Hattori Kōsuke scaling a lantern-lit wall at night in Kizoku no Kage: Noble Shadows

Now in development

Kizoku no KageNOBLE SHADOWS

“Kill by stealth. Die with honor.”

A Tenchu-inspired stealth-action game set in feudal Japan. Play Hattori Kōsuke, shinobi of a secretive clan founded by Hattori Hanzo, and cut out the corruption that rules from the shadows — one silent blade at a time.

Wishlist on Steam See the game
Demo  Steam Next Fest · Feb 22 – Mar 2, 2027 Launch  May 2027 · PC 4,300+  wishlists and counting

The spotlight: a love letter to Tenchu, built for today

Two decades after the classic stealth series went dark, Noble Shadows picks up its creed. Infiltrate strongholds across twelve handcrafted missions — lantern villages, mountain fortresses, pirate-held ports, snowbound passes — gather intelligence, and eliminate the corrupt, unseen.

  • True light-and-shadow stealthDarkness is your armor. Enemy vision bends to the light, and every patrol can be studied, stalked, and ghosted.
  • Grappling-hook traversalRooftops, ledges, and walls are your roads. Cross each stronghold above the guards' eyeline.
  • Built for the controllerDesigned gamepad-first, the way the classics played — every prompt, every duel, tuned for your hands.
  • A clan with a creedServe Hattori Hanzo directly as a blade of the Kizoku no Kage — a clan so secret it answers to no one else.
Kōsuke pressed against a fortress wall beside glowing paper lanterns at night
12
Handcrafted missions
UE5
Built in Unreal Engine
May 2027
Launch on PC · Steam

The road to launch

Twelve missions, one demo, one night the clan steps into the light. Here is the path from here to release.

  1. Dec 2026

    Content lock

    All twelve missions locked. The demo build gets its final polish pass.

  2. Feb 1, 2027

    Demo lock

    The Next Fest demo is frozen, tested, and submitted to Steam.

  3. May 2027

    Launch

    Kizoku no Kage: Noble Shadows releases on PC via Steam.

Also from the studio

An earlier blade, still being forged — playable now in Early Access while development continues.

Samurai Fury — Blade of Vengeance title art: a masked samurai in ornate armor lit by teal and red light, beside the game's title lettering
Work in progress · Early Access

Play Shigemasa Katsuragi, a samurai of 16th-century Japan wielding the Kokoro-no-Kizu — the Blade of Vengeance, a cursed katana that holds back the Deadly Curse of the Mist eating at his bloodline, but grows stronger with every victory it claims.

  • Free-flow combat — chain devastating combos and precision strikes in fast, fluid swordplay.
  • Character progression — unlock new abilities, upgrade your gear, and sharpen your fury techniques.
  • Still growing — new levels, combat styles, and Curse of the Mist abilities are on the roadmap, shaped by player feedback.
Play it on itch.io

Tools

Tools from the studio, built for Unreal Engine developers. First up: AnimStitch.

In development · Coming to Fab

AnimStitchC++ UNREAL ENGINE PLUGIN

AnimStitch is an NLE-style timeline editor for animation. Drop clips onto the timeline, blend them into a single sequence, and keep full control of how they join — project-agnostic, and non-destructive by design: your source assets are never touched.

  • Timeline-first editing — drop clips end-to-butt, then drag to overlap for crossfade blends with Linear or Smoothstep curves.
  • Non-destructive trims — trim handles shape the edit without ever modifying the source clips.
  • Live preview — watch the blend in an embedded viewport, with scrub, as you build it.
  • Root-motion authority — for every merge, choose which clip's root motion continues.
  • Diagnostics on demand — ghost-preview and root-trajectory toggles for checking blends up close.
  • Batch mode & reopenable timelines — run a blend across clip sets, save the timeline as a reopenable project asset, and lean on full editor undo throughout.

$29.99 USD20% off at launch — $23.99

Notify me on launch
“Your honor is the last thing you will hold onto.”

As a shinobi of the Kizoku no Kage, your path is discipline, loyalty, and sacrifice. Failure is not an option. Dishonor is not acceptable.

One developer. No shortcuts.

Cybermash Interactive is the independent studio of Sherwin Espela — a veteran engineer who spent years building systems inside some of the industry's biggest teams before going solo to make the games he always wanted to play.

Noble Shadows is his debut commercial release: designed, engineered, and assembled by one pair of hands in Unreal Engine, and found by thousands of Tenchu fans entirely on their own — 4,300+ Steam wishlists with zero paid marketing.

  • Meta Reality LabsAnimation systems — contract
  • Unity TechnologiesLead Developer — contract stint
  • AmazonSoftware engineer — contract
  • Cybermash InteractiveFounder & solo developer

The blade is for hire

The same hands building Noble Shadows take on select contract work. Sherwin has shipped systems inside Meta, Unity, and Amazon on contract engagements — and now studios and indie teams can put that experience on their own project, from a single tricky system to a full vertical slice.

Contract & freelance Remote-first · Vancouver, BC UE5 · Unity · C++ · C# · Blueprint NDA-friendly
  1. 01

    Gameplay & Systems Engineering

    Unreal Engine 5 · C++ · Blueprint

    The hard, invisible work that makes a game feel right: stealth systems, grappling and traversal, combat frameworks, save and pause architecture. Noble Shadows' entire stack — built solo, shipping on Steam — is the proof of work.

  2. 02

    Enemy AI & NPC Behavior

    State Tree · Perception · Pathing

    Guards that patrol, suspect, investigate, and hunt — vision cones gated by light and shadow, hearing driven by player noise, alarm systems that pull a whole patrol down on you. Enemies players respect, not just dodge.

  3. 03

    Game UI & Technical Design

    UMG · HUD · Controller-first UX

    HUDs, menus, and interfaces engineered to be played, not just looked at — designed gamepad-first with clean implementation behind them. Sherwin's UI engineering background runs from shipped titles to being recruited for an Epic UI Technical Designer role.

  4. 04

    Animation Systems & Rigging

    MetaHuman · Control Rig · IK · Maya · Blender

    Animation systems work from his Meta Reality Labs contract days, backed by a Walt Disney Studios VFX background in Maya modeling and rigging: IK foot placement on slopes, control rigs, and characters that move like they mean it.

  5. 05

    Unity / C# Game Development

    Unity · C# · Tools & Gameplay

    Before Cybermash, Sherwin did a contract stint as Lead Developer at Unity Technologies — brought in as a contractor, not an employee. Gameplay features, editor tooling, and performance-minded C# — from the people who make the engine, for teams shipping with it.

  6. 06

    Agentic AI Tools for Game Dev

    AI Agents · Editor Automation · Local LLMs

    The newest edge of the studio: AI agents that work inside the Unreal pipeline — automating the repetitive parts of level building and asset work, running locally so your project (and your budget) stays yours. Early adopters welcome.

Have a system that needs building?Tell me about the project — scope, engine, timeline. One reply, no sales funnel.

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