Ninja Legacy Reboot! Now “Ninja Girl: RPG Defense”

August 27, 2014

I’ve spent the past few months in between working on Star Nomad to rebuild Ninja Legacy (the first project on my journey as a gamedev, it was a mess!) from scratch. The focus is to optimize it further as well as polishing, lots of polishing. I’m proud to say it has finally become a game that is truly fun to play.

What is it all about you ask?

Firstly, the idea popped into my head as I lay in bed in a tiny apartment in Geneva, Switzerland (early 2013)… it was 3AM. I suddenly had an urge to go on a pistol shooting rampage at the Arcades (a story for another time!), playing games like Time Crisis & Virtua Cop which I had spent too much time on & $1 coins during my youth.

In those games, recall when enemy Ninjas/Thugs threw daggers or bombs at you and you had to react fast to shoot them down mid-air? It was fast paced & fun!

Ideas then started to flow and from that, I made a quick sketch (3:30AM):

The basic concept is simple: You had to defend yourself against hordes of enemies of various types, by throwing stars or daggers. The key difference, your daggers can intercept and deflect enemy projectiles, and the deflection can lead to enemies killing themselves.

It sounds easy but because most projectiles travel in an arc, you had to guess how far ahead you needed to aim to throw your dagger so it can intercept. It’s like in Team Fortress with the Soldier & his Rocket Launcher or Tribes and the Disc Thrower. At the core, it’s fast-pace reflex & skill-based physics game.

Over time, the game builds on that concept and incorporates RPG elements, a sidekick pet (Ninja Monkey), many stages, cool enemies and 10 epic & hilarious bosses for you to test your wits & reflexes!

Finally, it’s polished to a level where I’m satisfied. Sure, it could be heaps better with a professional artist, but they aren’t cheap and I am living on my savings…. Anyway, here’s a few screenshots: