Mark of the Ninja (stealth side-scroller from Klei) catch-all

This had me hooked in about 2 minutes. I love Klei stuff to begin with but the mechanics in this are just fantastic. I'm determined to polish off Dust: An Elysian Tail this weekend but then I'll be digging into this. Hopefully it gets a PC release. I'd also happily buy it on the Vita but this is published by Microsoft so that's sadly a pipe dream.

Crhis wrote:

Just played the first mission of this, it's awesome so far- can't wait to play the rest.

There's a new Brainy Gamer podcast about the game (first I can remember for a long time) here too.

Welcome to a special Ninja Edition of the Brainy Gamer podcast!

In this edition I talk with Nels Anderson and Chris Dahlen, Lead Designer and Narrative Designer of the new game Mark of the Ninja.

We discuss the development process for the game, the challenges and opportunities of working in the independent space, and why Chris is the Oscar Hammerstein of game writing...among many other topics.

I hope you enjoy.

Nels mentions in his blog how instrumental Michael Abbot was both indirectly and directly in the making of the game:

Especially, thank you to Michael Abbott, whose writing basically started me down a path of consideration and thoughtfulness when it came to looking at games as a form of creative expression. Plus, and I was only reminded of this last night, it was an invitation to a dinner that set up the partnership that led to Chris writing Ninja, so doubly thanks for that. Michael actually did something very special for us as well, expect it soon.

Well I just couldn't put this down, started New Game+!

If anyone else is playing and wants some leaderboard filler my GamerTag is Crhistoph.

Grabbed the demo of this and really enjoyed it. Very tempted to grab it now...

Man, this game is good.

I really, really like that everything is so binary. You are either hidden or you're not. Enemies see you or they don't. There's no guess work like there usually is with a stealth game, and because of that, the inherent frustration I often find with games like Splinter Cell is taken out of the equation.

Plus, all the checkpoints are pretty sweet too.

I was pretty lukewarm on Shank, in spite of its awesome art style, but this has woo'd me right from the start. This is the Tenchu I've always wanted.

One of the great things about the game is that after every kill or checkpoint you can think "I could have done that 10 different ways". With a lot of games I feel like some missions (or sometimes only bits of missions) really suit my style, and then it'll be off to another section that suits another style - not so in MotN, you're in control throughout. [And I don't think this is a spoiler because they're right there on the upgrade screen from the start...] The unlockable suits only make this even more effective.

Definitely going to 400/400 this.

As much love as this game is getting in social circles I'm surprised by the low number of posts it's gaining on this forum. I'm aware of the much beloved topic of how poor the marketing is for this game is and I agree. Still surprised it's getting so little love here.

Sooo... when's this coming out on PC?

I am often wrong, but I can't imagine this won't land on Steam.

demonbox wrote:

As much love as this game is getting in social circles I'm surprised by the low number of posts it's gaining on this forum. I'm aware of the much beloved topic of how poor the marketing is for this game is and I agree. Still surprised it's getting so little love here.

People here seem burned out on XBLA. Usually there are two or three posts in the first page of an XBLA game asking when the PC version will be released. The aforementioned Dust: An Elysian Tail got rave reviews and the thread here got even fewer posts.

I've seen a shift over the last six months, people in this forum seem to enjoy complaining about the periphery of gaming rather than discussing the games themselves.

Redwing wrote:

Sooo... when's this coming out on PC? :)

Hard to say. Since I've been answering this question pretty often I'll just quote the last time I remember doing it (from the Dust: An Elysian Tail thread):

Blind_Evil wrote:

If I had to guess I'd say it'll be a while. It's Microsoft-published, so look to other similar titles for a timeline, I guess.

Iron Brigade took a a bit over a year. Nine months for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Only two months for The Maw, and about that for Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

Shadow Complex, Toy Soldiers, 'Splosion Man (and sequel), Snoopy Flying Ace, and Trials are all well-regarded, MS-published XBLA titles that have never seen PC releases.

My gut tells me this might slip in before Christmas, but Microsoft Game Studios is kind of all over the place with this kind of thing.

Shadow Complex on PC would be so much happy for me.

Also, I'd love this on PC. I rarely game on my xbox any more and not sure if I want to buy it on xbox. I might. But considering the other backlog of games that I already have, I could just wait and see if it does come to PC.

I've been having a blast with this on 360. It and Dust are currently neck and neck for my downloadable game of the year. My first instinct was to wait for PC as well but these games look and play gorgeous on a TV and I'd heard such great things that I didn't want to wait. I'm guessing it will get a PC release eventually and I'll probably buy it again then. Klei titles often go down to $5 or less during Steam sales too. Klei has figured out how to make a stealth game that's still fast-paced. It's criminal that Microsoft has given almost no publicity to it and sites like Giant Bomb have been having to sell its virtues. With all the ads polluting the 360 dashboard, you'd think they could devote one of them to this game.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Hopefully it gets a PC release.

They seem to be pushing a lot of XBLA games into the Windows 8 store. Wonder if that's how this will show up first on PC?

Redwing wrote:

Sooo... when's this coming out on PC? :)

From the NeoGaf OT.

NeoGaf wrote:

Hey Gaf, I'm the lead designer of Mark of the Ninja (this is moi) and I just wanted to say thanks for supporting the game.

As folks have noted elsewhere, visibility is our biggest problem, as we apparently made a game lots of folks really connected with, and we just have to let folks know it exists at all. So thanks!

Word of mouth obviously makes a huge difference for us, so folks spreading the word really, really help. Just telling a couple friends about the game can be huge. So thanks for everything folks have done so far and I hope the great support from the community continues.

I certainly hope this doesn't come across like I'm bombing into Gaf to shill, because I mainly just wanted to say thanks to everyone who checked out the game and we're really god damn happy folks are digging it. We didn't expect this kind of response at all.

And for everyone talking about a PC version, well, I don't think you all have to be too concerned ;)

Blind_Evil wrote:

People here seem burned out on XBLA.

Man, that couldn't be further from the truth in my case.

I've gotten far more satisfaction from XBLA than retail disc releases in 2012. By a pretty wide margin.

(List time!) Mark of the Ninja, The Walking Dead, Minecraft, Trials Evolution and late to the party plays of Outland and Renegade Ops have made XBLA the star of the show on 360 this year.

Aaron D. wrote:

(List time!) Mark of the Ninja, The Walking Dead, Minecraft, Trials Evolution and late to the party plays of Outland and Renegade Ops have made XBLA the star of the show on 360 this year.

I'm still itching to co-op Outland with someone! We should do that soon. For that matter, I never finished a co-op run of Renegade Ops either I don't think.

I am having a blast on MotN. I have only gotten through the first three levels, but it is awesome. I am really liking the various ways you can get through a level. I am going through on a "kill everything" playthough right now, and while the same kill animation is tiring, it never gets boring or annoying.

mudbunny wrote:

I am going through on a "kill everything" playthough right now, and while the same kill animation is tiring, it never gets boring or annoying.

Are you buying move upgrades? I've found investing in them invaluable as they give more options, offering greater gameplay and visual variety.

I’m still doing silent, stealth kills, but now I’m pulling enemies into floor grates, stringing them up from lights, executing while hidden in doorways, etc.

It’s great fun.

Aaron D. wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

I am going through on a "kill everything" playthough right now, and while the same kill animation is tiring, it never gets boring or annoying.

Are you buying move upgrades? I've found investing in them invaluable as they give more options, offering greater gameplay and visual variety.

I’m still doing silent, stealth kills, but now I’m pulling enemies into floor grates, stringing them up from lights, executing while hidden in doorways, etc.

It’s great fun.

I *just* got the ability to buy upgrades. Of course, they were smart and made sure that as soon as you got the ability to buy upgrades, you could buy the ones that allowed you to string people up. The animations and sounds when you terrorize people that way are awesome.

I picked this up yesterday after playing the demo. I love the animation and the stealth gameplay seems right up my ally.

demonbox wrote:

As much love as this game is getting in social circles I'm surprised by the low number of posts it's gaining on this forum.

There really isn't that much to say, sadly. It is really, really good: solid stealth mechanic, great animation and solid gameplay. It lacks multiplayer, so there aren't people trying to set up co-op sessions, the score mechanic doesn't seem to be fostering any competition, and there are no deals to be had by buying it in packs. It's like a Nintendo game.

Atras wrote:

... the score mechanic doesn't seem to be fostering any competition...

I wind up checking the rankings every time I finish a level, getting pretty high now for the overall "Story" rank!

I do hope it comes to pc at some point- not because I prefer it over 360, I just don't have a console (sadly my Wii died this past weekend- not that this would come to Wii, I'm just sad).

Crhis wrote:

I wind up checking the rankings every time I finish a level, getting pretty high now for the overall "Story" rank!

Yup, the leaderboards are the first thing go to after finishing a level.

It's funny, 'cause I'm generally not big on online multi/co-op, but I love score chasing via leaderboards and such. It's super-addictive and allows me to play at my own pace. Asynchronous multi as found in titles like Forza 4, NFS, and SSX are the cat's meow for an anti-social gamer like me.

I've put maybe 1-1.5 hours into MotN, and judging by some of the comments (and achievements vis-à-vis what I can actually do in the game so far), I've just begun to scratch the surface. I'm opposed to all the UI visualizing on principle—give me a light gem and I shall ghost the world—but it's actually starting to melt into the gameplay; and as I get more tools to exploit, I expect everything will mesh even more. Maybe the 2D-ness helps too: no jarring exclamation points in 3D spaces.

So I'd like to say more but haven't put enough time in yet. It's definitely got the stealth hook though, because I can't play for too long without needing a break from the tension of trying to perfect the undetected traversal or flawless takedown!

I'm not sure how I feel about what is basically the QTE of each stealth kill: if I've already positioned myself to have the undetected drop on a guy, and only so long to hit the button initially before he walks out of range (of the ninjato anyway), why add the unnecessary complication of an instant press-the-arbitrary-direction-now? I appreciate that it's not a completely binary fail-state, but maybe there could be another way to include the "whoops-silence-that-gurgling-fool" kill? Or maybe things change as the game opens up. I'm still climbing the skyscraper or just got to the communications room IIRC.

One thing is for sure, though: I do love some of those achievement titles. I just finished reading The Name of the Rose, which talks a lot about how all texts are about other texts. I wish more games could be "about" other games, more explicitly or deeper than just spoof (if publishers weren't so tight with their IP), and some of the achievements are a step in that direction. The Dark Project, Deadly Shadows, Trickster, Tactical Espionage Action, No One Lives Forever... any others I didn't get?

Gravey wrote:

One thing is for sure, though: I do love some of those achievement titles. I just finished reading The Name of the Rose, which talks a lot about how all texts are about other texts. I wish more games could be "about" other games, more explicitly or deeper than just spoof (if publishers weren't so tight with their IP), and some of the achievements are a step in that direction. The Dark Project, Deadly Shadows, Trickster, Tactical Espionage Action, No One Lives Forever... any others I didn't get?

Inner Heaven (5G):
Kill a guard from inside the [cardboard] box.

Side note: One of the games developers that I follow on Twitter was delighted that the guy who was top of the leaderboards was called 'Decoy Octopus'.

Crhis wrote:
Gravey wrote:

One thing is for sure, though: I do love some of those achievement titles. I just finished reading The Name of the Rose, which talks a lot about how all texts are about other texts. I wish more games could be "about" other games, more explicitly or deeper than just spoof (if publishers weren't so tight with their IP), and some of the achievements are a step in that direction. The Dark Project, Deadly Shadows, Trickster, Tactical Espionage Action, No One Lives Forever... any others I didn't get?

Inner Heaven (5G):
Kill a guard from inside the [cardboard] box.

Ah, I wondered if that one was a Tenchu reference, cf. Wrath of Heaven (no real MGS experience here).

Gravey wrote:

Ah, I wondered if that one was a Tenchu reference, cf. Wrath of Heaven (no real MGS experience here).

I took it to be a reference to Outer Heaven in the MGS universe.

And, y'know, cardboard box!

Yeah, as if I didn't need another reason to love this game.

Level 7'ish "The Inner Keep" has these wrought iron catwalks in the driving rain that is just so Blade Runner (minus the neon).

I don't think that's a spoiler, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Man, I haven't been this jazzed about a 2D game in years.

So no PSN or PC release scheduled yet?

BlackSabre wrote:

Shadow Complex on PC would be so much happy for me.

That too...