This was the second day that we worked on the game jam. My group decided upon Soshi Shinobi, and started development on it. It was originally Alex Wisdom’s pitch. It is a two-player game where each person controls one half of the player. The premise behind the game: “Soshi Shinobi” is that the ninja possesses fire and water elemental powers, that they would assign to either their legs or arms. “Soshi” means “element” in Japanese. One player would pick water, the other would pick fire, and one player would pick control of the arms, or the legs, and the two would work together to control the single ninja; moving them to avoid hazards with the lower body, and using the upper body to shoot fire or water waves to damage enemies. The elemental ability of each player is pre-set at the beginning of the game and cannot be changed afterward, but the players can switch between controls of the legs or the arms, keeping their abilities with them. The player will behave differently and be vulnerable to different obstacles throughout the game. For example, the player can only walk over fire or water floors if their legs have the correct corresponding element, or they will take damage. The same goes with shooting elemental enemies with fire or water waves. The players must cooperate and decide when to switch body parts and use the correct abilities on body parts at the correct times.
