Ronin

A Dog's Rebellion. My samurai action game in Godot, early in development.

0:41 cinematic trailer

Core loop: cut through a samurai column with your rōnin band, take the weapons they drop, keep your men standing, and push on to the next fight in the story.

Inspired by: Total War: Shogun 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yōtei. I'm Japanese, so the Ghost games feel like my own culture; my family goes back more to farmers than warriors, but I still feel the connection.

You play Hayama Kurō, a rōnin whose lord was betrayed by his own retainers. The story runs from an ambush on a bamboo road to a bandit kidnapping, a monastery of warrior monks and a night raid on a castle.

Third person with an over-the-shoulder camera and lock-on. Enemies drop the weapon they were holding, so you fight with what you take. After the monastery you choose one of three forms (horned samurai, masked killer or monk), each with its own allies and abilities.

Combat on Jolt physics: swings swept against body capsules, blocks, parries, grabs, throws and knockdowns

Ragdolls and dismemberment I wrote myself, because Godot's physical bones broke on Mixamo's tiny skeletons

Cutscenes filmed with the game's own cameras, with my own voice recordings

A skill tree in three branches, and a Total War–style Battle Maker for staging fights

Godot 4, Jolt

Tripo

Mixamo

ElevenLabs

Claude Code

0:35 gameplay

Play a fight in your browser

One fight from the game: Kurō, Kenji and Goro against waves of bandits, ashigaru and a samurai. About 80 MB, keyboard and mouse. WASD moves; the mouse or the arrow keys turn the camera. Click the game to lock the mouse to it; Esc gives it back.

Play it here: https://eugenetomita-hash.github.io/games/play/ronin/

Kneeling men floated above the ground.WhyWhen I retargeted animations onto Tripo-rigged bodies, the hips were scaled on moving clips but not on held poses, which have a single key.FixSingle-key hip tracks are scaled too.

The charge at the bandit chief stalled.WhyHe waited on his raised dais, and the men charging him got stuck on its edge.FixHe rises and walks down to open ground before the charge.

A warrior monk came out of Tripo with a glitched sheath on his hip.WhyA sheath baked into the mesh breaks across the four views and clashes with the one the game adds.FixEvery prompt asks for a strict T-pose, empty hands and nothing at the hips. Sheaths go on in the game, on the hip bone.

A samurai soldier wouldn't load in Mixamo.WhyThe upload was 60,000 triangles.FixCut to 25,000 with 1K textures, it rigged.

Weapons clipped through men standing around.WhyThey held them in hand while idle.FixIdle men carry them slung across the back; katana men wear theirs at the hip.