Indie Developers Open Up To Their Favourite Switch Features
The Nintendo Switch is doing fantastic. Consoles fly off the shelves as fast as they go on, developers are putting up games on it as fast as we can play them. But what is it that actually attracts the developers, more specifically the indie developers to the Nintendo Switch.
In an article from Red Bull, multiple indie developers spoke up about their favourite features of the Nintendo Switch.
Image and Form, known for their Steamworld Dig 2, CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson said,
“It’s both handheld and stationary, and it supports both controller and touch input. The titles have been quite strong – you can’t really say no to epic stuff like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and, of course, our own game, SteamWorld Dig 2! Also, the Switch is very tasty: it’s easy to set up, sleek and clean yet versatile and modular. Unboxing a Switch is like getting a Barbie doll with all the right accessories, the house, the car AND Ken. It’s really desirable, a real fashion statement. What is perhaps most remarkable is that it’s the first of its kind, that it took someone until 2017 to develop a hybrid like this. But Nintendo have always been very innovative. The only company I could have imagined with a product like the Switch is Apple, but they’re completely invested in touch input and would’ve muddled their own waters by starting to offer controllers.”
Dangerous Kitchen’s artist, Shaun Roopra also chipped in on the Switch’s controls,
For Shaun Roopra, The Dangerous Kitchen’s artist, writer and games designer, Nintendo’s success isn’t hard to figure out. “It’s simply a good console with killer games, but it’s also new and interesting,” he tells Red Bull Games. “We’ve all seen a box that plugs into the TV countless times so it’s great to see something different. I once played Zelda in bed by placing the Switch console vertically on a table and lay in bed sideways with a Joy-Con in each hand. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to play but the fact that I could even attempt this wacky manoeuvre – what other console gives you the opportunity to experiment?”
Fully Illustrated’s Michael Heald who worked on Wulverblade explained that the Switch’s ability to make local multiplayer portable was a huge plus for their development team.
“In short and simple terms, portability and local two player are what attracted me to the Switch from a developer’s perspective,” says Fully Illustrated’s Michael Heald, who released the old-school brawler Wulverblade on the console recently.
Manfred Trenz from Shin’en, which produced Fast RMX akso liked the console’s portability and was very much attracted to the Switch’s possibility as a gamer at first.
“We first got attracted from a gamer’s perspective when we were invited by Nintendo to see the Switch for the first time. We wanted to play it ourselves! The console and mobile combination was simply a perfect fit.”
We could go all day quoting what developers have to say and frankly, they are quite impressed. The full article from Red Bull also contained multiple quotes from developers about their impression of Nintendo being more open in recent years. You can read the full article here.
