Kickstarter campaign unearthed for NIRAVASI

Written by Jack Allin — February 2, 2021 at 12:17

Usually in adventure games, a human visitor travels to an alien race's abandoned civilization in search of answers, but that formula is turned on its head in NIRAVASI, an upcoming retro RPG-styled indie adventure that's currently raising crowdfunding through Kickstarter. 

When the humanoid race from Aeon fled their home planet and settled on Aetherius, a world "teeming with life and energy," they were able to construct a "great and beautiful city" called Niravasi. Unfortunately, "when a war between humanity and the natives known as the Antherians broke out, Aetherius was shattered and Niravasi was lost" for centuries. Many years later when the "forgotten city" is finally rediscovered, a team of specialists including a cat-like Antherian archaeologist named Mura is sent on an expedition to explore Niravasi. Once there, however, things go "terribly awry" and Mura finds himself alone. Now, with "only his wits and the support of a mysterious ally to help him out, Mura must make his way out of the city (and escape the unspeakable horrors that lurk within)."

A pixel art adventure presented largely from an overhead view with keyboard controls, NIRAVASI takes place entirely within the ruins of the eponymous "ancient human city that's filled with horrific machines." Throughout a series of eight distinct levels, ranging from "the dilapidated ruins of a better time, to an ancient Stepwell filled with dark secrets," players will need to solve a variety of puzzles along the way, as well as "escape and hide from a vast army of mechanical proxies and the machine intelligence that leads them." The focus here is not on action or combat, however (you're unable to fight back, only to evade), but on "storytelling and visual horror" as you unravel not only how the protagonist "came to be trapped here, but also ... how the ancient city fell in the first place."

In order to help finance the remaining production of NIRAVASI, indie developer Angus McCallum (aka King Sangos) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise a  modest £3,000 by March 27th. If successful, we could see the game released for Windows PC before the end of the year, with a Mac version also being considered. For a taste of what to expect, a playable demo is available now, providing about 45-90 minutes of the expected 6-8 hours of play time in the complete version.