Noguchi’s Bell, an ongoing film series created in Dreams, has launched a Kickstarter to fund an entire series as announced at the Future Games Show today.
Cyber Sheep Film announced their intent to develop the project, based around the first episode which launched in February. You can watch the 20-minute long pilot here. However, it’s clear the animation team want to push the series even further using Media Molecule’s engine.
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The Kickstarter is now live and if you decide to support it, you will get tiers of rewards to choose from. This funding will help the creators ramp up their production and go towards the completion of the entire series.
The show follows a young samurai called Noguchi Michio who comes across a strange Ramen seller in the desert while looking for a temple housing a great sword master. The latest trailer promises much bigger settings though, as well as a mysterious bad guy that Noguchi seems to have a deeper connection to.
Cyber Sheep Films have said that the second episode isn’t expected until 2022 but did add that through funding, would expect to launch successive episodes four to five months apart.
The whole project is a beautiful realization of older Samurai films, but also animation like Kubo and the Two Strings. The facial and camera manipulation is a cut above what you would expect to see from something designed on a PlayStation console, and a really stunning showcase of what Dreams can achieve.
The creative potential of Dreams as a tool for serious and professional-grade design never ceases to amaze. For such a user-friendly and mainstream hub, creators are continuing to push the bounds of what is possible in the engine.
Noguchi’s Bell is a wonderful reminder that Dreams is not just an incredible outlet for game design, but also for in-depth storytelling through animation. It’s really a staggering achievement and a fascinating project.
For more on what to expect from the rest of our showcase, check out our guide to the Gamescom Future Games Show 2021.
