Ninja! (Be my testers)

[Dooey Jo]

Hello there. I have made a new game for you to try out. I'm curious to know what people think about it, and also if there are any issues on certain computers and whatnot.

Here it is (~44.4 MB)

It is some kind of action platformer with elements of exploration and trying to figure out what's going on. The controls are:
Move - arrow keys
Jump - space
Weapons - Z, X
"Magic" - Ctrl
Weapons menu - Enter
Game menu - Esc
(You can reconfigure them. I used to have controller support, but there were weird problems, so no controller for now. Even though it was pretty sweet)

Here's some kind of trailer:

(I partook in a competition. You were supposed to have a trailer, so I made one. I think it turned out hilarious)

You can perform a teleport move by pressing Ctrl-Up-Ctrl quickly, but first you must set a point to teleport to by pressing Ctrl-Down-Ctrl. If you have set a point, you can teleport at any time, but if you go to another area, you have to set a new point.

If you're wondering where the health bar is, there is no health bar. There also is no health. Enemies can either kill you immediately or knock you down, in which case they can probably kill you with their next attack if you don't get up. Thankfully there are ninja techniques for avoiding getting knocked out, like rolling. Press down while running to roll, or forward while crouching. If you get hit, hold down and in the direction of your momentum to break the fall. You can also roll away when getting up. There's an optional tutorial in the cave at the beginning, if you don't want to figure everything out for yourself.


So yeah, check it out and tell me what you think. Be advised that it's probably hard as hell.

[Alan Bolte]

After I fight the squidman, the next screen has a downward staircase of stone, followed by three exits. If I take the lowest of the three (the only one possible if you fall), I die inexplicably. If I take one of the upper exits and go down to the low entrance in the next room, I do not die, but if I leave and come back again, I die.

This happens again just a few screens later when crossing into the bridge screen without jumping.

[Phantasee]

What are the minimum system requirements?

[Alan Bolte]

In the cave, are the falling sticks supposed to be magic or something? They sort of float around on the ground after they fall.

Also, goddamned bats.

[Alan Bolte]

There seems to be an invisible slope in the snow level after you kill the invisible ice sprite.

[Dooey Jo]

Is it to the left of the screen with the ice sprite? In that case it's the level boundary. It got misaligned with the rocks but I never bothered changing it because at the time it was impossible to stand on such steep slopes. Let's pretend it's a mysterious easter egg for now

After I fight the squidman, the next screen has a downward staircase of stone, followed by three exits. If I take the lowest of the three (the only one possible if you fall), I die inexplicably. If I take one of the upper exits and go down to the low entrance in the next room, I do not die, but if I leave and come back again, I die.

This happens again just a few screens later when crossing into the bridge screen without jumping.

Ah, thanks for catching those! Seems I made a few mistakes in the level file that makes you to start 16 pixels lower than you should in those screens, so you can end up inside a collision object, which is all sorts of bad (you're moved out of it immediately, which is interpreted as pretty extreme acceleration, which is why you die). It doesn't happen for me though. How is your frame rate?

Also, I updated the zip file so that particular bug should be fixed now. If you want to, you can just update Levels/lake.nl2 to see if you still die (hopefully not). Maybe I should get around to writing that patching thing...

In the cave, are the falling sticks supposed to be magic or something? They sort of float around on the ground after they fall.

The spear things? (they were originally supposed to be worms, but they looked like... something else, so...)
They are supposed to crawl after you on the ground and try to push you into their friends. Sometimes they spin around weirdly to freak you out, but they shouldn't float, no. Does it happen all the time?

What are the minimum system requirements?

Five gigaquads per minute and a CD-ROM.

[Bakustra]

I'm having some difficulty long-jumping. This may be my keyboard, but should I roll then jump, or jump then roll?

[Phantasee]

Roll, then jump. I got the hang of it going right, but then I couldn't do it well going back. I mastered that a and then found out I can't wall jump worth a damn. I can't flip the character and jump fast enough. If you could do the backflip at the top of your jump it would make it a lot easier.

EDIT: Barely got through that. Finished training, proceeded to the first level and got my ass kicked by the first dude that shows up. Three times, so far. At least I got a bird!

[Alan Bolte]

Finished training, proceeded to the first level and got my ass kicked by the first dude that shows up. Three times, so far. At least I got a bird!

With the exception of the ice sprite I just fought, I haven't yet met the enemy I couldn't just stand still (crouch, in one case) and spam a weapon at, though timing can matter a bit. The kunai is a good choice against anything with big hitbox, the sword works well in general, and the staff works well against bats and birds. I don't think I'd have gotten far in the caves without the staff, since half the time you can't even see the bats - just wait 'til you hear their cry, and spin your staff. Also, some enemies are better avoided than killed.

How is your frame rate?

How do I tell? I haven't noticed any problems with framerate, though the animation seems somewhat lacking in general, particularly when jumping in water.

They are supposed to crawl after you on the ground and try to push you into their friends. Sometimes they spin around weirdly to freak you out, but they shouldn't float, no.

I wasn't expecting them to move at all once they'd fallen from their holes. They're... probably work as intended.

[Alan Bolte]

Almost forgot - do the smoke bombs do anything?

[Alan Bolte]

To clarify: do they do anything other than kill what they hit?

I swapped out lake.nl2 with the new file, and while I no longer die in the screen directly after the squidman, I still die at the bridge.

[Alan Bolte]

When standing on top of one of those falling walls, I have a limited ability to move it. When a spider stands on top of a wall, it becomes a sliding wall, pushing me off the screen at high speed.

[Alan Bolte]

Now that I've made it back to the gate that was covered with the purple glow, I tried going into the now open gate, and got an error:

In Levels/cemetery.js, line 43: Error: Error creating entity: Error loading C:\Spel\NinjaGame\Art\daaku.png

I'm going to guess that it's looking in the wrong path (I don't have a 'spel' directory), because daaku.png is clearly in the art directory. I'm gonna guess this is another boss, because the graveyard is devoid of enemies and there's no exit.

Also, you should really prevent input when the window's not in focus.

[Alan Bolte]

I removed the path from the text file and the Daaku showed up ingame. Interesting fight. I figured out how to win eventually.

[Dooey Jo]

Now that I've made it back to the gate that was covered with the purple glow, I tried going into the now open gate, and got an error:

Crap.
But yeah, there shouldn't be a path there. I'll upload a fix to that and to the water level. Also, if you update the .exe, the kunai is a little nicer now; I've tweaked it to make it a little more special. I don't know if anyone noticed but you can throw it into a wall to make it stick, and slow down your fall. Now you'll be able to swing around (but I haven't done any animation for it yet, so it'll look really awkward), but slowing your fall effectively requires a slightly different strategy.
Good job getting that far though. What is your opinion of the game, now that you've managed to finish it? (Besides the bugs)

And what do you other guys think?

BTW, did anyone find the secret "Sound test" mode? So you can listen to the beautiful music.
(It is hidden in the Credits menu)

Also, you should really prevent input when the window's not in focus.

Good idea.

When standing on top of one of those falling walls, I have a limited ability to move it. When a spider stands on top of a wall, it becomes a sliding wall, pushing me off the screen at high speed.

How did you get on top of it?

To clarify: do they do anything other than kill what they hit?

They can kill you (looks really cool too!)
Also they destroy the falling walls easily (but not in the training mode; that is a special block (see how special and yellow it is)), and in the future the smoke will confuse some enemies, but I haven't thought of a good way to implement that yet.

How is your frame rate?

How do I tell? I haven't noticed any problems with framerate, though the animation seems somewhat lacking in general, particularly when jumping in water.

Well, if you look at the trailer, that's what it looks like at around 30 FPS, but for me it runs a lot smoother. But the difference might not be noticeable without hard numbers, and these collision errors are the only things I know of that are affected by the frame rate anyway, so it probably doesn't matter.

Roll, then jump. I got the hang of it going right, but then I couldn't do it well going back. I mastered that a and then found out I can't wall jump worth a damn. I can't flip the character and jump fast enough. If you could do the backflip at the top of your jump it would make it a lot easier.

You can do the backflip pretty much at the top of your jump, but not if you've jumped off a wall. Are you backflipping while wall jumping? If so, you don't need to. Only need to jump normally.

[Phantasee]

I thought you need to jump, face away from the wall, jump again to wall jump, and face away and jump for the other wall. I dunno, I got through it with some button mashing I'm not very good at video games, I guess.

[Alan Bolte]

I can usually leap over the walls with a well-placed long-jump. Sometimes you end up standing on top instead.

The training section really ought to touch on the various weapons and what they're useful for. I found it entertaining to discover it for myself, but not everyone would agree. I rarely used the shuriken or smoke bombs because I wasn't sure if I'd ever get any more, how long a time I'd need to conserve them, or what situations they'd be useful for. In the end I didn't need them.

Aside from the bugs, I have no particular complaints about the gameplay. It lacks polish in a way I can't quite put my finger on (aside from the swimming/jumping in water issue), but you probably already have a handle on it, such as with the kunai. I do have one concern about the boss fights - it seems reasonable that the werewolf (Burkel) fight would turn out to be so straightforward, since it's only the second enemy type you meet. The squidman, on the other hand, is painfully easy so long as you're crouching and rolling the whole time. The ice sprite was a good battle. Daaku though... it was fun figuring out how to beat him, but I was hoping for a real final boss, or a second stage to the fight.

[Alan Bolte]

A moment's pause when the lifts reach an endpoint would be an improvement, I think.

[Dooey Jo]

I can usually leap over the walls with a well-placed long-jump. Sometimes you end up standing on top instead.

All walls, right off the ground? If so, that's intriguing because I can't... But I'll have to fix that sliding wall thing anyway, because it happens when any moving thing gets on top of another moving thing. If the spiders get on top of each other for instance, they run really fast...

The training section really ought to touch on the various weapons and what they're useful for. I found it entertaining to discover it for myself, but not everyone would agree. I rarely used the shuriken or smoke bombs because I wasn't sure if I'd ever get any more, how long a time I'd need to conserve them, or what situations they'd be useful for. In the end I didn't need them.

True, they're not very useful currently, especially if you could jump over the walls.

Aside from the bugs, I have no particular complaints about the gameplay. It lacks polish in a way I can't quite put my finger on (aside from the swimming/jumping in water issue), but you probably already have a handle on it, such as with the kunai. I do have one concern about the boss fights - it seems reasonable that the werewolf (Burkel) fight would turn out to be so straightforward, since it's only the second enemy type you meet. The squidman, on the other hand, is painfully easy so long as you're crouching and rolling the whole time. The ice sprite was a good battle. Daaku though... it was fun figuring out how to beat him, but I was hoping for a real final boss, or a second stage to the fight.

Yeah, the squidman and the wormguy were really rushed to meet a deadline (actually, the bombs can be useful against the wormguy). Hm, I could add a second stage to the squidman and make the water rise slightly. Then you won't be able to roll, and he could swim around underneath...
I figured the Dark Monk battle would continue on the other side of the evil portal, but I could probably make it a bit more interesting.

I thought you need to jump, face away from the wall, jump again to wall jump, and face away and jump for the other wall. I dunno, I got through it with some button mashing I'm not very good at video games, I guess.

That sounds about right (the jumping thing I mean). I do it something like this:
Run towards a wall -> jump -> turn and hold in the other direction -> when touching the wall, jump again (still holding the arrow key down) -> turn and hold in the other direction -> jump again -> hold -> etc.

[Alan Bolte]

Yeah, I can jump any wall so long as there's enough room above it for me to stand (which rules out the Cave of Wisdom). It takes me a couple tries each time; I haven't quite got the distance figured out, or maybe it's a bug that's not entirely dependent on the arc of my jump.

The wormguy is either extremely forgettable or I somehow missed him the first time through.

About the lifts again - the ones that look like you can step onto or off of frequently kill me. Not all the time, but enough to make me jump instead, just in case.

[Alan Bolte]

In the caves, it seems that your weapons all transform into ghosts. Not really sure how else to describe it. I think they're all using splash1.png. It doesn't always appear that way, but it does most of the time.

Managed to run into the worm guy, the fight felt unfamiliar. After he took a smoke bomb, he dropped several lines of rocks from the ceiling, and then nothing happened after that. He was gone, I was trapped. I teleported away, then screwed up trying to get back and died.

Loaded from save, this time saved a teleport next to the boss room. Teleported out of the fight, ran back in, and died colliding with the barrier.

[Dooey Jo]

About the lifts again - the ones that look like you can step onto or off of frequently kill me. Not all the time, but enough to make me jump instead, just in case.

Hm, which levels? Do they crush you from above, or how do they kill you?

In the caves, it seems that your weapons all transform into ghosts. Not really sure how else to describe it. I think they're all using splash1.png. It doesn't always appear that way, but it does most of the time.

Managed to run into the worm guy, the fight felt unfamiliar. After he took a smoke bomb, he dropped several lines of rocks from the ceiling, and then nothing happened after that. He was gone, I was trapped. I teleported away, then screwed up trying to get back and died.

Loaded from save, this time saved a teleport next to the boss room. Teleported out of the fight, ran back in, and died colliding with the barrier.

Hahaha, what? The weapons use the same wrong image, but only in the caves? Sounds like some sort of memory leak. Have you been experiencing any crashes?
Obviously the guy shouldn't disappear, but you shouldn't be able to teleport out of the boss fight either. Though I checked now and apparently, so can everyone. Interesting...
But yeah, sounds like you've got some major weirdness going on there, not to mention seem to be jumping some 16 pixels higher than you should for some reason.

I should have a patching program done by the weekend so you don't have to download the whole thing for every fix. Hopefully, it will work.

[Alan Bolte]

I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro. If you're running another operating system, I guess that might be the difference.

No crashes so far.

What I'm talking about with the lifts is that, if I'm standing like this: ____N_
And the red _ is the lift that's just come to rest there, either moving from the right or from below, and I step onto the lift, I may die.

[Dooey Jo]

I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro. If you're running another operating system, I guess that might be the difference.

Possibly, though I don't know why. 32-bit programs are supposedly run in a emulation layer on 64-bit systems. Perhaps it's adding some sort of weird overhead. Maybe there are timing issues, but stuff of this magnitude should really cause visible lag and jumps...

What I'm talking about with the lifts is that, if I'm standing like this: ____N_
And the red _ is the lift that's just come to rest there, either moving from the right or from below, and I step onto the lift, I may die.

I see. That isn't supposed to happen, but I think I'll chalk it up to the generally wonky collision system for now.

[Purple]

I had a crash with no explanation other than the default windows XP message I get when programs crash.
This said, it did occur after about a hour of continuous die->load->die looping.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 no idea if it's 16 or 32 bit thou.