Ueda

Dear Shinobi, Today, we are happy to celebrate the 1st year of development of Nin Online in it's current form! To celebrate, I've written out a short article in hopes of getting you to feel my joy. Back in the days Back in 2006, when I was just 12, I got really into the Naruto series. I thought to myself "how cool would it be to have an online game where you could be a ninja in this universe". This was way before I even knew what copyright laws were. I had set too high expectations for myself and started a community in which I could not satisfy, and I ended up disappointing them time and again. In 2009, I announced the end of the game's development. I knew I wouldn't have been able to finish the game with my abilities. I was 16 at that point. It's been 1 year since the day I opened Adobe Photoshop and re-envisioned the game of my dreams as it is today. On this day a year ago, I restarted the project which I had attempted to create as a kid, the game which back then I realized I was too incompetent to create, with the promise in one final email to my supporters that "I'll bring back the project one day, and make it work." A ray of hope With the knowledge and experience I had gained in the years following Nin Online's death, I decided to bring back the game. I didn't expect much, I set my targets low. I just wanted to make a simple RPing game as a tribute to the old times. I opened my usual design tools and started pixeling away at what would now be the basis of Nin Online's new visual style. Overwhelming support Then came everyone in this community. A large community of members flocked here and put their hopes in me and my new attempt. We managed to launch a great, successful first alpha test where hundreds of members logged in at once to explore the world developed by our team. An overwhelming amount of people with faith in our team have donated to the game to keep the project funded, allowing us to have conveniences such as a server to work with 24/7 and to commission artwork for the game. Helping hands from Eclipse community ensured the smoothness of the alpha, with people familiar with the engine providing us support in our time of need and offering support to the members of the forum as well! Determination This support from our community of course powered our determinations to create a great game and to continue to grow our vibrant community here on the forum and here we are a year later, with our developers working hard at creating content and features for the game and our moderators managing the community and all it's spunk. Words of thanks No words can express my gratitude, which goes out to all the long-standing members of the community, the ninjas here who have stayed with us since the start of the project. The whole team is thankful for your support, and we hope that you continue to do so for as long as it takes for us to create this game! Personally, I am moved by the enthusiasm that everyone has shown since day one. Your community and game There has been so many occasions in which the opinions and ideas of the community members has impacted the decisions made on the game itself, and as such, your criticism (though I make myself out to be a authoritarian leader) has shaped the game to what it is and will be in the years to come! Alpha Test 3 Now for the announcement you've all been anticipating. We are set to open the game world for testing again on the 31st July for all Gold/Silver Ninjas. This will be in a matter of weeks! There is a lot of new features and contents, and we've refined out base systems a lot, ironing out old bugs. However, as we anticipate new bugs and problems, we will be weeding it out to our biggest supporters, the Gold/Silver Ninjas before opening it to everyone. Once we've done substantial tests with this closed group and deemed the game stable enough for an open release, we will open the servers to everyone. I hope everyone is as excited as we are! Sincerely, Rory

There is so much more truth in this than they know at this point.

Let's discuss this more in private, Sipher, Crosswise, Amazi. This topic is much bigger than a fan art competition Do we all agree?

Appealing to Naruto fans is in the game's best interest. Hence. I don't deny that the game is still very much a Naruto fan game. However, our goal is to create enough on top of the Naruto World that it gives fans the feeling of being a Ninja in that universe while giving is the creative space to come up with our own content, such as clans, bloodlines, elements, locations, villages. In the end, Nin was always meant to be a game for naruto fans

This competition is meant for drawings/paintings

I mean like, you can draw art of you and a few other community member's OCs. Since their OCs are part of Nin Online, it is relevant to Nin.

You idiots, I reserved that post to post stuff about the competition, not for my entry. Anyone who dares reserve spots after this will get warnings >_>!

Dear Ninja, I would like to thank everyone who has submitted a piece of fan art for Nin Online! It was really lovely seeing so many people show their dedication to our project and the community by participating and showing their support. On behalf of Amazi, here are the winners chosen by the judge panel which includes Brandon Byers, Seth and myself. Winners 1st Place - Tetsuki 2nd Place - Djordje 3rd Place - Johnjo1012 Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you everyone for participating! We will keep each piece in our archive of Nin Online's history.

That would be ugly

We're using an engine built on top of Eclipse Origins at the moment the engine created by @Robin Thank you!

1. Stuns will be balanced later, having your enemy stunned for too long is OP. 2. http://snag.gy/hD8je.jpg that's wood. Wood will have a Square cage in the future. 3. You don't understand how much work this is, it would take months of editing paperdolls to get one new frame in. I'm the only active artist, with a little help from Fernando atm.

@Shauri It's not a real Jutsu! Was just a mock up I did as a style test for future wood Jutsus.

It's only right now stretching to fit the screen, may sound easy, but it's a lot of work. Eventually, we'll add support for multiple resolutions, and then it'll look perfect

They will be used for Scrolls mostly Depending on the rarity of the scroll. Not all scrolls will be sold in shops.

That's actually a good idea.

There's going to be a clear difference! Don't worry

Justin your music is amazing!

Rory's Development Log #16 Lightning Current Technique Dear Shinobi, Today I worked on the technique animation for Lightning Current Technique aka. Chidori Nagashi. In the past few days, I've worked on a lot of random techniques and their art, and spent some time to implement the Earth Techniques done by Kimi a long time ago. Lightning Current Technique AoE Lightning Technique which deals damage to all enemies in it's 3 tile radius. Poison Cloud Technique Again I've smoothed out the Poison Cloud Technique animation with more frames at the start, and I've improved the overall look by cleaning up the pixels. It's now working in-game! Rock Pillar Prison Technique This technique was done by @Kimi awhile back, but it's finally been implemented! It stuns the enemy for a brief while to open him/her to attacks. Earth Stump Technique Another technique by Kimi, this is the Earth Stump Technique, a targeted damage attack. Special Weapon Techniques These are 3 special techniques that utilize ninja tools as ammunition. Poison Senbons (Medical) Explosive Kunai (Weapon) Wind Shurikens (Wind) That's all for today! Look forward to more exciting Jutsus from me soon. Regards, Rory

It's okay, atleast you know about unspoken forum rule #13.

Thanks for the offers guys, if you're serious about helping out with Nin Online feel free to drop me a PM!

2-3 seconds of running gets you like 10 tiles away xD

Hey Shinobi, This may be a little pointless if you've been keeping up with the development logs. But I'm writing to express my excitement about our progress in the past months. If you were a member since our early alpha tests in August, you would have known how much we were lacking in the combat department. Exciting combat, however, is starting to be a reality in-game thanks to the tireless efforts of @ and @Abhi2011 Coupled with amazing new sound track by our resident composer, @Afilion, the world of Nin Online is starting to take full shape. This isn't an official announcement about the next Open Alpha test, but right now we have a few goals and expectations for the upcoming open alpha and an internal dateline to achieve these by. When we are approaching the date with more assurance, we will announce it, so stay tuned! On behalf of the whole staff team, I'd like to thank all our members for staying excited, believing in us and giving Nin Online your continued support! Ino has something to say as well! Regards, Rory

I agree, but I'm just thinking about how long the warning would be, and if you could just run past explosive tags, you could just do that right? Making them pretty useless.

Thanks for all the comments, I'll rework the lightning spear graphics when I get the time