Hi All, I am pleased to announce my new game 1-bit Ninja, launching end of May 2011. This is something of a love song to my gaming past. tl:dr bullet points and video below - followed by a write up. Cheers! Ben (kode80) Bullet Points: * stylized engine: 1-bit animated sprites and tiles, blended with color, shading, 3D. Nostalgia with extra spice! * designed around 2 buttons for precise, invisible control (see full write up below) * lots of hand crafted levels all with multiple paths, secrets and collectables * high scores and best times * recorded replays, so you can show off how you achieved the above * play at a casual pace or try traditional mode, everyones invited! * Coming to iPhone and iPod touch end of May 2011 Video: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Write up: 1-bit Ninja is one of those ideas that has been at the back of my mind for a while. Some of my favorite early gaming memories are of Game + Watch and Gameboy and I wanted to create a game that tipped its hat stylistically to this important aspect of my gaming past. This naturally merged with another desire of mine which was to design a traditional side scrolling platform game specifically for touch screen, with controls that didnt suck. Through scientific research (read: playing lots of Super Mario Bros, Canabalt and games with touch screen virtual controls), I concluded a few things. Firstly, touch screen controls do not intrinsically suck. Tapping/pressing a touch screen is no less responsive than physical buttons, however changing button presses without consciously looking at them is inaccurate and frustrating. Secondly, platform games can be distilled to just 3 buttons; back, forward and jump. Of those 3 buttons, 1 of them, the back button could be considered of lesser importance when the players goal is always to the right. By giving the player just 2 buttons the need for inaccurate on-screen controls disappears, your left thumb is button A and your right thumb is button B. With this control scheme in mind levels can be designed that not only work within the restrictions but take advantage of them. Level elements such as springs and moving platforms can be used to redirect the player creating alternative routes and subtle puzzles all in the while keeping the essential parts of the genre - exploration and precise jumping. With the control concept in place, I started to build and as I had been working on an iOS Minecraft engine I decided to merge elements of that. 1-bit Ninjas levels appear 2D however at any time the player can drag the top of the screen revealing the world as 3D. The 3D element provides 2 advantages to gameplay; enabling the player to see further into the distance allowing them to decide their next move and revealing hidden paths that cant be seen in the 2D view. I also think it also looks rather cool. 1-bit Ninja is almost complete and will be launching towards the end of May 2011, tell all your friends!
Wow that's trippy... Seems you should make the objects 1 pixel deep (think Minecraft tools) else they'd disappear if you looked at them head on! Also, the Game Boy had 2 bits of color depth not one...
looks nice! and I agree, there should be a button for going back. I still think a LOE control pad works best....
Thanks every one! When dragging in 3D, the camera can never look at that extreme of an angle so the sprites are always visible. You are of course right about the Gameboy's 4 shades however I was going for an overall aesthetic that includes my love for Game + Watch as well. Also notice that the level is blended with the background colors at a lower opacity which itself gives an extra shade to the solid black/white of the sprites. Even using a simplified on-screen direction pad for left/right I find the accuracy just isn't there. Many times I find myself not moving my thumb enough by a small fraction resulting in the change of direction I was expecting not being registered. The same can be said for most buttons in general, every 50 times you press it you're are off and thus don't get the action you were expecting. In some games this is passable and the minor errors are just something you grow used to. However for the kind of game I wanted to make a big part is the controls feeling like second nature - the last thing you want when you're making pixel perfect jumps like a champ, missing chasms and bouncing off badguys heads is for a button press not to register at exactly the point you expect it to. If you have to think about the controls for even a second - it's failed. This does of course shape the game design itself but IMO it adds an interesting gameplay element as it introduces potential for new puzzles and strategy. Not all games can use this approach (LoE obviously features levels that scroll and require traversal in both directions) but for the type of gameplay I personally miss greatly - I think it works well!
Wow, wonderfully pleasing! Nice graphics, but the controls probably need some work; add some buttons.
This reminds me of both "league of evil" and "mos speedrun", which is obviously something positive since both games are awesome. I will definitely keep an eye out for this one.
Very Super Mario Land esque which is awesome, but the icon should be retro, and so should the numbers at the top.
I'd recommend you look into the Mos Speedrun control scheme maybe as an alternate option. Only two buttons but you can move forwards, backwards and jump. Some people don't like it, others love it... I'm of the belief those who don't like it simply haven't used it enough to click
This game looks incredible, but if you would allow me to be so bold, the icon seems like it could be a turn off to potential buyers. I would suggest removing the text, expanding the art, and giving it a retro and polished feel. I will be looking to pick this up when it comes out of course.
This is something I looked into initially as it sounded like an interesting idea but in practice I found it to be just as cumbersome as regular controls. It works but I constantly had to think about it, any tricky situation invariably resulted in a brain fart and me pressing the wrong combination. For 1-bit Ninja I want people to play without ever consciously thinking about the controls. Thanks! No problem, I appreciate the feedback. The icon is still being worked on. I'm going for a cartridge look emulating the 'Nintendo' on gameboy cartridges with 'kode80' but I was concerned it takes away from valuable icon space...
once again, LOE d-pad I have never heard ANYONE EVER ONCE complain about the LOE controls. You don't need to think about the controls at all. If you really are so stubborn as to not include them (at least as a second option 'insert begging face'), I respect the decision, as it IS your game, but at least give an option to move backwards. If you have to move in one direction all the time, it becomes almost like an endless runner that isn't endless and you control when the running is... This looks so awesome but honestly, if there is no way to actually go back and forth, I can't, no matter how much I love these platformers, buy it.
I love platform games and play a lot on my ipod. Most games i dont have a problem with making pixel perfect jumps. Still think you should have an option if the user wants a back button, other games have different controls you could choose, be great if you could in this one e.g turn the back button on/off. So many fans i think are crying out for a retro Mario Land type clone and this seems a great game but its a big shame about the back button. Have you had feedback from beta testers ? As so far a fair few people on this thread seem to want the traditional < > ^ type controls. Agree with phattestfatty, i've never heard anything negative about the controls on LoE and again its your game, but you should listen to the users i think as it could result in a game doing 'okay' or a game selling by the bucketload. If i play this game and then miss some 'coins' i cant go back to get them, just going forward all the time. Think youre on the edge of something special (As this game looks amazing) but big shame for me personally regarding the back button
I love the look - nice work. Definitely looking forward to the release!!! While I do miss the thought of the back button - what it seems to do to the gameplay is make it have more consequence for the choices presented. I hope you exploit this as much as possible with different paths, puzzles, etc.
