Black: Pixel Ninja

WOW. Been working on graphics, level design, new power tiles... Level One of the first world is still coming along.

Time for some more update goodness. Here are some of the generic tile pickups you can expect to see implemented, even in the first level...

• Ninja Heart: Grab this for some security against enemy hits!
• Shockwave: Enemies swarming? Touch this and an energy wave defeats your foes!
• Mystery: A tile with a question mark on it. Crazy stuff might happen if you touch it. So go on. Touch it. You know you want to, right?
• Keys: Sometimes gates will block the way. Find the right key to open it up.
• Flag/Marker: When you lose a life, you typically respawn at the beginning of that particular area (scene). But for larger areas, that could be a huge disappointment! So if you find one of these, touch it to record your current level progress and start there when (or if, depending on how good a ninja you are ) you are felled again in that area.

Also, every good ninja has an arsenal of weapons, right? There is a total of seven weapons (for each color) to be found scattered about levels. For now, here are three of the ideas that are in the works...

• Redwood Sword (Red): Press C in sequence to perform stand-still combo slashes! And with the third slash, your ninja moves with such force that a cutter of air flies forward! In general, this is meant to be one of your stronger offensive options.
• Flame Boots (Orange): Hold down C to run really fast! And when you take off, you leave some fire behind that can hit your foes.
• Jewel Claws (Purple): Use your claws to stick to walls (as opposed to sliding down them) and even to ceilings! And if you press C, your ninja will use a short-range slash attack. Not as powerful or ranged as the Redwood Sword, but it can be used more rapidly.

And to finish, another snapshot of the progress on Nutty Buddy Bash. Stay tuned!

This is coming out better than expected and i had big expectations...

so r there more screenshots? and wen is the demo cuming out?

I'm very happy to see another person who is sticking to a game and wanting to see it finished.  I'm right there with you Photon!  I want to see the finished product, because Pixel Ninja is a well thought out game, and you have done a great job getting us excited about it .

I'd love to do some testing for you anytime just let me know.

so r there more screenshots? and wen is the demo cuming out?

No new screenshots for now. I haven't started the second level yet of the first world, though the first level is nearing completion.

As for the demo, I am hoping to have it out before Christmas. Originally the hope was before the end of this month, but that is not going to happen at this point. Game design is hard work.

I'm very happy to see another person who is sticking to a game and wanting to see it finished.  I'm right there with you Photon!  I want to see the finished product, because Pixel Ninja is a well thought out game, and you have done a great job getting us excited about it .

I'd love to do some testing for you anytime just let me know.

Well, getting people to WANT to play it is part of the process. A game won't be very successful if no one wants to play it, regardless of how "good" it is. So it's good to know I am doing something right.

Hmm... let's not leave you all empty-handed... what else could I preview right now? Well, I have added the treasure chests to the game, though they be not fully implemented yet...

Treasure Chests

One man's trash can be another man's treasure.

Actually, who threw this stuff away anyway? 

Anyway, for those willing to explore, they may come upon treasure chests! Yes, even in the Wasteland Bin. Maybe someone thought it was nice place to safely keep it or something.

So what can you expect to find in these treasure chests? Well, the best way to find out is to open them up, but you might find...

• Straightforward Treasure: Good old-fashioned valuable stuff. Boring? Not if its worth a lot.
• Weapon Pieces: Though the seven color weapons can be found in each world, one world and one weapon each share a color. And if you find the shards of one complete weapon in its corresponding world, you can equip it before entering any level in that world! Cool, huh? (Note: It should be worth noting that since the entire first world will not be in the first demo, finding a complete set of pieces will probably not be possible in the demo either.)
• Ninja Codex: Old programming code from ninjas past. These equippable objects can be anything from power-ups (stronger weapons, more ninja stars, etc.) to cool-looking aesthetics (different movement animations, stealth animations, etc.).

So what are you waiting for? Find those treasures! Of course, don't expect them to be sitting out in the open; you might have to look pretty hard to find them...

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Seriously though, what good platformer doesn't have some secret stuff? Now, as said before, all of this will probably not be fully implemented in the demo, but for the demo you can expect the treasure chests in the available levels to be findable and openable.

All right people! Lend me your ears (or audio speakers... or eyes actually, since this a forum post; you get the point). I have some gameplay ideas that I have come up with, and I want to share! I am trying to make this game great, but I would like some feedback on what you think.

First though, let's give you an update:

• Started Level 2 of World I: Insect Intersection
• Added some new enemy types for the second level
• Started work on another one of the ninja powers (Acid Shuriken; see below)

It is coming along! And with about four weeks to meet my self-set demo deadline, a lot still left to do! I have been quite busy as of late though, so hopefully I can still sit down and keep it going. Hang in there!

So let's stir up some more excitement. In a previous post, I shared three of the seven powers that were planned for the game. I now present to you the remaining four that are planned:

• Safety Shield (Yellow): Hold down to set a big, industrial shield in front of you, eating enemy bullets and turning away moving enemies. Nice defense, but make sure nothing comes from the rear or over the top of it.
• Acid Shuriken (Green): Use C to throw this into an enemy and watch corrosion slowly eat away their health. Or throw it into a wall to make a temporary platform. Good versatility!
• Jet Armlets (Cyan): With these equipped, you can jump higher! Also, if you press C and Down in the air (not on the ground; that will activate stealth, remember!), you will perform a downward dive, smashing into the ground and sending out a shockwave. You are still vulnerable mid-dive though, so don't go trying to punch any aerial foes out of the air, OK?
• Bubble Sphere (Blue): Press C to release a rising bubble that again damages foes. Then hold C to keep the bubble around you that slow descents and allows floating through the air (a "parachute" effect, if you will).

More or less, this is what I plan to go with for this set of power-ups.

Now, I come to something I have been thinking about: the health system. The initial plan was to implement it like so:

• Collect hearts (up to 4)
• Take a hit, lose all hearts. Take a hit without a heart, and you are defeated.
• Get up to four hearts, earn an extra life.
• Collect a fifth heart, recycle back to beginning (you now have 1 heart again; still have protection and you are moving towards another extra life.

I wanted a game that was a little more hardcode on health. As a ninja, you are supposed to thrive on evasion, so having a massive health gauge could take away from that. Thus the first-draft system you see. But in my testing, I have found this to feel somewhat silly. Collecting the second and third hearts feels redundant, and I almost feel like one is better off collecting hearts by ones as they lose damage. The reward of an extra life seems eclipsed by the "uselessness" of having a second and third heart. So after some thinking about how to better mesh it with the game flow, here is a newer version:

• Collect a maximum of 4 hearts. You still lose them all upon taking a hit.
• If you so choose, charge up your regular attack or current power (maybe) and unleash a charge attack at the expense of 1 of your hearts.
• Get up to four, and you can unleash them all in one, incredible super charge attack! (Or something cool. I haven't quite decided yet. Temporary invulnerability maybe? One-hit destruction for all weapons? Hmm...)

This system maintains the "hardcore" system of health whilst rewarding the player for proper health management and actually getting those second and third hearts. Again, the idea is to AVOID damage, and proper use of your heart stockpile can either afford you a single hit OR give you another option of escape in tight situations. If executed properly, I think it could work. But also, am I getting too complicated at this point? Everything would still be done through the arrows, Z, X, and C, but still. I have some control schemes in mind that I think could handle the charging well, though.

PLEASE give feedback!

OMG this is awesome!! This is gonna be the BEST GAME EVER!! U should post on Newgrounds to make some money off this!

i would like it if u released the first level as a demo!PLEASE?

Hey all. Just felt it was perhaps necessary to post and update you some on the progress.

Well, for starters, I have been busy. I can't say I'm as far along as I would have hoped at this point. I still want to try and have the demo out by Christmas, but there is a chance it will get pushed back again to maybe late December/early Janruary. Disappointing perhaps, but I do not intend to release it until it is polished enough. Yes, its a demo, but its still meant to showcase what kind of game it is going to be. I intend to make it a good one, as it should be.

I have made some more headway on the game though. Enemies, level design, and another something I was happy to get working. Don't want to divulge too much more; I have kind of gotten to that point where I want to keep some stuff in my pocket that will show when the actual demo is released.

So, not really a whole lot to talk about here. The idea here is to tell you the game is still in the works and I do intend to get that demo out. So do not dismay!

hows it going now? Anything to report on?

Yo Photon, just stumbled across this post, I didn't realise you were making a game as well :-)

It's looking great, you mentioned my game had a DOS style to it but I'm thinking yours more so, love it!

Have you uploaded a demo yet?

Yo Photon, just stumbled across this post, I didn't realise you were making a game as well :-)

It's looking great, you mentioned my game had a DOS style to it but I'm thinking yours more so, love it!

Have you uploaded a demo yet?

just so u know, he will probably release the demo in january since he recently started Level 2 cuz he wants to make it polished as possible.

In response to the previous posts:

The good news is finally things are slowing down a bit (or at least in theory ). I can hopefully have a little more time to devote to getting this demo out and ready to go!

The bad news is I still find the early release date of before Christmas to still be up in the air. Lots of work still to be done. Fixing up quirks, finishing implementations of certain assets... this and that.

To give an idea of what is left to be done:

• Broadly speaking, finish Level 2's layout and design(as well as the general features seen in it like some noted below)
• Finish weapon coding. Good deal of the seven I mentioned are near completed though. The three that still have a bit of work still are the Redwood Sword, Bubble Sphere, and Flame Boots.
• Spruce up the scenery on the levels. Nothing overly fancy per se, but enough to the point where you aren't staring at a black background the entire time.
• Health system. I still need to decide what direction I am taking with that... (see previous posts)
• MUSIC. Ooh boy... 
• Sounds. Not as bad as the aforementioned one though. However... how to get them into .mp3 form...
• Overall polish. Personal play-testing, difficulty adjustments, optimizations... that sort of thing.

So yeah, that's what I can think of. We are getting closer to a demo! And now hopefully I will have some more time to devote to working on it.

  cool

(Edit: Thought I should add that the demo release is going to be pushed back to beyond Christmas, barring I don't suddenly go on a madman development spree. Sorry, I don't want to rush it, especially with Christmas going on. Hopefully the waiting time will not be much longer.)

OK! So, things are looking good. The layout of Insect Intersection (Level 2) is near completion. Still have to work on some sound and music stuff, but progress has been made nonetheless.

Thought I would share this: I think I finally settled on a health system. Frankly, it just bugs me that you can collect four hearts and just lose them all as if they were one. It just sounds silly. So the solution I produced is simple. Take one hit, lose one heart. The kicker now though is that invulnerability time only lasts for a half-second. If you get hit, don't get lazy or you will continue to take damage. In other words, room for abuse with the following invulnerability is limited. I feel this will work sufficiently for the hardcore feel of this game. No fancy charge attacks as with the second draft, but it keeps things simple and less complicated. Sometimes less is more. 

And... oh, all right. Its been awhile, so I'll give you one more sneak peek pic. Here's our ninja having a little fun with the Jewel Claws.