As this year winds down, we took some time to reflect on our favourite moments. Not surprisingly, they’re all about N++, since it’s been a particularly N++ centric year 😉
It was too hard to order these, so consider them all tied for the number 1 spot. Here we go!
5. Launch
We launched N++ on 28 July, 2015 for PS4, marking the end of a two and a half year chunk of an eleven year journey. It was a roller-coaster ride, but what a ride! We made this frankly glorious trailer/manifesto to celebrate:
and created a striking ad campaign: Motion++, a visualization of what playing N++ feels like
N++ means a lot to us, and we’re really proud of what we were able to accomplish. It’s a game that fully exudes our vision and really captures what we wanted the series to be: it’s beautiful, minimal, laser-focused and challenging, and rewards dedication and initiative. It’s full of enthusiasm and new ideas, as well as things we’ve refined over years that have come to fruition. We still have a lot to do before the game is fully complete, and we had some post-launch disappointments, but we refuse to let that sully something that is so powerfully important. N++ is a love letter to fans, and a milestone in our lives we’ll look back on favorably for years to come.
4. NerdCubed’s video
This was one of the first reviews of N++ we saw where the reviewer really GOT it. NerdCubed understood why you would want to play N++, and most importantly, why you’d want to keep playing. It was a really fun review, and set our minds at ease: N++ is a niche game, and we don’t expect everyone to like it, but we set out to make something more accessible and enjoyable than we ever had in the series, and NerdCubed’s enthusiasm let us know we were on the right track. Check it out! It’s a great video.
3. Jon’s acceptance speech at the 2015 CVAwards
N++ has won two awards over the past year, the 2014 IndieCade Special Recognition award, and the Canadian Videogames Fans Choice award for Best Canadian-made Game:
We’re so stoked about that! We’re so happy to hear that people appreciate what we’ve made — the Fans’ Choice award was especially delightful to receive, since N and N+ have both previously won Fans’ Choice awards, and it’s great to know we have made a game players love.
But the best part of winning the CVAward was Jon Mak’s acceptance speech:
wow…That was the most awesome speech, and we were floored. Jon is part of the reason we got started making games, because seeing the amazing games he’d already made was incredibly inspiring. So to hear him say those things about us — we got teary. Thanks so much, Jon, you’re the best.
2. MANvsN++
This clip is so good.
It’s the perfect embodiment of what it feels like to play N++ 🙂 Thanks MAN, you’re the greatest!
1. The community of N++ mapmakers
As you may know, N++ has a level editor, and Metanet hosts servers so that players can make and share levels globally with other players. This year we had the pleasure of seeing that community get started and develop as we played lots of the amazing N++ Levels that have been made. We also were able to meet some of the creative and dynamic mapmakers, which is always really cool for us. We enjoy seeing who you are outside of the game, and to see what else we have in common.
We loved watching the level-making community grow this year, and seeing progress and call-backs and interesting changes in your levels. We loved all the new tricks you discovered — it’s so fun for us to be surprised, especially since we’ve been playing this game for eleven years 🙂
We’ve collected lots of our favourites here, but you should really just go browse them all!
https://metanetsoftware.tumblr.com/search/Player-made+levels
We hope you all keep making levels — we’ll keep playing them!
HONOURABLE MENTIONS!
N++ has made some pretty huge lists of the best games of 2015, at:
WIRED
ArsTechnica
Graham Linehan’s personal faves
VentureBeat
and:
The Guardian
That’s amazing, we feel honoured that our game was included among so many really stellar titles. It was a great year for videogames! We’re so glad N++ ranked up there among the best of them.
Also, we’ve received a bunch of emails, cards and letters from fans this year that were really touching, and we just wanted to let you know how much we appreciated them: immensely. We gotta give a special shoutout to ska: you’re awesome 🙂
And that’s 2015 in a nutshell! So many great moments. Thanks so much to everyone who played and enjoyed N++, you all rock!
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Incidentally, if all this has piqued your interest, but you’re just learning about N++, you can find out more info here: https://nplusplus.org/
And you can buy the game for PS4 here in the PSN store!
If you already know about N++, please help us spread the word — we want as many people as possible to try it, and we could use all the help we can get!
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Before we sign off for 2015, we want you to know we’re working very hard to get another PS4 patch out to you as soon as possible, so get ready for that! We’ve hired a new programmer to port the game to Steam, and we’re looking forward to getting started. We’ll have more news for you soon.
And as we close out some milestones and move forward towards others, we want to thank you all for your support and enthusiasm and hope you’re as excited about the future as we are. Cheers to a successful 2015, and best wishes to all of you in 2016.
Happy Holidays from Metanet Software!
I think I read somewhere that there would be an update coming that would almost double the content in the game, and also you would raise the prices? If this is true, when is that update coming?
We’re not sure what’s happening with the price, but there is definitely a lot of stuff we want to add. Right now all we know is 2016 🙂
Thanks for the shoutout! Best of luck for 2016!
Wait. N++ Will be on steam? Cool! I don’t have PS4.
Wow! A ninja with hat 😀
I see another one of my levels got featured, but the levels in the last update doesn’t appear under the feature tab in the game! :p I’m currently working on an even more intense “Go Straight” level. This one will feature jumping through machine gun bullets, which I didn’t even think was possible before I started on this level… A part of the challenge, IMO, with DDA levels is to find ways to score a better score than the idle times. Usually this is possible, but working against this without pushing too much gold at the places people go is a bit of a challenge for the level creator. I think one person might have beat me on the level that got featured. I’ve also made a couple of levels where you’re supposed to try to find ways to beat the idle time.
One thing I’d love to see someone do is make a DDA level where the sounds being made becomes some sort of a melody. I got some ideas about how to do it and a simple melody, just for proof of concept.
@MMDE: fixed! sorry about that, we must have overlooked that part.
Also, your DDA concepts sound interesting — trying to shave time in a DDA is thrilling! We’ve seen a few Mario Maker levels that play a song, it seems like an even bigger challenge to do it in N++ 😉
I think the patch that just went live breaks the clones. Many clones has become invisible… Both their gate and when they run around. You will hear the sound of activating them, but you won’t see them and they can kill you.
@MMDE: sigh… yep. We’re fixing it right now, but this really sucks. I’m sorry! :/
Yeah the clone thing was hilarious, I couldn’t figure out why if i stood in place for 2 seconds, I would immediately explode for no apparent reason haha. Maybe the ability to turn off the clones (or make them invisible upon spawning from their gates) should be a challenge mode or funlockable option? :O
PS This is @Sparkcity3 from Twitter! Thanks for taking the time to check out my tweets and retweet them, it’s very much appreciated! 🙂
@FatherLegend: hi! that’s an interesting idea for a challenge mode.. in the original N we had an option to make the ninja invisible 😉