99-ninja – Prometheus Game Labs

It’s been a busy few months, and I’m excited to announce the next, next game from Prometheus Game Labs will be 99 Ninja designed by Matt Ding and Ivan Alexiev, aiming to launch in mid-late 2023.

99 Ninja is a two player competitive tile laying game, where players use transparent cards depicting ninja from 3 different clans to surround (and assassinate) daimyo. Like other games from Prometheus Game Labs there is a lot of tactical play – you will have to time your placement and outmaneuver, but also out think, your opponent! And yes, there are 99 ninja on the cards. We counted.

Matt and Ivan started work on 99 Ninja as a pilot project, to see if they could co-design a game. Ivan first introduced me to 99 Ninja not long after Micro Dojo had launched in 2021, and suggested it would be a great spinoff game (and I could immediately see where we could use some of the cool existing artwork). I loved the clan switching element of the game where, as Ivan put it, both players felt like they were playing 2 against 1. However, at that time I wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility of publishing another designers game.

Later in the year Ivan and I met at Essen Spiel, and in between lots of other games we had a playtest session of 99 Ninja to brainstorm some new ideas for it. It was still on my mind, but the next step to take it forward was a meeting with Matt at UK Games Expo. It was great to meet in person and chat about where we wanted to take the game, as well as see if it would be a good fit for us all.

After that, we spent just over a month having weekly playtest sessions on Tabletop Simulator to see how well we could all work together (and whether my vision of 99 Ninja aligned with theirs). Each time we got together we had a positive development for the game, and I felt really confident that as we continue working on and shaping the game it’s going to be a really great fit for Prometheus Game Labs.