Ninja Cat
About
Ninja Cat is a 2D action platformer game developed over the course of a year by a team of five from Sheridan College, for a course project. It was my first time working with Godot, so along with being the team's main artist, I also had to learn an entirely new engine on the fly.
This game follows Ninja Cat, a ninja that used to be an egotistical human, who got turned into a cat after pissing off a very powerful Wizard. The game picks up from Ninja Cat being banished far away from the Wizard's Tower, and we follow the beginning of his plan for revenge.
This game has a heavy focus on narrative, and a unique, responsive movement system that is derived from the Ninja Cat's large sword.
TLDR
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Concepted the main character
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Concepted 3 NPCs and 1 enemy
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Created pixel-art animations for movement and attacks
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Implemented and coded the animations in engine
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Created environment tile set
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Created environment background tile set
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Created the title screen​​
Concept Design
Ninja Cat Ideation
When creating Ninja Cat and his look, I made sure to look at plenty of references in order to get the movement and combat correct. As the player's main movement comes from swinging a large, heavy sword, the players must feel the sword in their movements, in both its look and the character's movement animations. To get this right, I looked at many similar characters that have pulled off this concept amazingly, such as Guts and his giant sword from Berserk, and a few scenes in Little Nightmares II where Mono wields a big, heavy pipe that both slows his movement and makes combat more strategic.
the two main references/inspirations behind the Ninja Cat design
Second, before first tackling the initial concepts, I had to set an art direction for myself to follow. Both me and my team were excited to create a game with more sci-fi elements, and found that a blend of medieval and sci-fi would be an interesting combination of styles.
Ninja Cat Concepts
Knowing the basic information on the character and his personality, along with the art style direction, I have started creating concepts for what the main character could potentially look like. Eventually, I landed on a ninja style with a cartoony looking cat, which was met with excitement from both my team, as well as all my classmates. I knew right away that this was the design that I will go with.
Soon after, I drafted all the animations that will be required for the character. As the main animator, I knew creating a list would help me, as well as the rest of my team, to plan ahead easily. This sheet will be my pose reference for the future.
Based on this sheet, I also drafted poses for the main movement animations.
run animation
jump/landing animation
After the main character was finally decided, I have moved on to creating concepts for the rest of the characters that the player will interact with during the game. They needed to be narratively cohesive (animals that used to be humans, like the main character) and for enemies, they needed to be correctly sized in comparison to the player.
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I have then created some sketches for what those character can potentially look like, all in comparison to the main character.
Character Art and Animation
Early Sprites and Implementation
Before animating, I made sure to first draft all the poses in our desired final art style in order to receive feedback as I go. I recreated the animation stills from the concept stage into pixel form, and put them into the game for testing.
current state of the game, first sprites implemented
Final Animations
After receiving positive feedback to the stills, I have went straight to completing 4 frame animations for each animation (except for the fall and wall slide animations, which only needed one, and the attack animation, which needed 14). These animations were then put into a sprite sheet and that contained every possible frame for the character.
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The animations were then correctly timed in engine, and finally implemented as animation prefabs.
Alongside the main character, I have also finished the still sprites for the NPCs and the single enemy. These would not be animated to save time, but I stayed close to the original design that was positively reviewed by the team.
NPC in the game
Concept to Final Comparison
Environment Art
Environment Tile Sheet
Due to the game taking place in a 2D world, the level design team required tiles for creating the world. We first decided that the first level should take place in a sci-fi city, and I was given creative liberty for what tiles I will create.
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I prioritized tiles that are important for preserving the sci-fi aesthetic and keeping the setting clear.
Each tile is 64x64 pixels, and is all either ground platforms, or pieces of buildings.
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After creating the main tiles which the player will walk on, I create a separate tile sheet for the background tiles of the world.
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The background tiles consisted of the building and underground tiles, which would need to be manually placed by the level designers, as well as the general background tiles, which span the entire world and seamlessly loop.
Tileset for the building background and the underground tiles
Looping static background.
I took it upon myself to art pass a big chunk of the level that was created by our level designer, and the final level, with all the correct tile sets and background, looked like this by the end of development:
Other Art
Title Screen
Although not technically part of my responsibilities, I created a title screen for the game that can also be used as a cover art on social sites. This also included a custom game title that I manually drew.
Additional Cat Sprite
Although not actually used in the game, I did create a "dialogue" sprite of the Ninja Cat that is higher in resolution, and showcases my greater skill in pixel art.
