'Being smaller allows us to push hard into a niche and be confident that we'll sell well into that niche and still make a profit. 'There are so many interesting ideas, but only a few can sustain a huge AAA budget,' Cheng says. Vancouver-based Klei Entertainment is focused on making smaller games that can appeal to a niche audience rather than trying to shoot the moon with AAA blockbusters. But the stealth option is always the most satisfying, especially when you manage to succeed. Using throwing knives to take out spotlights, or noise makers to distract guards while your ninja slips into the shadows before grappling up to the next perch, takes more time than simply slitting a few throats. It took a lot of experimentation to allow players to feel like a badass ninja while at the same time feel the risk of being exposed.'

'For example,' Cheng says, 'at one point we had some pretty cool martial arts mechanics where you could counter the enemy's attack, but this rewarded players for playing aggressively, which was decisively not something we wanted. The trick Klei encountered was in making players feel like they were playing a dangerous ninja whose best option was nevertheless the path of least resistance.

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