Kickstarter

Fifty-seven backers!  That's pretty huge, I think, for the idea of a game.  I don't think it's much of a secret that having a game to see and play makes a bit of a difference.  We'll take that lesson to heart.  =)

Todd and I are speaking today about plans moving forward.  We've woken from this dream, and fallen into another, because we're still independent and doing what we love in an effort to make a living.

Here's the last you'll see of me in front of the camera for a while.  Thank goodness, right?  hehe

Fun fact: I have more gray hair now!

Ted Brown // Game Director // Ninja Baseball

So you guys are probably *totally* sick of seeing my face on your screen.  There's like five months of video of me going "blah blah blah" on the internet, right?  And I've subjected you to it all!

So if you want to watch a great TV news story about how game development is a surprisingly large industry in Eugene, Oregon, be warned: you might see me once or twice!

Here's the link: http://kezi.com/page/222949

Have a great weekend everyone!  Walk softly, and carry a big sword!

Ted Brown // Game Director // Ninja Baseball

The short version is kind of a downer, but let's get it out of the way.  Todd is moving to Dallas, where he has a place to live almost rent-free.  He's doing this so he can focus entirely on Ninja Baseball.  The downside is, well, moving away from a city you've spent five years in can take a while, especially for a friendly guy like Todd, who has folks dropping in at all hours to say goodbye.  Not to mention packing up boxes in the Texas heat, and trying to squeeze in time to figure out the technical details of the zBrush -> Blender -> Animation -> Unity pipeline!

For hopefully the final time, I must report again that no ninjas are appearing in our game yet.  We'll get there, but... not for a few more days.

What about the gameplay?  It's been built up and built up and built up, layer on layer.  The new feature I enjoyed putting in the most was the medic.  I finally went to a weekly gathering with some friends (after working through the past three or four), and was joking that the medic would throw a smokebomb and appear next to knocked down players to inspect them for injuries.  This got so much positive feedback that I implemented it the next day.  (You can actually see it in the video below)  That's why I love indie development!

We also have support for player profiles and special traits, a new field (Ichiro Valley!  Needs trees, but... here it is!),  and a few more rules have been implemented.  But with Todd being out of commission for a few days, I'm going to take this opportunity to re-factor the code foundation and make it much more stable, using all the knowledge I've gained in the Unity engine, and what I've learned about the best way to implement Ninja Baseball.

We're in this for the long haul.  Now here's the video.  It has a lot of gameplay, and a sneak peek at a trailer in pre-production.  You also might chuckle in the first 15 seconds or so.  =)

-ted

We've been working around the clock... OK, not literally, just fourteen to sixteen hours a day. =)  But we've been working hard to get a totally radical, neon-drenched 80's ninja baseball simulator into your hands as soon as possible!

This week, Todd putting the final touches on the ninja player model, and is going to be putting it into the game next week.  Ted made huge strides on the gameplay front, and we now have a fully functional baseball game!  Woo hoo!  It doesn't look pretty, but that's our goal for next week!

In this video, we show off some gameplay (early, pre-alpha, prototype gameplay) for the first time.  Please remember: its visual presentation isn't even a sketch, it's just functional enough to make it playable.  Showing these things before they look great can be a huge risk, but I think y'all are ready for it.

Next week, we going to focus on the aesthetics, and then start e-mailing game news websites.  We've got one chance for a big push to take us to our campaign goal!

Catch you later!

-ted