Mr. Shifty Devs Tackling Frame Rate Issues After Initially Suggesting You Should Pick Steam Over Switch

Wow, that is no way to answer such questions. Very unprofessional. Wasn't aware of these framerate issues, will most definitely hold out on buying for now.

That's some Sean Spicer level PR going on right there!

Not experienced any issues with my playthrough. Mind you only played the game undocked.

Trolololol!

Oh, bad framerate! Mister Shifty is jumping all over the place, oh that's on purpose?!

I think they really should have thought out a better way to answer those questions. The fact that they don't directly answer the questions and said to try the steam version makes me feel uneasy. Especially since I was considering buying the game but I'm not so sure anymore.

It looks like a very easy issue to fix, the switch is more then powerful enough to run this.

I would suggest the Devs take a look at the builds and make sure the game is actively setting everything that is out of view to being un-rendered. I've had issues baking that stuff in and it makes a 1000% difference when it is working correctly.

They are just gave indie Developers a bad name :/ kind of irresponsible replies

Okay first Kickstarter now this okay thats cool.

Why do other devs keep killing any faith in how Im going to fund and now the engine Im using to make a game with this fanbase?

I habe been enjoying Mr Shifty, the frame rate isnt bad at all. That being said, saying the equivalent of "Yeah well if my games rubber Zelda is glue!" is unprofessional and really quite pathetic.

Team "Shifty"? Doesn't that say it all already??

@ATZW1980 Indie devs already had a bad name. Remember, for every 1 high profile successful title from a nice dev, there ar eliterally thousands of shady ones.

Somebody was too quick to the keyboard here. Mr. Shifty looks like a cool game I may pick up at a later date... Hope the devs have a handle on their social media team by then.

Remember that Even my wallet stutters when I open it to get my card out to pay for your piece of rubbish game

I hope they fix this game, I was looking forward to it.

@Kienda i love sean spicer!

Even with two Gaming PC's I would personally not buy this sort of game on Steam as I have TONS of other games there and this one would never see playtime there. The entire reason I want it on Switch is the fact I can play it on the go no matter where I am. Were it only available on Steam by way of example I likely would not have given the game the time of day.

@GrailUK you can still play it right now. it's not like it's unplayable or anything like that

Oh dear! The only way to undo damaging PR like that is to produce a patch remedying the late-game framerate issues sharpish.

This type of thing can snowball extremely quickly, and before you know it, your potential Switch sales have halved. If it were my company, I'd even issue a statement saying that these Tweets were not representative opinions of Team Shifty.

As someone who bought Mr. Shifty at launch, this leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. Here's hoping tinyBuild can back their promises up with tangible results!

Was going to pick this up next week with a few other indie games. Even if the frame rate isn't bad, I don't like that answer at all. SKIPPED.

Steam version lol, sure let me just shove my PC into a book bag and try to play your game on-the-go while looking like a ghostbuster.

Is the stuttering when the game just entirely stops for half a second, or is that an actual feature (like stopping for weapon selection?)?
As I don't remember anything like that while playing Zelda?

Phew, needed a reason not to give them my money, and lo and behold, it presented itself.

Mr. Shifty seems like a great game, which I'll probably pick up in 15 patches and on a sale. On the Switch, which is where I always intended to get it. Suck Fteam.

@ChessboardMan Stutters during Zelda were very rare, and only really occurred if you were running around in the tall grass on great plateau during the beginning of the game, or in the Korok Forest which was nibelsnarfed royally at launch. They fixed it mostly now, so nothing much should be noticed while playing. I'm guessing you didn't visit Korok Forest / Lost Woods if you didn't notice stuttering xD Either way, didn't hamper the experience to me.

Perhaps it would be good practice for newer, smaller studios to have their designers and programmers actually play some games before getting too deep into creating their own. Two relevant titles that come to mind are F-Zero X and Star Wars Episode I: Racer, both for the N64. The latter game had much more detailed graphics for the time, with more complex environments, lighting and weather effects, but it's the 'uglier' F-Zero X that still impresses today with 30 racers at a time bombing along at 60 fps. Then of course there was F-Zero GX on the Gamecube, which managed to do the same thing WITH all the extra graphical bells and whistles, but the point is devs need to get their priorities straight early on; does it need to look pretty or play well, and should it make the most of a powerful PC, or run comfortably on consoles and/or mobile devices.

Stupid response. I'll wait for the patch or eventual sale maybe. Maybe.

@Blizzia Well I certainly won't be purchasing any games released by them now.

There's a game I won't be purchasing

Terrible response.I'll be spending my money elsewhere.

@Blizzia I noticed bad slow down in the forest, but not actual pauses of frame rate like in that video for Mr Shifty. Unless those only happened in Docked mode? Mostly played undocked.

Until the day of its release, I was considering buying it right away, but on launch I thought about it, and decided to check Metacritic first. None of the early reviews seemed that impressed with the game, describing it as really short, so I decided to wait.

Sounds like some very shifty devs. Definitely won't be picking this up now.

I'll pick this up in a few weeks, hopefully it's fixed by then.
They deserved to be rewarded for supporting Switch.
Sure their response initially was terrible but they apologised.
To skip the game because of bad PR will only hurt the Switch fanbase as low sales equates to less support.
It's a vicious circle but this game has got fairly good reviews and regardless should be bought based on that, not what some idiot said.
Skip it and they might skip any future sequels on Switch because of bad sales.
I don't agree with what was said, but they have cleaned it up and should be applauded for admitting their mistake.
Hell, Project Cars was a sham, and they still haven't admitted to bs'ing Wii U supporters, these guys at least released the game and owned up.
Just my 2 cents.

How these small indie studios don't think before they start engaging with the public is beyond me, but then again it's not just limited to the small indies, we've seen it happen with big devs as well.

This is extremely reminiscent of the devs behind Project Cars and their open mocking of Nintendo fans on Twitter after announcing the cancellation of the Wii U version. "Buy a real console" and whatnot.

And much like that game, I also will not be buying this one, even though I had planned to do so. Horrible PR just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

How to piss off a fan base 101.

I was on the fence about picking this one up. I'm off that fence now. Lots of other games to play.

Seeing how Nintendo now sells all somftware on the idea that save data is completely individual from the game, some improvement to the Switch specific Unity build will automatically help, in that owner can download a newer and more optimized build, instead of a patch.

Sure, it will take a little longer to download, but at least you can still use your save data, and it's less of a platform specific technical hurdle to developers.

And this is why developers shouldn't do their own PR.

Ouch! Probably the worst way to handle this...

@Blizzia Better fix that swearing in your post before a mod does. 😉

Crapping on a game that not only has tremendously positive reviews but also has a better than 100% attach rate in sales is not the best way to go about handling things.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath...

It was really an unfortunate choice of words (about the Steam comment) but we don't know the exact reason why the couldn't get the game running properly (even though those whom have bought it say is OK). One thing is certain, they are releasing a game on the Switch early on and sometimes is not that easy to have a game running perfectly. Remember the other developer saying that Nintendo didn't provide them with a developer unit? Maybe these guys received late into the game developing.

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt: maybe they were tired, maybe they were pissed of at Nintendo, or maybe they didn't catch the bug in time and are hard at work on a patch.

Some devs shouldn't have twitter privileges

@Kienda Spicer Uppercut!

I was going to download this soon but I will hold off on it for now.

Well he isn't wrong. But the game doesn't look good, even on Steam.

Well, they lost my purchase, that is for sure.

And that sealed the deal on me ever purchasing this at all...well done!

I might not agree with how they answer to complaints but this framerate drops baffles me. I am at stage 16 and I have had no framerate drops what so ever. I have seen some glitches but the glitches made the game easier instead of harder.

Oh well at least there are more indie games coming. Wonderboy is coming out soon. Looks like the developers are going to give the fans of the original what they want. I haven't played the original but the game looks fun.

Hopefully the team behind Mr Shifty will have a pr department that handles things better. "I can assure you our team is looking for a solution to framrate issues and will patch it at a later date."

That would have been a better answer than buy elsewhere.

@rab103 Yeah their way of handling things is sad...

@ChessboardMan actual pauses usually only happened if you attempted a major boss fight like at the volcano after having played for a while at max brightness undocked or just played a while docked, and used max particle stuff like explosive arrows vs the boss. VERY rare.

@flapjackashley2 A mod can fix it if they wish, I don't care one bit. I even changed the first letters of the words on purpose to see how long it'll take them to babyfy my post. We'll see. If ya can't handle a single written explicit word, ya can buy a bunker and a tin foil hat.

It's weird - I'm super sensitive to frame rate issues. In fact, I've said time and time again I would much prefer an uglier game if it meant it ran with not frame rate drops...

But for some reason, they just didn't really bother me in this title. I found the drops in Zelda to be much more jarring. You know how in some games, when you attack things, the frame freezes for a split second to indicate you hit them? It kind of felt like that to me in this game. Near the very end of the game, there was a level or two where it really bothered me, but overall, I don't think it impacted my enjoyment of the game.

Switch and studder or studder and Switch? Lol.. Developers be like, Whatever, as long as we get those sells and patch it later as we go..

I see why some complain. But coming from the days of Colecovision, or even the NES era, I'm use to it. Nintendo's quality wavers from time to time also.

It's like how doctors make the worst patients. Developer teams make the worst PR teams. You are automatically biased toward your labor of love.

Where's the review for this? Do NL not get advanced copies anymore?

This game wasn't really on my radar anyway. So I guess you could say, bad news is better than no news. That being said, I'm still not likely to buy this game after the piss-poor PR management.

I was on the fence about buying this game, but after reading the dev's twitter comments I am no longer interested. I'll put my money elsewhere. There are lots of new and interesting games coming out.

Aww man I was so close to buying this now I'll pass.

@pattybean oops then I finished reading the article (stopped at the get it on steam) and now realise they weren't being total jerks. I'll wait for the patch then decide.

Well, I bought this on day one, before I found out about the frame rate issues. I don't mind though as I am really enjoying it, it's a very good game non the less.

"its better than nothing"

Remember that this really huge open world game with millions of object variables, plot flags and several gigs of texture resolution mapping stutters. So keep that in mind when you ask our framerate issues. But you can buy the other version because we put out a poor product. Oh you might not have a pc? um sucks to be you?

I swear does no one know how to be professional anymore? Why would you even say what they did? What does Zelda have to do with ANYTHING? Just apologize for the product issues and say that you are working on a patch ASAP. You don't need a PR person to tell you how to do this. Aye yai yai, I hadn't picked this up yet and I'm a little less inclined to. Sounds like the dev doesn't like to take responsibility. I know they issued a retraction, but you get one first time impression and it is crucial. After that it becomes an uphill battle. I'll wait for reviews now. I think I'll go ahead and pick up snake pass.

EDIT: Between the dev's comments and the posters in this comment section telling people that they are over reacting about how to spend their money, I'm out. Dev is going on my ignore list.

Yikes! And I was seriously considering a purchase, too.

This kind of stuff is why I wait for reviews. Hopefully Monster Boy fares better.

People take this kind of thing way too personally.

Wow. Blame Unity, snipe Zelda...? Zero class.
Small devs need a PR/social media person more than most. I understand the situation but these comments really turned me off. Plently of goodness on Switch, I can wait til they fix thier game.

I would SUE THE POOP OUT OF THIS COMPANY, Indie Dev or not this is no way to run a professional business.... Your product is inferior to a PC version so you don't put the work into it but basically toss all blame on the consumer who bought your product and suggest that they should buy it on STEAM is how their tweets read??? WHAT??? Nibelsnarfing Sue them.

Well that jerk just cost them a sale from me. Horrible PR.

The fellow from TinyBuild almost got me to change my mind, but I'll be getting Wonder Boy instead. I know this is a small, new team, but they clearly need to learn a lesson about how to interact with potential customers.

Korok Forest doesn't requite twitch reflexes to play,
this game does.

Wow people are being way too harsh. I think the point of his reply was that even a Nintendo launch game dropped to 0 fps at times, meaning that even Nintendo didn't have a complete handle on their new console before it was released. I liked Mr Shifty and felt it was worth the money. There are some minor issues with it but its a first game from a new dev team and it is super fun.

Well, I have been on the fence with this game and now I am not interested. Nice response from who are suppose to be professional people. It will be on sale someday and I'll think about it then.

The person handling social media aspects of this company should be fired on the spot... Those are responses typical of a 12 year old videogame troll and not a professional company selling a product to consumers, pathetic how some devs have become.

So far? Not really that I can tell. It's been quite enjoyable, though I'm only in area 2 with that 'find the key to the elevator' deal. It must happen later on.

It's an action game that requires reflexes. It can not stutter. Even before the patch, Zelda frame rate drops are almost nonexistent until the final blow in combat with a moblim. And since it was prob an issue with wifi since I never saw an issue playing in handheld on airplane mode, which is how I play a lot. The trailer almost made me get this but $15 is a lot for most indie games. Especially when the gameplay isn't solid. Imagine if Mario had framerate issues. Jumping and timing are everything in a game like this. Heck, even dark souls (insert #) had framerate issues that were worse then anything I've expierenced with Zelda.

@brutalpanda

Jerk - Noun
2ND definition -informal-
a contemptibly obnoxious person.

I felt this way about how he handled the situation

@Nintendolife, you're doing a great job at taking this out of context and spinning it into unprofessionalism with that title. There was nothing wrong with what the dev said and was actually being nice. Its not easy being a dev and you're taking advantage of a brand new one that made a fun game for the Switch which is devoid of games. Shame on you

@brutalpanda

Then why are you here if you think this is a "pathetic community?" If a developer is going to support a system, then they need to actually support it. Telling a customer to go buy a different version of the software is not professional at all.

@spawn1210 suing is a BIT extreme. That seems to be a lot of peoples answer these days to stuff. "I don't like what you just said, so I'm going to sue you!" Come on, that is just too extreme.

I can't believe there's that much of a framerate issue, with that particular graphical style. Or at least, nothing graphical that's causing it.

I'm no 3D-whizz. I stick strictly to 2D games. But even in 2D you could do a nice tilemap and some sprites.
Scale that up to 3D.. Textures for floors and walls.
Animated models, some nice explosion/particle effects.

... either they've grossly over-poly'd those models, or the main game code (physics, logic, etc) is what's causing it.
If that's the case, then perhaps all the graphical power of the Switch is plenty enough, but we actually need more CPU power..

@WhiteTrashGuy because I have the right to say that maybe? I'm surprised so many are bashing this new dev for releasing a fun game that has some dropped frames. He suggested getting the steam version because the twitter user kept whining about having the fix in on that Friday. The fix is not coming Friday on switch but you can get the steam version. Wow such a jerk for suggesting to get the game on another platform if they are not happy with the state of the version on this platform. Yeah lets sue them etc. etc.. Surprised people acting this way in this community

@brutalpanda

He should have led with that, then. Instead he starts by comparing their game to a sprawling open world title, basically saying the Switch just has frame rate issues. I work in public relations and I would never blame a business partner for our product's issues; which is what he did. I don't care if they are a small company. Professionalism is not bound to a company's age. Get a better social media rep.

@WhiteTrashGuy but he's not blaming Nintendo or attacking their game. He's simply saying even their launch title has dropped frames and sometimes it goes to 0fps meaning if the console maker has a hard time making a launch title run smoothly, then its even harder for this tiny team to get it all perfect on time because it's new tech. People took it out of context and thought he attacked their precious game (which I love) but that's not what happened at all. Its a case of hardcore fanboyism. Calling them jerks and some people saying they should get sued. Its very immature imo but Nintendolife is kinda adding fuel to the fire with their title and caption.

Looks like a old free pc game we used to play at school, I rather play Zelda.

Take it easy guys. They are a team of four and I'm sure they'll work to make the game the best it can be on Switch. If they weren't Nintendo fanboys they wouldn't have worked so hard to get the game out on Switch as a timed exclusive.

@WhiteTrashGuy I agree with some of your points. As a business owner, I would not say those things to my clients nor my customers. If the game has issues, it's probably best to admit to them and say that you are working towards a solution. It reflects poorly on you to highlight the flaws of other products to (no pun intended) shift some of the heat off your own.

@brutalpanda also has a point. I will say this though: while context is key, a better worded statement would have eliminated any false assumptions like what we are having on this board. tinyBuild Games would have better served themselves with a more neutral answer.

EDIT: I'd also like to state that I am not offended by tinyBuild Games' statement. I understand they are a small company and everyone makes mistakes. I hope they are able to turn this tiny niggle into a positive and continue to develop games.

@SomeWriter13 yeah, nowadays with social media if one person takes it out of context then many others will too. Everybody has to be careful with their words on Twitter

This is just sad...
Well I didn't want that game anyway I guess

Well here's one dev that won't be welcomed back by nintendo. Suggesting people to just "buy the steam version" and dancing around other questions tells me they have little confidence or motivation to fix performance issues.

You can't use the "we have a small team, we're not familiar with the tools" argument anymore. One guy worked on Stardew Valley and updated it constantly.

lol

And these guys have the gall to demand almost AU$20 for this piece of crap.

Horrible PR lol

Look at all the frame rate whores trying to ruin a developers reputation. Then you guys wonder why devs are skeptical about releasing their content on Nintendo platforms.

Been playing the game and loving it. The HD Rumble feels great and the gameplay is satisfying. It seems like the frame rate is better in handheld mode but even when it acts up in docked mode it isn't that bad in my opinion. Glad to hear that the devs are working on a patch though. The game is number 7 on the best sellers list on the eshop so the chronic complainers are a vocal minority.

@brutalpanda Nothing was taken out of context. Their responses WERE unprofessional. I don't care how small they are: making excuses for releasing a subpar product is unacceptable in any professional setting.

All they needed to say was: we're aware of the issues, and we're working on a patch to address them, instead of snidely remarking that they should get the game on Steam instead.

More people would be forgiving, I think, if the devs had accepted personal responsibility in the first place instead of blaming the platform they were releasing on.

Moral of the story: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And don't blame the kitchenware when you end up burning the food.

@Ralizah

Nicely said. Everyone seems to think the negative comments aregarding bashing the game and developer. That's not the case. I really want MR. SHIFTY and frame rate does not bother me at all. I am much more put off by screen tearing. The issue is the way the user's question was responded to. It put a bad taste in my mouth, thus putting me off of buying their product. Simple as that.

Aww man,im a huge night crawler fan! (Was hoping to us my imagination while playing me shifty,...That's double imagination!)

It's crazy the new super console can't play simple indie games...

@WhiteTrashGuy Yeah. It's unfortunate that it launched with these issues, but MOST PEOPLE are surprisingly patient if you acknowledge your mistakes and seek to rectify them. What people don't like are smarmy devs shifting the blame to Nintendo when they're confronted with performance issues.

I'll probably pick up Mr. Shifty if its issues are ever patched.

Bleah ... what's that ?

I think this is getting way overblown. Team Shifty can't magically snap a finger and fix the framerate so, at the time of the tweet, recommending the Steam version was practical for anyone sensitive to FPS. They are a small team so they clearly did not want to get caught making promises they couldn't keep. What else should they say? Some lip service?

That said, they made the wrong choice with regards to fidelity/performance. Granted they were likely going balls to the wall to release on Switch with PC. However, the later levels lag far too frequently and they must've known that experience skirted the fringe of acceptability. They seem to gave chosen the easy way out because with some careful nips and tucks I'm pretty confident the perfomance would be fine. Obviously Mr. Shifty is not the type of game to get notably docked for a less attractive port...

@flapjackashley2 "Didn't want it taken in a bad way? Pick a better choice of wording."

But that's the thing, you already made the mistake, you can't turn
back in time and choose better words. Everyone has made this kind of mistake at some point of their life. Dont get me wrong I agree with you and @Ralizah about it being handled poorly and very unprofessional but @Brutalpanda also has a point, people are ovearreacting too much.

To be fair, what they said isn't something insulting as some people are handling it (implying that they somehow insulted Nintendo fans) and making the Steam suggestion was clearly just a dumb attemp of a joke. As they said they are a small team, ad they probably lack someone capable of dealing with customer feedback. They also never said that their game was comparable to Zelda, only that even the best game on the console, with such a good team, presents these kind of problems. Yeah, it's also a much larger game in every aspect, but as I said, it has a gigantic team with a lot of talent behind it.

@Brutalpanda I get your point, but please try to express it while being respectful.

it was this or snake pass. I picked up snake pass. Now those developers sound nice.

@Ralizah that's exactly my point. You said they "snidely" said something. You took it out of context already. It was a suggestion with a smiley face telling the user that they can get the Steam version if they are unhappy with the fps drops. The smiley face was actually to avoid being snide.

That's the type of exchange that irresponsible reporting makes 10x worse, unfortunately. I'm glad Nintendo Life posted the whole twitter exchange but... even then people don't pay attention to context.

It was a bit unprofessional but also direct and conversational. This is what customers continually say they want (just TELL us... ) and then when they get it, they pounce on them for being idiots and taking their money somewhere else. lol. There are reasons to be "political" that are far from nefarious.

@roy130390 yeah I will next time. Was really surprised at the response from the community. People calling them jerks, saying they should be sued, they should give refunds, people saying they won't buy the game now. Its kinda pathetic for a reaction and I dont think saying so is disrespectful. I bought the game and loved parts of it, I was over it by the last level but it was damn fun and I got everything I wanted from it and hope they develop another one with additional features from the money they get from this one.

@brutalpanda yeah I don't get it. Buy the game or not, give it a bad review if you bought and think the frame rate is such a big deal. But you'd think by the comments here the developer killed these peoples pets.

@Morph "FFXV would never be able to run on Switch" "Have you tried working with the dev kit?" "No not yet" -Square Enix.

And then we have the highlight reel of EA WiiU comments from 4 years ago. Honestly the Shifty team sounds like a cut above.

The game still looks like a b-grade phone game, though. No idea how they're seeing such technical difficulty.

@electrolite77 What are your impressions of the game so far?

I'm inclined to say that this was just someone being too quick on hitting reply, and not really thinking about a potential fallout. I do think some on here are being a bit too harsh.

I agree it was certainly not a good thing to say, but an apology was issued, so I hope some people are willing to not let that alone warrant their purchase or lack thereof.

@Ralizah Just get the PC version. Why are you ganging up on the devs?! It isn't their fault! You act like they made the game or something. Wait I'm sorry I said that. You still wanna buy it right?

Do I sound like I can get a job in their PR department?

"Hey, your game has some weird animation glitches."

"Well, remember, even Mass Effect has animation glitches..."

@brutalpanda Winky face, actually. Telling a customer: "There's always the Steam version " comes off as snide and dismissive to me. Is it the effect they were going for? I don't know. It's the impression I got, though, and I'm willing to bet a lot of people got that impression as well. And that's a failure in terms of PR.

@CaptainRainbow Go apply for a PR position with them, right now, right now! They NEED you! I am looking forward to wonderboy though.

@Ralizah Your latest comment in a nutshell sums this situation up. If you produce a product you are in competition with other product producers to earn the money and goodwill of customers. Devs seem to forget there is always a third option: give your hard earned money to someone else.

@Ryu_Niiyama Considering you apologized in the same message, I don't think you're sufficiently contemptuous enough of your audience to do good PR work for a Western indie dev. You really gotta let people stew in your words first before you try to back-peddle.

@Ryu_Niiyama They need to spend some time at the Official Reggie School of PR: "Now what I can say about that, is that we strive to bring you the very best games, the very best experiences that we can provide, and to create family memories that will last a lifetime. Now those other guys, maybe they have systems that are pushing 15, 20, 25 FPS, and that's phenomenal, but that's just not what we're about. We're not interested in numbers and measurements. We're interested in bringing the kind of fun people expect from us. And if we can do that with 5, 10, 12 frames, at the end of the day, I think we've accomplished the goal of delivering an experience fans will never forget."

So much better than their PR guy....

@Ralizah Not the impression many others got. Its really not a big deal, people taking this too far. When have you ever sent a winky face as a snide comment? Maybe that's your thing but I guess I didn't see it as snide because I only use it in light hearted remarks

@Ralizah LOL, so true. Then again, no western dev is half as contemptuous of the audience as Hideki Kamiya. Now that's a master course in flipping off your fans and still collecting their money.

@brutalpanda Riiight, that NEVER happens. You fell off the turnip truck, when exactly?

(j/k...couldn't resist )

@NEStalgia @Ralizah Hahahahaha, happy Monday guys. Great responses!

@brutalpanda Not to get into the middle of this, so please pardon me. However you just contradicted yourself. How can people not have gotten a negative impression but they are over reacting? More accurately, you weren't bothered by their responses and that is fine. However others were (myself included) and that is also fine. Both groups can vote with their wallets and word of mouth. No over reaction in sight. (well unless folks start hurling death threats and suing...the former is never acceptable and the latter is a waste of time)

@brutalpanda Oh sure, people never use winky faces when they're being snide or sarcastic.

Seriously, though, this was a clear PR failure. Not the end of the world. At least they're apologizing and acknowledging their mistakes now.

@NEStalgia Gotta love how Reggie has to spin whatever stupid decision the honchos in Japan make. The man could probably sell ice to an Eskimo.

I bought the game and have been having a good time with it despite the drops in FPS, which can be really bad, but still playable. However, after reading the devs response I regret my purchase. I really want to support all the indie developers on Switch, but responses like this are going to turn a lot of people away.

What losers. Comparing Zelda to this crap?! Get real.

So glad I spent my money on R-Type III the Third Lightning on SNES instead of on this.
I mean, R-Type III has slow-down, but instead of killing me it is sometimes the only thing that keeps me alive! hahaha

@MegaMari0

Good point, especially saying they CHOSE to leave the frame-rate issues (rather than leave stuff out....) that tells me three things:

1. I thought maybe it didn't show in their testing, but it did and they hoped no one would care?

2. They are not talented programmers maybe? The Zelda comparison (which seems prepared ahead of time "hey if anyone complains.... Zelda you know?") - has way more content and physics going on so I can't imagine more skill or more time couldn't deliver full content AND better framerate.

3. Another third party rushing their Switch entry to cash in before the real games arrive??? An ill omen...

The devz response to purchase the Stream version and Zelda comparison was unprofessional and irrelevant. No one cares how small their team is, the staff count for many indies is fairly small in number.

You take responsibility for the products you make. They're either talented enough to improve performance or not, but man-up.

Don't sell your own product short, son. You're only beating yourself up.

Why are they trying to blame Unity? I Am Setsuna runs fine. Sounds like they didn't optimize their code. Regardless of if these guys ever put out a good game, I'll pass just because of the Jackassery responses from their dev. I'd rather support a dev that can own their mistakes and fix them rather than pushing the blame.

"Remember that even Zelda, a game with much more visual fidelity, which seamlessly streams a gigantic open world with next to no boundaries which also simulates several real time effects such as interactive foliage reacting to gusts of wind, the player or even the weather. Yeah, even THAT stutters !"

Yeah, your loss my friend, not ours.
Its baffling how many indie devs have such an unprofessional attitude these days.
No one ever died from admitting that you simply aren't as good as you thought.

Well it don't matter, afterall MK8 and Splatoon are incoming. Let's face it this game won't get a look in when they arrive, actually that goes for most games. If you haven't played Splatoon before believe me it's gonna suck you in to the point of unputdownable status,

I think it needs to be said that if you read the actual twitter chain the person asking Team Shifty about framerate has since replied more and was apologizing for drawing so much attention.

There are worse things to get upset about, but wanted this on Switch for on-the-go and meant to download this week. Then I see tweets about how there is a framerate problem. Then I see the dev tweeting to just buy the steam version. Really inspires confidence in me just saying.

I'm glad tinybuild intervened and said a patch was coming. But I still think I'll just get Shovel Knight on my Switch for now and see if the patch comes. Maybe a sale, too.

The real question is:

After you see the frame rate stutter, can you unsee it?

I'll buy this game if they fix the framerate issues. It's certainly not a game that should have those problems on any modern hardware; heck, the Wii U should be able to run this game! In any case, I was disappointed with the answers from the dev team, but if they put their efforts into resolving the technical issues, I'll still back them with a purchase.

Sounds to me like they have thrown this out there to capture some of that unspent cash floating about, due to the lack of launch titles...meaning if you can only spend your cash on 1 of 10 ESHOP titles apose to 1 of 200 titles. That's a 1in 10 chance they'll get sales.

@Kienda I think you meant to say Josh Earnest.

I'm so happy I did not buy this game...

The best part is that most of BotW's issues were fixed in a Day 1 patch. Same for another game that I won't mention here due to a meaningless, heated debate.
Mr. Shifty? No guys, it's OK! A 30GB game may have had some frame rate issues, so it's alright that our much smaller game has them.
I like TinyBuild, but this is probably their worst case of PR yet.

@subpopz true but that wasn't their attitude, the first thing they said was "we're doing everything we can" and suggested buying the steam version because he said he wants to give them money on Friday and buy the product but not if it has fps drops. The whole thing was attacked by ignorant fanboys.

@subpopz I seriously doubt that is the attitude of the people that worked hard to create this game and bring it to Switch, and whose livelihood comes from this game's success on all platforms. People are deciding to read a LOT into one semi-flippant Tweet from whoever happened to be logged into their PR Twitter account at the time.

Damn i downloaded this game yesterday. Hope it gets fixed so ill wait before ill play. Well i dont care for the zelda comment.

Wow, what the hell. I gave this a positive review even with framerate issues in mind, but you would think a top-down perspective game taking place on confined linear areas would run in sixty frames on the Switch. I can only see this excuseable if it was on the original DS or something.

@maceng I completely agree. Most people are too quick to insult or question developers before getting the full story.

Frame rate issues aside my perceived value of this game is more like $7.99-9.99 max.. Right now it very bare bones. It literally a campaign and your done. Not one other single mode.. It's fun but there is little reason to visit other than dying less per level. No grades per level no combos no collectables.. It's fairly disappointing that a game like this doesn't have this. It would definitely extend it's repeatability. That's most disappointing than the frame shifts..

Team shiffty there is always steam version

my reply to Team shiffty there is always different games & developers.
I was interested in this buy but old man disease now & just dont put up with Cr%$^%p any more. Lots of competition for my spare time & money so my advice spend less time on social media shooting yourself in the foot & make sure the game works before you release it.

@Smug43 I agree, the real problem with this game is the amount of content and replay-ability. It's sort of unbelievable that the developers didn't realize that a game like this needs something like a score attack, time trials, or any additional mode which effectively encourages replays.

The mechanics are neat, but nowhere close to capable of carrying the game without proper mode support.

Definitely blown out of proportion. Yes, PR failure for sure, they should have responded better. But people are also just looking for reasons to be offended. Such is life.

At the end of the day, every game has issues. Even if they flatout stated that they were aware of the issues, but were not looking into a fix, that should be fine. The game isn't trash because of a few stutters, and plenty of other games suffer far worse problems. It's still a good (not great) game, issues and all. Everybody says stupid things from time to time.

I saw this on the reddit Switch group and this is exactly why I hold on my purchase and will continue to be like that until a patch is being develop.

@brutalpanda dude get it straight. No one is bashing the dev or the frame rate. But his response to the issue. Point being: if the game was on the level of Zelda then his comment would be true and acceptable. But it isnt. Yes theyre a small dev team. And thats acceptable as well. But pointing the finger at something else and when the solution is: buy something else. Youre really giving the middle finger to your potential and existing customers.

I didn't take those posts negatively. Just informative. He only offered an alternative. Perhaps it's blown a little out of proportion. I still plan on getting the game.

@RickRau5 I got it straight a long time ago. You're telling me the same thing I heard from several other people already but ill reply anyways maybe you will understand. First, they aren't comparing their game with Zelda, they are commenting on the tech being new and saying even the launch game developed by the tech maker has had a rough start meaning their tiny team is probably having a hard time as well. Second, the solution was never "buy something else". The first thing they said to the user is "We're doing everything we can" but he continued on and said he wants to buy it this Friday but not if it has fps drops so they suggested the steam version because it doesn't have those issues. Absolutely nobody is being unreasonable in that conversation, the only ones being unreasonable are some people that reacted to it. Also, how is calling them a bunch of negative names not bashing? Their reaction was completely civil but too many people are snowflakes and probably trolls, that's why they read the comment in their own inner troll voice. If you step outside of that, you'll realize its two adults having a civil conversation. I beat the game on my Switch. I'm completely satisfied with it, hope for a sequel with more features and I dont feel like they are giving me the middle finger so dont speak for me.

@RickRau5 "dude get it straight. No one is bashing the dev or the frame rate. But his response to the issue."

Mmm, I don't know if we are looking at the same comments section.

The thing is, they said something dumb, but harmless. They didn't say "hey, why didn't you go claim the Zelda devs about their problems?", they just made an unprofessional comment to something that was answered easily by saying "we are working on it and it will be fixed as soon as possible". They probably wanted understanding about the matter (this was their mistake since they didn't need it) and yeah, Zelda is a much larger game in every way, but it has also a gigantic team with Nintendo's most talented people. His game doesn't need to be on the "level of Zelda" to present problems and that wasn't the comparison they were making, it was more about the Switch being new. Suddenly everyone raised their standards so it seems that it's a crime to attemp to make a small game if it has any bugs, simply because a larger game had more quality.

The comment about getting it on steam with a winking face is an obvious dumb joke, and it's only sin is being unfunny.

Look at this comments section buddy. People ask for better judgement and yet they do the complete opposite with their comments (at least some, many to be honest). They are punishing the devs way more than it deserves.

Lmao are these guys for real? :'D
And how is this game so demanding that it stutters? It seems like poor coding/programing to me..

sale forfeited

Those are some dumb PCMR tweets, but Mr. Shifty itself is a great game with some very simple and immensely satisfying design. The frame rate doesn't hurt it at all, and it's probably my favorite indie game to play on Switch so far, especially considering how methodical The Tomorrow Corporation's stuff is.

@brutalpanda Agree 100%.

@roy130390 Excellent post. Many here should be ashamed of been so "okoriyasui" (easy to get offended by).

@ACK EXACTLY!!! They can't be bothered to put you in an certain room layouts and have unlimited amount of baddies for insane scores? How hard can this honestly be? Too bad because I REALLY like the game.. it's simple but there is also a good amount of depth.. I really loved being able to catch a certain something and throw it back.. lot's of cool little tricks.. the gameplay is really quite fun. you can go about attacks in a lot of different ways.. I really hope they expand on this game..

Fun game, but those freezes were a female dog. Definitely freezing more than stuttering, sometimes for a good second at a time. For a game that's all about nanosecond choices, it's quite the irritation.

The responses could be better, sure. But I on and off watched an hour or so of footage and it seemed like the game was pretty well designed for the top down trigger kind of action game that it is. Looked like it'd be fun to play or watch others play on the big screen.

Wasn't paying enough attention for stutters, may have to look into that (as it is important for a quick response game like this), but yeah. Don't get your controller wires tangled up too much about it peeps, you'll scare away third party dev support

Wow...the horrible PR. Was it really that hard to say, "We are aware of the issue and are addressing it."?

sheesh, get a brain!

Eww I was seriously considering getting this game, but now i think I'll wait until a sale.
If the dev is gonna be that snide about it then he doesn't deserve my money.
I mean talk about cheeky, instead of owning up for the fault of his product he trys to shift the blame, and then troll the customer by basically telling them to buy a more powerful machine!

@Jack_Goetz
Not if they highlight this kind of thing they won't, lol

@ElGrego I am also happy I did not buy this game.

Just lazy devs that thought they could quickly cash in on some Switch sales and did a quick lazy port of the PC version, without proper testing.

Someone needs to get that guy off their Twitter if he can't answer questions without sounding like a jackass.

These guys have some titanium balls to talk like that about their own game's issues

Still interested in picking up this game. Although the comments given are less than assuring, I'm not going to let one individuals comments on behalf of their team poison my opinion of the entire game. Excited for the patch, hoping it fixes everything up.

Am I the only one that loved what they said? Of course, it's unprofessional, but does an indie team need to be? If they are just gonna get yelled at for something they are trying to fix, then they should be allowed to give the "Appropriate" response back.