Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja’

Review Fix chats with ‘Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja’ developer Jiravat Maleenont, who details the development process and so much more.

About the Game:

Independent video game development studio Aiya games will be releasing their unique precision platformer Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja on Steam in 2021. 

Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja can simply be played using only your mouse. It’s easy to play, but difficult to beat! Savor the accelerated action using Cyjin’s dash to crush enemies and avoid puzzling obstacles. 

Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja will be released in Early Access and will be updated based on players’ feedback. The game will be developed with new features, new content, and improved visuals. 

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Jiravat Maleenont: Initially, this project was born when we tried to design the game for mobile. When it was mobile, it was a simple touch and dash game to collect items such as coins. However, we then decided to change our focus from mobile to PC. We were looking for a game that will create a unique gameplay. So, we chose to use this game as a main concept, and made adjustments to the character control, difficulty of levels, mechanic of enemies while keeping the game to be simple.

Review Fix: What is your role in the game?

Maleenont: Being indie game studio, our team members are mostly involved in more than 1 specific role in the project. Most of my roles involve in product strategy, game direction, marketing strategy, partnership, operational planning and project management.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Maleenont: Doing business is about solving problems. So, it has never been a smooth ride, especially for our first game. But with our team involvement, collaboration and passion, we are excited deliver a game with great experience to our players.

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Maleenont: It’s a difficult platformer where you use only your mouse to play. Quick to learn, difficult to beat! The game is filled with accelerated actions!

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Maleenont: Since it was born as a mobile game project, the game design was influenced by Archero where the game is focused on easy control and simple mechanics. After it was changed to a PC project, the game was influenced by fast-paced gameplay like Sonic the Hedgehog and precision gameplay like MO:Astray. Our game art was inspired by a game like Rockman and an animation like Samurai Jack.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Maleenont: We tried to make the game very difficult. And our team members couldn’t beat it after trying for several hours. So, we had to tone down the difficulty of our game.

Review Fix: What were the major lessons learned?

Maleenont: There are so many. What I could think of now are… Mobile or PC, you are still competing against so many others, making your game stand out is very important. Steam visibility and discovery are a lot more difficult than expected. Product is not the only important factor, market too. Using project management tool from the start can help save you a lot of time. It’s difficult to handle both publishing and development as the same time, having key partners can help a lot. Etc.

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Maleenont: We think it’s important. But we should keep the strong points and make necessary adjustments to apply it to new games. In Cyjin’s case, we make use of simple mechanics from old games and implement challenging and more complicated level designs of new games.

Review Fix: The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?

Maleenont: Try to beat our difficult game using just your mouse.

Review Fix: How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?

Maleenont: My previous experiences with the industry helped me with the process of understanding my customers. Like other entertainment, game is art. Understanding why players like certain aspects of a game is very important. When we started our gaming project, the first thing that I did was to play our competitors’ games. So, I bought more than 20 of them. Spent a lot of time trying to understand what make players like those games. Aside from that, my previous experience helped me with connection with local media.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?

Maleenont: Player die more than 500 times to finish the game and become very satisfied at the end.

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Maleenont: Since we are on our schedule to our Early Access, the next would be Full Release. But we are already preparing the next project after that. Which will be a much bigger game.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Maleenont: How about taking on the challenge, can you beat our game using just your mouse? This is our first game. We are happy if our players enjoy it. We will do our best to deliver even better experience on the Full Release.