Green Ninja

Green Ninja, full name Green Ninja: Year of the Frog, is a free puzzle platforming game for iOS, Android, browser, and Amazon App Store. It was released on June 10, 2015, for iOS and Android, with an Amazon App Store release to follow shortly.

Controls

 * Swipe left/right/up/down - jump and kick in the respective direction

Gameplay
The player uses swipe controls to move the ninja in a particular direction. The ninja continues to move in that single direction until a block is hit. The player is unable to change the ninja's trajectory until the ninja stops moving.

The game is comprised of single screen levels, each with the goal of killing all enemies present.

Levels
Levels are presented on a green background map, with small houses representing the icons for each level. Unlocked stages appear white and change to red when touched. Beaten stages display cracks in their icon. Upon completing a level, the player is always returned to the level select screen. If they have passed the level for the first time, one or more levels will become playable.

Some areas of the map has two levels on the same vertical line allowing player to complete either one of them to move forward in the game. Additionally, players are able to skip some levels by watching a video advertisement.

Enemies
Enemies are present in every level of Green Ninja. All must be defeated in order to progress.


 * Platform jelly bean ninjas - Stationary enemies that stand on blocks or the ground and may also cling to walls or the ceiling.
 * Hovering jelly bean ninjas - Hovering enemies that remain stationary and floats in the air.
 * Jumping jelly bean ninjas - These jelly bean ninjas move upwards from where they are when the player moves.
 * Sensei jelly bean ninjas - These enemies are like jumping jelly bean ninjas, but much faster.
 * Shuriken jelly bean ninjas - Each time Green Ninja passes, these enemies will throw shurikens towards the player.

Interactive objects

 * Blocks - Solid surfaces that cause the ninja's behavior to be affected.
 * Red blocks - Upon contact, the ninja will cling to them.
 * Gold blocks - The ninja cannot cling to these blocks and falls downwards upon contact.
 * Green blocks - On these blocks the player the player cannot jump off them and is restricted to sideways movements. If there is no block to move directly on to, Green Ninja will fall from the wall.
 * Bricks - Bricks can only be clung to once. When the player tries to cling to them a second time, they will break and the player will fall down.
 * Face blocks - These blocks act like regular red block and can be toggled on and off via a lever in the level.
 * Movable blocks - These blocks moves one tile in the direction Green Ninja lands on them.
 * Objects
 * Barrels - When impacted a barrel will move in a straight direction and the player will cease moving as if they have hit a wall. Barrels can be used to kill enemies.
 * Melons - Similar to barrels, except upon impacting a block they break.
 * Springs - Bounces an object in the opposite direction it came.

Hazards

 * Flames - Kills on contact.
 * Mines - Kills on contact. Mines can move in some levels and can be destroyed with movable blocks and barrels

Glitches

 * If a level icon is tapped rapidly, the transition to load the level may appear again once the level has actually loaded.

Previews

 * January 4th 2015 - Nitrome announced the game and shared a screenshot
 * April 1st 2015 - Two new screenshots were revealed
 * May 1st 2015 - An update about the game and sketch of the game's menu was shown, a small image of it on the Nitrome blog and the full image on Jon Annal's Twitter account
 * June 2nd 2015 - A .gif of the game's opening is shared by Jon Annal
 * June 4th 2015 - Nitrome announces that the game has been submitted and posts a .gif of the game's opening
 * June 5th 2015 - A Vine of gameplay from Green Ninja is shared.

Release version
Released on June 10 2015 for iOS and Android, this version was the initial version of the game. It is labelled Version 1.0 on iOS.

Android update version 1
This update was released on June 11 2015 and fixes auto rotation and other minor bug fixes. It is labelled Version 3.0.

Android update version 2
Released on June 12 2015, this update fixes minor bugs and is labelled Version 4.

Development
Green Ninja Year of the Frog was announced on January 4th 2015 with a projected release date of early 2015. Jon Annal, the game's artist, pointed out that the background in the January 4 2015 preview image was a rough design and that a decision had not been reached on on what the background would be.

The game was shown, along with Magic Touch Wizard for Hire and Silly Sausage in Meat Land, at the Pocket Gamer connect event that ran from January 13-14, 2015.

On February 12, 2015 Jon Annal mentioned that he was preparing to use his voice in the game. Two screenshots of the game were shared on April 1st of 2015. By May 1st, 2015 the entire game had been completed, with Nitrome just adjusting the game's levels, animations, sound, and interface, along with drawing the menu. On the same day Nitrome and Jon Annal shared images of a sketch of part of the game's menu that had been drawn by Helm based off of art by Annal. Helm would continue to help with the game the subsequent week while tweaking of the game was done by Jon Annal.

Although the game had a release window of "early 2015", it managed to miss this. Green Ninja: Year of the Frog had been submitted to the Apple App Store and Google Play store by June 1 2015, Jon Annal also sharing some art from the game on his Twitter account. The game had been approved by both app stores by June 8 2015 and was released for iOS and Android on June 10 2015.

The game Guardian Rock was used by Aaron Steed (the game's programmer) for research on Green Ninja's game mechanic, Green Ninja also being influenced by both that game and Aaron Steed's personal game Flying Kick.

Beta elements
The the red and white poles seen in the January 4 2015 preview image were also meant to be interactive objects that prevented the player from moving horizontally, though this behaviour was eventually cut, the poles not animating well with the Green Ninja main character being one of the reasons behind this. These poles still appear as scenery in a few levels of the game, present at the very edges of the screen.

Reception
On June 11 2015 Green Ninja was listed on the "Featured" page of the Apple App Store in the section "Best New Games".

The game was selected by Pocket Gamer as the best Android game the week of June 7-13 2015.

Trivia

 * Green Ninja was accidentally leaked 6 days early due to a glitch on Nitrome's website which caused their search function to find unreleased blog posts. The post could be found by searching for the word "ninja".
 * A Quackbot from Chisel 2 cameos in some levels.