CAN ANDROIDS PRAY: BLUE is released for Nintendo Switch!

So we went to EGX Rezzed 2019 (largest indie game event in the UK) as we were helping exhibit Double Pug Switch with The Polygon Loft, and as we were wandering around the event (as you do) Jon visited the Leftfield Collection and played CAN ANDROIDS PRAY. The game is made by Xalavier Nelson Jr, Nat Clayton and Priscilla Snow – I’ll link their twitter handles also.

The Leftfield Collection is a section at EGX Rezzed that houses experimental and different games. It's one of the most exciting areas of the event, as there's always something a batch of unique and interesting things to see. Jon played CAN ANDROIDS PRAY and came back to the stand and told us all to go and play this game, so naturally I went down and played it. I walked back up, talked to Jon about it, and we were both blown away with the whole package of writing, graphics, and sound design.

Anyway, the event ended. It was great to catch up with everyone and meet some new people, and after a few days passed, we saw a message on Twitter asking if anyone has experience with Nintendo Switch development to help on a project. We messaged to offer our help and see what it was they wanted. It was to bring CAN ANDROIDS PRAY to Nintendo Switch! I didn’t put 2 and 2 together with who was asking, but it was a great surprise!

We got it running on Switch as a test to make sure it was possible and nothing too scary – but Nintendo didn’t seem interested in the initial pitch for it to be on the platform. However, Xbox were. This was great, as we helped port the game for Nelson in an initial collaboration that released about 3 months ago, and was well received within the Xbox community. It was interesting working with someone else’s project and code base, but we didn’t have any issues to speak of, really!

Then we got an email saying the Nintendo Switch version had the go ahead! We finally started our original journey, but this time, we had to publish the game live to the store front.

I can’t get into detail about the porting process as this info is protected, but it was fairly happy running on the Switch – we had some sound issues but that was FMOD playing up. Nothing else presented any issues.

Along with our core porting efforts, we added in some extra functionality such as options and text resizing to help with readability. Making sure a text-focused game can run at anything from 4K on Xbox, to the Switch in handheld mode, was essential. Both present very different challenges and comfort sizes, so we put in significant work to ensure they function properly. So, text rescaling was added among other small things like a pause menu and console specific bits.

We got it ready for release and through the certification process with only a few small issues, which were fixed quickly and resubmitted. Our aim was for end of March but with everything that was happening in the world it delayed proceedings. We ultimately opted for April 16th, 2020 as the worldwide release date for CAN ANDROIDS PRAY: BLUE - and we couldn't be happier with the results.

If you are interested in checking it out here’s the trailer and store page:

-Jack

Trailer: https://youtu.be/EOATh_WIeik

Store page: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/CAN-ANDROIDS-PRAY-BLUE-1751644.html