to ‘Kubla Khan’, and the ‘Pains of Sleep’, we can only regret the publication of them, as affording a proof that the Author over-rates the importance of his name.”
- Josiah Conder

Few remember Josiah Conder now (except for his descendants, the ghoulish creatures known as the Commenters Below Newspaper Articles), but Coleridge’s vision of Kubla Khan inspires still.