Shinobi Story reached 56,000+ players. It returned at the start of August 2026 with a small team and is being rebuilt in Unreal Engine as a standalone ninja MMORPG.
What Shinobi Story is
At the start of August 2026, Shinobi Story returned. I have assembled a small team, and we are rebuilding it in Unreal Engine as a standalone ninja MMORPG.
If you grew up watching Naruto in the early 2000s, this is a game you've always dreamed of playing, but it never existed.
I was one of those kids.
Over the years I picked up the skills to build it: C++, Lua, 3D world design, server architecture. In 2019 I started as a solo founder. This accidentally became my full-time job for three years.
I designed and built the entire in-game map, the UI, and the combat system, including all the jutsu visuals. I also ran the monetization and business side. We raised a small friends-and-family angel round that funded a live service product shipping patches every 30 days for three years.
I brought together a team of 11 volunteer developers. None of them were paid. My job was giving them a space to express their creativity in service of something bigger than any of us could build alone.
Players explored a custom continent with original jutsu systems, clan mechanics, and open-world PvP. Over 56,000 players joined across five years.
The best parts were the days before each patch. We spent hours on calls together coordinating content, testing builds, arguing about balance. Then we would go live and sit in the game with players, watching them discover what we made. Talking to the community, reading their reactions, seeing people form friendships inside a world we built from nothing.
The original World of Warcraft-based codebase remains open source. The new Unreal Engine project is a standalone successor built for the next chapter of Shinobi Story.
Technology and disciplines
Project facts
- What is Shinobi Story?
- Shinobi Story began as an open-world Naruto MMORPG built as a custom live-service game on the World of Warcraft engine. It returned in August 2026 and is now being rebuilt in Unreal Engine as a standalone ninja MMORPG.
- Who created Shinobi Story?
- Vlad Shumov started Shinobi Story in 2019 as its solo founder, then led a team of 11 volunteer developers. He built the world map, UI, combat systems, jutsu visuals, monetization, and business operations. He assembled a small team for the Unreal Engine revival in August 2026.
- When did Shinobi Story return?
- Shinobi Story returned at the start of August 2026. A small team is already assembled to develop its next chapter as a standalone ninja MMORPG in Unreal Engine.
- How many people played Shinobi Story?
- More than 56,000 players joined Shinobi Story between 2019 and 2024, and the project generated more than one million impressions.
- How often did Shinobi Story release updates?
- The team operated Shinobi Story as a live-service game and shipped a patch roughly every 30 days for three years.
- Is Shinobi Story still available?
- The original project ran from 2019 through 2024, and its World of Warcraft-based codebase remains open source. Shinobi Story returned in August 2026 and its new standalone Unreal Engine version is now in development.
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