Slice through hordes of enemies as you navigate Upupa the hoopoe through their final trial to bring light to the top of the tower and keep evil at bay for another generation. Upupa Bird Ninja is a fast-paced tough-as-talons adventure.

Note: plays best with mouse or controller. Touch input not fully supported


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Music: Ethernight Club by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under CC BY 3.0

StatusPrototype
PlatformsHTML5, Windows
Rating
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
(16 total ratings)
AuthorsClockwork Acorn, Francois van Niekerk
GenreAction, Adventure, Platformer
Made withUnity
Tags2D, Action-Adventure, Arcade, Fast-Paced, Ninja, Singleplayer, Speedrun, Tactical
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish

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UpupaBirdNinja_windows.zip 72 MB

Development log

Comments

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Congrats to FireRuin on a 37m16s any% run. Can anyone else do better? https://www.speedrun.com/UBN/runs/yvnjl8om

(+1)

I love the game and think it has incredible potential! The art, music, and core mechanics are fantastic, but I have a suggestion to enhance the gameplay. Currently, enemies start moving as soon as the level begins and stay in motion regardless of the player’s actions. However, since enemy movement is first triggered when the player aims, it feels like the game is hinting at a more dynamic mechanic.

What if enemies only moved while the player was holding the aim? This would create a deliberate tradeoff where aiming not only sets up the player’s movement but also allows enemies to advance. To complement this, the aiming system could include a two-stage bar, similar to The Pathless:

  • Holding the aim until fully charged would allow the player to fly to the target but lets enemies advance for the full duration, increasing the challenge.
  • Releasing the aim at the 50% mark would still let the player fly to the target but would cut enemy movement time in half, rewarding quick reflexes and precision.

In this system, players must release their aim at these specific windows—either at the 50% mark or when fully charged—for their movement to activate. Releasing at any other point would result in no action, forcing players to carefully time their releases. 

This approach ties movement and combat together seamlessly, encouraging players to balance planning and execution. It could elevate the game to an even more engaging and strategic experience.

Keep up the amazing work—I’m excited to see how the game evolves!

(+1)

Thanks for the suggestions! If I'm understanding, I think there are two suggestions here that could be considered separately:

  1. Enemies don't move/react indefinitely, when the player isn't doing anything.
  2. There is a more nuanced aiming system where the player is rewarded for careful timing (a la The Pathless).

I like the idea of 2, either what you suggested exactly or something like it. It would add some more skill potential and a higher skill ceiling, but (probably) not generally be needed to beat the game (maybe the bosses need you to do it a bit).

I'm a bit unsure of 1. On one hand I can see how it can make the game more strategic and more thinky, but I'm not sure if that's better. I think maybe part of what works is that each attempt is quite quick and you can try again in an instant. If time fully stopped like that, I wonder if it would slow the game down too much? When we tested things like this, we felt like it made the game too "turn based" and a bit less fun.

But... maybe there's a power that does something like 1? Once per attempt you can freeze time until you act again. It would allow you to insert a breather into a run to figure out your next move. I'll give it some more thought! Thanks for the feedback :)

(+1)

AWESOME game. Art, mechanics, MUSIC, everything.

(+1)

This is so much fun! I love this game and I love being Upupa! What a cool bird!!

(+2)

This is such an amazing game with quality design and fun gameplay mechanic

Right!! Totally addicted to it now. 

(+3)

Clockwork Acorn serving extremely unique game design again! Perfect!

Totally!! Love getting slicey!