Binary Helix
Knot, a small ninja in a straw hat, looks up at the Moss Oak, a wooden giant wrapped in violet thorns, towering over a ruined forest.

Rope Ninja

Small ninja.
Giant purpose.

A small ninja and his fairy free colossal living Titans with a rope. Hook, throw, tie and reel their own machinery until they heal.

Watch the reel Hear Knot and Tansy

In development for iOS, Android and PC. Looking for a publisher.

Game painting

The reel

Ninety seconds among giants.

In-engine footage, in-engine stills, the game's paintings and some generated key art, each labelled on screen. The voices are the game's own recorded lines. Captions are on screen, so it plays with the sound off.

The Titans

How big is a Titan?

Measured in Knots, in the game's own units, not drawn for effect. Knot stands 95 units tall. Each Titan is a body you climb and work inside.

Knot, a small boy ninja in a wide straw hat with a coil of golden rope.
Key art
This is Knot. 1 Knot.
  1. The Moss Oaktallabout 165 Knots
  2. The Brine Motherlongabout 148 Knots
  3. The Deep Sea Kinglong127 Knots
  4. The Driftlongover 100 Knots

The pale notch on each line is Knot, to scale.

The Moss Oak standing whole in his valley, his saw in one hand, a row of fruit trees at his feet and a hamlet far below.About 165 Knots tall
In-engineThe whole of the Moss Oak, in the game. Tap or click for full size.

Work in progress

The Moss Oak

He planted every tree in his valley. Now a violet growth called the Hush has taken his mind, and his own saw is cutting his forest down. Knot climbs him and turns his own machinery against the Hush. Mended, he rises again as the Storm Bough.

The Moss Oak kneels at sunrise, planting a sapling in a green valley.
Game paintingBefore the Hush: he planted every tree in his valley.
A torn wooden bough on the giant's shoulder, held together with taut golden ropes.
In-engineThe Storm Bough: a torn bough, splinted with rope.
The Drift, a brass sky whale with a walled city on her back, swimming above the clouds.Over 100 Knots long
In-engineThe whole of the Drift, in the game. Tap or click for full size.

Work in progress

The Drift

A sky whale with a weavers' city on her back, and a belly to be swallowed into. Her middle alone is over a hundred Knots long.

Inside the whale's red belly, golden ropes run from a brass valve to several fleshy chambers.
In-engineInside her belly: ropes run from a valve to every chamber.
Knot and Tansy leap out of a burst of spray into bright clouds beside the whale's tail.
In-engineOut of her and into the light.
The Brine Mother, a shell-and-brass creature with glass chambers, resting on the sea floor below a pier.About 148 Knots long
In-engineThe whole of the Brine Mother, in the game. Tap or click for full size.

Work in progress

The Brine Mother

A deep-sea Titan whose chambers fill and drain as she pumps. She is pumping the sea up a pipe into the harbour town above, and the water is at their doorsteps.

Inside the Brine Mother, water rising in a glass chamber beside a round brass hatch.
In-engineWater in her chambers, rising as she pumps.
A stone harbour town and pier above clear blue water, a long pipe leading down.
In-engineThe harbour town above her, with the pipe she pumps through.
The Deep Sea King, an anglerfish of black iron with a glowing violet lamp, his forge chambers lit inside him.127 Knots long
In-engineThe whole of the Deep Sea King, in the game. Tap or click for full size.

Work in progress

The Deep Sea King

A trench Titan built on a real liquid simulation of water, lava, oil, steam and obsidian. His forge heart still burns, deep in the dark.

A violet lamp on a curved stalk above the Deep Sea King's eye, with a rope stretched across.
In-engineHis lamp, and the long rope across to it.
Molten lava glowing in a chamber inside the Deep Sea King, beside his forge.
In-engineStill molten: the lava burned straight through the rope.

The game is not finished: four of twelve Titans are playable today, in test builds. Every Titan here is a work in progress, and every frame marked In-engine was rendered by the game itself, with the camera and inputs scripted for the capture.

Knot and Tansy

A friendship that talks back.

Knot says as little as he can. Tansy, the fairy he frees on the Moss Oak, says everything else. Every line is voiced and captioned. Press play.

Knot and Tansy sit together in the open palm of the Moss Oak at sunset, his huge wooden face smiling down at them.
Key artKnot and Tansy in the Moss Oak's hand, once he is himself again.
Nearly 5,000recorded voice lines (4,768 today)
4 h 27 minof speech
1,931lines for Tansy
1,520lines for Knot

How they meet

He has just reeled a Hush branch off her and set her free. 25 s

  1. TansyYou reeled it off! Like a fish! A big purple fish!
  2. KnotA cave taught me.
  3. TansyA cave. Of course it did. Are caves good teachers?
  4. KnotThis one was.
  5. TansyThe black stuff is still coming up out of the ground, you know. Into his leg.
  6. KnotThen we stop it.
  7. TansyI'm Tansy, by the way. And you're Knot. You look like a Knot.

After a swat

A Titan swats him off. Nobody gets hurt here, so they joke. 6 s

  1. KnotI meant to do that.
  2. TansyYou meant to fly upside down past a tree?
  3. KnotIt's a technique.

The song

Somewhere on the Moss Oak, between puzzles. 6 s

  1. TansyI'm going to write a song about you. It's called Small.
  2. KnotShort song.

Why help?

Climbing, with time to talk. 10 s

  1. KnotWhy are you helping me?
  2. TansyBecause you helped me. And because I'm bored. Mostly the first one.
  3. KnotMostly?
  4. TansyDon't push it.

The leaf

She notices something on his hat. 8 s

  1. TansyHold still. You've got a leaf on your hat.
  2. KnotWhere?
  3. TansyGone now. I ate it. Don't ask.

Waiting on the goo

A gate is set. Now the machine has to do its part. 10 s

  1. KnotNow what?
  2. TansyNow we wait. The goo has to hit the gate.
  3. KnotHow many times?
  4. TansyTwice, I think. Then pop.

A score for every Titan.

The Storm Bough

From his score, the resolution. 34 s

The Deep Sea King

From his score, the arrival. 34 s

Game audio, as it ships in the test builds. The voices, music and sound are generated with AI tools, then cast, cut, timed and mixed by hand; no voice imitates a real person. The rebuild we are asking a partner to fund recasts every voice with actors and every cue with a composer.

The rope

One rope. Every move.

Hook is the only verb, and everything hookable answers every follow-up, so trying things is the tutorial.

Tap

Hook

A golden thread takes hold of anything. Hook the air ahead and swing.

In-engine, scripted input

Swipe

Throw

Fling it, yank it, work it.

In-engine, scripted input

Hook a second thing

Tie

The two are joined, and the rope reels itself tight.

In-engine, scripted input

Tie them again

Untie

Tie the same two things again and the knot slips loose.

In-engine, scripted input

Hold

Reel

Wind the held thing in, whatever it weighs.

In-engine, scripted input

Why it is different

You never damage a Titan. You make it damage itself.

Inside the Moss Oak's head, violet thorns and red eyes, a rope of fire running toward them.
In-engineFire runs along a rope to the thorns on his brow.
The Moss Oak falls across his grove in a cloud of dust.
In-engineHis own saw takes his knee.
The Moss Oak's great wooden face on its side, his eyes glowing gold again.
In-engineThen his eyes turn back to gold.

The Deep Sea King

Water, lava, oil, steam, obsidian. Simulated, not animated.

The trench Titan runs on a mass-conserving liquid simulation. Where the liquids meet is the puzzle.

  • Lava and seamake obsidian and steam
  • Oil on waterfloats, and burns
  • Steam and coldcondense to rain
  • Obsidianis real stone to stand on
Inside the Deep Sea King's forge, lava glowing below brass valves and ropes.
In-engineHis forge heart, over the slag: Knot ties the selector to the quench.
A chamber of dark water with a line of flames burning on the oil at its surface.
In-engineThe oil gland: the sea lifts the oil to a spark, and it burns.

Puzzle design

The obvious move fails first. The machine finishes the job.

  • Failure teaches.Tie the saw arm to his flank and the rope snaps: the Hush gear drives it too hard. Weaken what drives it.
  • Cause and effect, never magic.A furnace lights because something fanned it. A door opens because something pulled it.
  • The Titan does the work.Tie a load to a turning drum and the giant lifts it for you.
A pail of sap hanging from a rope, winding up toward a torn wound in the giant's mossy shoulder.
In-engineThe Storm Bough: a pail of sap tied to his drum, winding up to his wound.

How it is made

Made by one developer, said plainly.

Rope Ninja is designed, directed and edited by one developer, Linh Ngo. Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 writes most of the code, under direction and review. The painted art, every voice, the sound effects and the music are generated with AI tools (OpenAI image models and Asset Yard, our own asset tool), then selected, cut apart, rigged, animated and mixed by hand.

Nothing is generated while you play, and no voice imitates a real person.

The ask

A publishing partner for iOS, Android and PC, with funding to replace every AI-made media asset (art, voices, music and sound) with work by human artists, actors and composers, plus QA, localization and launch marketing. The IP stays with us. Launch about 24 months after funding.

Email linh@binaryhelix.dev The pitch deck (PDF, 7 MB)

Test builds, on request

  • AndroidGoogle Play internal testing. Send the Google account email to add.
  • iOSTest build on request.
  • PCWindows build. Download link on request.

Linh Ngo, President and CEO
XP.COM, LLC dba Binary Helix
linh@binaryhelix.dev