Mark of the Ninja
Mark of the Ninja was published in 2012, and developed by Klei Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. Unlike other entries in the stealth genre, its perspective is that of a 2D action platformer, which already anchors it as a novelty in the genre, and in its design. Neils Anderson, the game’s lead designer, wished to convey the core player fantasy of playing a realistic Ninja. Aside from the Tenchu series, very little games had, according to him, properly conveyed the ninja archetype in a satisfactory manner.
In addition to this, the 2D nature of the game provided the player with a semi-omniscience with trivialised the game’s stealth elements, as they could see what was on the other side of a door, or through a vent. Thus, it was decided that the player’s field of view would be limited to only what was directly visible from the player’s avatar: the Ninja. In return, this created a lack of information that made playtesters and designers feel cheated. Due to the lack of vision, many interactions with guards felt cheap, playtesters did not know when they were safe, or for what reason they had alerted the enemy, which led to the key component of Mark of the Ninja: clarity.
Every interaction in Mark of the Ninja is clarified, as well as as many systems the game can afford the player to know without regressing back into that sense of omniscience. Vision cones are clearly delineated. Lighting cones are clearly shown by bright yellow cones. Sound waves are represented by ripples that carry and may interact with guards and enemies. Guard states are shown above their heads (idle -> searching -> alerted -> and on specific occassions: terrified) The trajectory of bullets are shown as well, the player’s last position after being spotted, as well as the guards’ center of interest when searching are all depicted just as clearly.
This approach to design created a particular shift in the player’s actions towards much of gameplay, and exactly what Anderson wanted out of the game itself. As a ninja, the player is a master of stealth and a silent assassin, which lead to the player interacting with enemies and environment proactively rather than reactively. Combined with the staple amount of tools and items found in many stealth games this reinforced the facsimile of playing a silent assassin, with complete mastery over their environment and adversary.