Friday update #3 news - Naruto: Naiteki Kensei

Welcome to Friday update #3!

(Even though it is Sunday already because of Dj-Ready...)

Things have been moving along quite steady in the background for NNK. Many of our team members are working hard to complete and clean-up many models, maps, code, sound, and all other aspects of the project. We're also happy for the recent influx of newcomers to the forum, as the great support helps drives us to work even harder.

However, our animator is asking for help with creating animations for this awesome mod. We also have great programmers working hard for this mod. But if you are an experienced programmer and have the dedication to use your knowledge to help create this project into a reality, your consideration is more than welcomed. So if you're an animator or programmer feel free to create a thread in our forums within the application section. However please make sure to read the guidelines before applying for the position.

We thought it was time to actually introduce information pertaining to how the mod will be played. For today, we'd like to introduce you to our weapons system. In our weapons system, you'll be able to scroll through taijutsu (which is our melee) and weapons with the numbers 1-0 on the keyboard by default, with 1 being taijutsu and 2-0 being weapons, respectively.

In this update, we will introduce you to two types of weapons you will be able to use: the kunai and shuriken.

The kunai will have two functions. The primary function of the kunai will allow you to throw it, while as the secondary function will allow you to swing it as a melee weapon. However, with each successful contacted swing of the kunai, it will start to "wear and tear." After a certain amount of swings, it will "break" which will in part decrease your kunai count by one.

The shuriken is faster than a kunai, but however, will cause less damage. It also has two functions. The primary function of the shuriken will be to throw one accurately. The secondary function will throw 5 shurikens in a shotgun spread-like manner.

And now to our Meet the Devs interview. This week our head animator, Lord Killmore!

Ok, so tell us about yourself?
My name is Patrice Introini (crazy name, I know) and am 22 years old. I´m looking for a job at the moment sadly, but the last job I had was in the Army. I live in good ol' Germany.

How long have you been following Naruto and do you only read the manga, watch the anime or both?
I watched Naruto when the first subs came out and I liked it a lot until there the many filler episodes. If i remember correctly, I think I started reading the manga after the Konoha destruction arc. Now I read both the manga and watch the episodes.

Are there any other animes you watch or mangas you read?
Oh my God, there are too many to remember them all, but these are some of my favorites: Berserk, Elfen Lied, Neon Genesis Evangelion (of course) and a lot more. Currently I'm watching Vampire Knight and Macross Frontier, and reading the GANTZ manga.

So how did you get into modding anyways?
Phew, let me think about that. I started back in the old days with Counter-Strike 1.5 where I did minor skin changes and started to do create maps. After that, I tried modeling but never did it seriously. A few years ago when I discovered ESF, I started to create models and skins. Later I teamed up with SV on his models by assigning and animating them.

And how did you end up at NNK and what exactly do you do on the team?
Well I remember that Kong talked to me and asked if I can code. Sadly I couldn´t, and somehow the conversation was about my abilities to model/skin/animate. So I did some trial animations and that´s how it started.
Basically I´m now the lead animator of NNK, so if you see something moving it's most likely my work. Sadly I´m all alone animating, but SV helps me out sometimes when he's not busy with other things. So if one of you can animate well, let me know and show me what you got so I can make you one of my minions ^^

Are there any other projects you worked on in the past or that you are currently working on you would like to mention?
I actually worked on a lot of projects or at least helped out. I think the very first real project I helped on was EVM (now known as ECX), an addon for ESF, and I also helped the guys from a Hellsing mod for Max Payne II, but never had the time to finish sadly. Besides that, I worked on many Naruto mods and even became the leader for one of them, but sadly none of them worked out. I can´t remember all those mods, but if there ever was a Naruto mod for HL1 I probably worked on it (except for NNC).

Any last words you want to add to this before we bring this to an end?
Well I hope you people enjoy what we are doing here and look forward to a public release as much as we do. All of us are doing our best so you guys can play a public version ASAP. Just stay with us, enjoy the updates, join the forums, and give us some time to do our jobs.

That's it for this week's update.

- The NNK Team