@Pod oOOOooooooooh, woah, what a small world. I've heard stories from my colleagues about the 101 Airborne/Robocat days. I'll be sure to say hi to Michael and the gang
@Danjel It's the same campaign, however more than 15 of the levels we had to change for various reasons. Since the campaign is some 80+ levels, you are still going to see a lot of familiar levels.
I can briefly explain our rationale. In preperation for the co-op feature, we played through all the levels we already had and made sure that they were fun to play in co-op. Some levels had too many track-switches or trains to properly control with Joy-Cons, so these levels were only tweaked. However, a few levels only had one player do all the work, and they simply weren't a good fit for co-op play. So we had our resident level design wizard build some new ones from scratch, to make sure that each level is going to be engaging for all players. To help teach co-op, of the 4 levels in the first world, 3 of them are entirely new layouts. (also, all DLC-worlds from the mobile game are included free of charge in this game)
@Danjel & @Nukuleardawg About pricing, we could probably have month-long discussions about it, it's not an easy problem to solve, haha. I honestly don't know enough myself to say anything for certain, sorry, but my current impression is that it seems that the purchasing culture on the Switch is very different from, say, mobile app stores, and that's reflected in what people expect to pay for what level of quality experience. About development costs, yeah, there's a few extra degrees of complexity involved, and that can translate to more development time (and time=salary=money). But on the other hand, modern game development tools and excellent publisher support really helps smooth out the process. I don't have any numbers on hand to say anything concrete, sorry. One thing to note as well is experience. If you have to spend time learning how to build for a new system, that's a factor you can't ignore as well.
(This is all my personal impression. I can't speak for other teams and their situation.)
@Danjel Hiya, I'm a dev from the team; thanks to everyone for commenting. <3
To explain a bit of how the game's different from the mobile version: We've re-designed the game with co-op in mind, which includes completely redesigning some of the levels, rebalancing for play with controllers, and introducing a new slow-motion mechanic to the game, to more incentivize cooperation between players. You're playing with the same trains and track-switches, yes, but we would be very ashamed of just releasing a carbon copy of the mobile game on the Switch. Instead, we're happy to be able to release a new take, that hopefully can provide players with a fresh, unique experience from what we've been able to offer before.
Comments 3
Re: Grab A Friend For Some Hectic Co-op Train Management In Conduct Together! On Switch
@Pod oOOOooooooooh, woah, what a small world. I've heard stories from my colleagues about the 101 Airborne/Robocat days. I'll be sure to say hi to Michael and the gang
Re: Grab A Friend For Some Hectic Co-op Train Management In Conduct Together! On Switch
Wow, thanks for the warm welcome!
@Danjel It's the same campaign, however more than 15 of the levels we had to change for various reasons. Since the campaign is some 80+ levels, you are still going to see a lot of familiar levels.
I can briefly explain our rationale. In preperation for the co-op feature, we played through all the levels we already had and made sure that they were fun to play in co-op. Some levels had too many track-switches or trains to properly control with Joy-Cons, so these levels were only tweaked. However, a few levels only had one player do all the work, and they simply weren't a good fit for co-op play. So we had our resident level design wizard build some new ones from scratch, to make sure that each level is going to be engaging for all players. To help teach co-op, of the 4 levels in the first world, 3 of them are entirely new layouts. (also, all DLC-worlds from the mobile game are included free of charge in this game)
@Danjel & @Nukuleardawg About pricing, we could probably have month-long discussions about it, it's not an easy problem to solve, haha. I honestly don't know enough myself to say anything for certain, sorry, but my current impression is that it seems that the purchasing culture on the Switch is very different from, say, mobile app stores, and that's reflected in what people expect to pay for what level of quality experience. About development costs, yeah, there's a few extra degrees of complexity involved, and that can translate to more development time (and time=salary=money). But on the other hand, modern game development tools and excellent publisher support really helps smooth out the process. I don't have any numbers on hand to say anything concrete, sorry. One thing to note as well is experience. If you have to spend time learning how to build for a new system, that's a factor you can't ignore as well.
(This is all my personal impression. I can't speak for other teams and their situation.)
And to the rest, thanks for the comments! <3
Re: Grab A Friend For Some Hectic Co-op Train Management In Conduct Together! On Switch
@Danjel Hiya, I'm a dev from the team; thanks to everyone for commenting. <3
To explain a bit of how the game's different from the mobile version: We've re-designed the game with co-op in mind, which includes completely redesigning some of the levels, rebalancing for play with controllers, and introducing a new slow-motion mechanic to the game, to more incentivize cooperation between players. You're playing with the same trains and track-switches, yes, but we would be very ashamed of just releasing a carbon copy of the mobile game on the Switch. Instead, we're happy to be able to release a new take, that hopefully can provide players with a fresh, unique experience from what we've been able to offer before.