The following comes from Dan Fornace, developer of Rivals of Aether...
Thanks for the interest in Rivals! We are just as excited to get it on Switch as you guys are about the prospect.
After the GMS 2 announcement we decided to pivot and see if we could get the game working on that instead of porting it out of Game Maker. We were still in the early stages of porting it so the work that we lost was bearable. Staying in Game Maker Studio helps us because we can retain one code base rather than Switch and Steam being completely separate and having different teams handling them. We are working with GMS 2 which won't have support for pushing builds and testing until Summer at the earliest. With content we need to finish, optimizations we'll need to make, QA and publishing we are looking at the end of 2018 - mid 2019 as the earliest we could put a Switch release out.
That being said, we are very excited about the Smash announcement. We honestly feel that it could help Rivals in the long run rather than hurting it. Having the game come out before us isn't the worst thing honestly and could even be a blessing in disguise.
There are a few reasons for this:
There are Smash fans that exist who haven't picked up a Switch yet but will do so once Smash 5 drops. This type of hardcore fan is the type of player who would be likely to check out Rivals.
Smash 5 will give Rivals on Switch a giant opportunity to be our main tournament platform. People will already have Switches for Smash 5 events so running small side events and getting a few extra Switches for when we are main events should be easier than lugging around PCs for Rivals.
A rising sea raises all ships. Just having Smash fans on the Switch and engaging with the platform are extra eyes that could see the game. There is nothing stopping competitive players from playing both games.
We would likely release about 6 months after Smash Switch which could be a really great time for us. Honestly that is part of the reason Rivals of Aether did so well at Early Access launch in Fall 2015. People were still excited about the recent (Fall 2014) Smash 4 release but the honeymoon phase was ending.
I won't lie, initially I was quite nervous when I saw that Smash 5 was coming out in 2018 and we wouldn't be able to launch before it. But I am beginning to think that videogame genres are not a zero sum game. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter could release big, new titles in the same year and both have incredible releases with huge fan bases. There can be overlap and there doesn't have to be a winner and a loser. We as developers love Smash and our goal is to just make the release as good as possible. Timing is important yes but quality is an even more important factor and something we can actually control. We will release the game as soon as we can release something we are proud of."
from GoNintendo
0 comments: