Vlad

I think we all need to take a deep breathe. The team is under huge pressure to deliver a game, and the players are very excited to finally be able to get in-game. If we all just remember people of all types will exist in online communities, and not take stuff too seriously, we will all enjoy ourselves more. just be understanding of eachother

Shinobi, Thank you all for being patient. Our journey started from a simple idea in early 2012, has been dropped a few times, and was picked up again in early 2019. It took a lot of convincing and effort to get the game to this stage. What stage is that? An Alpha Sandbox. I want everyone to be on the same page as to expectations- this is not even close to a completed game. This is not even a beta. This is an alpha.. a sandbox alpha. Getting the game to this stage on the back end, getting 3D models together, getting the right people in the right places has taken a long time. We did it. When you log in tomorrow you will be spawned in a demo version of the Land of Fire- this is a huge work in progress & will be constantly updated on a weekly basis. You will watch the Land of Fire be developed right before your eyes! We're releasing a small part of it for now for players to have fun in. This is the stage of the game where your feedback is greatly appreciated. This is when your wacky ideas have a shot at being reality; this is when you are able to help make the game. We still have a long road ahead of us, but at least now we have enough to be able to host players in the game, be able to have players test jutsu, weapons, armor, and the systems as a whole. You've arrived at the very start of what is going to be a large family of Ninja RPers who want to join us in making the game we've always wanted. Bear with us, and stick along for the long-run! Till next time, Vlad & the Shinobi Story Team

From my understanding and experience you would be sent to a safe zone

This is actually something I am willing to explore in depth. This gives enough for players to not totally be at the mercy of their environment, since they are able to "regenerate", but at the same times gives people who are looking for trouble enough to be killed. Solid idea that i've personally had the pleasure of experiencing in Prologue.

This is an interesting system we can look into. It would improve player retention and possibly sidestep the headache of an appeal process. The only issue I see is it puts the appeal process at the front rather than at the back, in a sense. Would love to hear the community's thoughts on this & see if they can build on the idea.

Hey Shinobi, Our Launcher is available for pre-downloading now! Follow the instructions, and let the launcher do it's magic!

Greetings and welcome to my first entry in my Development Diary! In these blog-style posts, I hope to convey information to the community that highlights personal projects I am working on in Shinobi Story (if they are not secret), documenting important statements, & actions I am taking. Waking up this morning I did not expect to be ending my day on such a positive note. We had a plan in mind going back two weeks ago; drafting a timeline to improve our livestreams and to showcase what we had going on. We listened to your feedback. We were going to show the jutsu, after a long awaited reveal. We've been planning them for months, thinking of every detail to make sure the base 12 masteries were fun, innovative, and offered a fresh take on a typically stale scene. I think you guys are owed an explanation, especially if you did not hear the opening words of the livestream. I did not do a great job in delegating the task to be completed in the way I wanted it to be. The theory behind the system was relatively solid- something not tried before using a wow engine.. a skillshot system that would wield great power, but be difficult to handle well without practice. Over the course of 6 months, two different developers I have turned to were unable to churn out this massive endevor. Yesterday, we were supposed to receive and implement enough jutsu to showcase in our livestream- just in time we thought. It turned out there were serious complications which ended the work on them by the developer tasked with it. We were in panic mode. There was no way the stream was going to end on a positive note... & It didn't. After a few words of encouragement to the team, we got to work. A new developer has been assigned the task of rebuilding the entire skillshot jutsu system in C++, something that would not only massively future-proof the game, but also offer unparalleled stability in terms of performance. I think this was a blessing in disguise, as our old approach was flawed and could have been vulnerable to being bogged down. This ended up being an upgrade. We will keep the community updated on our journey of creating this dynamic system as we plunge into hard-core development mode to get ready to receive players in alpha. In my closing words i'd like to offer some perspective to those new to developing a game such as this: we're doing well. It has taken us this long to finally get all the back-end things working, threading wires and tightening screws. A lot of work that you will never see has went into the back-end; the nitty gritty technical, just to finally be able to begin building the shinobi world & everything that comes with it. I am proud of our developers, our GMs, and our Storytellers. I am proud of our community and I am grateful for the opportunity and trust you all have given me. The whole team is working hard for you, so please thank some of them when you get a chance- it just might be the extra energy they need to keep on going building this mammoth of a world. Vlad

Major props. Good resource for people casually keeping up with updates; would be cool to do more interviews like this if you're willing! Keep up the good work!

Hey guys, Sorry for the late announcement, life has been hectic! Our livestream will showcase on the date below! Follow our Twitch for notifications for when we stream! The event will be in about 15 hours from this post: April 4, 2020 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT / 9pm GMT

Shinobi, As March approaches it's end, many are wondering where the alpha is. I'm not here to make excuses for myself or the team, but as this epidemic ravages the western world, many people's lives are changing very quickly. Due to unprecedented global circumstances, we are moving the release date of the alpha to April 10. This date will not change, and a very informative live stream & presentation will be hosted by the developers on April 4th to demonstrate combat, show the in-game map, and to showcase how PvP works. On this live stream, we will be sending out our launcher for players to begin downloading game data, giving people a whole week to make sure their files are in order. I understand the frustration you feel, but we are committed to remaining transparent & making a game for everyone to enjoy. Please stay safe, wash your hands, and follow local protocol set forth by your government. The quarantines will most likely last about 6-8 weeks, so expect to be able to play Shinobi Story for a long time. Till next time, Vlad

Steam has good customer service & should respond quickly in my experience.

Shinobi, Thank you for being there during our Development live stream with a Q & A and thank you for 2k registrations. We have received feedback that there has been dissatisfaction in regards to the live stream yesterday. I know there are people who came out with more questions than answers, and there were some expectations that were not met. At Shinobi Story, we aim to give players the quality content we can produce as hobby developers, and we take that to the extreme: the graphics, the community quality, and our total presentation. Yesterday's stream was one of the things that slipped through the cracks & did not meet the community's grown expectation of our project. I have taken personal responsibility for not meeting the community's expectations & am coming out of it with very valuable feedback from multiple people. Twitch/streaming is something that is outside of my element & I am unfamiliar with it, but I am actively learning and collaborating with more seasoned streamers/video producers. In another weekend, we want to host another developer live stream to showcase more, and to properly explain our systems in a visual way. We are putting in a lot of work into the next live stream to meet the community's expectations of us- I hope you will let us impress you this time. = ) Till next time, Vlad

@Vlad: showing Phill naruto images @Tempest: " You have some nice assets" @Vlad:

Shinobi, To celebrate 2,000 member sign ups on our website, almost 6,000 Discord users, and almost 1,000 Facebook Page likes, we're going to host a special Developer live stream where you can watch jutsu creation, the mastery panel, and have a live Team Q&A! Get your questions ready, boil some ramen, and get ready to have our first deep-dive community Q&A! We will be handing out prizes to attendees, and all members can enjoy a 20% Premium Ninja discount until the live stream ends tomorrow in celebration! Follow the link below to be taken to our Twitch channel & follow us to be notified when we go live! Till next time, Vlad The event will be in about 19 hours from this post: March 11, 2020 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT

You need to be a Premium Ninja to upload gifs on the forums: it is a perk.