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Mark of the Ninja, Dyad star in Canada Day sale on Steam
Steam's current sale honors the Great White North with a slate of discounted games made by our Canadian brothers and sisters in celebration of Canada Day. Featured Canada-powered games include TowerFall Ascension ($10.04), Fez ($4.99), Dyad ($3.75), Rogue Legacy ($7.49), Retro City Rampage ($2.50), and Mark of the Ninja ($4.99). Other sale highlights include Bleed, Starseed Pilgrim, and The Yawhg, among others. The sale ends tomorrow, so you'd best act swiftly if you want a dose of old-fashioned Canadian ingenuity. [Image: Steam]
Humble Weekly: Mark of the Ninja, King Arthur's Gold
Stretch out your clicking fingers and get ready for some mad platforming action in the latest Humble Weekly Sale. Available for the week for any price you want are Shank 2, Blocks That Matter and Bit.Trip Runner. For $6 or more, grab Runner 2, Megabyte Punch and Fly'n. Add in King Arthur's Gold and Mark of the Ninja: Special Edition for $10 or more. All of these games individually would run $119. They're all either DRM-free downloads or on Steam, except for Fly'n, which is Steam only. As always, split your payment among the developers, Humble itself or charity, in whichever percentage breakdown you desire. Charities this time around are the American Red Cross and Child's Play. This week, Humble launched a new way for you to get your cheap-game fix with Humble Daily Bundles. Today, May 15, grab The Banner Saga, an artwork pack and The Banner Saga: Factions for $15 or more. Humble will run new daily bundles through May 26. [Image: Humble]
Frozenbyte's 'Huge Seal' promotion discounts 35 indie games, gives away Steam keys
Trine 2 developer Frozenbyte kicked off a "Huge Seal" promotion, joining up with more than two dozen other indie developers to offer discounts on 35 PC and Mac games. To take advantage of the "build your own indie sale," buyers need to log in to the sale's site with their Steam accounts to access five coupons from the list of participating games, seen after the break. Among the indie games on sale are Mark of the Ninja ($7.50), Monaco: What's Yours is Mine ($6.60), FTL: Faster than Light ($5.00), Terraria ($5.00) and Thomas Was Alone ($2.50). For every purchase, buyers can pick another game from the list to buy at a discounted rate. Buying three games grants players one free Steam key from the discounted games at random. The sale is good until Sunday, November 24.
Campo Santo studio formed by former Telltale Games, Klei developers
A new San Francisco-based video game studio called Campo Santo has formed, and is composed of former Telltale Games and Klei developers. Namely, The Walking Dead designers and Idle Thumbs Podcast hosts Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman joined Mark of the Ninja lead designer Nels Anderson and artist Olly Moss on the team. Vanaman noted in the studio's announcement blog that Campo Santo's first game will be "both backed by and made in collaboration with" Portland design studio Panic, Inc.
Humble Indie Bundle 9 sees Fez, Mark of the Ninja debut on OS X
The Humble Bundle is easily the best deal available on the internet when it comes to pay-what-you-want entertainment. It works on a sliding scale of price / morality. You pay whatever you want for a block of games / movies / comedy albums / e-books etc, from zero dollars on. Buyers who pay more than the average get bonus content. It's truly a wonderful idea. Currently, the deal being offered is the Humble Indie Bundle 9, a set of four incredible games for your standard customers with two extra games for people who pay more than US$4.59. That's right -- six full games for less than a dollar apiece. More importantly, this particular bundle marks the Mac debut of two of these titles. The basic package comes with Trine 2: Complete Story, Mark of the Ninja (for the first time on Mac), Eets Munchies Beta and the Jack Black-starring heavy metal role-playing game Brütal Legend. If you pay more than the standard amount you also get FTL: Faster Than Light and the legendary 2D platformer in a 3D world, Fez. You can watch the bundle's trailer below. Head over to the Humble Bundle website now and get stocked up on games.
Latest Humble Bundle brings Fez and Mark of the Ninja to Mac and Linux
We've seen the Humble Bundle be used to introduce some big games to new platforms in the past, and the latest offering is no exception. The 9th edition of the Indie Bundle sees both indie game favorite Fez and Mark of the Ninja making their debut on Mac and Linux. Along with those, you'll get FTL: Faster Than Light, Trine 2 and Brutal Legend, plus the beta version of Eets Munchies, which is making its debut on all three platforms. As usual, you can pay whatever you like for the bundle and choose how much goes to the developers and charities (EFF, Child's Play and Watsi), but you'll have to pay more than the average to get Fez and FTL. Those not up on their indie gaming can get a taste of what's in store in the video after the break -- just don't get your hopes up for a Fez sequel if you like what you find.
Fez, Mark of the Ninja, FTL head up Humble Indie Bundle 9
Humble Bundle's ever-busy organizers have launched Humble Indie Bundle 9, a pay-what-you-want compilation spotlighting Polytron's Fez, Klei's Mark of the Ninja, and other standout indie hits. Buyers will receive Double Fine's metal-infused action-RTS Brutal Legend, the DLC-bundled Trine 2: Complete Story, and stealth-action game Mark of the Ninja, which makes its Mac and Linux debut as part of the collection. The package also includes a beta version of Klei's Eets: Munchies, marking the first time the game has ever been available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Backers who beat the average purchase price will also receive Subset Games' space roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light and the dimension-twisting platformer Fez, which is newly available for Mac and Linux.
PSA: Mark of the Ninja Special Edition DLC available on Steam, XBLA
Mark of the Ninja's "Special Edition" DLC is available now on Steam and XBLA. The additional content will set armchair ninjas back 400 MSP ($5), and offers players the chance to portray Dosan, the game's mysterious tattoo artist. Dosan's adventure is set before the events of the game and includes new challenges as well as two new items. The new items and play-style introduced by Dosan can be used in the original game. Mark of the Ninja's Special Edition DLC also offers developer commentary tracks for every level of the game.
Mark of the Ninja 'Special Edition' DLC drops on Aug. 16
The "Special Edition" DLC for Mark of the Ninja will launch on both Xbox Live Arcade and Steam on August 16. The package is priced at $5 and includes developer commentary, a new level, two new items and a new costume. Mark of the Ninja is a 2D stealth game that first launched on Xbox Live Arcade last September, followed by Steam in October. It's one of our favorites from 2012, and our review said it "shines a light on the stealth genre, revealing the qualities you knew were there but couldn't quite see."
XBLA sale: Mark of the Ninja, Trials and more cheap until Apr. 9
Another sale has spread across Xbox Live Arcade, running until April 9. The sale's highlight is 50% off Mark of the Ninja from Klei Entertainment – one of Joystiq's favorite games of 2012 – bringing it down to 600 MS Points ($7.50).Other cheap contenders include Trials Evolution for 800 MS Points ($10) and some discounted Pinball FX 2 tables. There's also Dust: An Elysian Tale and Deadlight for 600 MS Points ($7.50) to consider.On top of this promotion highlighting Microsoft Studios games, there's also the ongoing Xbox Live Arcade Deal of the Week sale. Retro City Rampage has been knocked down to 600 MS Points ($7.50) and Quarrel is 200 MS Points ($2.50). The full list of both sales can be seen through the source links below.
Mark of the Ninja 'Special Edition' DLC adds flashback level, new play style
Klei Entertainment is adding to its delightful 2D stealth game Mark of the Ninja with a "Special Edition" DLC meant to evoke a "Criterion Collection" release of the original. The DLC, due this summer for a mysteriously invisible price, adds a flashback level starring the tattoo artist Dosan, a new equippable play style including a "nonlethal takedown ability," a new stealth-focused item, and a "more direct" new item.As a "Criterion Collection" addition, Klei also recorded developer commentary, which can be accessed at "commentary nodes" throughout the game, in six different languages.If you successfully infiltrate PAX East, you'll be able to get a sneaking peek at the Special Edition at Klei's booth. It will be released on both Steam and XBLA.
Mark of the Ninja slashed to $5 on Steam this weekend
One of Joystiq's favorite games of 2012, Mark of the Ninja, is on sale on Steam this weekend. From now until 10am PT Monday morning, you can snag the 2D stealth game for just five bucks. Now you can spend all that extra scratch on some new caltrops. Or tacos. You know, ninja tacos.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Mark of the Ninja
Traditionally, being a "ninja" in a video game means you have supernatural speed and strength, and as such you feel confident running down a street in broad daylight, slicing through anything in your path. Role models like Joe Musashi and Ryu Hayabusa exemplify the video game ninja, a super-strong, invincible monster who feels no compulsion to seek shadows, unless those shadows are full of still-unperforated alien monsters.In Mark of the Ninja, you're just as supernaturally capable as any NES-era ninja, able to cling to almost any wall and grapple from vantage point to vantage point instantly. But Klei Entertainment built this ninja game around the stealth you'd expect from the profession, and did so in a way that feels every bit as natural as Ryu tossing a column of flame at an eagle.
PSA: Mark of the Ninja now on Steam
Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja is now live on Steam, completely in the open and totally unguarded against online purchases of $14.99. As for the trailer, it certainly isn't helping the 2D stealth game stay undetected.Incidentally, Klei isn't resting its laurels after sending Mark of the Ninja on its way. The developer's next project is Don't Starve, described as "an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic." So, a bit like Half-Life 2 then? Oh wait, we've just seen the video, never mind.
Mark of the Ninja creeps onto Steam October 16
Mark of the Ninja is coming to Steam next month, arriving on October 16 priced at $14.99. Klei Entertainment told Rock Paper Shotgun about the PC port's details, including that Games for Windows Live won't be a part of it.Klei's 2D stealth-a-lot came to Xbox Live Arcade earlier this month. Mark of the Ninja certainly made an impression on Ludwig of the Joystiq, with his review saying the game "shines a light on the stealth genre, revealing the qualities you knew were there but couldn't quite see."
Mark of the Ninja review: Kneel in the shadows
Stealth games are really about a guy trapped in a temporal loop, forced to repeat his actions until he can shake off the mysterious clumsiness that has overridden years of tip-toeing experience. "Why would I just roll into that spotlight like an idiot?" wonders the grizzled agent, now on his fifth run through a secret terrorist compound. "Crap, landing on that grate was much louder than I thought." Cue alarms and a return to the last save point.Mark of the Ninja makes it awfully hard to be an oaf dressed in black. No, it hasn't been streamlined to the point of auto-play, and the inherent challenge of avoiding detection hasn't been crushed into a pulp to please the plebes. Rather, developer Klei Entertainment has flattened the genre into a legible, two-dimensional blueprint. That's why things are more likely to go according to plan.%Gallery-157960%
Mark of the Ninja not-so-sneakily arrives on XBLM today
Mark of the Ninja sneaks onto Xbox Live Marketplace today for 1200 MSP. Not that it's any good at sneaking, as Klei Entertainment just broadcasted the side-scrolling stealth game's arrival with a new trailer.Joystiq's head ninja spoke with Klei's Nels Anderson this week, focusing on how the team wants strong, flexible play while avoiding the frustration stealth games can cultivate. "I thought the abundance of outlines threatened to make this an easy game, but my early takeaway is that your actions are easier to read, predict and eventually master. Understanding how the game and its systems work shouldn't remove the danger, just the "gotcha" of trial-and-error learning. 'Even though we try to make things very clear and very explicit,' Anderson says, 'we still want to facilitate people being able to be experimental and feel that they can safely take risks, without giant chunks of their progress being held hostage.'"
To Poke and Perturb: The Explicit Stealth in Mark of the Ninja
Stealth games have a creepy cousin in the survival-horror genre. The relation manifests in an oppressive environment, which isn't clearly designed or signposted to let the player succeed as easily as he would in a spectacle-driven action game. But while horror is really about conserving quantifiable resources within the claustrophobic confines of an inhospitable world, stealth games expect you to wisely expend your movements and other reckless displays of presence. When it comes to guard patrols and impenetrable installations, as you'll see in XBLA's Mark of the Ninja, your currency is quieter and more abstract."In a stealth game you're fundamentally undetected. The world is just kind of running and it's on the player to poke and perturb it after observing it for a bit, and you can just do a lot more interesting things there," says Nels Anderson, Technical Designer at Klei Entertainment. To think of the world as an unpredictable beast, one that might bite off your finger if you prod it in the wrong place at the wrong time, might be a good way to understand the polarized, frustrated relationship some players have with the stealth genre.According to Anderson, "the power dynamic that almost always falls out of that, to make that work, is that interplay between strength and weakness." Having the chance to study the environment and enemies is a huge advantage, but acting on that information can lead to failure. There's an expectation of perfection – I was spotted, so I have to revisit the last save and do it right! – yet a severe punishment of practice. Anderson thinks of it as a "gulf of execution," one that he thinks Mark of the Ninja can fill.%Gallery-157960%
Mark your calendars: Mark of the Ninja coming Sept. 7
Summer of Arcade ends with Dust: An Elysian Tail, but cool XBLA releases continue after the promotion. Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja, a unique side-scrolling stealth-action game, will launch on September 7.Klei "really wants" to follow the XBLA release with a PC version, the developer tweeted. However, no definite announcements have been made toward that goal, so XBLA is currently the only place to hide in a vent, shoot out a spotlight with a shuriken, and then silently dispose of nearby guards. Legally, anyway.
Mark of the Ninja snuck some E3 assets into our galleries
Mark of the Ninja, the shadowy, stealthy ninja title from Klei Entertainment, is set to launch this summer on XBLA, and the above E3 trailer shows why you should be so excited for it. Well, not too excited – at least try to keep the noise down. There's no reason to make it easy for the ninjas to find you.%Gallery-157960%
