Hello there Treasure Vault!

For those who weren't around last Christmas or may have missed it, some of us in The Jempire are creating a fan-game for Spiral Knights called "Jempire Story". The game is a 16-bit Spiral Knights fan RPG, and celebrates SK with a custom storyline, special song remixes, and a number of familiar faces from across the Spiral Knights community.

The game will be free upon release, and will also be focused on raising funds for the charity Child's Play.

As we plan to finish the game soon, we'd like to spotlight some of the creative works of artists across the SK community by including them within the game. Likewise, we'd gladly welcome any volunteers who may have experience with either sprite art or general fan art, who would like to contribute original work to the game! (In particular, we need sprite artists + cutscene artists the most.)

Any player in the SK Community is welcome to submit a contribution or apply to help with the game, regardless of your guild affiliation.

But before that, we imagine most of you would probably like to see it! So, on to the demo:

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Jempire Story Demo
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We released the demo on Christmas last year, and you can download it here:

http://jemgaming.net/forums/content.php?264-Presenting-Spiral-Knights-Th...!

The game uses a modified RPGMaker engine, and the final game will feature fully original face art for each character, as well as a number of unique sprites. We've already come a long way from this old demo, and we look forward to showing you guys screenshots of our progress as we get closer to launch.

The game begins with you helping a certain pipe-smoking Jelly named Nick, and from there, you'll have a huge array of side quests, secrets, and hidden items to find. The players you have in your party will also change how cut-scenes play out, allowing you to get to know the people in your team. In the full game, you'll be able to enter your Guild Hall and fully customize your team at any time between missions.

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Soundtrack
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We're lucky to have three very talented musicians working on our soundtrack. SK player Bacon-Strip plays guitar, Kevin Villeco handles much of the mastering (and creates some amazing dubstep tracks), and Pete Lepley lends a fresh chiptune feel with his music. Feel free to listen to some samples, below:

Haven (Guitar ver.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFKXNdneKNY
The Whispering Venom (Herex' Lair): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5rrhHKSf0
Haven Theme (Dubstep ver.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR7YTVYlDFA
Battle Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH6JLra_k3A

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How you can get involved
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The most pressing thing we need at the moment are Sprite Artists and cut-scene artists. A little more info on what we'd need:

1. Sprite Artists - Able to create custom sprites with a few frames of animation. (These will all be based on SK designs.)
2. Cut-scene artists - Able to create single or multi-panel pieces that help us tell the story without the need for words. Styles can vary, though we'll want to maintain a certain level of consistency.

If you'd like to help, please send me a mail (IGN is same as my forum name) or to Espira, who is handling a lot of our art for the game. (If possible, please mail us both!)

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How to add your art to the game
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We'll be talking more about this as we get a little closer to being finished with the game. The concept right now is to add an unlockable gallery within the game, which populates with art from the SK community as you progress through the game / find it within dungeons. Think of it as a time capsule for all the cool stuff that you guys have created over the years, immortalized in game form. :)

That's all from me - on behalf of our team, thank you all for the great comments from the first Demo launch, and we look forward to bringing you the finished game in the months to come!