Cat Ninja Crowd

You've probably seen this ad. A crowd runs down a street, grows through "+10" and "×2" gates, and smashes a boss at the end. Then you download it, and it's a different game.

Cat Ninja Crowd is the game from that ad, and you can actually play it. I'm a solo developer in Japan, and I built it during Shipaton. Version 1.0 went live on the US App Store on August 24, 2026. Version 1.9 is live now.

How it plays

• Portrait, one thumb. Swipe left and right to steer a crowd of ninja cats.
• Green "+" and "×" gates add cats. Red "−" and "÷" gates take them away.
• The crowd throws shurikens on its own. Blue gates hand out weapons: katana, machine gun, musket, cannon, karakuri tank.
• Every stage ends with a rat samurai warlord. There are 18 of them, and each has its own attack. The Stage 8 boss, the Purple Smoke Sorcerer, fires homing orbs and splits into two clones that keep shooting until you take them down.
• If you lose, you can watch a short video and continue from where you fell.

How it makes money

• Free to download. You start with 2 plays. A rewarded video adds 3 more, as often as you like.
• One purchase, "No Ads + Unlimited Plays" ($2.99), through RevenueCat. It removes ads and the play limit.
• Nothing you buy or watch changes damage, speed or score.

How it's built

• iOS: Swift, SwiftUI, SpriteKit and SceneKit. No game engine, so it opens in about a second.
• Shared Kotlin Multiplatform module: the play allowance, premium state, high score, warlord names and boss balance. The Android version runs the same rules with Jetpack Compose Canvas.
• RevenueCat Purchases and Paywalls, with rewarded ads loaded through RevenueCat's AdMob adapter.
• OneSignal for push, Layers for growth tracking, and a Noise creator campaign (details in the award answers).

Updates since launch

1.0 (Aug 24) first release. 1.1 and 1.2 (Sep 1 to 3) added ads and 3D models. 1.3 (Sep 4) rebuilt all 18 bosses with their own move sets. 1.4 to 1.7 (Sep 8 to 13) rebalanced the bosses and added continue after defeat. 1.8 added reinforcements on the second continue and better dodge feedback. 1.9 (Sep 25) added an English UI (title art, buttons, warlord names and HUD switch on non-Japanese devices), OneSignal push with an in-game opt-in, and the Layers SDK.

Results so far (as of Sept 30)

• 110 new players in the last 28 days.
• RevenueCat Ads: 1,467 impressions from 56 players. The rewarded "continue" video earns the most, ahead of the play refill.
• Noise: 24 creator posts and 5,715 views in four days.
• TikTok: the same gameplay in four creatives. The max-energy cut got 2.6 times the views of the calm one (208 against 81).
• OneSignal: the 1.9 announcement went to every push subscriber on Sept 30, with 100% delivered.

Live on the US App Store.

Built With

• android
• google-admob
• ios
• jetpack-compose
• kotlin-multiplatform
• layers
• noise
• onesignal
• revenuecat
• scenekit
• sprite-kit
• swift
• swiftui