Alpha NinjaCube: Finding Hatsune

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Nexusrex

Guest

Game's Download Link: Here!

Created by Nexusrex (Music by Caleb Cuzner)
Latest available release: V0.9.1

Current Features:
12 Platformer-Gameplay levels
Comics controlled cutscenes
Boss Battles
More levels
Pause Menu
Fixing older bugs
Visual effects
Some music is added
Better boss fights
New main menu
Controller support

Upcoming Features:
Music (Not done yet.)
Extras zone
Achievements​

Screenshots:








You can follow the game's progress on Twitter by looking for the hashtag #NinjaCube or following the game's page on Facebook!

Happy playing!
 
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Tem Matthews

Guest
This ninjas head looks almost like my ninjas head in Ninja Training I haven't played the game yet but it looks good!(sorry for posting the link to my game I'm still kinda new to this forum. The intention was to show you the head was almost the same not to advertise.Thanks)
 
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Tem Matthews

Guest
Feedback for Level 1 - The game is very fast, the character and obstacles all move very fast and you have no time to react to them (the fire was okay but the platform block things moved too fast) My other complaint is that in some areas you cannot see what is below you when jumping down forcing you to take a leap of faith. The life system does not work for me. I ended up dying to much from obstacles such as lava I didn't even know existed below me when I took my leap of faith. When all your lives were lost you went straight back to the menu (this was extremely annoying and made me want to give up). This game has high risk no reward. Your game needs to be rewarding and hard at the same time.

Some possible solutions for level 1 - make obstacles such as the moving platforms(that kill you in one hit) look dangerous and maybe even slow them down a bit. This is the first level. People are still learning the controls and mechanics,this level escalates in difficulty to fast.
- Have no lives. This way people can attempt the level as much as they want without having to go back to the menu and press play again. Every time you die have a death animation then restart the level.

Hopefully this feedback is useful and good luck making this game!
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Well, i've fixed the gameover thing, so there is a checkpoint system. What are the moving platforms? You mean enemies? Also, the game is meant to be fast, think about fast-paced gameplay. About the level design. i will give it a check.
 
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Tem Matthews

Guest
Well, i've fixed the gameover thing, so there is a checkpoint system. What are the moving platforms? You mean enemies? Also, the game is meant to be fast, think about fast-paced gameplay. About the level design. i will give it a check.
Oh I thought the enemies were moving platforms. Whoops. They were moving so fast I could not tell what they were. I assumed they were death platforms
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hello, there is a new version of NinjaCube on Gamejolt!
Features in V0.9.1
  • More levels
  • Visual Effects
  • Bugs fixed
  • Fixed some hardness things
Happy playing!
 
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HypSandar

Guest
I like it! Making a serious storyline with silly graphics :p
However here's some feedback.
The camera should be zoomed out more, when jumping down on the volcano level, i couldn't see the enemy that was scouting in that region.
I ended up falling onto the enemy a couple of times.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
A new version is available!
The new things are:
-More levels
-Some music
-Mini-boss battles
-Better boss battles
-New main menu

Have fun!
 

pixeltroid

Member
I like this!
Love the visual style. After days of looking at closeups of pixel art for my own project, your visual style just felt so...refreshing. I also liked the simple run/jump platforms/shoot baddies system of your game. IMO its more than enough to make a game thats enjoyable.

A few points:
- Like somebody pointed out, there are some camera issues. I died a few times in the countdown area (where the lava fills up the room after the timer reaches 0) because I couldn't see the platform I was supposed to jump on.
- the one hit death is....quite annoying. But I loved the idea of the players red headband emptying after he dies, as if it were his healthbar. But whats the point of having a healthbar like thing, if the player dies in one hit? Maybe you could make it so that players health reduces with hits. That way you could use the headband as a healthbar.

Anyway, I died too many times at the lava room and I'm taking a break. Its way past my bed time here and I'm sleepy. But I'll try again tomorrow!

I hope you continue to work on this game!
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
I like this!
Love the visual style. After days of looking at closeups of pixel art for my own project, your visual style just felt so...refreshing. I also liked the simple run/jump platforms/shoot baddies system of your game. IMO its more than enough to make a game thats enjoyable.

A few points:
- Like somebody pointed out, there are some camera issues. I died a few times in the countdown area (where the lava fills up the room after the timer reaches 0) because I couldn't see the platform I was supposed to jump on.
- the one hit death is....quite annoying. But I loved the idea of the players red headband emptying after he dies, as if it were his healthbar. But whats the point of having a healthbar like thing, if the player dies in one hit? Maybe you could make it so that players health reduces with hits. That way you could use the headband as a healthbar.

Anyway, I died too many times at the lava room and I'm taking a break. Its way past my bed time here and I'm sleepy. But I'll try again tomorrow!

I hope you continue to work on this game!
Thank you! I'm really happy that you did enjoy this game! About the "few points":
- Will surely fix the countdown area.
- Haha, I did expect that you did think about the death animation as a healthbar (Everyone did. xD) Well, it's not a healthbar, it's just an animation based of bosses' death animation. I did try to make a health system, actually it made the game really easy.

You died many times? Woah, then in the next version, you may get an achievement ;) Good luck on your next run! :D
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
So, I guess that I'm able to post updates/devlog, right? Ooookay!

So, simply, jumping into bullet list:
  • First of all, decided to zoom out levels. (I guess that many people who had problems with the camera are saying: Hooraaaay~! xD)
  • So, I decided to redesign all the levels
  • And the boss battles! (You can find em in my twitter)
  • Made a whole new finale battle! :D
  • Planning to make a map to select the zone that the player will go to (Aaaand, here are the NPCs before each zone! http://i.imgur.com/tBA8xWX.png )
  • Planning to make armors and skills (Like a dash, high-jump..I guess you get it, It can work as a weapon, but not that good xD)
Hope ya like these ideas
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Aaaand, here is a gif of the final boss battle! (Not including the laser attack. xD) What do ya think 'bout it?
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hi guys! So, the year is ending, I'd wish for all of us to have a happy new year!


And, about the game. Here is a gif with the new enemies I'm working on: (Meteors, rolling pendulum/spikes, armored enemies, trap enemies that spits acid/throws deadly objects and aura-shielded enemies)


I hope ya like it :D
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
So..It has been a long time! :p I've finished exams and dev is going to be easier! So, I've remade the training level with new things! What do you think about it? (The quality is kinda low)
 
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TheUltimate

Guest
It's nice! The player animations are cute and the controls look pretty smooth. Sushi as a healthbar is a nice touch.

The graphics are pretty plain though. It could use more colours than just brown, and decorations like plants and windows. I'm also personally not a fan of level design that's mostly flat stretches, but it seems to be working out for you and there's some decent level variety.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
So guys, I've made some new edits on the faces in NinjaCube, which one do you like for each character?

Also, this is the new colour palette i'm using! (Mail24) What do you think of it? =D
 
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BGamers11

Guest
Wow your game is really a masterpiece! I completed it in some days (seriously, days, not even hours or minutes) and what I can say about it is (the downloadable version):
(Note: the stars are just a thing that I made right now to rate it) Difficulty: 8/10 stars
Leve Design: 6/10 stars
Characters design: 9/10 stars
Enemy design(enemys, bosses, sub-bosses, etc) 7/10 stars
Music: 10/10 (For the musics that are added, I like the 8 bits music very much, depending on the type and where are used)
Sounds: 10/10 (For the sounds that are added already too)
Opening: 7/10 (Could be more interesting)
Background and block tiles: 8/10
Sorry for this if I made you angry but I like rating people things, don't take this seriously please, what you can do is the most important, not what people say about it. ;)
Sorry for it being a bit long too.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Ey thanks for trying it! I'm really happy that you did like some stuff in it. I'm planning to release an update after a week or two with the new training level (And new palette colour..etc). Thanks again!
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
It's alive! It could..Shoot? =P this is the base of the mini-boss of the training level, it shoots in the direction of 270 and towards you, and smashes you with spikes (it gets happy when it does it XD)
 
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Spike

Guest
I tried the demo but for some reason I was getting about 5 frames per second. Not so sure why when my hardware is more than capable. Any thoughts?
 
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dj_midknight

Guest
The gamepad configuration is kinda wonky just FYI.

LB closes the game
Back button toggles full screen
LS does what you expect controls movement. However the player does not turn left or right based on input. Thats going to make it unplayable on GP.
X(button 3) throws shuriken and feels pretty natural.
Y(button 4) jumps. This feels super awkward. Also if someone were to use a GP with less buttons(unlikely) this probably wouldn't work.

Going through the story setup everytime you start the game is a little tiring maybe have the start button skip directly to the menu?

Id suggest this config

Start goes back to menu
Back toggle fullscreen
LS movement with L/R on the dpad mirrored
A (button 1) to jump
B (button 2) to throw shuriken

Edit, I just noticed the demo is ancient so you probably already fixed all this stuff.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
i7 6600k
EVGA GTX 980 Ti
Windows 10
DX 12
Oh, that's pretty weird, I will be sure to ask people that are using Win 10 or GTX 980 Ti to gimme feedback

Yeah sorry you need the Titan X to play NinjaCube.
Oh yeah, how did ya know?

The gamepad configuration is kinda wonky just FYI.

LB closes the game
Back button toggles full screen
LS does what you expect controls movement. However the player does not turn left or right based on input. Thats going to make it unplayable on GP.
X(button 3) throws shuriken and feels pretty natural.
Y(button 4) jumps. This feels super awkward. Also if someone were to use a GP with less buttons(unlikely) this probably wouldn't work.

Going through the story setup everytime you start the game is a little tiring maybe have the start button skip directly to the menu?

Id suggest this config

Start goes back to menu
Back toggle fullscreen
LS movement with L/R on the dpad mirrored
A (button 1) to jump
B (button 2) to throw shuriken

Edit, I just noticed the demo is ancient so you probably already fixed all this stuff.
Well, yeah. I was using my old controller, so it was đź’©đź’©đź’©đź’©. I will get a new one and use the gamepad functions. Thanks for givin' feedback!
 
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Spike

Guest
Oh, that's pretty weird, I will be sure to ask people that are using Win 10 or GTX 980 Ti to gimme feedback
So I was able to do some more testing, the only solution I was able to find, to kick up the FPS, was right clicking on the .exe and running the game as an administrator. After I did that, everything ran smoothly. I am not sure how you could fix that so users wouldn't have to do that... Maybe someone can offer some insight?
 
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Jamblefoot

Guest
Hey Nexusrex, thanks so much for sharing. I tried the latest version and it's pretty cool. I'm curious to see where you're taking it. I haven't played the old version which sounds like it has more levels, but some thoughts on this one:

  • I kept wanting to jump on the bad guys. Or like downward stab them. The're big and dumb, and I felt like I should be able to dispatch them easily, but was struggling to figure out the sword's range and kept bumping into them and getting hurt. (of course, this just means I'm bad at the game, but it added a sort of finickiness to my interactions with the bad guys.)
  • I thought the camera move transitions worked really nicely. Some parts the background blends with the ground and it wasn't immediately apparent where I was supposed to go, but once I found it, the transition was solid.
  • Sometimes there were two bosses and sometimes one. I couldn't tell if this was a difficulty change or what, but basically when I would first approach there would be two blue guys doing their stuff, then after they killed me and transported me back to the checkpoint, there would only be one.
  • Back to that jumping on guys thing, I think making more out of collisions between guys, like the player is knocked back when injured, would make those interactions a little more satisfying. Also, and this is a bit deeper, but what if you could stack the bodies of the dead bad guys. Their already boxes. Maybe you gotta make a corpse stoop.
  • Overall, it was tight enough for casual satisfaction. Once the bad guys give you the dignity of looking in your direction before stealing your sushi, and with the addition of more levels, it's a solid little platformer.
I hope this was helpful. Sorry if it wasn't. I'll work on my game feedback game for the future. Thanks again for sharing.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hey Nexusrex, thanks so much for sharing. I tried the latest version and it's pretty cool. I'm curious to see where you're taking it. I haven't played the old version which sounds like it has more levels, but some thoughts on this one:

  • I kept wanting to jump on the bad guys. Or like downward stab them. The're big and dumb, and I felt like I should be able to dispatch them easily, but was struggling to figure out the sword's range and kept bumping into them and getting hurt. (of course, this just means I'm bad at the game, but it added a sort of finickiness to my interactions with the bad guys.
  • I thought the camera move transitions worked really nicely. Some parts the background blends with the ground and it wasn't immediately apparent where I was supposed to go, but once I found it, the transition was solid.
  • Sometimes there were two bosses and sometimes one. I couldn't tell if this was a difficulty change or what, but basically when I would first approach there would be two blue guys doing their stuff, then after they killed me and transported me back to the checkpoint, there would only be one.
  • Back to that jumping on guys thing, I think making more out of collisions between guys, like the player is knocked back when injured, would make those interactions a little more satisfying. Also, and this is a bit deeper, but what if you could stack the bodies of the dead bad guys. Their already boxes. Maybe you gotta make a corpse stoop.
  • Overall, it was tight enough for casual satisfaction. Once the bad guys give you the dignity of looking in your direction before stealing your sushi, and with the addition of more levels, it's a solid little platformer.
I hope this was helpful. Sorry if it wasn't. I'll work on my game feedback game for the future. Thanks again for sharing.
Thanks for trying the game!
- I'll give the downward stab a try
- I'll be sure to try more colours in the palette
- Weird, you are the second one to find this issue XD I'll debug it, did the game take too long when 2 bosses spawned?
- I'll be sure to try those
- Thanks! just, a lil' thing, the enemies won't look like that in the final game, obviously XD, but thanks again for trying!
 
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Jamblefoot

Guest
Oh okay, I thought the bug with the bosses might be a feature. It ran fine while there were two, I was just really bad and couldn't manage to kill them. I was just wondering if they might be twins, and if I failed to beat them both on the first go, maybe one was just taking a break or whatever as a way to scale the difficulty.
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
So the last time I played this, the game seemed pretty basic as far as art/graphics goes. Same with the level design. I Just now played the new alpha you released last week and I have to say, this is quite an improvement. I really enjoy the visuals and the music changes you made here. The sprite leaning towards his run is a nice touch. Not sure if there was an attack in the first alpha I played but I like it none the less.

Keep up the good work
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hello there fellow players and devs! It has been a while since an update!
Unfortunately my dev stuff went quite slow when I had the tests around, but there's now no tests so I'll be aiming to do some progress!

First of all, the game's page on Facebook went towards 200 likes and that's an achievement for me, so hooray!
Second thing, the game's Gamejolt page did manage to hit 1072 views and 352 plays/downloads! Thanks everyone!
And for the last but not least thing, a new alpha!

Unfortunately I didn't manage to do many stuff around, just a new level as I did finish the tests just five days ago. The level goes under the title 'The Abandoned Factory', it's a small level like the other ones. Hope you guys enjoy it!.

I'm going to drop this little GIF here, the download goes in the same link.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hey there guys! Hope it's going cool around. Hopefully I'm aiming to make a weekly devblog so I could get myself doing some progress.

So, during the week after uploading the new alpha, I did start to work on the underwater level (Isn't that like, the fourth or fifth time I guess? xD), this time I did work on the boss instead of the stage itself.

Introducing, Gilbert!


After being inspired by 'Heavy Magician' from Sonic Mania, a few magical tricks. I did make this boss a magician, previously a witch but some design choices and stuff made me change it.

The attacks are, as mentioned above, inspired by some magical tricks like getting stuff out of a hat or using cards. Except it's a bit weirder now? xD

And that was all for this week! Take care and have fun.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hello there guys! Hope it's all chill around. Been a while since I posted so I decided to give it a shot once again.

Where is NinjaCube?!
Well, it's not really a long story but anyway. After working on the underwater stage mentioned up above for a while I got to pause because I started feeling a bit of inability to continue on it and eventually started working on another level which takes place in a bit of a forest/cave area. Managed to make the first part of it and posted a gif over twitter.
https://twitter.com/ahmed_tahoun332/status/1013047619822776320
Aaand then, my laptop got broken for almost two weeks. Had a bit of a 'I give up' stuff, but fortunately managed to get better gradually and had a few ideas and that sort of stuff. Finally back at the 20th with my laptop fixed and data alright, also did a backup ;P

Uh, now what?
After a bit of work on that level I started losing interest as well (And a lot of procrastination came in. Darn!). So I decided to go back to the underwater level, with new ideas and inspirations in mind as well as having the backgrounds with the boss ready, it would be a bit easier to start working. And here are some prototype, quite basic and normal enemies.

I also am planning to go to some sort of gamedev con/gamedev gathering over here and show some of the progress, so wish me luck guys! ^^
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Downloaded alpha. Will try it out!
Thanks! Seeking your feedback!

I like it. Water warp effect. Cool.
Many thanks, the shader I got to use is the one made by 'TheMagician' https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/video-tutorial-underwater-shader-effect.169/

Anyway, for a short update. I managed to get the enemies to look like, um, enemies! Some basic sprites work here and there.


And the wave system is currently working quite okay, still needing to do some level planning. But at least less tasks!


Will deal with a little pause with all the screenshots and stuff because vacation, so will see you once I'm back (And hopefully with less procrastination! xD)
 

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
Alright, I played it, and I think it's great! The graphics were fun, and the ninja felt like controlling wet soap.(in the best way possible.) Also, I quickly found myself happily humming your music! One bug. At some point later in the dojo level, I died and responded as invisible. Respawning visible again after one hit.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Alright, I played it, and I think it's great! The graphics were fun, and the ninja felt like controlling wet soap.(in the best way possible.) Also, I quickly found myself happily humming your music! One bug. At some point later in the dojo level, I died and responded as invisible. Respawning visible again after one hit.
Woo, that's amazing! Glad that NinjaCube visually-wise and control-wise has got to be a sloppy jelly block, that was totally intended haha. As for the music, I'll be surely hitting up the musician with those lines ^^
And for that (unfortunately ironic) bug, I got to hear about it despite not getting it happening at my part, but I'll give it a shot once again to go through it. Any bugs or problems through the second stage?
And thanks once again!
 

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
Also, I think the dojo boss having an accidental twin looked like a cool shadow doppelganger thing! It was tough to do, but I did beat him like that. I think you should totally implement that into one of the bosses!
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Also, I think the dojo boss having an accidental twin looked like a cool shadow doppelganger thing! It was tough to do, but I did beat him like that. I think you should totally implement that into one of the bosses!
That bug once again! Hahaha, all people thought it was some legit thing for some reason. But will be surely giving it a shot at one of the last bosses. (But I hope it won't get as annoying as Split Mushroom from MMX4 xD)

As for the second stage, for whoever who didn't notice, it's reachable by just using A or D to change the boss through the boss select screen. Because some people who did give the game a shot didn't notice it! ;-;

Thanks once again, haha.
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hello there everyone! It has been such a while since the last post, so here's a bit of a sum up of the past few stuff with NinjaCube.

After the last post with the gifs about the underwater's level start, I did take a bit of time due to having a vacation and that sort of stuff but fortunately I was able to finish the said stage! With 3 waves, a silly mini-boss and the boss itself (Which was previously shown, but a bit modified)


And then I got the whole "You got accepted to showcase your game in our event" thingy, so huzzah! 'Run Double Jump' was quite the fun stuff with the ability to meet up with many gamedevs and yet gamers as well. (Also the juries gave the game an honorable mention, so hooray!)
But at the same time, I realized how people were quite surprised with the massive difficulty (Either being not used to the genre, the usage of some sudden attacks or just some weird placement.). Which forced me to rethink of some elements, especially with the training stage which probably everyone at the event got to play. So I started to remake some of the enemies' stuff as in some small animations to build up the anticipation, some slow-downs as well as changing up the pace of the stage's boss.


Then, I would find myself dealing with a bit of an idea block which made me quite unable to move into another new level. So I decided to remake some UI based stuff, a new stage select screen as well as a new 'Stage start' animation! This time, I was inspired by something similar to the Zero entries of the Megaman series with the actually playable area while combined with a character that shows the missions/areas.


And for now, I do have to deal with a bit of a pause/slow-down combined with the current idea block due to school. But hopefully I'll be also showcasing NinjaCube at 'Insomnia' which will be taking place in here in Egypt for the first time probably.

Anyway, here was probably what happened around with NinjaCube for this month. Hopefully I get to stop procrastinating that much, but who knows xP
 
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Nexusrex

Guest
Hey there guys, it has been a long time since the last post, around a month and half I guess?

Anyway, after a while of the last post with a while (At the 11th of October), I got to hit Insomnia's 1st gaming festival in here!
It was quite a fun time, with the ability to meet up with many gamedevs as they were showcasing around 20 indie games. I also got to meet with many gamers around, young and old, who managed to give a lot of feedback and ideas. (As well as taking all the mini-poster things I had printed since the event before it haha.)

Of course due to school I was quite unable to make anything proper for the game, but after a lot of staring at other games and procrastinating. I was able to make a quick mock-up for a stage!
I previously had a mock-up for a forest-cave stage which I got posted over Twitter, but yet I wasn't quite satisfied with it or even with the gameplay elements I had in mind, enough talking and it's better to show the new stuff, huh? : D

A video version of this gif is available on Twitter

I do plan to start up first with some level design, and once I'm done with it (As well as the enemies, boss and whatsoever) I would take a look at some polish then. Or just work on another stage.
That was all for today..? This week? I dunno, but I do hope you did enjoy it!
 
N

Nexusrex

Guest
Hello there, people!

After the last gif posted, I unfortunately got a bit of an idea block when it came to anything related to that level. Managing to get some level design for a few screens was okay. But school got to hit me hard :"D

Anyway, for the past few days I've brainstorming for some story-related stuff. Of course I do suck at making anything related to story stuff, but I'm attempting to just build a small basic plot. So one idea was making some dream/flashback cutscenes that show up in between of every few levels. Luckily I was able to have one small idea, which would be the base for the cutscene controlling code as well as an attempt to see if that idea would work well or not!

Of course, the dialogue I've 'written' was some bare-bone stuff. So I'd love to hear your feedback, ideas and even some articles/sources on how to improve writing and that sort of stuff would be cool!



That was all for today, hope to see ya later!
 

John Andrews

Living Enigma
Hello there, people!

After the last gif posted, I unfortunately got a bit of an idea block when it came to anything related to that level. Managing to get some level design for a few screens was okay. But school got to hit me hard :"D

Anyway, for the past few days I've brainstorming for some story-related stuff. Of course I do suck at making anything related to story stuff, but I'm attempting to just build a small basic plot. So one idea was making some dream/flashback cutscenes that show up in between of every few levels. Luckily I was able to have one small idea, which would be the base for the cutscene controlling code as well as an attempt to see if that idea would work well or not!

Of course, the dialogue I've 'written' was some bare-bone stuff. So I'd love to hear your feedback, ideas and even some articles/sources on how to improve writing and that sort of stuff would be cool!



That was all for today, hope to see ya later!
Incredibly precious, I love it!
 
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