This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for Ninjabread Man.
Zool Pitch#
Watch on YouTubeNinjabread Man originally started out as a revival of the Amiga series Zool, but Zoo Publishing (then-owners of the Zool franchise) was less than impressed with Data Design's work and rejected the pitch. DDI decided to simply reskin the character and sell the game as is; evidence of this can be seen on the archived website.
The introduction used in the pitch was released in 2012. Interestingly, it's a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the short comic included in the manual for the SNES port of the original Zool. In terms of changes, all of Zool's dialogue has been replaced with narration which communicates the same information that his dialogue did, and curiously the line mentioning the number of worlds was changed from "this and five other worlds" to "this and four other worlds". Unused text left over in the final game seemingly confirms that a fifth world was planned at one point, though given that it has no listed theme, and that there was no fifth game in this pseudo-series, it seems the idea for a 5th world was scrapped early on.
Zool Build#
On the 10th of December 2020, Obscure Gamers (now Prototopia) released some screenshots (as Jpgs) on their Twitter account 1 when the game was still developed as a Zool game. It's a very interesting look. It also somewhat proves that Data Design really did just split up whatever they had made or at least thought up for the Zool version among multiple games...
Desert World#
A desert world with some brick structures, maybe quicksand and some Octorok-looking enemy.
Music World#
Shows Zool in a world made out of music-related objects such as drums.
Toy World#
A world made out of wood and featuring a checkerboard-pattern. The second features a red circle drawn around something unintelligible.
Early Ninjabread Man Build#
Two days earlier, on the 8th of December 2020, Prototopia (formerly Obscure Gamers) also released some screenshots (again, as Jpgs) from later on in development2. These were recovered from hard drives3. By that point it wasn't a Zool Game anymore (although the life icon still depicts him). All of these also feature an earlier HUD and also an earlier design for the titular hero.
Early title screen#
An earlier version of the game's title screen. It looks completely different than the final one, featuring an earlier logo and a star-filled, purple background.
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Early Candy Overworld#
Early Candy Caverns#
