''N'' (stylized as n) is a
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
Metanet Software. It was inspired in part by ''
Lode Runner
''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...
'', ''
Soldat'', and other side-scrolling games. It was the first of the ''N'' series, followed by ''
N+'' and ''
N++''. ''N'' won the audience choice award in the downloadables category of the 2005
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...
.
Gameplay
In ''N'', the player controls a
ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...
who navigates tile-based levels while simultaneously avoiding hazards, collecting gold, and eventually opening an exit door which completes the level. Gameplay involves four keys—a move-left key (default left arrow), a move-right key (default right arrow), jumping (default shift key, though z key is a common alternative), and suicide (default k key). Combinations of moving and jumping on various types of terrain allow the ninja to perform a variety of movements, such as jumping from wall to wall, climbing up vertical inclines, and sliding down steep surfaces.
Version 1.4 of ''N'' contains 100 episodes (numbered 00 to 99), while version 2.0 contains 120 episodes (due to two bonus columns being unlockable after the completion of the main game episodes). Each episode in all iterations of the game features five levels (numbered 0 to 4). ''N'' also supports user-made levels. This is done through a built-in level editor called ''NEd'', or the "N Editor". Levels can be added into a game by modifying a text file accompanying the game that contains user level data.
''N 1.4'' has a total of 500 maps, 450 of which are made by
Metanet Software; ''2.0'' contains 600 levels, 500 of which are made by Metanet Software. The remaining 50 levels in ''1.4'' are aforementioned user levels that were hand-picked by Metanet in 2005, while the remaining 100 levels in ''2.0'' were user-made levels selected by a panel of fans in late 2012 and were finalized by Metanet Software in 2013. (The team behind the shortlist selection were listed in the game's credits under their respective aliases.) The goal of each level is to trigger the switch and exit through the door it opens within the time limit. Some levels have more than one exit and associated switch, giving the player more freedom to decide their route and method of completing the map. Each episode is given a cumulative time limit. At the beginning of level 0, the player is given 90 seconds to complete the next five levels. The episode's time limit can be increased by collecting gold, which adds two seconds per piece. The time left at the end of each level carries over to the next level. The only exception is the final level, in which the time left becomes that episode's score.
Development
Five years after ''N 1.4'' release, on June 1, 2010, Metanet Software announced on the Forums and on the Metablog that they were going to definitely start with ''N 1.5''. They created some threads in the forums that discussed every new aspect of the new version of ''N'', asking for the players feedback, and asking the players their opinions. In December 2011, a demo of the ''N v2.0'' beta was released in the form of a "contesque". Players who ranked highly in each section were awarded with prize packs, including T-shirts, ''
N+'' download codes, stickers, buttons and more. On January 1, 2013, version 2.0 was released as a full beta, complete with a new physics engine written in
ActionScript
ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. (later acquired by Adobe). It is influenced by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard. It is now an implementation of ECMAScript (meaning i ...
3.0. The official release added a plethora of new episodes and bonus content and minor bug fixes; it is also the final free release for PC. Approximately two and a half years later, in late July 2015, ''
N++'' was released on PlayStation 4 to critical acclaim; it has since been released on
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
.
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Video games
2005 video games
Action video games
Browser games
Flash games
Independent Games Festival winners
Indie video games
Japan in non-Japanese culture
Linux games
MacOS games
Video games about ninja
Parkour video games
Platform games
Puzzle video games
Video games developed in Canada
Windows games
Multiplayer and single-player video games