Shinobi Warfare is a turn-based stealth game, where the player controls a team of ninjas through a series of infiltration missions with different objectives. Every mission starts with a briefing, where you choose your team of ninjas and their equipped tools. The next phase is the actual gameplay, which is played out in a chessboard patterned map on multiple levels, where the player can make his moves with his or her team. The player will be able to achieve the goals of the mission in different ways, thanks to the structure of the map itself and the strategy the player decides to apply to the various ninja characters (the player controls every ninja in his or her team during every turn). This is a stealth game, so the player has to put his or her mind into the strategies to move the characters in the most efficient and safe way.
The gameplay is divided into player turn and enemy turn. During his or her turn, the player decides the team moves (e.g. move, climb, using ninja skills, attack, etc.). Once planned, the moves will happen simultaneously, in order to make efficient “combos” such as combined kills. During its turn, the enemy can defend, patrol or react to the player’s moves. Every unit of the computer’s team and player’s team has a limited field of view (how many squares of the chessboard are in sight), but with slightly different rules. The player can extend his vision thanks to actions such as peeking from behind an obstacle.
The goal is to give the player a sense of power when playing in the shadows, while feeling very fragile when discovered. This constante change between “omnipotence” and “impotence” will give the player a sense of tension.
You can download the game at the bottom of this page.
My role: Project Manager
Genre: Turn-based strategy
Team Size: 14
Engine: Unity
Platforms: PC
Role(s) and responsibilities:
Project Manager
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Established milestones expectations and planned accordingly.
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Managed work subdivision for each department.
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Spotted development threats and weaknesses, to implemented preventive strategies.
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Gathered useful documentations and materials to help departments in facing new problems.
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Assumed the role of mediator between the various departments with the aim that everyone could be proud and able to make "Shinobi Warrior" a valid addition to their personal portfolio.
Game Designer
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General game design
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Designed Turn system
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Designed Ninja's simultaneous actions and combos
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Designed Ninja classes and Enemy types
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Designed the Camera system
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Designed the game "Mission Briefing"
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Designed the game tutorial
level Designer
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Established asset list
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Created and classified modular assets for level designs
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Established level design metrics and guidelines
UI / UX Designer
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Designed and documented the UI / UX.
Project Manager
Being a very ambitious project, that implied staying within tight deadlines and delivering a quality product, has been a hard challenge as a Project Manager.
In order to keep the workflow of the departments under control, I proceeded by planning the workload and dividing it into work phases. I made an overview of the phases that could represent difficult moments and the biggest challenges of the process.
In my role as a Project Manager I relied on a tool, "Agantty" (Gantt chart), to manage the global development of the project while using Hack'n'Plan (Kanban method) to manage the smaller tasks and bugfixing.
At every moment of the project I always had a clear vision of the tasks that still needed to be performed. What made my job simpler was my proactivity and problem solving ability during times when there was no time to waste.
Game Designer
As a Game Designer I contributed to design all the game fundamentals. I designed the turn system that allows the player to make simultaneous actions and combos with his ninjas.
I also designed the camera of the game that allows the player to see his ninjas and enemies easily in the level.
I designed the various ninja classes and enemy types with all their strengths and weaknesses.
I designed the mission briefing dividing it in two phases: a phase that allows the player to gather informations about the upcoming mission, and a second phase to equip his team of ninjas to best suit his strategy.
I also designed the game tutorial that introduces the player to the core loop of the game while explaining all the basics and possible ninja's strategy the player could choose.
level Designer
As a level designer i modeled every architectural and environmental prefab using "Probuilder" in the Unity engine.
Most of the prefabs where modeled using a modular approach using a lot of references of traditional japanese buildings, every piece was designed to follow the square grid the game uses.
While designed the level design prefabs i also established all the metrics and possible guidelines the game would uses such as map size, floor height and number of floors.
Ui/ux Designer
As a UI / UX designer i designed al the game interfaces with the intention to be as simple as possible without confusing the player and without hiding any information to him.
Below you can look at some of the layouts of the user interfaces used in the game.
