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9:21 PM on 02.19.2008

17 comments
GDC 08: Ninja Ways: An N+ Postmortem
Anthony Burch

wewew

You know what comes out tomorrow on XBLA?

N+.

If you aren't already excited for it, then I honestly don't understand you. We're talking about one of the most incredible flash platformers of all time, ported to XBLA with way more levels and numerous graphical and difficulty curve improvements. 

Wanna know more about the process of porting the original flash game to XBLA, along with a cohesive month-by-month summary of what a budding XBLA developer should expect in creating their game?

If so, hit the jump. 

The N+ postmortem was handled by two speakers: Mare Sheppard, half of the two-person team that is Metanet Software, and Nick Waanders of Slick Entertainment, who ported the original flash title to XBLA.

The two sought to give direct, practical advice to would-be indie designers who want to get their games picked up by Microsoft. Sheppard stated that, since Metanet was essentially a very small, inexperienced game company, it was absolutely necessary that they create a protoype of their game which they could then show to Microsoft to prove their skills, as it were.

That "protoype" was N, possibly one of the best flash games ever made. 

In creating the XBLA port, Metanet opted to self-fund the process through loans and grants, which are evidently quite plentiful in Canada (where the company is based). The final N+ product cost around $214,000 after outsourcing it to Slick Entertainment; without outsourcing, it would have cost about $125,000. Sheppard noted that the development situation forced them to constantly defer their own payments to themselves, which became problematic as the game became more and more delayed and Metanet's money didn't show up.

During the creation of N+, the original Metanet designers mostly worked in a mangerial sense; they tested the hell out of every build they got, and did their best to hammer home general design ideas. The Metanet team especially wanted N+ to include a more gradual learning curve; according to Sheppard, the original game actually had a horrendously steep learning slant, which needed to be adjusted in the port. 

She went on to discuss the importance of marketing, of outsourcing into a collaborative partnership rather than hiring out to an indifferent mercenary group, and that, though there were bumps considering both Metanet and Slick were two small, inexperienced groups, things went more or less well.

At this point, Nick took over and described the step-by-step process of creating the N+ port. He divided his presentation into each month of the game's yearlong development, each with his own personal suggestion as to what an indie developer should do during that month. In the interests of brevity, I'll just highlight each of the monthly words of wisdom, along with a short explanation where necessary.

February - "Build a prototype in an 'easy' language": c# gives you an easy way to look at the big picture

March - "Tackle your biggest problems first": in N+'s case, this came down to multiplayer, joystickcontrol, and localization.

April - "Outsource early": specifically, music and the UI flow

May - "Build all tools in c#": it's fast and robust for building XBLA-specific stuff like matchmaking, leaderboards, achievements, and so on

June - "Don't forget time needed for documentation"

July - "Get a build machine"

August - "Get your dialogs under control": you wouldn't expect ingame dialogs to be a big problem, but they definitely can be.

September - "render your fonts to bitmaps if you're supporting Asian languages": a Japanese font can take up 22mb alone. N+ had to be 10mb.

October - "Get a comfy chair in the middle of the office": because you're gonna be fighting bugs.

November - "Don't plan a vacation right after certification": because no matter how bug-free you think your game is, Microsoft's certification process will show you it ain't.

Dcember - "More features means more bugs; reduce both"

January - "Party hard."

In the end, Waanders said N+ was challenging, but rewarding to be a part of. Looking back on Slick's actions in porting it, he praised the already set-in-stone design ethos, the homebuilt tools, and the super-secret PAX playtesting. However, he regretting failing certification the first time, and the fact that they initially included far too many features and options than they needed or  could support. He also wished they'd had a few more programmers during the bug-fixing stage.

Ultimately, even the seemingly simple act of porting an already seemingly simple flash game sounded like one hell of a challenge. This is why I don't program videogames. 



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Latest comment by CJSchmidt |view all 17 comments
Reading this makes me feel a little better about the $10 price tag. I'm afraid that between the free flash version and the simplistic graphics, they might have trouble squeezing money out of peop......



The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 02/19/2008 21:19

Aren't postmortems reports of a failed attempt to accomplish a thing?
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 02/19/2008 21:19

Aren't postmortems reports of a failed attempt to accomplish a thing?
notdryad's Avatar
notdryad at 02/19/2008 21:24

Nice article.

Man, I can't wait to get N+ tomorrow morning. The PC game was such a great throwback to the days when platformers where plentiful and now I'm excited to actually have a controller in my hand as I control the best non-violent ninja ever.
Spykron's Avatar
Spykron at 02/19/2008 21:26

i keep trying to get people to pre-order this at gamestop and i tell them "its like ninja pac-man" and they dont care...

no one wants patapon either! fucking jack-ass-madden-halo-need-for-speed gamers.
smathjeloc's Avatar
smathjeloc at 02/19/2008 21:35

@The-Excel: no, postmortems are basically reviews of how a software project progressed and are meant to highlight flaws in your development procedures/techniques so you can do a better job next time. it's an answer to "if we could do this again, what would we do differently?"

In this sense, this really isn't a postmortem, it's more of a development time line or something.
Boolean's Avatar
Boolean at 02/19/2008 21:37

I just looked at N+ on youtube, but that mustn’t be the same game because what I saw was shit.
Neonie's Avatar
Neonie at 02/19/2008 21:40

I"ve been playing it on my comp for the last two days :D. It's a great game.
kaciesaurus's Avatar
kaciesaurus at 02/19/2008 21:50

No way. I want to play N+ with a controller, plz.
Nubc4kes's Avatar
Nubc4kes at 02/19/2008 21:51

N was one of my favorite games when it came out. I carried it around on a flash drive my senior year in high school and would play anytime through out the day I had a chance. I absolutely plan on checking N+ out.

It's also really crazy to see the framework for how this game was ported. There were a lot of things that have to get done in such a short amount of time. The sheer amount of work that went into this is mind-boggling. Then you think about how much time and effort went into Bioshock... :O
Technophile's Avatar
Technophile at 02/19/2008 21:57

November - "Don't plan a vacation right after certification": because no matter how bug-free you think your game is, Microsoft's certification process will show you it ain't.

HA!

then comes the users, who show you both that it isn't bug free.
Butmac's Avatar
Butmac at 02/19/2008 21:59

N is going to fucking melt the face of everyone that plays it.

If you've never played it before - be warned. So excited for tomorrow!
liam2015's Avatar
liam2015 at 02/19/2008 23:14

I just remembered what n+ was. It's the most addictive, fun, flash game I EVER PLAYED. Wish I had a 360, this would be the first thing I download.
SZ2K's Avatar
SZ2K at 02/19/2008 23:18

Ah, I've had 800 MS points forever I had nothing to spend it on. Since I have RROD I'll have to wait a few weeks and assuming I still have the points I will be DLing this game.
Justice's Avatar
Justice at 02/20/2008 03:03

Is there multiplayer in it then?

N was so sick, when I get some gamerpoints I'm getting this and bomberman live
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 02/20/2008 05:21

But despite all that hard work, we really appreciate it.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 02/20/2008 08:56

I'm excited to give this a try on XBLA
CJSchmidt's Avatar
CJSchmidt at 02/20/2008 10:31

Reading this makes me feel a little better about the $10 price tag. I'm afraid that between the free flash version and the simplistic graphics, they might have trouble squeezing money out of people. I just beat the demo and will probably fork over the 800pts tonight though.

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