Shinobi Story

If you grew up watching Naruto in the early 2000s, this is a game you've always dreamed of playing, but it never existed.

I was one of those kids.

Over the years I picked up the skills to build it: C++, Lua, 3D world design, server architecture. In 2019 I started. This accidentally became my full-time job for three years.

I designed and built the entire in-game map, the UI, and the combat system, including all the jutsu visuals. I also ran the monetization and business side. We raised a small friends-and-family angel round that funded a live service product shipping patches every 30 days for three years.

I brought together a team of 11 volunteer developers. None of them were paid. My job was giving them a space to express their creativity in service of something bigger than any of us could build alone.

Players explored a custom continent with original jutsu systems, clan mechanics, and open-world PvP. Over 53,000 players joined across five years.

The best parts were the days before each patch. We spent hours on calls together coordinating content, testing builds, arguing about balance. Then we would go live and sit in the game with players, watching them discover what we made. Talking to the community, reading their reactions, seeing people form friendships inside a world we built from nothing.

The codebase is open source now.