N (video game)

N v1.4
A screenshot of N
Developer(s)	Metanet Software
Publisher(s)	Metanet Software
Designer(s)	Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac, Linux
Release	PC: May 16, 2005
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player

N is a freeware Adobe Flash computer game developed by Metanet Software. It was inspired in part by Lode Runner, Soldat, and other side-scrolling games. A console version of the game has been released for the Xbox Live Arcade under the title N+ (also available for the Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable system).

Gameplay

In N, the player controls a ninja who runs and jumps around levels, picks up gold, opens and closes doors through switches, and avoids enemies in an attempt to trigger a switch which opens an exit door, and get to it safely. Gameplay involves three keys—moving left, moving right, and jumping. Combination of these moves on various types of terrain allows the ninja to do much more than simply run and jump, such as jumping from wall to wall and onto platforms.

N is composed of episodes, each featuring five levels, numbered 0 through 4. As of version 1.4, the game contains 100 episodes, making up 500 official levels. The goal of each level is to trigger the switch and exit through a door it opens before the 90-second time-limit is up. Some levels have more than one exit and associated switch.

Each episode is given a cumulative time limit. Thus, the aforementioned 90-second time limit only applies to level 0 of each episode. If the player were to collect enough gold (each piece increases the remaining time by 2 seconds) to increase the time limit to over 90 seconds, this time would carry over to level 1, and so forth until the player reaches level 4 of the episode.

N also contains a feature that adds support for custom, user-made levels through a built-in level editor called Ned. Some fan-made maps are given to players with the game's download. Levels can be added into a game by modifying a text file that contains user level data; adding level data to this file allows user levels to be played in a timed setting, though it does not support the episode structure of the main game.

Objects

File:N items.jpg

The range of objects that can appear within a level. Top row: (from left to right) the ninja, launch pad, normal door, locked door, trapdoor, exit door. Bottom row: (from left to right) gold, bounce block, one way platform, triggers for respective doors.

Doors

Doors can allow or impede progress throughout levels. With the exception of the exit door, all doors will impede enemies if closed (with exception of the thwump and the floorchaser).

• Standard doors allow the ninja to move through them freely, and do not impede his progress.
• Locked doors will remain closed and impassible until triggered by a switch, and remain open permanently afterwards.
• Trap doors, which are invisible until activated, close when certain switches are triggered. The switches are often hidden behind gold to trick the player into trapping themselves.
• The exit door is opened by a large blue switch, and must be reached to complete a level.

Hazards

File:N hazards.jpg

All the objects that can directly kill the ninja. Top row: (from left to right) gauss turret, homing turret, mine, thwump. Bottom row: (from left to right) zap drone, laser drone, chaingun drone, floorguard.

Various other objects are capable of killing the ninja.

• Stationary mines, one of the most common hazards in the game.
• Turrets, which launch homing rockets that track the ninja until they collide with him or a wall.
• Gauss turrets, which aim at the ninja using an algorithm based on the ninja's distance and movement relative to the turret. They continue to aim as long as the ninja is in their line of sight. Once aimed, they pause for a moment before firing.
• Laser drones, which move slowly and fire a red laser beam at the ninja's location. They take a short time to power up, and their laser, a straight line between the drone and the ninja's location, stays active for a short time afterward.
• Zap drones, which usually follow a simple, pre-set movement pattern. However, there are also "chasing" drones which have an antenna, and rush in a straight line at the ninja if he moves into or perpendicular to their line of sight .
• Chaingun drones, which fire a stream of inaccurate bullets at the ninja; these also take a few seconds to power up.
• "Floorchasers/Floorguards", which, as the name implies, rush at the ninja if he is on the same floor that they are on. They accelerate instantly and move slightly faster than the ninja running at full speed.
• "Thwumps", are square blocks that move in a straight line when the ninja is in sight. Only one side of the thwump is lethal, and this side is colored electric blue; the ninja can hold onto, stand, and walk on the other three sides safely. Once a thwump has moved outwards to its maximum extent, it will return slowly. If trapped between a wall and the returning side of a thwump, the ninja will be crushed. In some levels the player must use the thwumps to their advantage.

Note: the ninja can also die by hitting the environment at a certain speed. The most common example is falling from a certain height, but can also include more unusual situations like wall-jumping too aggressively and thereby flying into the ceiling at a dangerous speed. The ninja can avoid dying from hitting the ground by grabbing onto a wall or even just landing on terrain which is angled appropriately.

Features

Rewards

As of v1.4, the player is rewarded with the ability to change the color of the ninja, or the ninja's flavor. The default flavor is black, and a new color is rewarded after reaching the last level in a column. The flavors are rewarded in a specific order, regardless of which column is completed, and are as follows:

• Default: Black (licorice)
• One column: Pink (strawberry)
• Two columns: Olive (olive)
• Three columns: Teal
• Four columns: Lavender
• Five columns: Dark Red (blood flavor)
• Six columns: White, as well as overclock mode. (vanilla)
• Seven columns: Orange (citrus)
• Eight columns: Dark gray, the same color as the walls
• Nine columns: Light gray, nearly the same color as the background (renders character effectively invisible (to the player, all hazards still act normal))
• Ten columns: Customizable (adjusted through RGB values)

Overclocking allows a player to change the speed of the entire game including game time and enemy speed. This speed setting can range from 0 to 10, with 0 being the normal speed.

File:N editor tile editing.png

Ned tile editing

File:N editor object editing.png

Ned object editing

User-created custom levels

N includes a full level editor, nicknamed "Ned" ("N-editor") by Metanet. It is accessed by either pressing the tilde (~), pipe (|), or backslash (\) key (depending on keyboard layout) at the main menu. Caps lock must be on to playtest normally in the editor's debug mode; otherwise, the game pauses and can be advanced frame-by-frame by clicking in the window. Once completed, maps can be submitted to NUMA for review by other fans.

In creating a map, some users choose to directly edit the level code to make various objects behave differently than normal. Some popular code modifications include setting stationary drones, making a giant ninja appear in the left corner, or showing just the eyes of a drone. One well-known trick is the ability to create teleporters through Launchpads; the official forum's Teleporter Tutorial explains how to create general teleporters. The Manual Nediting topic also shows other ways of editing the level code directly.

DDAs

Maps on NUMA can be submitted into many different categories, including one special category, which is the DDA (Don't Do Anything) category. These maps require no input whatsoever from the user, who is free to sit back and watch the ninja hurtle through the level, propelled by launchpads, thwumps, and many other creative forms of propulsion, often harnessing the power of various glitches within the game. The best DDAs require a lot of time to make, since the ninja must avoid enemies and traps. The true challenge of creating a DDA is to make the ninja barely miss various traps and enemies, thus creating hair-raising spectacles. There are a few subgenres of DDA, including the hold-left and hold-right DDAs, which require the player to continuously hold down one movement key, and the KRADDA (Keep the Rocket Alive DDA), in which the main focus of the level is a rocket which follows the ninja closely throughout the level, passing very near or even through walls, but never actually exploding.

Glitches

There are other glitches that appear in the game, like climbing up a "wall" of doors, launching very high off a bouncepad, going through one way platform, hitting a mine and living, getting hit by a rocket at the same time as touching a launch pad and living to name a few. There are also so-called gold-glitches, such as the glitch that lets N ignore a certain object with a gold-coin placed above it, which is usually called gold delay. This counts for objects like: doors, trap-doors, one-way platforms, and more. This glitch is most commonly used in DDA's. Look above for a description of DDA's.

"N-Game"

Numerous websites, including AddictingGames and eBaum's World, host decompiled versions of N that can be played from inside the browser, often known as "N-Game". These versions of the game violate the game's license agreement, often do not give credit to the original developers, and are out-of-date compared to the latest official version of N.

See also

• N+

External links

• Official website of N and N+
• Metanet Software: N
• Official N+ Xbox.com page
• Official N+ DS and PSP page
• Original N Homepage
• N at Wikia