Deploying Sharepoint Project from Visual Studio 2010 results in "Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

When trying to deploy a Sharepoint 2010 project from Visual Studio 2010 I got the error: "Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object" immediately with no other output in the build window.  Increasing the verbosity of the build output didn't help.

Turns out this was because I didn't have Package directory checked into subversion.  Adding this directory and the files underneath it (Package.package and Package.Template.xml) and svn updating my projected fixed the issue.