Shadow Countdown

Your time is running out — and your opponents want to steal it.

Shadow Countdown is a competitive local platform fighting game for 2 to 4 players. Every ninja enters the arena with only a few seconds remaining, and the clock represents your health, your resources, and your chance to stay in the fight.

Hitting an opponent steals part of their time. Throwing a shuriken costs some of your own. Standing still means letting the clock win.

Time is the fight

• Your clock is always counting down.
• Successful attacks transfer time between players.
• Shurikens must be recovered after being thrown.
• Shadow Swap lets you teleport to an anchored shuriken.
• Dashes, counters, wall movement, and double jumps create opportunities to escape or chase.
• Reaching zero triggers one final chance through Last Breath.
• The first ninja to win three rounds takes the match.

Local multiplayer

Shadow Countdown was designed for people playing together on the same computer.

You can freely combine:

• Two players on the same keyboard.
• Keyboard and controllers.
• Two keyboard layouts and two controllers.
• Up to four controllers.

There is currently no online multiplayer or single-player mode. At least two players are required.

Controls

Player 1 — WASD

• Move: A / D
• Jump: W or Space
• Throw shuriken: Q or X
• Shadow Swap: E or Z
• Counter: C
• Dash: S or Shift

Player 2 — Arrow keys/Numpad

• Move: arrow keys or numpad 4 / 6
• Jump: up arrow or numpad 8
• Throw shuriken: numpad 1
• Shadow Swap: numpad 3
• Counter: numpad 5
• Dash: down arrow or numpad 2

Controllers are also detected directly through the player lobby.

Current state

Shadow Countdown is still in development. This version includes the complete menu flow, ninja selection, contextual tutorial, local combat, time management, recoverable shurikens, rounds, and seven character variations.

Feedback about balancing, controls, readability, and the overall combat flow is greatly appreciated.

Team

Gabriel Panza - Programmer and Game Designer

Felipe "GoDoug" Barreto - Game Designer and Programmer

Credits

Pixel art

Tiny Nin Character Pack by ChurroGelato Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. https://churrogelato.itch.io/tiny-nin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Assets were adapted and integrated into Shadow Countdown.

Fonts

Edit Undo, Edit Undo Line and Edit Undo Dot Created by Brian Kent / ÆNIGMA Fonts. Distributed as freeware for personal and commercial use.

Additional assets

Additional platform tileset assets by RottingPixels. https://rottingpixels.itch.io/

RottingPixels assets can be used in commercial projects and modified to suit your needs. Credit is not required, but is appreciated. License example from the original creator