What other interview are we doing in the same year? Could that be? OK. Feral Interactive continues to deliver more quality releases across the platforms we cover. At most, I think it’s a good idea for sure: To speak porting and hardware? While I spoke with Feral Interactive about Sid Meiers Railroads, he wanted to ask the publisher and developer of its Nintendo Switch releases. To learn more about a story and how we did it in the past, I knew that this is the right time to talk with your friends. This one will focus on the Switch, using a game built for keyboard and mouse into an controller.
Since the last talk was about mobile, we were focusing on Nintendo Switch. Would you please share the experience of your knowledge about Nintendo Switch and how it compares to mobile devices?
Feral Interactive (FI): The Nintendo Switch is a dedicated game console, so its power can be used only for playing games. Mobile operations make for all kinds of tasks, making it easier to assemble the gaming unit.
That said, the Switch hardware is getting too much in this tooth now. That is based on an Nvidia-powered chip, which has faster CPU and GPU speeds so it can turn battery life into more efficient batteries.
The Switch CPU isn’t as powerful this can be anywhere in the world. Therefore, most of our resources depend on the 3 cores so that we can deliver better performance than all other vehicles today using the three GPU system’d computers with a few hours to spare and work well together without losing weight for one second or another. It sounds simple, but can take significant engineering to achieve the performance level.
TA: With Alien, Isolation! We saw that game you released on Switch became mobile but Company of Heroes is right in the wrong direction. How does the codebase go from mobile to Switch?
FI: The autosport app was released on mobile earlier this year as soon ago, so we can only do both platforms in one way!
When it comes to mobiles and switches, the focus is on interface design. The Switch needs a gamepad-centric interface (and rather than touch) that concentrates on mobile. We spoke to the importance of making games sound on Switch: a lot more time is spent optimizing them so that they perform well and in order.
Taking Switch to mobile, a lot of the performance optimization will already have been done. This is a great foundation that you should build on, and the latter often allows us to perform better with powerful, top-end devices. This allows better focus on things like adding additional input methods (touch, keyboard and mouse) & redesigning the user experience to reflect changing screen sizes.
There’s no one who will prefer the road. Both have their challenges. Although there is more power to work with on mobiles, there are a lot of devices out there. Learning to use 100 different types of phones and tablets takes a lot more time. There are so many different screen sizes, chipsets with RAM in its development room, driver versions etc… On Switch the optimization challenges can be harder than ever by developing for one device which has better limitless performance guaranteed or not!
TA: You mentioned before that there are no plans to bring controller support for mobile, but I wonder whether this kind of game can be translated from touch or keyboard and also mouse into gaming consoles.
FI: It’s an evolution in our mobile work. Over the last few years, we learned quite a lot about how to adapt game control mechanisms while keeping balance of games.
With the company of Heroes, this UX and controls were well-respected for touchscreens. We are familiar with that challenge The biggest thing in a gamepad is group behavior so they fly naturally into action! This require extensive iteration of the control mapping. For Company of Heroes there are many different command actions. Regardless whether the player uses an Commander Ability, issuing units in command or you build it upon his own skills (it can be said that the input and steps must make any progress) consistent to act right
It’s a relatively easy idea to get one of six key-sized maps by hand. The real test is to ensure that the final 2 retains a coherent feel.
So there’s a lot of effort to iterating the control system on point for consistency, so that similar actions follow such fast flows. Adding or moving any command can result in failures, so make sure that the controller is fully integrated.
Finally, when it comes to RTS games the players have different preferences so they might play certain features. After all the testing and iteration, various choices were added so players could change their experience with different skill levels. For example, the game can automatically deelect units after issuing a construction order. Auto-opens building wheel when being selected with wing design and invert unit at command time of taking action against developers or other players for sale by using their hands to take position simultaneously: The following and the other additions help us to get more attention in this game, rather than be obliged if they are compatible with our demands.
We were also needed to update all the UX-based components so we could make a controller. I don’t think that you have already explored enough detail!
TA: Has the team made use of their own input or reference to Company Of Heroes 3 for PS5 and Xbox One Series, brought over it from Nintendo Switch with its interfaces?
I have been working with Relic for over a half an hour and have great relationships. We discuss concepts with them on all our Relic projects, including the Company of Heroes for Switch. But while the fundamentals of Company and company are similar, there’re many differences between these two facets in gameplay; this means that it is very difficult for oneself to connect.
TA: What made the first game that started with Compos of Heroes going onto Nintendo Switch?
I: As a company, Feral has tried to develop one platform at an time when it is sequenced so we can build the skills necessary for our analysis of next stage.
The first mobile release was Total War on iPad, and is an ideal point of starting for a mobile device when it comes to screen size (and form factors) with small scales.
Since the iPad was released and well-trained, we started developing an iPhone version. We modified this interface to display large amounts of complex information on a smaller screen using optimizing it’s ability for visualization when needed:
We moved from Android to iOS, which has much more hardware than the likes of iOS.
The move for more “Company of Heroes” than “Rom to Total War” reflects the differences in gameplay. It is an RTS game with the various campaigns all played in a real-time 3D environment. The Total War series has the same RTS element, and that turn-based strategy component with many screenplays of detailed text & statistics. That brings into consideration a significant addition to what is already an impressive design and development task.
We know exactly how the Company of Heroes collection has been received on Switch.
TA: You mentioned there were some plans for looking into an issue; and I wonder what will you discuss in the near future?
We know there are plenty of Switch-goers who want physical copies but Company Of Heroes is going to be digital only at the beginning. The economics are so bad that they fail to work for a physical release. However, the virtual version of one or more of our Switch releases is on track and no firm plans will be brought forward by Company Of Heroes now!
TA: What should players expect in dock and handheld modes?
The goal is to a long 30fps at native resolution (i.e: 1080-pin dock and an undock, antialiases). Every drop of performance from the Switch was done by putting down CPU and GPU cores.
TA: The Switch version will have an mobile touch support interface when played on handheld?
FI: Although there are touch controls on mobile, they don’t fit the Switch so it can be controlled using Joy-Cons in both handheld and docked modes.
There are some reasons to this, because all of the games that I used is JPEG-Cons. Using an interface to provide the handheld experience is complicated, so we should focus on joy-con support.
Physically uncomfortable holding a Switch, which may work like Company of Heroes on mobile.
TA: Do you use HD Rumble on Switch in the Company of Heroes Collection?
FI: No, there’s no one in the game who does this thing.
TA: The announcement just got me to think about how Feral Interactive performed Dawn of War II, not the original game. Does there plan to bring Dawn of War and switch?
That is a great suggestion. Well take this under advice.
TA: I love the iPad, and im hoping that it will join Switch owners who haven’t yet tried this. Feral Interactives is really wonderful. Do you plan on doing similar videos for Switch version of Company Of Heroes?
IF: Thank you for the online tutorials. It’s worth a lot of thought and effort, because we want people to get the best out from those games that it is released.
This switch doesn’t have a web browser as it has to access YouTube. Help must be given differently, so do not download this button now!
For example, dynamic prompts illustrate and expose the player’re controls. Control prompts are also less precise and easier to list than a gesture, so they’re ideal for switchback.
The Help will be completed in the pause menu, and with updated instructions for that play.
It’s a collection of series which companies and enemies are coming back with all DLC, but multiplayer is not being included at launch. There is something else coming later with improved improvements or additional features that limit multiplayer?
FI: Other than online multiplayer, there are no plans for post-release updates. Our aim is to deliver a polished and complete game from beginning. We’re old-fashioned like this!
TA: Has the multiplayer company of Heroes made any progress on mobile? Is it going to have play for Switch?
For a while, work was underway on cross-platform multiplayer between mobile and Switch. The plan is to start with a multiplayer beta in 2024, then follow that on iOS and Switch’s multiplayer update later.
TA: Since Feral Interactive does manage the new Switch and Windows Phone version of Company Of Heroes, are there any plans to cross action/savement?
FI: Supporting the cross-platform multiplayer is currently in progress, but free play for single player not. Each platform uses a simple save-game system, and that is why they are technically incompatible.
TA: Feral Interactive is doing the same on the console. Is there any plan for the future to bring titles of your kind in PS5 or Xbox?
FI: There were several requests. Except for the messages, no plans are planned today!
Is it a good idea to ask you the current issues in mobile and console gaming?
FI: Game development is never always easy. With the rise of mobile devices, more and greater specifications for AAA games are becoming popular.
Apples new A17 chip adding even more GPU power, and Qualcomm will soon release its latest chipset for Android devices.
A bigger challenge is the size of your installation. Android devices have an initial build limit of two or four GB depending on the device’s deployment. Even though AAA games often are 10 to 20 times bigger than these, it’s sometimes impossible for all of the games in that limit; however very good compression allows us. So players often need to download further data after the first downloading of 4GB app, which isn’t a great user experience. One very important requirement is better integration of large applications in mobile apps.
In relation to consoles, our focus is on Nintendo Switch. We were excited to bring big games on the platform, and we are delighted by what they have got for each other. Of course, most of us here at Feral are gamers. We play many great games outside our target markets and thus go out to the big time with a player’s hand; I hope it is not surprising that we can’t work! 2023 is a very big year for games. We are excited about the move of 2024 on both software and hardware!
We want to thank everyone at Feral Interactive for their time here.