Shadow Gangs, 80's arcade inspired ninja game.
Hi Everyone;
It's my first post here and I would like to introduce a new game in the making, in an effort to give it as much visibility as possible.
Inspired from the likes of Shinobi and Shadow Warriors and other 80's arcade ninja games.
Next week on Sunday 22nd of May, the demo will be available for download (pc version), and a new video and will be uploaded, and I will also announce the kickstarter date.
Let me know what you think if you are interested, game website is here: http://www.shadowgangs.com
Thank you.
It's my first post here and I would like to introduce a new game in the making, in an effort to give it as much visibility as possible.
Inspired from the likes of Shinobi and Shadow Warriors and other 80's arcade ninja games.
Next week on Sunday 22nd of May, the demo will be available for download (pc version), and a new video and will be uploaded, and I will also announce the kickstarter date.
Let me know what you think if you are interested, game website is here: http://www.shadowgangs.com
Thank you.
Comments
It's the PC version, it should run fine on a 1ghz PC with Intel graphics, but let me know if you have any issues running it.
You may need to install Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable here if the Demo won't start, I didn't need to but just in case.
A new video has been uploaded here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-ZpxWKEaQ
A new music track is also available, here or in the downloads section. It's included in the demo and can be heard if you finish the demo.
The kickstarter date is now set, it's the 25th of June 2016. If you liked the demo and want this game to materialise, please contribute to the crowdfunding.
These kind of games like Shadow Gangs won't be brought back by big game companies, or the likes of Sega, Capcom etc...., they all seem to have moved to 3D and other new fancy gameplay styles etc..., so don't wait for them to release something like Shadow Gangs.
Also feedback on the game all over the internet, here and friends has been very important, and this new demo is showing that. Apart from the new backgrounds, many enhancements and fixes have gone in.
I really hope you enjoy it!
Do the 'easier' modes still have one-hit death, i.e.: is there some kind of depleting energy bar to give crap gamers like me a chance, or are there just less bad guys?
Is there a reason why the bad guys fade out so quickly? If the frame rate doesn't drop significantly I'd like to see them hang around a bit longer (or at least a slower fade.)
Any chance of kneeling / lying down on the floor dying frames? It just looks odd to me when the player character dies always standing up? Also the fade out, whilst consistent with the bad guys, seems unnecessary?
Touching them, or bumping on them won't kill you unless they are in attack stance.
Also, easy mode has less enemies, and less dangerous set pieces.
Fading out of enemies quickly will be fixed.
Yes, dying frame will have the main character completely go tits up. The reason it's not here is that I didn't like the following sprites that the artist made for the die animation.
This will be of course corrected if the game go past the Kickstarter phase.
It should be an easy ride now.
(In easy, other modes are still challenging).
New demo version available at the same place here.
Curious if I find it too easy now will I be able to get the old demo? Even just for the sake of comparison? I don't do easy mode, and checkpoints are OK, but I feel the majority of people who cry about games like this being too hard never played the inspirational games in the first place, and are used to ducking behind a wall, or leaning against it while their health regenerates ;)
Hard mode actually is real hard, and provides a good challenge and really shows Shadow Gangs the way it should be. (with more enemies in their stronger variations (blocking more, more laying down gunmans, red and blue ninja showing up at the same time etc...)).
But, I agree with you 100%, if the same people that moan about Shadow Gangs difficulty play for example Shinobi, I think they will have a hard time finishing the first level (in the easy dip switch settings of arcade Shinobi).
And them getting past the first boss of Shinobi is out of the question.
But such is the state of gaming now, really sad.
I don't want to alienate any player, it's the reason I put in the easy mode as the default mode.
Once the demo can be defeated on easy, one can try to play it on normal, and then hard.
And there is bonuses if you don't fire any projectile, finishing the demo on hard like that then tip of the hat to you whomever does it.
I uploaded a new video of me playing in hard mode with melee only (mostly, one miss near the end), and no deaths.
The game also had a speed increase for Dan (and some enemies to keep the balance), as well as sharper melee attacks.
I think it plays much better than before.
Many other fixes has gone in.
In relation to the kickstarter, Dan in ninja form will have an assault rifle as projectile weapon, I think it's much better this way than having some kind of fire shuriken or super shuriken or the like which was my original intention.
Here is the video that I wanted to do before the kickstarter to show the game potential more:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GRUY-PzgsH4
I am excited to announce that the Shadow Gangs Kickstarter is now live here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1858040208/shadow-gangs-80s-ninja-arcade-action-revival
Please share the news! and thank you!
The Shadow Gangs kickstarter is in it's final hours, and I would like to let anyone who is interested but hesitated for some reasons about
the enhancements and changes that the full version will have:
-If the graphic style is an issue, there will be filters available to add scanlines or any other full screen shader effects that are
available already for emulators like Mame, Winuae etc...
-Also concerning the graphics, all the characters will be drawn by the same artist who did Dan and the ninajs, this will ensure coherent
art and of higher quality.
-The animations frames will be double or tripled in some animation types (dying animation and others).
-A lot of special effects will be added, some using shaders or with added shaders. Blood, bullet trails, better bullet effects, hit effets,
smoke etc...these will make the screen busier.
-If you didn't like the game because of lack of diversity, there will be a lot more interactions, Dan will have an inventory to store
sepcial weapons and sepcial attacks (magic), there will be elements of search, recovering money, freeying all types of hostages, some
elements of adventure/exploration too like using the ninja double jump to get to secret areas.
-The ninja form will allow Dan to take one hit without dying (but will cause him to revert to his fighter form). Also the ninja form will be available at about 10 to 15% of the level start.
This will put the difficult a lot down.
-And many many more enhancements and fixes. A full list is in the Kickstarter page.
I would like also to ask you to actually play the current demo, to get a real feel of the game and see it actually on your screen not just on videos.
Bellow is the new Dan as ninja which is being done now by the sprite artist, and the first frames of the attack drone.
Also, if the game succeeds the Kickstarter, all backers without exceptions will get regular milestone builds.
Many thanks!
Good luck anyway !
Well, except by sharing it on Twitter, which I've just done!
I've been watching this project from the beginning and wishing all the best for it.
And yes, I considered supporting it but it had a very bad start at Kickstarter and when I checked it about 2 days after campaign start I knew that it almost for certain won't make it so any my actions would be pointless.
Actually I'm very stupid when it comes to Kickstarter. Some projects catch on, while other fails and it's really hard to predict a result in some individual case. I felt that you did everything allright - do a lot of promotion on retro websites, show nice quality working demo to people, prove that you are serious guys who know what you are doing etc...
And yet it seems it failed.
If I were to give some advice, maybe you could think of an achievements system? You know - bronze cup for killing 100 enemies, silver cup for 500 enemies, bronze star for competing a game without losing a life on easy level and so on.
Personally I don't care about it much but it seems to be essential for many modern players.
Did you have some feedback what was wrong? I hope that you have some backup plan and won't abandon the project.
Thank you, very appreciated.
I have some ideas on why this Kickstarter is doomed, I will detail it on the website soon.
Still if you are willing to pledge, just do if you want. It may drive other people in even if it too late anyway,
In any case, no money will be taken by Kickstarter unless the project is successful. They don't take money straight away.
Still not polished, very buggy, no proper sounds or effects, and many sprites of Dan here will be changed (walk animation and anything which doesn't look good).
Also Video quality is not great, I made it with an underpowered laptop.
But I wanted to share with you this to show this game is progressing.
Hope you like it!.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQnkndfMFJY
Actually I'm watching your website and you are making a great progress. Did you decide to complete the game on your own, without any crowdfunding?
It's a huge amount of work to do but you seem motivated enough to complete it. So good luck!
@Ralf;
Thanks for following this game development and the good wishes!
I am planning to finance it myself, without crowdfunding as for now...
It won't be easy, but unless a catastrophic event we'll get this game out.
The artist started on doing mission 2 boss, that I named "Daddy" :), when you see him the name will make sense.
As for the difficulty, don't worry :) I learned that the game need to be very easy from the release of the demo version and there will be a super easy mode to allow people to finish the game.
Of course, good players will find what they want in Shadow Gangs, the score beating motivation will be present, and a bonus stage too, which I am still thinking what to do for the bonus stage...
...In the shadows ;)
Hi everyone;
Showing Shadow Gangs boss 1 Collin, hope you like!
New Shadow Gangs boss 2 video here:
Hope you like it!