Hello everyone,
In the last weeks we worked a lot on what the future of Shinobi Bad Buddies will be. We gave this a lot of thoughts and we have decided to bring new changes to our game to give it more meaning.
We realized that with all the mechanics we developed until know, and seeing that the gameplay was the main component of our game, just creating little missions was not enough to experience all the gameplay mechanics we implemented.
We decided to bring a little story-driven experience to the game and relocate the current missions objectives in the local multiplayer for fun when you have friends around.
This will bring more variety missions in the multiplayer experience while having a story to discover solo or in a co-op mode.
We also decided that an online multiplayer wasn’t required at this stage and that we would put all of our efforts into the story experience we want to provide.
We are very proud of our gameplay mechanics and the mood of the game, but we feel that our simple mission system currently lacks of purpose.
That is why we will focus all our efforts to create a story and a coherent world for you to discover. Most of the features we had in the roadmap will be included in the story but will most likely be different from what we first had in mind when we described them.
For example the ninja powers that we were working on until now would most likely not be usable in your first run through the game, but unlockable in the story or in a “new game plus” mode when you replay the story with more difficulty and more powers. This is just an example of what we will change, what is important is that we want to create the best immersion possible with our story and we will use all the features we planned so far to do so.
Shuriken belt indicator !
Devlog #6 | 0.3.1 bug fixes and improvements
Hello everyone !
we fixed some bugs and made some improvements towards the gameplay and the game in general.
You can now see directly at your belt and enemies’ belts if they still have some shurikens left or not. In the heat of the action you don’t need to look at the HUD you can directly see if you have some shurikens left!
We are still hard at work and are open to any feedback or issue you can encounter during a game. Let us know in the comments or in the discussion sections :)
Don’t hesitate if you have any issue or feedback. We will be glad to listen to them !
Enjoy!
<*>Improvements
added weapon belt indicator
< no hat > indication in the player selection menu
added slap when touching AI and fixed direction of spotted animation. removed shuriken deflection from the back for AI
reduced time to kill the spotter in thief mode
modified level mission progression
mission menu navigation simplified
improved shuriken deflect mechanism (you can now deflect more easily)
<*>Bug fixes
fixed thief mission bug (not restarting when spotted)
fixed direction of spotted animation on collision and facing rotation
small mission menu fix
fixed spotted anim eyes when spotted
fixed bug enemy not detecting when touching them
fixed bug of rope breaking under high tension
fixed rescue mode invulnerability of hostage and drop when player dies
fixed issue of the timing when the AI attacks and improvement of the thief mission
fixed some translating issue
-Corbak Games
Team mode !
Devlog #5 | 0.3.0
Hello everyone !
In this update we present you a little functionality that you can find in multiplayer mode now, the team mode !
Before you could fight only for yourself but now you are finally able to fight as a team with your buddy against other buddies, or against the AI.
Double jump
You can now double jump in the game, it is available to anyone and we think that this will make the gameplay more dynamic.
I hope you will like it and if you have anything to share or any feedback, don’t hesitate we will listen!
Corner grab
As it was difficult to actually grab some corner we added a little thing that would make you grab any corner more easily, whether you are wall riding or just grabbing floating platforms.
This will allow more tactical movement while you play
Climb down the rope
As in the early versions you could climb up, we added the possibility to climb it down too. It was a choice at first to not let you climb down cause you would just let loose the hook, but we thought that it would be nice to actually just add it if you want to sneak behind enemies without making any sound.
Removing race mode
Yes, we decided to cut it from the vanilla game. It is something we have been thinking for a while and it was too much work for not much fun. We need for the race mode to redo the level a second time in order to adapt it and even though we did that for the 3 first levels, things were missing in this mode to make it really fun. Once one player is in first position, it became really hard for the others to actually win the race. Not much traps or level design to make it really interesting.
So we decided to drop it for now and we will rethink later on on how to implement new modes that would coexist with the vision we have for the game. We would like to add quality content over quantity and make it pleasant to play.
We hope this update will bring you more pleasure while playing, and hope to hear from you if you have any suggestions :)
<*>Improvements
fixed collision between team members during co-op
changed the the wall jump force and the jump force
added double jump
implementation of wall ride grab when you arrive at a corner
changed the logic of by passing small steps. Added small stairs where needed for little steps.
speed-up the rope climbing
fixed revive glitch and the indicator in the dialog bubble
you can now climb down on the rope
implemented team selection in the menu
AI can’t get dropped shurikens in missions
<*>things we changed
removed race mode
-Corbak Games
Missions !
Devlog #4 | 0.2.0
We have been hard at work to be able to bring you some new interesting features in this new update. And as you guessed it, it is related to the mission mode!
First things first
In the base game there was only two missions available: BENTO and RAMPAGE (ex-ASSASSINATE)
Now there are 3 new missions: THIEF, RESCUE and TARGET
BENTO: You need to to gather all the sushis
RAMPAGE: You need to kill everybody in the level
THIEF: You need to steal a specific asset while not being spotted
RESCUE: You need to rescue a buddy
TARGET: You need to specifically find someone and kill him
There will be a lot more polishing during the development of the game.
And this is a good thing to start with to let you play around with new types of missions while we continue to enhance the experience. We will wait to have all the pieces of the gameplay before we build the actual story of the game with appropriate missions to unlock cool gameplay elements as you play through the story.
AI Logic
As we ship this update with new missions, we gave the AI more personality and a bit of a logic. They now can see if one of their buddies fell into their sight, check on them and check their patrol before returning to their standing point
Of course, as the game continue to grows, we will shape more and more the AI so that it suits our cute world, and gives you some funny interactions during your game :)
Co-op reviving
Now when you play missions with friends, if one of them is killed during the mission, you can revive him with the action button.
We thought of implementing it because it was a bit boring to watch your friend getting all the credits when you took a shuriken for him … yea.
Hope you will have fun, meanwhile, we are moving forward in the roadmap!
Next, multiplayers team !
<*>Improvements
Added gibberish sound + surprised voice for the enemies
AI logic when player or dead body is spotted
AI try to avoid to react to friendly shurikens and try not to hit buddies
Visual sight of enemies modified as in box-shaped in lower difficulties, except in ninja mode where their vision is circular
slight modifications on emotions system to accurately represent what is happening in-game.
Enhancement of AI dead body check and patrolling
Enhancement of animations of enemies spotting player and walking animation
implemented co-op revive system
implemented in-game action button
fixed ai body check routine
reworked some animations spritesheet
improved AI bubbles and body spotting
-Corbak Games
Hotfixes
Devlog #3 | 0.1.1
Patching the game and en route for new features, you can play up-to 4 players in co-op now. We wanted to see if that addition would make the missions more enjoyable :)
Here is the whole list:
<*>Improvements
co-op 4 players
improved option menu, speed up menu navigation, and minor fixes in all menus
hide mouse when not used in menus
added possibility to set ui controls in control mapping
<*>Bug Fixes
fixed radar floating eyes bug
sound effect slider sound added
fixed menu collectible and mouse deselecting issue with gamepad navigation
removed enter key indication when keyboard player already used in player selection
Split Screen & Radar
Devlog #2 | 0.1.0
Hello everyone !
Since the launch we have been super busy to deliver one of the key functionality of the roadmap. The Split Screen ! (yayy) together with a radar that lets you know points of interests when you can’t see them in your screen.
Split Screen lets you share the same screen in 2,3 or 4 blocks if you are 4 players. You will still be able to play on the same shared screen by toggling the option in-game.
The radar:
We decided to add small indications on the edge of the screen that act as a radar and show you an mission objectives. We thought about this functionality to allow the player to get quickly points of interests and let him play his way. Nevertheless you can still toggle off this functionality in the option in-game.
You can toggle on & off the Split Screen mode and the radar from the settings menu in-game. We made these settings available if you prefer to play without knowing where are the points of interests and make the game harder :)
We also fixed a range of issues, here is the list:
Eyes emotion system & Pre-release fixes
Devlog #1 | 0.0.1
Hi everyone !
the game is going to launch very soon in early access and we fixed a lot of issues and added a new functionality: eyes emotion system !
The game contains 8 state of eyes emotions, each of them are activated on different occasions (when hit, when killed, etc.) but we will let you the surprise of discovering them and how do they work !
normal
closed
happy
cheeky
angry
embarrassed
surprised
dead
We will keep on updating and improve and add more content as the game lives.
We hope to hear from you and we are ready for any feedback, please let us know :)
Development ROADMAP
Hello Shinobies!
We will post our dev roadmap as we build the game so that you guys know what we are currently working on and what will developed next! These are the main big features that we want to implement. We will create specific discussions for the ones we need specific inputs from you, but you are welcome to launch a discussion on any of them in advance !
So here is our current roadmap for after the release of the early access:
- Improve Solo/Coop missions (add more types of missions)
- Split Screen (you will have the choice between shared or split screen)
- Steam Leaderboards
- Teams : you will be able to play in teams in all multiplayer modes
- Forest theme with 3 new levels
- Ninja powers
- Waterfall theme with 3 new levels
- Weapons
- Steam Achievements
- More eye candy bonuses and Mission progression rework
- Online multiplayer
- Steam trading cards
- Mac version
- Linux Version
All of these are our main objectives and the main vision of what the game would have. And we are really happy to share that with you !
You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you wish for the latest development news or some sneak peaks :)
Cheers !
update: As you are aware, we couldn't implement all the things we listed in there. But on the other side we could add a little story mode to give some depth to the game. And anyway, if the game ever gets an audience we would be happy to add things we wanted to do from the beginning :)
Thank you for your understanding.
