indiegames
January 12th, 2010, 03:40
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2010/01/500x_ninjasaur.jpgOur Swedish friends weren't just working on a Final Fantasy project (http://kotaku.com/5364252/grins-ill+fated-fortress-still-under-development) when the studio went belly-up last year (http://kotaku.com/5335903/grin-is-officially-dead-spawns-outbreak). A former GRIN artist has posted concepts from a ninja action/adventure game, and it sounds like it was a new IP.
Joakim Hellstedt classified these under "various pitches" and "various gameplay and misc," so if it even had a working title, it wasn't used here. But it depicts a combat system for a game specifically mentioning a ninja protagonist, whose abilities are augmented by "ninja energy." So, dodging bullets and attacks at partial strength becomes a "shadow dodging explosion" with a maxed energy meter. A power attack against "weak/human opponent," has him slicing the foe cleanly in two at the torso.
Further down, it uses helicopters and dinosaurs, if not meant to be in the game, to at least demonstrate other abilities. Damn, we missed ninjas and dinosaurs? This is like Coleridge losing his vision of Xanadu ...
It's interesting work, if not for the what-might-have-been, then for the glimpse it provides of how gameplay processes are spec'd out in the early stages of a game's design.
Online Portfolio of Joakim Hellstedt (http://idun.free.fr/) [Site; scroll down about a quarter of the way; via Siliconera (http://www.siliconera.com/2010/01/10/another-undisclosed-grin-project-this-ones-for-a-ninja-game/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU)
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/GEQTLYyea0E/another-game-from-the-grin-grave)
Joakim Hellstedt classified these under "various pitches" and "various gameplay and misc," so if it even had a working title, it wasn't used here. But it depicts a combat system for a game specifically mentioning a ninja protagonist, whose abilities are augmented by "ninja energy." So, dodging bullets and attacks at partial strength becomes a "shadow dodging explosion" with a maxed energy meter. A power attack against "weak/human opponent," has him slicing the foe cleanly in two at the torso.
Further down, it uses helicopters and dinosaurs, if not meant to be in the game, to at least demonstrate other abilities. Damn, we missed ninjas and dinosaurs? This is like Coleridge losing his vision of Xanadu ...
It's interesting work, if not for the what-might-have-been, then for the glimpse it provides of how gameplay processes are spec'd out in the early stages of a game's design.
Online Portfolio of Joakim Hellstedt (http://idun.free.fr/) [Site; scroll down about a quarter of the way; via Siliconera (http://www.siliconera.com/2010/01/10/another-undisclosed-grin-project-this-ones-for-a-ninja-game/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=GEQTLYyea0E:vpKhXVzjPCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/kotaku/full/~4/GEQTLYyea0E
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/GEQTLYyea0E/another-game-from-the-grin-grave)