The rooftops of New York are such iconic environments for the Turtles, so using them for navigation became a top priority for us. When designing our movement system for Empire City, our north star was to help players feel like a Ninja Turtle who grew up in New York, leaping from building to building with a sense of style and speed. We want Empire City players to feel that, over time, they have a command over every nook and cranny of the city just like Leo, Donnie, Raph, or Mikey would.

I jokingly call our parkour-style traversal “anime parkour,” since the first “aha!” moment we had while exploring movement mechanics was when I decided to abuse a momentum bug to launch myself off a mailbox and leap across a line of lampposts like a character straight-out of Naruto. I shared the video with the rest of the studio, and that was that. The concept was a little absurd, but it felt perfect. It was so rewarding to grab a fire escape or swing off a stop sign at just the right time. I could climb up buildings with impossible speed, use that momentum to launch past an unsuspecting enemy loitering at the edge of a rooftop, unsheathe my weapon during the hang time, and drop on them from above. It was intoxicating.

So, to be clear, don’t expect real parkour. In Empire City, as a Ninja Turtle your body is much more auto-tuned. After all, YOU are the Ninja Turtles. Who has been pushing cars up stairwells (‘87 series fans will know what I’m talkin’ about!), leaping around these New York streets for years. You shouldn’t be struggling to get across town at a moment’s notice just using your movement skills.

The basics of our parkour system are built around a few simple mechanics: sprinting, jumping, dashing, climbing, and… flinging? I’m not entirely sure how to describe that last one. For the rock climbers out there, you might call it dynoing since it’s a similar concept. 

When climbing and traversing Empire City, you’ll fling-dyno yourself off of things, toward other things you can grab, and then fling yourself off the new thing to take advantage of the momentum that builds up along the way. Achieving this flow feels incredible, but it also provides a bit of a challenge since you’ll need to plan a step ahead while moving quickly. Yet it’s also very intuitive. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’re chaining together incredible movement combos as you climb and fling yourself off nearly anything: street lamps, parked cars, drainpipes – you name it. It all comes down to mastering the basic movements and developing the associated muscle memory. You’d be surprised how quickly you’ll develop it. 

Oh! I forgot one more system for traversal. Ninja tools! But that’ll have to wait for a later Dev Diary. Can’t wait to show you more.

Much love and pizza,

Ace

Note that all footage shown is pre-alpha gameplay and subject to change.