December update
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 04:55:05 AM

The month of December is coming to an end and it is the occasion to provide you with a new update to give you some essential information about the development progress of Irena Genesis Metal Fury. In the last few days we have been working mainly on the second part of level 4 called "Cyber City".

This second section appears right after a special stage where the player will have to face the boss in the middle of the level. You will have to fight your way through the buildings of Cyber City and fend off waves of enemies. We wanted to create a "neo-Tokyo" atmosphere with some original ideas, especially with the presence of a cyborg enemy equipped with a shield that can appear from the sky before landing on one of the platforms located on the map. You'll have to be very careful when progressing, as a turret positioned in the scenery can fire in six directions while aiming at the player.

This section differs from the other levels in that there are billboards with the image of "Shingo" to promote an energy drink for real guys! We've added a few barrels containing items to increase the firepower of Rayden's MG-323 and earn extra points. We've also placed an extra life to help you with your mission, can you find it?

We would like to point out that the first part of the level is finished, but there is still one more enemy to add. The middle boss that will take place in a special scene is currently in development, but we will tell you about it in a future update.

In parallel, we have been working on the different cutscenes of the game: the opening, interlude 1, interlude 2 and the end. We have chosen to propose cutscenes composed of different images of a size of 208 x 128 pixels accompanied by a text displayed on 4 lines. This is content that we do not want to show before the release of the game. However, we do want to show some screenshots that do not represent the final content that will be present in the cartridge. 

We have also been working on new enemies that will appear in the upcoming levels and a new game mode that will be introduced soon. At this stage of development, we have started to optimize the size of the ROM by removing unnecessary data and reducing the size of the sound resources. Various music tracks have been re-composed by SpaceCastle to better fit the universe of the levels and bring more dynamism to the action.

Sea new track (Stage 3)

Stars new track (Stage 1)

In the next few days, we will continue to work on the different bosses that make up the game with some improvements for the current bosses. We will also work on the level design of the different levels. We are on track to finish the development during the year 2023 and we thank you for your patience.

The entire White Ninja Studio team wishes you a happy holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in January 2023 for the next development update of Irena Genesis Metal Fury. 

November update
over 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 28, 2022 at 09:08:41 PM

During the month of November, we mainly worked on levels 4 and 5 of Irena Genesis Metal Fury. As a reminder, level 4 takes place in a futuristic city where the population is essentially composed of augmented human beings. "Cyber City" is a high-tech city controlled by a robotic militia whose mission is to protect the population and track down any member of the rebel forces. The level will take place in two stages like the three previous levels.

STAGE 4

In the first part of level 4, Celina will have to face new formidable enemies on a highway before reaching an upper part of the city. Be careful, because some enemies can now arrive from above by grabbing onto the ladder of a flying machine and will aim at the player in several possible directions before firing powerful shurikens. Other enemies will join the fight by moving with the help of a glider and powerful mechas will try by all means to stop your progress.

The second part promises intense action with some new enemies including a mecha equipped with a shield that allows it to temporarily protect itself from the player's shots. We took special care in designing the scenery, adding new elements compared to the previous version, such as garages, billboards and barrels to destroy. The billboard is a reference to a famous American actor who participated in the promotion of a Japanese drink in the 90s. Thus, you can see "Shingo" and his energetic drink, a character we will use in other productions of White Ninja Studio!

STAGE 5

Stage 5 takes place in a highly secured penitentiary that you will have to go through in order to free a hacker working with the rebel forces. The level will be in two parts with new animated enemies: security vehicle, female mecha (two variants with a different version for Japanese consoles) and a robotic skull spitting fireballs.

The second part will offer a different experience from the previous levels thanks to vertical scrolling and new enemies that will make the progression difficult. Modules will be placed in the combat zone to block the player or restrict his movements. A mecha equipped with a reactor will use its powerful gun to spit bullets and cannons placed on platforms will try to aim at the player to destroy him.

During the next few days, we will continue to work on integrating the new graphic resources and designing the second part of level 5. We also have to make the boss for both levels. We hope you enjoy this month's update and we look forward to seeing you next month for an update on the development progress. 

White Ninja Studio

October Update
over 1 year ago – Sun, Oct 30, 2022 at 04:22:47 AM

The White Ninja Studio team is happy to publish this October update! During these last weeks, we have been working mainly on the user manual that will be included in the game box and downloadable in PDF format for those who didn't get a physical version.

USER MANUAL

The user's manual will contain all the necessary information to get the game in hand and understand how it works. You will find a "TIPS" section to give you some tips to optimize your chances of winning and a "CHEAT MODE" section to explain how to access the cheat mode. 

We have thought of the players who are into scoring with a "CHALLENGE TO WIN" section that will show you all the challenges to win with their points and information about the special units that you can meet in some levels. The most curious among you will be happy to know that we have taken the initiative to set aside a few pages in order to share technical details about the development of the game with the "HOW IT WORK" section.

In addition to containing essential information about the game, the user's manual will also feature beautiful illustrations carefully created by our concept artist RedKeas for your viewing pleasure. We want to provide you with a quality user manual that will be enjoyable to view like the Japanese manuals.

SAVE MODES

From now on, Irena Genesis Metal Fury has different save modes to satisfy different player profiles. By changing the settings in the "MEMORY" menu, it is possible to activate "IRENA", "NEO GEO" and "MEGA DRIVE" mode. We have also added a new option to disable the save screen in order to speed up the game scene.

• "IRENA" mode is activated by default and allows the automatic saving of data on the cartridge. 
• "NEO GEO" mode offers the possibility to manually save your progress after a game over in the manner of NEO GEO games with a BACKUP memory. 
• "MEGA DRIVE" mode does not allow any saving of the progress and if you still want to save the options as well as your best scores, it will be necessary to save the data manually from the "MEMORY" menu. Using the MEGA DRIVE mode is ideal for oldschool players who want to finish the game in a single session and offer bonus points as a reward!

In the Kickstarter demo, you may have noticed the "CONTINUE" feature on the main screen. This feature allows you to resume a game when a save has been recorded, however we decided to hide it when no save is available. So, if a save exists on the cartridge, the "CONTINUE" function will be displayed automatically so that you can resume the game.

SPECIAL UNITS

August was also an opportunity to find new ideas to improve the experience and bring more fun, especially with the presence of special units to destroy in some levels. These special units appear a few times and you will have to destroy them as quickly as possible to get a reward. For example, in the "CYBER CITY" level, a delivery truck proudly displaying the "SHUNGOR" logo reminiscent of a famous video game company will be on the road at times.

These new ideas and improvements confirm our decision to push back the release date of Irena Genesis Metal Fury. We hope that you will appreciate all our efforts to make this game a unique and quality title on SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive.

BONUS SCORE

We have also redesigned the completed stage screen to take advantage of our new reward system. During each level, the player can now achieve certain objectives to earn more points. In total, there are 6 objectives:

•  Perfect: don't lose life.
•  Special: not to use the special attack.
•  Speed: do not change the speed of the ship.
•  Weapon: do not change the weapon.
•  Time: finish the level in less than 6 minutes.
•  Shield: preserve the shield (bonus point depending on the level of the shield).

RGC 2022

During October 22nd and 23rd, White Ninja Studio was present at the RGC 2022, a highly anticipated event for the retrogaming community in France. We presented Irena Genesis Metal Fury with an exclusive demo giving access to three playable levels. The players present at this event, could try for the first time the level 3 and discover all the improvements made since. It was a very pleasant moment and we are happy to have been able to exchange with many enthusiasts. It was also an opportunity to confirm that we are developing a quality game and we are satisfied with the mostly positive feedback.

We would like to be present as often as possible at different events and conventions, but we prefer to focus on the development of Irena Genesis Metal Fury in order to consider a release for the year 2023. 

Currently, the rest of the development is mainly about the level design for the 5/6/7 levels. Most of the GFX are ready, but there are still a few enemies to be implemented, as well as the images for the different cinematic. Of course, we need to test the game many times in order to deliver a game without any bug that could hinder the experience.

The third level boss is a warship with a cannon aimed at the player and a fearsome laser cannon. Don't stay in the line of fire! Yakov will try everything to stop Celina using mechanical bats and homing missiles. After winning, Celina will be able to go to Cyber City, a level we presented in the first section. This level will have new units that we will show in a new update soon.

We know you are anxious to receive your copy of Irena Genesis Metal Fury, but we are doing everything necessary to complete development and plan a 2023 release. We thank you for your patience and hope you enjoy our game.

White Ninja Studio

August Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 09:27:54 PM

Our game for the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive, Irena Genesis Metal Fury is still in development and we are happy to announce that the project is progressing well. As stated in the previous news, we avoid revealing too much information in order to avoid spoiling the players who want to keep the pleasure of discovering the project at its release. However, it is important to know the status of the project and we are still excited to share some of the content from the game. Let's take a look at the possible improvements, changes and the general progress of the development.

Optimization

In an effort to make the game experience more fun, we've added some new features to the engine that have resulted in noticeable performance drops on some runs. These slowdowns are present in the latest version of the playable demo we released. In order to improve the experience, we have optimized the game's code to gain in fluidity and stability. 

Depending on the revision or model of your hardware, it is possible to notice some slight slowdowns, but overall the image is stable as shown in this video which image comes from a SEGA Genesis model II. We have also fixed some minor bugs and performed extensive testing to ensure that the game does not crash on various consoles.

Take a break with popcorn

As you already know, Irena Genesis Metal Fury will have a total of four cutscenes that will reveal more details about the storyline as you go along. In the first cinematic, the heroine Celina will wake up from her hibernal sleep before starting mission aboard the Rayden MG-323. In the second cinematic, you will have the opportunity to discover for the first time the Emperor Shungor annoyed by Celina's progress and will order his right-hand man "Valkun" to capture her. 

The third cinematic will show Celina and the rebel forces preparing for the final battle against Shungor's army. Then comes the last cinematic which will be the final sequence before the end game screen. To help our pixel artist to realize the cinematics on SEGA Genesis, RedKeas has drawn various concept arts that you will find in the artbook of the game. Here are some drawings that will help you imagine the different cinematics that will be present in the game.

Increase your best score !

In order to encourage players to continue playing Irena even after completing the entire game, we have added new bonus points to be earned with a new screen showing the end of game statistics. So to increase your score, you'll have to complete certain challenges: 

• Don't lose lives.
• Don't use the special attack.
• Preserve the shield.
• Don't change the ship's speed set by default in options.
• Finish the level in less than six minutes.
• Don't change your weapon. 

Now it is possible to earn extra points when the player picks up the powerup of an upgraded weapon at its maximum. The best of you will be able to get very high scores and be in the top of the world ranking thanks to the MEGA SCORE platform.

Over the weeks, we have been working on the different levels and re-imagined some of them to better match the idea we had of the Irena Genesis Metal Fury universe. For example, in stage 4, Celina goes to a futuristic city to attack the defense forces. The objective is to create a diversion while the rebel forces attack a data bank where vital information is stored. This information will help locate the penitentiary where a mysterious hacker is able to determine the exact location of the source of the magnetic field holding Celina's mother ship. 

This level will take place in two stages like the previous levels and will offer new units to face. For your viewing pleasure, the first stage features a warp effect to simulate relief on the water, but don't get too distracted, because this level will feature intense action! Afterwards, Celina will go to the penitentiary in order to free the hacker before attacking a train carrying a powerful weapon to the south of the planet.

Today, we can estimate that the development is 70% complete. Indeed, we still have to work mainly on the second part of some levels and the improvement of the level design. We also need to adjust the difficulty, detect/fix the bugs and make the different cinematics. 

It is still difficult to announce a release date, but we are aware of your impatience and we hope to complete the project by the end of the year. The White Ninja Studio team thanks you for your patience and understanding regarding our delay.

We remind you that you can follow our progress by following our Twitter account and come and ask us your questions on the Discord server of Irena Genesis Metal Fury.

Level 3 and news about the project
about 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 03, 2022 at 03:32:10 AM

These last weeks, we wanted to limit the communication on Kickstarter and social networks. Indeed, we don't want to penalize players who want to keep the mystery around Irena Genesis Metal Fury and not spoil the pleasure of discovering the game at its release. However, it was time for us to publish a news, as many of you have been asking for news about the project.

At the moment, we are looking for a way to regularly share information about the progress of our work without disturbing players who want to have the pleasant surprise of discovering the game at its release. It is likely that we will use a specific category on our site to offer you blog posts about the development of Irena with different technical topics.

So we are proud to present you the level 3 "SEA" which has evolved a lot since its first appearance in the prototype demo. Forget everything you've seen so far, because now it's all about controlling the Rayden MG-323 in a rainy sea environment with new enemies that will keep chasing you! All is not lost, as we have preserved the "Dragon Fury" that was the boss in the prototype. This boss has been given a visual update and has new attacks for more intense action.

Unlike the prototype, after fighting the dragon, the action continue in a mystical cave where you will have to avoid many traps and face various enemies protecting the place. This second part of the level required different improvements to our engine in order to support new features, contributing to offer you a more complex level design than in the previous levels. This evolution of the level is accompanied by a new music composed by our musician SpaceCastle to better match the atmosphere and energize the action scene.

After going through the cave, Celina will be confronted with a powerful warship in an epic scene outside the cave. With this boss, we wanted to bring some diversity in the fights with more action on the screen while highlighting the technical capabilities of the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive. For the moment, we decided not to reveal this fight scene to you so that you can discover it when the game is released.

Over time, you may have noticed that the White Ninja Studio logo has changed more than once. The reason is that we were never completely satisfied. That's why we decided to change it again to get a logo that best represents our team, as you can see in this sequence that will be present in the final game. It is possible that this sequence will be modified in the course of time, especially with a character animation and another music.

We take advantage of this news to point out that we have been experiencing problems with our server for a while, making our websites and services inaccessible. We are currently working to solve the problem, but if you encounter difficulties to access one of our sites or services, don't worry, it does not mean that the project is cancelled or abandoned.

As a reminder, several weeks ago, our team decided to postpone the release date of Irena Genesis Metal Fury in order to improve the gameplay experience with a better level design and more attractive graphics. We hope you will appreciate all the efforts we have made so far to bring you a quality shoot'em up for the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive, a console that never ceases to thrill us.

We are receiving a lot of messages about how to pre-order Irena Genesis Metal Fury, but for now, we have made the decision to close pre-orders as of September 10, 2021. So it's no longer possible to pre-order the game, but it will definitely be possible to get a copy from Mega Cat Studios and Broke Studio when the game is released. Also, there are still many people who have not responded to our Backerkit survey, and it is important for us to close it. Please, if you have not already done so, kindly complete this survey so that we can account for all copies to be sent out when the game is released. 

If you have an address change to make, feel free to send us a message, and we will unlock your Backerkit survey or update it directly. Please note that even if we don't respond immediately to your change of address requests, they are still considered for an update.

Feel free to express yourself in the comments or directly by message.

The White Ninja Studio team