How to be a Ninja

[Ninjas]

12 East Productions presents:

How to be a Ninja (working title)

The Story:

Stan is a struggling artist trying hard to make a name for himself. His life takes a bizarre turn when he accidently comes into possession of a book. On the tattered cover is the title "How to be a Ninja"

Some screenshots:







Development Progress:

Story: 50%
Scripting: 8%
Graphics: 12%
Sound/Music: 0%

Expected completion date: June 2006

Development Diary:

Hey everyone. I have been looking for a nice, stable engine to develope a commercial game with. AGS fits the bill. I'm a medeocre coder and I was happy with how robust the AGS dev environment is so I decided a couple of weeks ago to stress test it and see how it worked. I was very impressed with what I was able to do with the engine and I look forward to developing my game in it over the next 6 or 7 months.

For the characters with a lot of animation I'm using 3ds Max to toon-render them and doing touch-up in Photoshop or After Effects later. I'll probably paint stationary characters and animate them in AE when I get to them.

The environments are done in Max rendered with Mental Ray using Final Gather, then painted over in PS. I may paint over photos for some of the future environments.

I know not everyone is going to be excited about another commercial title, but the expenses I have for software and hardware, not to mention the time this will take, make it so I have to charge for the final product.

I expect the hardware requirements to be somewhere around a 2.5 Ghz PC (and I hope to doÃ,  Mac and Linix ports if I can figure out how)

Thanks everyone! This seems like a great community and I'm glad to be a part of it.

[TheBoldSlasher]

Wow. Those graphics are incredible. Anyway, sounds great!

[Nikolas]

I understand your financial struggle completly. I don't think that it is bad. On the contrary commercial releases prove that AGS is a powerfull engine that can provide to the world games nowdays! Why not?

The BGs look really good! And your lightning skills have managed to save your character from looking a little "ugly" in a picture BG. Maybe a little more info on the story? Just cause I'm curious!

Anyway looking forward...

[Ubel]

This brings Runaway: A Road Adventure to my mind instantly! And that by all means is a good thing!

All in all it looks worth buying, just how much do you think it would cost? And yeah, I'm curious about the story too, so could you please share some more details about it? Thank you.

All the good luck with your project!

[Redwall]

I hope the story will be as suitably campy as the title and story excerpt suggest. Specifically, will it involve pirates?

[TheYak]

The picky side of me wants to treat this like the Critic's lounge and suggest more saturated colors for the BG renders.  Every other bit of me screams, "Hell, yeah!"  I dig the story's potential and it looks to be carried out with a great deal of skill.  Best of luck with your endeavor and your optimistic release date. 

I, for one, have no problem paying for a game if it's got a lot invested in it. 

[Candle]

I, for one, have no problem paying for a game if it's got a lot invested in it. 

That is so true.

and the cost is not out of this world.

[Ninjas]

TheBoldSlasher:
Ã,  Thanks for the support!

Nikolas:
Ã,  Ã, I totally agree. While I would like to do some 3D games in the future, I think people need to see that cool, nice looking, modern games can and will be done in 2D and that that is a good thing!

Pablo:
Ã,  Ã, I hadn't seen that game before. The graphics in it are really nice! I think the last adventure game I played was The Longest Journey. I got stuck and I hate cheating. I haven't played video games seriously for about a year and a half. 12 hour workdays in front of a PC will do that to you. One of the things I like about the AGS games is that they are short. I played through Winter Rose and Al-Quest by Baron recently and enjoyed them both.
Ã,  Ã, For the game, I'm not sure. If the playthough time is only a few hours I think I will charge maybe $9.99 USD, but if the game has replay value and takes around 8 hours to complete maybe as much as $19.99 USD (which is fairly standard for indie games from what I've seen).

Redwall:
Ã,  I hate pirates! I would rather commit sebuku with a frisby than make a game with pirates in it. With all those Monkey Island games, you would think that adventure gamers had gotten enough pirates, but nooooo...
Ã,  As for campy, I really want the story to be on the razor's edge between serious and silly. It will be unlike any game I have played before, and I've played a lot.
Ã,  Ã, 
YakSpit:
Ã,  It is true that I am going for a kind of Metal Gear, undersaturated look. I still may bump it up a bit and see how I like it. It really does seem a bit different full screen, but I am always open to suggestions. I haven't made the perfect image yet, and I am still trying.
Ã,  I am going to push hard for that date. I am optimizing my workflow and coming up with checklists to help with getting everything done. That and working all day every day.

Everyone:
Ã, I don't want to give away too much of the story, especially since it is still may change a little as I work on it. I don't think the story will be for everyone, but it will be more cool than goofy. The game will have a number of features that will differentiate it from earlier adventure games. I want this to be an evolution of the old adventure game gameplay... I don't want to say too much. It will be months before it is done! How about this feature, you will be able to play through the game without getting stuck.
Ã, I think I will end up updating once every couple of weeks, but I will try to keep up with people who post to the thread.

[scourge]

WOW! that looks so awesome It looks better than lots of commercial games 

[Gilbert]

But it's a commercial game.

[ildu]

Looks awesome.

[Sslaxx]

Ninjas, eh? Heh! grins Sounds like a fun little title.

[Chicky]

make sure you finish it, looks great!

[RocketGirl]

I'll be sure to keep tabs on this one.

[ManicMatt]

Looks hot!

If this is commercial, will it have voices?

[Totoro]

Looking good 
I would be willing to support a good AGS game by paying some money for it, but you should maybe consider also releasing a demo-version of it.

[Ninjas]

Thanks everybody! I'm happy to see so many people interested.

I think the inter-character dialog will be voice acted. I have access to most of the recording equipment I'll need. I don't see the need to do voice acting for every bit of text though (like when the character is inspecting objects).

For the demo, what I'm thinking of doing is for people to be able to download the whole game, but offer a booklet that you can order that will have answers to copy protection questions. For example, at a certain point in the game you may be asked "Repeat ninja proverb #37 to me."

I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. I may just make a plain old demo.

[i k a r i]

You can do that, but remember.. that could always be cheated..
If I were you I would add a paypal system..
of course I will never be able to play the game because I live in Argentina, I would end up paying U$100 

[Rocco]

screenies looks good.
have you a publisher, or how will you distribute you game.
over your webpage??

[ManicMatt]

Ikari's right!

Customer: Ooh i got the booklet! let me just photocopy it for my mate..