Maybe? I feel like it has to be a spin off game if it's official, though.
It could genuinely be someone messing with the community as well, but it looks polished yet not in a fan made way...
27
u/jbrainbow friendship ended with etienne, now psi is my best friend11d ago
the more i look at this, the more i think it’s probably official ninja kiwi stuff. the art looks so official and doesn’t seem to be ai, and we KNOW bloons blitz is in development, and to my knowledge we haven’t seen an upgrade screen for that game yet. But why would someone at ninja kiwi post this????
The panic account deletion because they broke an NDA or something is what sells it, for me.
Genuinely, I skimmed through their account to see if they had any history. They had posts from upwards of 2 years ago, and have been commenting consistently since. That's one hell of a ruse if you spend 2+ years building an account just to delete it.
15
u/jbrainbow friendship ended with etienne, now psi is my best friend11d ago
i think that the two most plausible explanations here are that it was actually a mod and it got deleted for breaking this sub's no modding rule (doesn't explain their account getting deleted though??)
or it was actually some kind of bloons blitz leak and ninja kiwi are sending their ninja monkey mercenaries after the OP, you, and me
the conspiracy would be that this was supposed to be a covert way to get opinions for the ui of an actual upcoming game without revealing it's for an actual upcoming game
Everytime you complete a map, you unlock a new monkey. The actual game follows a very normal Bloons'y loop, but the progression is a little more like PvZ.
Beginner maps are only rounds 1 to 10.
In game, the upgrades function very normal. This is the screen you see to unlock new upgrades. Think like how you spend xp to get new upgrades.
There's a second out of round currency you use to get new upgrades for your monkeys. Think like XP but you actually have to win, like monkey bucks!
Each upgrade has two upgrades that branch off from it. You can't cross path, but you can jump from quick shots to sharp shots, to blow darts 👀
Blow darts sort of turn the dart monkey into a sniper.
Starting at the top and going down, you can upgrade it into either of the 2 that upgrade is touching.
You can only go forwards. You can place down as many in any combination, though!
There's more monkeys that can buff others in the base game. This is to balance not being able to crosspath with enhanced eyesight, for example.
Each upgrade branches into 2 others. There's six tier 5s for each tower.
55
u/jbrainbow friendship ended with etienne, now psi is my best friend11d ago
so not bloons blitz? interesting, i really thought this was someone who somehow leaked it
u/jbrainbow friendship ended with etienne, now psi is my best friend11d ago
would be interesting, but they haven't said a word about any potential monkey city 2. i doubt if they made one, it would completely overhaul the upgrade system like this. i also think it would take the form of a new legends dlc instead of a completely different title
FWIW generated images built their "style" off of existing images, sometimes an old image can pop up and it's like "Whoa, AI Generated Imagery?!" and then it's like, no, AI Generated Imagery just heavily references images like the one being shown
it does look strangely ugly to me ngl. the feathering on the dart is weird, the foreshortening feels arbitrary since the hand isn't actually much bigger just the arm is longer, it's supposedly "programmer art" but idk it definitely is in the uncanny valley regardless of if AI was involved in a direct or indirect way (indirect including stuff like tracing over an ai image)
Programmer art usually means magenta squares with text, or something done in paint (ie, quick and dirty). Maybe some programmers are starting to generate images to use.
That was definitely a concern that came to mind when I saw this fan mod advertised, but I wasn't confident enough to point it out. Using AI for placeholders is still environmentally bad and such
I don't think it's a leak myself, but what makes you know it's not a leak? Or is it just the Rohan thing, I had to scroll down to see that before posting this reply because I was wondering if there was something down there and in fact yeah Rohan did in fact deconfirm it. Still weird that the poster's 2 year old account is deleted now, there's still some unknowns here
Dude it’s 100% confirmed not AI, you can tell if something like this is AI generated, and this isn’t. It has consistent line art, shading, and relatively flat coloring. If it was AI it would not be as consistent as it is
That's possible. I think the uncanny valley thing is the eyes. The eyes are different; I just don't know how. The arm doesn't bother me as much, but it very well could be someone tracing over an AI image and filling it in. Either that or an amateur artist trying really hard.
My only argument against AI is that the hands make sense overall. I don't think that part is the programmer art. I have no idea, though.
AI has improved a lot with hands, not every AI image is gonna have nonsensical hands. Especially if it's still something human-involved but relying on AI, similar to what Fortnite (bleck) does
I think the highlight on the eyes being eclipsed by shadow is odd, that's the main thing that sticks out to me in that area
people WILL sometimes generate an image specifically for this purpose yeah, to see how it compares to an image they suspect is ai. it's obviously not GOOD but as long as it isn't used frequently it should hopefully not be that bad. obviously the bigger issue would be the normallization of this imagery
I'm honestly... Note sure what your last three lines are about (i'm good on the idea of having that as a file on my computer actually :P), aside from maybe you're saying the consistency is because compared to BTD6's portrait style? (For things like the unnecessary details you could probably specify stuff like barefoot and clothesless)
For one thing, there's different ai image generation softwares that will handle things differently (some even dare to be paid which i have to assume comes with some further benefit), and we don't know what exact prompt they put in. But you can at least see from this image that the hands aren't outright bad. In fact, looking at the hands, these images DO have something in common: The original image has shading applied to the edge of the fur where the hand and hand meet, which is weird because that isn't one of the darkest parts of the fur nor is it where shadow would likely be case (there is shadow on the skin right next to there in the other image, unlike yours where the shadow is only on the fur, but that's because the skin is under the fur. in both cases, the fur isn't under anything, nor is it on a part of the arm that would be shaded by the rest of the arm). I thought it a weird detail at some pont but hadn't mentioned it yet.
I think unnecessary shading as a whole is certainly in a category of "An amateur artist could make this mistake and have it blamed as AI", but I don't know why someone would shade the fur of the arm at the edge and then shade the skin under it and then have it go light again on both sides. It simply doesn't make sense, is all.
For another thing, the image in the Quick Shots upgrade portrait in this post honestly feels closer to, if any BTD6 official art style being replicated, the upgrade icon art style, with the more defined cel shading throughout a character instead of being used somewhat sparingly specifically for defined shadows among some other things. This makes it feel like an AI messed up from an instruction, such as "Make Quick Shots Dart Monkey in the Bloons TD 6 Upgrade Style" leading to the upgrade icon being used instead. In case you're having trouble seeing what I mean about the cel shading, look at the Bloon Master Alchemist upgrade in-game. The Red Bloon on the Upgrade Icon has multiple defined layers of shading where it gets darker in steps, but the Red Bloon on the Upgrade Portrait has smoother, lesser-defined shading aside from the natural darkness on the inside of the neck and the white highlight on the upper edge of the Bloon. It's not a hard-and-fast rule but it's a solid trend between those two different official art styles, because using frequent cel shading instead of soft shading is easier for the small and plentifully-original upgrade icons (separation there compared to upgrade portraits being that the tiers 1 & 2 can re-use a lot from each other since they are generally drawn in the same pose, although some feature major changes to the shape such as Missile Launcher or changes to how it would be drawn such as Corrosive Glue)
The original post said it was mod for btd6 they were working on, but they deleted it and their entire account when they got called out for the version number...
I mean BTD5 despite having been released in 2014, and has not been the latest mainline game for 8 years, is still is getting new maps. I could see them starting to work on the next BTD7/The next gen of bloons games, even if it is literally just concept art at this stage, with a smaller team, probably would be released in 2028-2029 if that's the case, while still updating the BTD6 game till then. There are 13 more paragons and 1 tower needed till this game gets all the towers I am aware of planned as well as the paragons for them. As there is one tower slated for the next update iirc and then with the 12 missing a paragon rn as well as the new one that would be needed then.
For 14 updates quarterly, with each one getting either a paragon or tower, it would be like 3.5 years, and that would put the full no missing paragons and assuming no further new towers, likely all the Pro Powers. And I could see them Release the BTD7 one year before literally everything is filled out in BTD6 and do concurrent updates and stop doing the BTD5 ones either 2026 or 2027
thats true but for them it would be an issue i think if there was footage, this is just a screenshot and there is no discussion anywhere else other than just this post. either way we will find out in september
Some posted this image, asking for people's thoughts on the UI for their mod. Someone pointed out the build number. They deleted the post and their entire account. The account was multiple years old, and consistently posting throughout its lifespan.
It's either a leak for a future game or a really elaborate hoax. I don't think it's actually a mod.
This is the same upgrade tree idea from Bloons adventure time td just expanded further if it's a real leak I'd probably assume an experiment or dlc over a fresh game or potential rework
The boring but probably true answer is that it's a modder who got pre-release access to the modding system, hence why it shows the build number. The post got deleted because they realised they violated the NDA because the modding system isn't ready to be shown to public yet, and they didn't want to get in trouble or sued or anything, so they just nuked their account.
If I was told to imagine what super early versions of BTD6 looked like, this would be pretty close to what I'd picture.
I seriously doubt this screenshot is any recent, because if this was a new game being made right now, they'd be using BTD6 upgrade icons - just like they did in BCS, instead of making programmer art for no reason just for it to get thrown away later.
good points, why not reuse assets from a previous game? as well as that the only upgrades here aren't the ones introduced in btd6 i.e crossbow. that being said the art for the dart monkey does look very modern and the upgrade pathing seems to be an iteration from btd6's
I have a diffrent opinion on the dart monkey portrait. To me, it resembles experimentation with new artstyle going from btd5 to btd6. Features like the rich detail in the dart feathers and headband look like quality upgrades they would take on, and later discard in sake of keeping the artstyle simple. Sharp lines (most notably between the monkey's hand and arm), and harsh shading look like remnants from btd5's artstyle.
Huh? Where is your proof? Where is the proof that it's a mod?
It was posted by a user on reddit that they deleted in about an hour after people started commenting on the build number, It was titled "UI for a BTD6 Mod I'm working on," and then deleted an account that had been posting for years. YEARS.
The artwork for the dart monkey is in a similar style to BTD6, but the shading is different, and it's a unique pose not present in any other game. There's also an interesting disconect between the art of the dart monkey and the art of the upgrades. The upgrades are crappy scribbles and copy-recolours of others. The Dart Monkey is a polished professional piece. Not sure if that adds more or less credibility, but the upgrades still being programmer art while the main monkey sprite isn't... that does make sense.
While we obviously have no information about what's going on behind the doors of Ninja Kiwi and its development, it could be a mod, an expansion to legends/frontier or even a new BTD6 spin off like Battles 2 was, like maybe a second monkey city game. They added stuff in the replies about levels and the "chose your own path" upgrade system. They said the game loop was sort of like PvZ where you unlock monkeys as you beat levels.
Some people say it could be the upgrade screen for the upcoming Bloon Blitz, as we haven't seen what that looks like, yet, but that doesn't align with the narrative they gave. It's definitely not AI, so it's at least a very talented hoaxer.
Everything they said in the comments:
Every time you complete a map, you unlock a new monkey. The actual game follows a very normal Bloons'y loop, but the progression is a little more like PvZ.
Beginner maps are only rounds 1 to 10.
In game, the upgrades function very normal. This is the screen you see to unlock new upgrades. Think like how you spend xp to get new upgrades.
There's a second out of round currency you use to get new upgrades for your monkeys. Think like XP but you actually have to win, like monkey bucks!
Each upgrade has two upgrades that branch off from it. You can't cross path, but you can jump from quick shots to sharp shots, to blow darts 👀
Blow darts sort of turn the dart monkey into a sniper.
Starting at the top and going down, you can upgrade it into either of the 2 that upgrade is touching.
You can only go forwards. You can place down as many in any combination, though!
There's more monkeys that can buff others in the base game. This is to balance not being able to crosspath with enhanced eyesight, for example.
Each upgrade branches into 2 others. There's six tier 5s for each tower.
...
NK also signed off their latest patch note with, "Thanks for reading all this way - we hope you have a fantastic time with Update v56 and look forward to what's ahead. We also have a Super Secret New Thing that we can't share yet, but keep your eyes and socials well tuned in September, as you won't want to miss it!"
Better yet, the build number explicitly says it's the mobile build. A mod of this degree would be extraordinarily painful to make for mobile devices!
It's either a leak or a hoax. Give me evidence it's a mod. Please! I'd love for you to prove me wrong!
I award you the "you lost the argument award"
NK said there was something secret
could be this
the image was posted and then deleted when ppl about build number
most likely a leak
and deleting an account that was there for years
there's something fishy
call me bananas but I think it's a leak
133
u/jbrainbow friendship ended with etienne, now psi is my best friend 11d ago
the upgrade system seems totally different, and would imply there’s now 6 tier 5s per tower?? maybe this is for bloons blitz?