Nocturnarya Archives

26 Dec

Nocturnarya among the best Match 3 games of the year!

Hello fans and players of Nocturnarya! We are thrilled to announce that our vampire-themed Match 3 game has captured the 3rd spot in the Best Match 3 games of the year on Big Fish Games, the largest casual games portal! For a small studio like us, this is an incredible achievement! You can see the full list of winners here: Best games of 2023 on Big Fish Games.

Big Fish Games Best Match 3 games of 2023

First and foremost, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who has supported and played Nocturnarya. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and dedication have been instrumental in making this achievement possible. We couldn’t have done it without your continuous support, and we are truly humbled by the overwhelming response to our game. We want to thank our artists, beta testers, and especially you, the fans of Nocturnarya.

Incidentally, in 2022, we also clinched that 3rd spot on Big Fish Games with Spooky Dwellers.

Big Fish Games Best Match 3 games of 2022

We’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other winners of the Best Match 3 games of the year. It’s important to acknowledge the remarkable talent and hard work put into creating these amazing games, from well-established franchises. Furthermore, we want to extend our appreciation to all the developers of the Match 3 games released this year, and we commend your efforts in pushing the boundaries of this genre. I feel that the Match 3 games released this year were really good.

Once again, thank you for being a part of our Nocturnarya journey. We are excited to continue delivering captivating and enjoyable gaming experiences to all of you. Stay tuned for more updates and new games!

02 Dec

Oferia Weiss, The Diabolical Nurse

Oferia Weiss, The Diabolical Nurse, is one of the most mysterious and sinister characters in Nocturnarya. A nurse without any scruple or affection for vampires or humans. For her, vampires and humans are simply commodities, pieces that she can manipulate to achieve her selfish and secret purposes.

Oferia is the granddaughter of a renowned and respected figure in the medical field. From an early age, she harbored a deep desire to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps, aspiring to become a doctor herself. However, her dreams were shattered when a macabre and mysterious incident led to her expulsion from medical school, closing the doors of the medical school for her. Not that she really cared. She always despised the medical school, its ethics and its methods, which in her opinion, were useless and archaic.

Undeterred by the setback, she resorted to practicing nursing in secret, taking up a position at a discreet and modest hospital located on the outskirts of Nocturnarya. It’s here that her true nature is revealed; a person devoid of moral scruples, lacking in professional ethics, and driven solely by a relentless pursuit of wealth and personal gain. These unsavory qualities have earned her the notorious moniker of the Diabolical Nurse. In a dark and clandestine operation, she has delved into the macabre world of selling human blood to vampires. Aware of their insatiable thirst for the crimson elixir of life, she has become a crucial intermediary, providing a steady supply of this vital fluid to satisfy their immortal cravings. Her involvement in this illicit trade has allowed her to accumulate substantial wealth, which fuels her insatiable desire for a life of opulence and luxury.

Driven by envy towards the seemingly eternal existence of vampires, Oferia has hatched a sinister plan to extend her own lifespan and revel in the riches that accompany it. Rumors circulate that she possesses a mysterious artifact, a dark and forbidden object capable of extracting every last drop of blood from a human body within a matter of minutes. This artifact, if indeed real, holds the potential to grant her the eternal life she craves, while also granting her unfathomable power and control. With her reputation as the Diabolical Nurse spreading like a sinister whisper throughout the shadows of Nocturnarya, Oferia Weiss’ dark ambitions and malevolent actions have cast a chilling pall over the unsuspecting kingdom. As her dubious activities continue to thrive under the cloak of secrecy, the humans and vampires of Nocturnarya remain oblivious to the sinister force that lurks within their midst, waiting for the opportune moment to unleash her diabolical plans.

Play Nocturnarya and discover how the path of your adventure crosses the path of Oferia, the diabolical nurse!

If you liked this story, you may also like the story of Archmage Cedric, a character from our games DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness and DragonScales 5: The Frozen Tomb.

22 Nov

Localization of Nocturnarya is completed

The localization of Nocturnarya took exactly one month. It was a complex project, with numerous dialogue lines and a few challenging sections, as discussed in a previous post. Some terms posed difficulties during translation, such as Blood Cartridge, Fang Sword, Bloody Spirit, Diabolical Nurse, and others. We included the option to switch between vampiress and vampire identities for narrative purposes, without any impact on gameplay (our tests confirmed that there were no bugs resulting from this feature).

Submissions of the localized versions of Nocturnarya (German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese) are already underway, to our regular publishers. These localized versions will be available for Windows only, and there are no plans for a Steam release. All in all, considering both the time spent on localization and the development of the original English game, Nocturnarya stands as our largest project to date. Since Spooky Dwellers 2 was already localized in September, we can now shift our focus towards developing a new game.

Regarding this new project, we’re still discussing a few ideas. One of our goals for 2024 is creating at least one Match 3 game, that’s for sure. However, we’d like to explore other genres, if time and budget permit. We’ll likely write a post when we have clearer ideas about our next title. Stay tuned! 🙂

11 Nov

Nocturnarya: localized versions

Our current project is the localization of Nocturnarya Collector’s Edition. As usual, our target languages are: German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. It’ll be a Windows-only release. This localization is a daunting task, which comprises a few intricate parts:

The Story: Nocturnarya’s story is a bit long, as the game builds a particular vampire lore, with adventure, scheming, military invaders, treasons and loyalty. The game portrays several characters of which the most important is you, the player. At its core, it’s a battle between you and Grysmore, the boss of the human invaders.
The vampire and the vampiress: In the original English game, you can choose how you want to be referred to as the story progresses: as a vampire, a vampiress, or a rockstar renegade. Localizing this is tricky, because of articles and genre-specific details in all the target languages. We’ll be removing the rockstar renegade option, and will do our best to keep the vampire and vampiress options. However, if it proves to be too error-prone we’ll just scrap this option altogether.
The Village: The game has a section that allows you to build a 3D village for your vampire tribe. However, the help window and the tutorials amount to a lot of text to translate.
The Match 3 levels: This includes all the help texts, instructions and user interface of the Match 3 levels.
Collector’s Edition goodies: Last but not least, we’ll have to translate the extra stories and minigames offered as Collector’s Edition exclusive bonuses.

If everything goes smoothly, this localization should be completed by the end of this month.

05 Dec

Next game: Nocturnarya

We’re currently focused on our next Match 3 game, entitled Nocturnarya. At the time of this writing, the vampiric story is fully completed and all the new code for level design is already tested. Regarding the gameplay, our goal with Nocturnarya is to include a few levels with a bit of screen scrolling, and also a new type of path on the boards. And some Match 3 puzzles, of course.

According to our plans, the game should be completed by Q2 2023. Hopefully. For the time being, here’s the logo and Raphaela’s guidance.

The kingdom of Nocturnarya has been done in by the human troops. Follow Raphaela or perish!

Update (September, 2023): Nocturnarya is now available here on ikigames.com, both the Collector’s Edition and the Standard edition. And the guide for Nocturnarya can be found here. Furthermore, a lot of things were changed in the final version of the game, including the logo originally presented in this post.