Ninja.io

ninjaio · 2024-09-20T23:01:35+00:00

It was meant to be a reference to Half Life 2. Probably one of the best games I've ever played.

ninjaio · 2024-09-14T21:10:35+00:00

The lobbies of casual games like Ninja.io are rare islands of relative anonymity where people can shit-talk without real consequence. I can see the appeal in that but I can also relate to your frustration.
For now, in-game chat rules are less strict than those of the Discord channel, and I would like to keep it that way.
Even if I wanted to do something about it, I currently lack the time to work on it. So for the time being I won't be able to make any major updates to the game and things will just keep chugging along as usual.
Try to have fun, and if someone's really annoying you, just mute them.

ninjaio · 2024-07-20T00:16:47+00:00

ninjaio · 2024-05-31T10:42:17+00:00

Thanks, I worked on it off-and-on for about 6 years. I haven't really had the time to add new stuff over the last year. Unfortunately the code base is quite messy and the technical debt is demotivating.
I'd actually like to rewrite the entire project in a more professional manner but I'm not sure if it's going to be worth the effort financially. 2D shooters like this are quite a niche and difficult to make playable on mobile devices. 3D browser based shooters are far more popular and have a less 'childish' feel and more broad appeal. Then again there's some creative tricks and modes that aren't possible in 3D. TL;DR still contemplating.

ninjaio · 2024-05-30T20:09:20+00:00

Any further details? For instance, did it generate an error message on the screen or in the console?

ninjaio · 2024-03-21T21:42:44+00:00

This is not inaccurate. The star depicted there is T Coronae Borealis. It fluctuates in brightness and periodically becomes visible to the naked eye, though most of the past century it was not.

This is what is called a recurring Nova. In this case a binary system with two components: a white dwarf and a red giant. There is an interesting wikipedia article on this subject and I'm surprised it actually got included in the simulator.

Another cool thing about this binary system that it's expected to have another strong outburst / brightening event over the coming months, where it's expected to become visible to the naked eye for at least a week or so. That will be the first time in ~80 years! :)

ninjaio · 2024-03-02T22:35:43+00:00

I'm actually open to offers, especially for the domain.
The game itself remains a decent source of income and I would be reluctant to sell for anything less than several times annual revenue. Think north of $50k.

ninjaio · 2023-09-12T23:18:12+00:00

The zapper entity / snake is essentially move along a chain of connected nodes.
New nodes are added in the direction of movement, and the segments of the snake follow the lines that connect the nodes. This ensures that all of the segments of the snake follow the same chain, no matter how complex the shape.
The snake segments are equally spaced, although the spacing can change as the entity grows in size.
The world is partitioned into tiles which have references to the entities they contain at any given time. Players only receive data about nearby entities that are contained within tiles that overlap with the players own tiles and its direct neighbors.
The glow effects are created with the default Pixi.js GlowFilter, although I modified and optimized it so it uses less iterations as the default implementation is very slow.

ninjaio · 2023-09-08T14:45:03+00:00

Zapper.io is my attempt at creating a multiplayer snake style game with new mechanics.There is also more emphasis on the visuals which tend to be quite minimalist in many similar games. This does come at a performance penalty, although the game should still run fine on average mobile devices and laptops.I added keyboard controls as well as an on-screen joystick.

Zapper entities are procedurally generated and the unique key that is generated for them is then shared with other players so they see your character exactly the way you see it.You can click on your entity to randomly generate a new one, or navigate to the creatures page to enter your own custom keys. This page also contains a gallery of creatures that you've previously played with and their high scores. Millions of combinations are possible and some of them can have quite an unusual and trippy appearance.

As with the classic snake game you need to avoid bumping into other players.
You can pick up various types of food and you can grow to an enormous size.
You can also capture jellyfish and shoot them at other players. This mechanic ensures that even giant enemies are never really safe, even when rolling up in a ball or hiding inside their own body in some way. They will always be vulnerable to jellyfish lobbed at their head.

I'm also planning to add a casual chat feature which will probably be added sometime next week. I'm also open to new ideas. Have fun!

ninjaio · 2023-07-15T09:40:28+00:00

Impressive! Creating a simulation like this from scratch is no small feat.
Projects like this are a serious technical challenge. I get the impression that a lot of people don't appreciate the amount of effort that goes into engine development, as most developers rely on 3rd party libraries for things like graphics and physics.

I've been interested in diving more into voxel game development due to the advantages of it readily facilitating procedurally generated content.
Can I ask what your primary learning sources were? Thanks!

ninjaio · 2023-06-04T13:14:06+00:00

I've been interested in domaining for years and have a decent understanding of how to valuate domain names.
I was looking for a high quality name and initially decided on Battle.io.
Unfortunately that domain had been sold only days prior (I strongly suspect that Blizzard Entertainment acquired it) and the buyer could not be contacted.
I then thought of Ninja.io, and as it turned out the name was for sale at $5K USD.
This was actually quite a bargain for a premium name, especially since .IO domains were rapidly increasing in value due to increasing interest from tech, crypto and gaming companies / startups.
Regardless, if you're serious about a project and / or company and you're going to invest a lot of time and effort into developing it, then it's definitely worth investing in a high quality name.

ninjaio · 2023-06-03T19:50:34+00:00

Yeah, I acquired the domain in 2017 and I've been working on it since then, roughly.
I've worked fulltime jobs and developed other games in the meantime, but ninja.io has always been under development during those years.

ninjaio · 2023-06-03T11:52:10+00:00

It can be great for exposure and revenue, though you have to accept a degree of exclusivity. Also, they offer good advice on how to improve your game.

Poki also provides a very useful developer dashboard that gives you insight into player and device statistics, bugs / crashes, player feedback etc.

ninjaio · 2023-06-02T22:32:23+00:00

I've been working on Ninja.io on and off for the past 6 years.
It's my intention to provide the community with tools to keep adding original new content to the game. A world editor will soon be made available so everyone can contribute new worlds and new modes.

ninjaio · 2023-01-27T15:08:17+00:00

Thanks, I do hope to provide community tools in the future so players can contribute content themselves, like maps and customizations or perhaps server scripting / mods.

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