Archive:

1. 2024 wrap-up

   23 December 2024 3:18 pm 5 Comments

   We feel like we say this every year, but wow, did this year fly by! It’s been the busiest year by a fair margin among a pretty busy past few years, so maybe that’s part of it. We can’t fully talk about why just yet, but as we’ve alluded to in posts this past year, we’re cooking up something we think you will really like, so stay tuned for news! 😀 You can sign up for our newsletter (which we send very rarely, so when you get one you know it’s big news) at the bottom of this page, or you can join the discord too.

   In possibly related — but also possibly not related news, just to keep you on your toes — next year is the 10th anniversary of N++. Can you believe it’s been an entire decade since N++ first came out?? That’s bananas. It’s been a pretty incredible decade for the game, with a growing base of players and a community that is richer than ever; the list of 100%ers continues to grow, with 5 more this year for a total of **48**. Every year we get a little more amazed that people are still pulling off something we once thought impossible. 😉

   (Thinking of attempting your own journey to 100% and getting a certificate of your own? That’s awesome! We and others will cheer you on in the N++ discord, if that helps!)

   Last year may have been the Year of the Map Pack, but this year has some solid entries in that category as well, notably NateyPooPoo’s EON tab, which re-imagines the game as a classic side-scrolling adventure game in a terrifically creative and inspiring way, across 600 contiguous levels. Check out this amazing trailer!

   In other N++ news, skippy7552 made this in-depth and insightful look at the game, and the history of the series. Well worth a watch!

   So what else has been happening during this extremely busy year? Well, we celebrated some pretty big milestones. It was the best of times (the 20th Anniversary of N, and Metanet Software) and the… well not worst of times, but the less-best of times (the end of XBLA and sunset of N+). We made some super cool new merch to celebrate the anniversaries, which you can get from our Etsy shop here! We also listed some of the last few copies of the physical version of N++ for Switch there, so check that out if you’re interested.

   

   https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1688406385/n-20th-anniversary-eco-tote-bag

   

   

   https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1688401335/n-20th-anniversary-t-shirt-nostalgic

   
   

   The new batch of corporate fat-cats are doing great, and are very helpful — reducing our stress levels from work, if nothing else, though they have had a few interesting game ideas we’d love to explore (and they’re good playtesters) 😉
   

   

   Pepper

   

   Peach

   

   Parsley

   
   

   And finally, to round out the year we thought we’d recommend some things we tried this year that we really loved, that you may enjoy too.

   First up, this book of essays on video games written by our friend Mathew Kumar: https://www.amazon.com/Every-Game-Ive-Finished-14/dp/B0DJPFPVFT It’s insightful and thoughtful and superb to read if you’re interested in games or game design.

   Finally, here are a few games we enjoyed this year:
   Leap Year https://managore.itch.io/leap-year
   Mosa Lina https://stuffedwombat.itch.io/mosa-lina
   SylvieRPG https://sylvie.itch.io/sylvie-rpg
   Utopia Must Fall https://pixeljam.itch.io/utopia-must-fall
   Stray Shot https://punkcake.itch.io/stray-shot

   Happy Holidays to all of you and those you care about; thank you again for being kind and cool people. <3 We're looking forward to 2025, and hope it's a good one for everyone!

   ---

2. The End of The Start of An Era

   1 August 2024 11:39 am 10 Comments

   As you may have heard, the start of this week was the final day for the Xbox 360 marketplace and Xbox Live Arcade. It’s the end of a pretty significant era in video gaming: the triumphant return of small creative teams, from the fringes outside of the mainstream/commercial industry (fringes to which they had largely been relegated since the mid 90s), back into the beating hearts of a new generation of consoles and players alike.

   Videogames, from their very start with Spacewar — or Tennis for Two if you prefer — have always had at their core a vibrant contingent of tiny low-budget teams making cool interesting things. The beauty of XBLA was that it opened new doors for such teams, and provided a fertile patch of soil where a greater variation of games could find a much larger audience than they otherwise might have.

   We want to take a moment to talk about the history of N+, and the impact XBLA has had on our lives.

   After we created N in 2004, it won the Audience Choice Awards at both IGF 2005 and Slamdance 2006; by then word was starting to spread about N, and the idea of making a sequel and bringing it to new platforms was pitched to us from several different directions.

   Having no concept of how to go about doing that, we started working with Warren Currell of Sherpa Games; Warren seemed to get who we were and where we were coming from at the time, and used his industry experience to help us interface with the business people — people who we, as young just-out-of-university types with very little experience, had no sense of how to approach.

   Warren had other clients such as Jamie Cheng of Klei Entertainment; as mentioned on this blog previously, we heard that while they were pitching a Klei game to Ross Ericson at Microsoft, Ross asked whether they’d heard of this game N that he was addicted to — that really got the ball rolling!

   N+ for Xbox 360 came out in 2008; we developed it in partnership with the incredibly talented Nick Waanders of Slick Entertainment (who Jamie connected us with). Microsoft had mandated online multiplayer for all XBLA games, and so that led us down a very interesting design path, figuring out how best to make multiplayer work in N — something that we had never before considered.

   Development of N+ was difficult and stressful, as is the development of most games, but Nick is such an amazing and multi-talented programmer, he was able to solve problems creatively and got the multiplayer working in an ingenious way. The art by Jeff Agala and the music by Joris de Man really changed the look and sound of N, and made N+ feel like a proper sequel.

   Plus (oh yes, pun intended), by then we had learned even more about level design, having worked at it for several more years — and with the addition of new game modes such as Co-op, we were more excited about making levels than we ever had been before. It was an exhilarating time!

   Just look at this trailer (from back in the days of 4:3 aspect ratios!), by Craig Macnaughton, plus Jim Munroe, Chris Locke, Max Stussi, and Marc Ngui:

   When we made N, we were driven purely by curiosity and passion. We wanted to play something we’d never played before, and had such a strong idea of what that was, we knew that the only way to make that happen would be if we made it ourselves. We had played a ton of shareware and freeware games during university, and really appreciated the energy and ideals of the freeware movement — that was a large part of what had inspired us to make and release N for free in the first place.

   The idea of charging money for N+ was a bit daunting, but eventually we realized that putting N+ on XBLA was an opportunity to show a larger, more mainstream audience something a bit different from what they might have been used to — adding some quirky left-field indie attitude to a new and burgeoning digital platform.

   To say that making N+ for Xbox 360 changed our lives would be a huge understatement. We were completely unprepared for the reception N+ received, and our perception of the world and what it meant to make videogames shifted dramatically. That was the year we first heard the name “Kotaku”, when Warren told us that N+ had made the front page — we had no idea what that meant, or whether that was a good thing or not! 😉

   Over the years, fans have let us know about their fond memories playing N+ with friends and family, and we appreciate that so much. People have told us that N+ was a big part of their childhood, and when we think about the games of our own childhoods — and how special they are in our memories — we feel incredibly proud to have been part of creating something that resonated so strongly. Our games tend to fly a bit under the radar, and spread largely by word-of-mouth, so we don’t usually see too much about them out in the broader world of videogames — thanks so much for sharing. <3
   

   (Having said that, we recently learned that N+ was apparently the 34th best-selling XBLA game of all time, which is flat-out incredible if true.)

   

   

   

   
   

   
   
   Xbox Live Arcade was one of those touchstones, a huge moment for the video game industry which was bigger still in hindsight. Its closure was perhaps inevitable, but still stings. It’s sad that N+ is no longer available for sale, but it had a great run, and we’re still proud of it.

   The good news is, N+ gave us the opportunity to keep doing what we love, and, years later, to make the (in our opinion) even better N++, which is available right now on all platforms! 😉

   Even more exciting: we’re cooking up something that we think captures the magic of N+, so watch this space — and sign up to the mailing list at the bottom of this page, so that you hear about it first! 😀

   

   ---

3. The N-iversary merch is finally here!

   24 May 2024 12:45 pm 3 Comments

   Yes, the merch we had made (and in some cases, handmade) is ready, and it looks great! 😀

   Here’s a quick preview of the limited-edition merch pack, you can find the listing over on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1117482027/n-20th-anniversary-special-merch-pack

   

   

   
   

   

   

   
   

   We had two stylish and high-quality hard enamel pins made featuring the N logo and the Metanet Software logo, and each comes on their own special backing card. The Metanet pin backing card was handmade by Mare using Print Gocco and 3 fluorescent inks — each card is slightly different in colour but each is equally beautiful.

   This merch pack includes 2 paper stickers featuring the N 20th Anniversary logo and its inverse, plus a smaller, shiny foil sticker printed with the same design as the N logo pin backing card.

   To round the collection out, every order will include a Metanet 20th Anniversary postcard with a handwritten message from us to you on the back.

   You can also grab a tshirt and/or tote bag featuring the image at the top of this post.

   Note, if the country you live in isn’t listed as available for shipping to, just message us on Etsy — we have to look into the packaging regulations for each country individually to make sure we’re able to ship there. If we determine that we can, we’ll add your country to the shipping profile and will keep you posted either way.

   We hope you like this merch as much as we do, and celebrate your enjoyment of N in style!
   Thanks for playing <3

   ---

4. 20 Years

   1 March 2024 5:52 pm 11 Comments

   2004…can you believe that was 20 years ago?! It was a pretty big year for us, as it was the year we incorporated Metanet Software Inc. (we founded the company in 2001 (as mentioned in previous posts like this one* which you should really stop and read right now, it goes over the whole history) but only “got serious” about it in 2004** 😉 ), and also released N v1.0, the very first version of N.

   Yes, it’s the 20th anniversary of N and Metanet. Time sure flies! To celebrate this momentous occasion, we created some cool N merch — you can find this awesome t-shirt and tote bag in our Etsy shop:

   

   https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1688406385/n-20th-anniversary-eco-tote-bag

   

   https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1688401335/n-20th-anniversary-t-shirt-nostalgic

   
   

   As well as this limited-edition N merch pack including 2 enamel pins, plus special stickers and a Metanet post card:

   

   

   
   

   We hope you like everything! 😀 Now on to the post.

   Quick notes:
   *If you haven’t already read it, that previous post is pretty great — it details our history and musings on game development in a way that still resonates strongly with us today (plus it has loads of pictures!), so seriously, do go read it. 😉 https://www.metanetsoftware.com/2019/happy-15th-metanet-software-inc

   **we actually incorporated the company because we thought it would be hilarious for university students to also be President and VP of a corporation…it was a very different time! Also, we learned that corporate taxes are no joke, so it really wasn’t all that funny. 😉 Anyway it turns out it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made, as it allowed us to meet so many inspiring people worldwide, and gave us the opportunity to focus on creating and working on things that we care about, so it all worked out in the end. 🙂

   ————————————————————————————-

   And since the post for the 15th anniversary gave such a good summary of the past 15 years, we’ll just do a quick recap of the past 5. What’s changed, in the past 5 years? Well, we moved from our home city, Toronto, to a new one, Montreal. Sometimes you can tell yourself it’s not a big deal, it’s just moving cities within the same country…it’s not really. Lots of big changes, but most of them positive — and we have the space and flexibility we need to work on lots of creative projects, so that’s been wonderful.

   Why don’t we retell the story of N for posterity! <3 So we (Raigan and Mare) met in a Computer Science course at the University of Toronto in 1998, where we were learning about terribly boring software programming but hit it off more or less instantly because of our shared love of games. We both had a number of other interests, such as art, music, and film, and we both loved playing and talking about games, so it was pretty natural to start to combine those interests -- fueled by a terrifically inspiring freeware and shareware game development scene that we'd discovered across the burgeoning internet.
   
   As opposed to what was happening in the mainstream videogames industry of the mid-90s (where videogames were becoming increasingly complex and being made by large, well-funded teams) the late 90s/early 2000s saw smaller teams, pairs, and individuals connecting with increasingly-accessible languages and tools to make games of their own, on their own. As we learned more in and outside of school, and read academic papers about realtime physics simulation (and other interesting subjects), discovered Macromedia Flash, and played lots and lots of games, we also started to experiment with programming some of those physics concepts in 2D, developing a set of collision and simulation systems that would underpin many more experiments, dubbed the NinjaEngine.
   

   

   The brainstorming session that started it all

   
   

   
   In 2004, a Flash web game contest was announced in conjunction with the Flash in the Can conference, which provided an excellent deadline to get something together. And get something together we did — N v1.02. N lost the contest to Starsky and Hutch Pinball, but that did make sense as N wasn’t really a web-playable game — the physics and collision were too much for browsers to run at the time, so it really only worked as a downloadable game. Either way, many lessons were learned — among them that although the game didn’t seem to be what people were looking for visually, it was surprisingly fun, and addictive, and the friends that we’d sent it to sent back lots of enthusiastic feedback. So we pressed on, adding entities, fixing bugs, designing levels, and figuring out more about what the game could be. We infused it with who we were, and made subtle statements about how we felt about the world and the world of game development, in the game design, levels and graphic design. It became more than just a project; it became something we loved. We released it to forums around the internet and got even more feedback and enthusiasm, and so we continued developing and eventually released v1.4, the version that made such a splash that it won the Fans Choice Award for Best Game at the IGF in 2005 and the 2006 Slamdance Audience Award for Best Game.
   
   
   That was a shock, and a jolt of incredible validation. We were floored. We never would have thought that our little platformer with an even littler ninja could have resonated with so many people, and become an actual thing, a real game like the ones we grew up playing. The stories poured in from people who loved it, hated it, enjoyed making levels in the N-ed[itor] by themselves and with their children, played it in school on USB sticks, excitedly showed it to their friends, and laughed about the ninja’s ragdoll deaths. Lots of people found it incredibly difficult and frustrating — N is a polarizing game, and seemed to evoke a fairly strong reaction in players. People kept sharing it and it kept finding new fans, who created amazing spaces online to connect with each other, like dedicated forums, and NUMA, the N User Map Archive, and other shared online spaces that inspired the community to grow even more.
   
   
   We made N+ for XBLA and DS/PSP in 2008 (a story for another time), and returned to N to officially update it for the web in 2013, releasing v2.0. In its lifetime, N has amassed a mostly uncountable number of players — we once had some stats on the number of downloads from our old website which have since been lost to time; the web version found on Kongregate shows over 30 million plays. In short, it’s more well-known than we ever thought possible, and when we made N++ in 2015 and showed it at E3 and PAX, it was awesome to hear so many people say “Oh my god! I remember this game! I played it as a kid!”. It’s a fond memory, and one we’re proud of.
   
   
   Over the years we have had many ups and downs and opportunities and failures and successes and regrets, but also so many of those fond memories, so many connections with fans and friends from all over the world, and we appreciate them very, very much. We know we have been very lucky, and we feel that every day. We never could have predicted it, but N means a lot to a lot of people, and we want to keep that memory alive for as long as we possibly can. Seeing this Reddit thread pop up today really drove home for us how lucky we’ve been to make something that other people consider special — we both grew up slacking off playing games in computer class, and to make a game that the next generation used to play while similarly slacking off makes us unbelievably honoured and proud! <3
   
   And so, dear readers, that’s the story of N (abbreviated version). Thank you so much for finding the game and for playing it, for sharing it and for letting us know what you think. You rock! Of course the story is not over, the N expanded universe continues to grow in the + versions of the games (have you played N++ yet? You really should! Check it out here, click the links in the top right corner to get it on your fave platform: https://nplusplus.org/) and perhaps even more behind the scenes. N contains multitudes. We’ll just say this: the future is bright. 😉
   
   
   
   
   
   Happy 20th Anniversary to N, and to Metanet Software Inc.
   Here’s to 20++!

   ps want to share your stories and memories with us personally? We’d love to hear them! Please leave a comment below, join the N++ Discord or email us at metanetATmetanetsoftwareDOTcom!

   ---

5. 2023 – Year of the Map Pack

   24 December 2023 8:37 pm 7 Comments

   Well it’s that time again, time for the yearly check in from all of us here at Metanet Software, to let you know what we’re up to and how things are going. It’s been a pretty good year, finally — it feels like the past few have been pretty heavy, but this time things seem hopeful and full of joy again.

   We don’t have any big news for you yet, but at this point there are quite a few irons in quite a few fires that we’re excited about, and we hope to have more news for you soonish (ok maybe we say that every year, but it’s always true! And maybe more so this time around).

   In N++ news, 2023 was the year of the map pack — maybe the most exciting thing that’s ever happened in the world of N++ level-making! We’re really happy to see user-made tabs becoming a thing in the N++ community, because they allow level makers to develop ideas beyond individual levels, into episode sequencing and even secret challenges: these extra layers can be really fun to play around in, so it’s nice that finally everyone can give it a try.

   The most ambitious map pack thus far is the Community Tab Project: a collection of more than 800 brand-new maps made by the community, over 3 long years. This is a really impressive and ambitious undertaking — massive kudos to everyone who worked so hard to put this together. Plus, the trailer by abho is so cool:
   

   CTP is only one of several packs which have been released this year — here are trailers for some of the rest:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8YPHChhrps
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB3tOUQONn0
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDVEZcYVBHI
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBYbXm9Svos
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBO–gKWX8I
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL7Oy1kGXMU
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eNpPHPXt1A
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7sp9BTXB0A
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moF7yXAun34
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwL75aZaEY8
   (Sadly the super-intriguing Hax Pack doesn’t have a trailer! But one of our favourite N++ streamers — a community member who’s helped develop tools such as those which enable map packs to exist — did a few streams you could check out to get a taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSvT7B8yjSM)

   It’s really impressive to see the range and depth of level ideas being explored in these map packs, and we definitely recommend that any N++ fans on Steam check them out!

   You can find out more and join the community over on discord — where there are regular map-making contests that are Featured in N++ and over on tumblr as well.

   Not only that, there were 8 new 100%-ers in 2023, which is so impressive. That brings the total to a mind-blowing 40 players, from 15 different countries! You are all legends. Thanks for proving us wrong again and again and again, about anyone 100%-ing N++ 😉

   More huge news: you might have heard of Lemmino on youtube (their channel is pretty popular, with well-researched and intriguing documentary videos that have attracted over 5M subs), well did you know that he made an ARG based partially on N++! Check this out, it’s incredible: https://www.lemmi.no/p/my-latest-puzzle
   THANK YOU Lemmino, you are so awesome — Mare has been a fan of your channel for a while and was delighted to learn about this!

   Fan Art Roundup!
   Some of this year’s 100%ers, よしお and かつつ, also made some fan art! It’s super fun:
   

   

   by よしお

   

   fanart by かつつ (Katsutsu)

   Thanks to you both! We love it.

   And finally, a new tournament has been announced — a sequel to 2021’s amazing PN++W event (an archive of which is available here if you missed it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1191504447).

   Here’s a message from organizer bigblargh:
   Hey ninjas, it’s your 2nd or 3rd favorite N++ streamer, bigblargh! As you may have heard, I’m planning on running PN++W2, the second (ever) N++ Race Mode tournament in Portland, Oregon. Like the previous event, I want to challenge competitors with brand new community crafted maps. So, I’m assembling a team to make 1v1 race maps and playtest! If you’re interested in developing/testing maps, or playing in the tournament IRL, swing by my discord where we’re planning things.
   https://discord.gg/PGGX9jvj

   I’d like to choose the date after the holidays once we’ve sobered up from all the cookies & milk. I’m shooting for either February or March depending on how much time the mapmakers need. When the date is set I’ll let everyone know how to register.

   Happy solstice and all that! Thank you to all the players who keep this awesome game alive. Here’s to another year of N++!
   -bigblargh, No Big Deal Gaming

   (If you have your own fan art to submit, or have other N-series-related news you’d like us to include in blog posts like this, you can do so on the discord or by emailing metanetATmetanetsoftware DOT com )

   What else is new with us? We’ve been missing our beautiful departed friends Dr. Doom and Megatron, but have also been enjoying life with three new corporate fat-cats Peach, Pepper and Parsley, who have been helping us prototype up a storm. It’s a long and arduous process, so we’re taking our time with it, but we can’t wait to share more details about that soon — so far we have some pretty cool 2D platforming experiments, an exploration-focused ARPG, a deck-building RPG card game, and even a 1v1 fighting game, none of which are quite fun yet.. but they *might* be eventually! That’s the hope, and we continue working endlessly towards that goal. 😉

   To all of you out there, Happy Holidays! Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones — and thanks for reading these posts, playing our games and keeping in touch. We’re so glad the N++ community is so vibrant and friendly, in a world that isn’t always. Thanks for being you.

   Until next time,
   Mare and Raigan

   ---

6. Happy Valentine’s Day 2023

   14 February 2023 4:23 pm 1 Comment

   If you’re reading this blog post, you probably already know that we’re fans of Valentine’s Day — and if not, now you do! 😉 We generally like to use this holiday to let our fans know we appreciate them, by making and giving out Valentines either in physical or digital form.

   This year we haven’t had time to make any new “V-Day” crafts, because we’ve had our hands full (literally) with three new corporate fat-kittens!

   They’re 6 months old, all sisters from the same litter — which we found thanks to the wonderful Montreal Animal Rescue Network. We really miss Dr Doom and Megatron, and we decided it was a good time to bring more cats into our lives. We’ll have to see what sorts of games they would like to help us design 😉

   This is (Princess) Peach:
   

   

   Peach

   
   Peach’s nose is shaped like a little heart! She loves to be petted and is always purring. She is very bold and unafraid to stride in and take whatever she wants, and is extremely good at chasing and catching things. Although she’s not the best at jumping, she doesn’t give up, and her excellent upper body strength means she can just pull herself up the rest of the way.

   This is Pepper (P.I.):
   

   

   Pepper

   
   Pepper is bright and full of energy. She is very tall and has very long limbs, plus a super sleek coat. She’s extremely stylish! She’s always figuring out how things work and solving mysteries of eg where and when food comes from, and where all the cat toys have gone. She has cute curled ears and a positive and optimistic outlook on life.

   This is (Professor) Parsley:
   

   

   Parsley

   
   Parsley is very chill and calm, unlike her energetic sisters, though she still does enjoy playing a lot. Her coat is very fluffy and soft, and as you can see she has cute curled ears like Pepper. She loves to follow us around and help out with whatever we’re doing. She’s very encouraging!

   It was impossible to top Dr Doom’s and Megatron’s names, so we went in another direction 😉 They’re all very cute and are injecting a lot of joy and chaos into our lives, which is fun. If you want to see more, check them out on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peachpepperparsley/

   In other news, we’re still working away on prototyping, most recently we’ve been working on a fighting game that has yet to come together, but we feel like the concept (“make a fighting game as different as possible from the Street Fighter template”) has a lot of potential. We’ll see how that goes!

   This month the featured N++ levels showcase the winners of the Monthly Mapping Contest, plus one has a Valentine’s Day theme! Check them out on our Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/metanetsoftware/709257731502112768/happy-valentines-day-its-a-new-year-and-a-new

   So that’s it! thanks again for playing our games and reading this silly blog, we are hoping to have lots more to show and talk about soonish. We’ll keep you posted!

   ---

7. 2022, we won’t miss you.

   21 December 2022 2:59 pm 4 Comments

   We had such high hopes for 2022, but things didn’t exactly pan out as well as we’d have liked. We’re still here! That’s something anyway. 🙂

   This year we worked on 4 different prototypes; there’s nothing to show/announce yet, but hopefully that will change soon. There’s an ARPG, a platformer, a fighting game, and an office cryptid simulation. 😉

   You might remember that we sent out some cute Valentines earlier this year: https://www.metanetsoftware.com/2022/happy-valentines-day-3 That was fun.

   Mare has been getting back into visual art, and is selling her Japan-inspired watercolours on Etsy (and at a few local festivals IRL).
   

   We spent the summer soaking up inspiration and seeing a lot of friends we haven’t seen in a while, which was nice. Looking forward to more of that in 2023. The fall was disappointing, which we’ll get to.

   In N++ news, this year has seen an incredible increase in the number of players reaching 100%: there were an amazing *11* people who beat N++ in 2022 (up from 7 in 2021), bringing the current all-time total to 32. This is pretty astounding considering we originally didn’t expect anyone to reach 100%! We couldn’t be happier to be so, so wrong 😀

   In fact, there were so many completions this year that we had to do another print run of certificates! (We mail a hand-printed certificate of achievement to anyone brave enough to reach 100% — for those of you who are on this path, post on the discord and/or email us so we can check out your stats, as well as get your mailing address)

   Huge congrats to all of those players, and thanks to our Discord community for helping them with tips, routes, and emotional support. 🙂

   It looks like the pace isn’t going to relent anytime soon either, since there are already several people nearing 100% completion: good luck to you all! We are so awed by your drive and skill.

   Excitingly, we’ve noticed that Challenge Enthusiasts have found out about N++, including the streamer nashinashi who (as we write this) is on their 50th day of N++, and is on track to become Japan’s first 100%er (maybe by about day 100?).

   Quick fact! There are now over 5 million episode scores in the database: wow!

   N++ Racing League: Raigan’s been playing a lot of N++ Race Mode on Twitch this year, against members of the Discord community; previous streams are archived here for your enjoyment: https://www.twitch.tv/metanet_software/videos?filter=all&sort=time

   Want to play? Sign up on the Multiplayer channel of our Discord server — it’s via Steam Remote Play, so there’s a bit of lag, but depending on where you are (and how good your internet connection is), it’s quite playable! 😉

   We also added some new merch to Metanet’s Etsy shop:

   
   Black and white acrylic ninja keychains: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1350726473/n-nplusplus-ninja-acrylic-keychain

   
   Colourful N++ washi tape: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1350688021/n-washi-tape-limited-edition-minimalist

   
   and Dr Doom and Megatron memorial stationery: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1336709576/dr-doom-and-megatron-mini-notecards-and

   Unfortunately 2022 turned out to be a pretty sad year overall — we lost both of our beautiful corporate fatcats. First Megatron, who was 17, on October 28, and then Dr Doom, who was 19, just a couple weeks later on November 15. It’s been pretty rough, but we are slowly recovering.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
   

    

   If you have a cat who has developed kidney disease, we heartily recommend Tanya’s Feline CKD site and forums: https://felinecrf.org/ — it’s incredibly informative, reassuring and calming, all of which have helped us a great deal over the years and especially at the end, as things got a little more complicated with Dr Doom’s condition. We also recommend the Feline Diabetes site and message board, which was extremely helpful as we learned how to give insulin and not panic. In the past few years we’ve learned a lot about how to administer cat medicines and do various other procedures — we were so happy to have been able to help these wonderful cats to live long and happy lives. We just wish they could have been around a bit longer (or, hey, if we’re wishing, infinitely!). It’s so hard not seeing them every day, and not being able to enjoy their beautiful company. We miss them terribly. This is what you sign up for when you decide to get a pet, but it is never easy. All we can do is try to remember that we did the best we could to give both Dr Doom and Megatron the best lives possible, and that we loved and cherished them immensely, and hope that they felt that love until the end.

   It’s very likely we will adopt more cats someday, when we’ve healed a little more — as our website says, “Behind every great company, there is an adorable fluffy creature that fuels its creative process”. We absolutely believe that! 🙂 But what should we name them? If you have any thoughts, feel free to let us know.

   About getting in touch, at the moment we’re still on twitter @metanetsoftware, where we post about people (including us!) playing N++ on twitch, merch and other announcements, and if it’s still around, that’s where we’ll post about new projects you can check out. We also have an account on Mastodon (@[email protected]) we will start posting on, and have signed up for Post and cohost as well to cover all the bases.

   The official N++ Discord is a great place to hang out and chat: https://discord.com/invite/nplusplus, the community over on reddit is great as well, and we do still have a facebook page if you’re into that. Finally, you can always email us at metanetAT metanetsoftwareDOT com.

   And so, with that, we say goodbye to 2022. We hope your holidays are excellent and wish each of you all the best. Here’s to a 2023 that is surprising, inspiring and full of intrigue. We are looking forward to it.

   ---

8. Happy Valentine’s Day <3

   14 February 2022 12:33 pm 8 Comments

   Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’re a familiar with us, you might know we are fans of Valentine’s Day. Why? Well here’s what we said about them way back in 2011:

   We are always looking for ways to give back, or to tell people about how awesome we think they are, and how much we appreciate who they are and what they do. Making valentines is a fun and unusual way to do this, which is right up our alley.

   Yep, it’s still true! So this year we have another Valentine’s Day gift for you. But before we get to that, how about a quick news roundup?

   • We are still at work fixing small bugs in N++, in fact a recent patch just went out on Steam, hooray! There should be a few more patches coming soon as well on the other platforms.
   • Did you know, 23 players have 100%’d N++!?! If you know N++, you know this is pretty incredible. We are absolutely in awe of the skill of these players. Huge congratulations to all of you! And a reminder to those of you who are trying to achieve that incredibly impressive feat — don’t forget, when you do this, we will send you a hand-printed certificate! Post on the Discord to verify and we will get in touch.
   • We are featuring some incredible community-made levels over on our Tumblr and in the game, under the Featured tab in the “Browse” Main Menu option. If you want to submit your own, get in touch with the curation team on the Discord!
   • We’re going to be on the Eggplant podcast in February, talking about one of our fave games, Super Mario World, so be sure to check that out if you are interested. It’s a great podcast, so you might want to check it out anyway!

   
   
   And now for the Valentine’s Day part of this post — we’ve made some new physical Valentines and we think they’re super cute! These are handmade by Mare, and feature some beautiful papers in various shades, as well as some of our new Ninja stickers (which you can get here, from our Etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1103523794/n-nplusplus-new-stickers-pack-white-and)

   Each is a little different, and features a little abstract snapshot of an N++ level in a variety of stylish colours, and of course some hearts. Click the thumbnails for larger versions:
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   If you would like one, reply to this blog post or to our tweet about it, until 10am Eastern Time on February 15th. We will throw your name in a bowl and will DM or email you if your name is pulled, so you can give us a mailing address, and then we’ll sign one and send it out to you.

   As always, to all of you out there who read this blog and play our games, you rock! Thanks for being you.

   ---

9. 2021 is finally done!

   31 December 2021 11:43 am Leave a Comment

   Well, every year we keep wishing things will get better, and this year is no different. 2021 was not a great year, but with the bar that low, we are really hoping 2022 will surpass it easily, haha. ;D

   It’s been a long and unpredictable year, again due to the pandemic. We recovered a bit from the shock and have been steadily feeling more creative as we adapt to the new normal. We’re still getting to know our new home city, and are discovering things about it that we love, so that’s helpful. And we’ve been busy prototyping some new game ideas that we’re starting to get intrigued by — we don’t have anything to share just yet, but we’re optimistic.

   ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  
   In N++ news:

   We made a bunch of new merch this year, from oft-requested stuff like new t-shirt designs, to more unusual and awesome stuff like little gold cubes and giant gold pillows. Thanks so much to everyone who answered our survey and gave feedback and suggestions for merch ideas! We’re really happy with how it all turned out! 🙂

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   
   

   In the gallery of photos above, you can see:
   New stickers, including ninjas, mines and gold, so you can build your own N++ scene: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1103523794/n-nplusplus-new-stickers-pack-white-and

   A gorgeous level poster (which you can have signed): https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1117471269/n-nplusplus-limited-edition-poster
   For all you thirsty ninjas, the “I love gold” pack including an exclusive gold button: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/210741846/i-love-gold-10-pieces-of-n-nplusplus
   Tiny and incredibly cute Gold cubes, by the piece: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1117482027/n-nplusplus-gold-cubes-handmade-tiny

   The aforementioned and amazing Gold pillow: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1133516813/gold-nplusplus-n-18×18-premium-pillow

   A beautiful white gold minimalist keyring (the first 6 sold out fast, so we’ve added some new options!): https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1054405096/n-nplusplus-keychain-acrylic-laser-cut
   A charming stationery set including magnets, pushpins and paper clips: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1068459141/n-nplusplus-stationery-set-paper-clips

   *** Most of these things were created with the help of Dean at Utopia Creates, who is amazing. If you need anything printed, we highly, highly recommend him! ***

   And here are the exciting new tshirts, printed-on-demand by Printful and Printbest:
   All: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/metanet?section_id=17568595

   Ninja and Gold US/Can: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1099870550/n-nplusplus-ninja-and-gold-logo-tshirt
   Ninja and Gold worldwide: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1108228146/n-nplusplus-ninja-and-gold-tshirt-short
   Ninja and Gold women’s cut worldwide: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1108234100/n-nplusplus-ninja-and-gold-womens-short

   Racing League US/Can: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1099874950/n-nplusplus-racing-league-official
   Racing League worldwide: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1104992304/official-racing-league-tshirt-n

   As always, every order from our shop includes some extra stickers plus a hand-written thank you note. Thanks for your support, everyone! ❤️

    
   2021 wasn’t all bad — it saw the first ever N++ Invitational Tournament, PN++W (Pacific North-West), which you can watch here in all its glory: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1191504447

   This was a really exciting event, with players from both coasts of the USA converging on Portland to see who has the most dynamic ninja skills — and the nerves to perform under pressure.

   Big thanks to bigblargh for conceiving, organizing, and running the event. It was incredible to watch, and we’re hopeful that once the pandemic settles down a bit, there will be more local tournaments happening around the globe.

   Spoilers, XandoToaster won! Congrats!
   

   We made and tested a whole bunch of devious new Race Mode levels for this tournament, which was pretty fun! As is typical after we ship a game, we were pretty burned out on making levels for a few years, so it was really nice to get back to it without that crushing feeling, and to be able to enjoy the process again and be excited by new ideas. Such a great feeling, and it was especially awesome to be able to watch the reactions of players as they grappled with the fruits of our labour. 🙂

   Here are some of our favourite new level names:

   • Scrambled Legs
   • Trolled-school
   • Leg-salad Sandwich
   • Nope-ing Mechanism
   • Various Nefarious Areas
   • Missile Dismissal
   • Suddenly Befuddling Subtleties

    

   Thanks also to our awesome Discord community, who continue to be a source of inspiration — it’s great seeing people able to play the multiplayer modes via Parsec or Steam Remote Play, and exploring the secret challenges together (shhh!).

   So far an incredible 21 players have completely 100%’d the game, which is astounding considering we didn’t think anyone would be able (or willing) to perform such a heroic feat. You each are absolutely amazing. Kudos to everyone who is collecting gold and enjoying their journey. ❤️ Don’t forget, if you have 100%’d the game, post on the Discord and send us your mailing address so we can send you a handmade certificate!

   Got some N/N+/N++ related news to share? Let us know on Twitter, we’d love to hear it, and retweet!

   ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  
   

   

   

   

   

   Megatron warming her toes

   

   Dr Doom contemplating killing me

   
   

   
   In other news, our beautiful and constant friend and corporate fat-cat, Dr Doom, has not been feeling very well of late. She has been with us for almost the entire history of our company, and is roughly 18 years old — just a few months older than the first version of N! During the past 4 years she developed diabetes, which was in remission for a while but which is recently more on-and-off, and then she developed kidney disease, as most older cats apparently do. She is in the later stages now, but we are hoping she will stay a little longer with us.

   If there has been one good thing about this pandemic, it is that we’ve had more time to spend with her — she is soft and sweet, and a wonderful companion, who loves treats with a passion. The multitude of medicines and procedures for her that we’ve had to go through together were made much easier by her clear joy about eating treats. She has a quiet meow and a very loud purr, and we love her an immense amount. Our other wonderful cat employee, Megatron, also has kidney disease and is a year or two younger than Dr D. She has a very loud meow (sometimes shockingly so! 😉 ) and a quiet purr, so the two cats complement each other well. Megatron has also been a great kitty friend to us, and we are constantly amazed by the great quality of life these little animals give to us. So we hope they’re both around for a long while yet! ❤️

    
   That’s all we’ve got for this year — thanks again everyone, for your support and for continuing to be interested in playing our games. We hope to have more for you soonish! We hope you all stay safe and healthy, have the happiest of holidays and are in for a fantastic 2022. Until next time!

   ---

10. Hindsight

    25 December 2020 2:24 pm 6 Comments

    What a year, huh? It started out with so much potential and promise — we moved to a new city that we were excited to explore and get to know, we had gotten cracking on a new prototyping framework that we were looking forward to experimenting with and filling up with new ideas, and we’d started to feel ready to think about what kind of future we want to work towards.

    And then it all kinda went to hell.

    It’s been a really tough year, hasn’t it. We lost a lot of momentum because of the pandemic — the mental strain and heightened anxiety really threw us. We found it hard to concentrate and harder to be creative and a lot of things just fell flat. We STILL don’t know Montreal well, and we haven’t seen friends or family much at all this year (offline, anyway). Also our corporate fat cats are getting old, and they’ve had some health troubles this year which we’ve found really upsetting. They’ve been a part of the company from the start, and confronting the inevitable reality that we will lose them, maybe soon, is heartbreaking on top of it all.

    However, all is not lost. We’re safe and well, and so are our families and friends. We’ve adapted to the pandemic and are feeling a little less strained now. We don’t have anything to show yet, of what we’re working on, but we’re optimistic about making more progress next year. We’re starting to feel creative again. Trump’s out as president and there’s a little opportunity to reshape the future. And the cats are doing ok for now. So that’s all great! 2020 felt like a bit of a failure, but it taught us a lot about what we really need and what we want to do. And whatever else happens, it’ll be one we’ll never forget 😉

    But Metanet, you may be asking, are you going to update us on N++?! We are absolutely delighted to let you know that an incredible 14 (!!!) people have 100%-ed the game! That’s double the number from last year!! At this rate, in 30 years everyone on earth will have beaten it!!! 😉

    You are all amazing, awesomely skilled players and again, we honestly didn’t think anyone would EVER 100% the game, and yet here we are with 14 intrepid people having accomplished that frankly appalling task, and we know many others are currently still working on the last few challenges. We remain absolutely in awe. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you all for playing, and for being so inspiring.

    To all those trying to reach this goal — please let us know when you do, either on the discord or by email! We have mailed out signed, hand-printed certificates (see this blog post for details) to the first 14, and we will send out one to you as well, whenever you get there. Good luck!

    

    What’s been especially rewarding is seeing the community grow via Discord and get further into the secrets hidden in the game. Several of the earlier 100%-ers have been helping everyone else complete the co-op levels (via Parsec or Steam Remote Play) — shout out to Kostucha for helping 6+ people achieve 100%. There have also been a few Race-mode streams between the best players in the world, which was awesome to see.

    Last but not least, we’ve also seen a big uptick in speedrunning N++ — which is no easy feat! https://www.speedrun.com/nplusplus/
    SimVYo has, in the span of a year, managed to completely dominate the Solo leaderboard, with some really impressive runs.

    And now for some bite-sized news:

    • RIP Flash :/ we will mourn its loss for a long time. But, we were so happy to have been able to use it to make games, and to be part of such a thrilling time in indie game history. PC Gamer recently wrote this article on difficult Flash games, and identified the modern lineage of platformers as “N-likes”! https://www.pcgamer.com/flash-games/ We were floored. What an incredible honour to have our work recognized in this way!
      

    • N will continue to be playable in downloadable form, and we’ll keep the servers running for as long as we possibly can, so don’t worry about that. It’s also available as part of BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint Archive and you can find other ways to play here:
      

      Hey all, Flash content will still find life beyond the end of the official Flash Player, and alternatives to preserve and make that content work (even in-browser!) are here, albeit still developing! A thread: pic.twitter.com/6qzsykeXI5

      — John Cooney (@jmtb02) December 10, 2020

      We’ll do our best to make sure it continues to be available somehow, but don’t forget, N++ is N, plus plus, and it’s got your back.
      

    • We’ve been Featuring levels made and curated by the N++ community in the game and showing them off over on tumblr, so check them out if you’re interested in what the best and brightest have to offer — from the Main Menu of any version of N++, just go to Browse, and choose the “Featured” tab.
      

    • Two of the most infamously hard user levels were finally beaten in 2020, after tens of thousands of attempts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Bp0DASoZg https://www.twitch.tv/videos/804988433
      

    • Another incredible feat was Seitaro’s amazing sub-10-hour Platinum Trophy speedrun on PS4!
      

    • We hope to have some new things to put in our Etsy shop next year: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/metanet So keep an eye out!
      

    • And finally, Raigan is once again acting as “Santa Paus” to give away 25 copies of Michael Brough’s underrated gem, Cinco Paus! Keep an eye on Raigan’s twitter on December 25th (Eastern time zone) if you want a copy of this excellently designed strategy/puzzle game.
      

    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

    So what’s next? Well, we’re still not sure, to be honest. But we know we have a lot more ideas we want to explore and things to try, and we think you’ll like them. We’re still not quite ready to announce anything, but we are so excited to prepare things to show you in 2021. We are looking to the future with optimism and motivation, and we can’t wait to make 2021 much better than this year.

    Happy Holidays, all, we hope that you too have discovered what things and people mean the most to you and that you can hold them closer next year. Good luck out there, please stay safe. See you again soon!

    cheers,
    M&R

    ps do you have N++-related news or info that might be of interest to the community you’d like us to consider putting in future blog posts? Email us and we’ll take a look!