Ronimo Games Interview: Awesomenauts & Beyond
A few days ago we gave you a small tease of our latest interview with Fabian Akker, Co-Founder and Lead Designer at Ronimo Games. Here’s the full deal, with Akker explaining why Awesomenauts Assemble was delayed a few times in its PS4 incarnation, their positive experience with Kickstarter and the potential ports of their games onto other platforms. Enjoy!
Q: There have been a few delays in the release of Awesomenauts Assemble. Can you tell us why this happened? Most developers so far have mentioned that the porting job from PC to PS4 is quite easy.
A: We had a few networking bugs that kept popping up and we just couldn’t reproduce them. In the end we got some help from Sony and together we were able to reproduce and fix the issues. Multiplayer games are pretty difficult to get right for console and we really wanted it to be perfect on launch. I am really glad Sony could help out and make the launch go smoothly as it did!
Q: What was your experience working with PS4? Do you agree that the biggest asset of the new hardware is the 8GB GDDR5 memory, as other developers said?
A: The memory is definitely important to us. 2D games rely heavily on memory, specially since everything went higher and higher res in the last years. Games like Awesomenauts have many parallax layers with hundreds of textures and it’s great to see it runs smoothly on PS4.
Q: I’m not sure this has been confirmed - does Awesomenauts Assemble run at 1080P@60FPS on PS4? Did you encounter any difficulties trying to reach that?
A: Yup it runs 1080P@60FPS. I don’t think many optimizations were needed, the PS4 is quite a beast. :)
Q: Did you look into Xbox One already, and if so, what do you think of the hardware in comparison to PS4? Is there any chance to see Awesomenauts Assemble on Xbox One?
A: Xbox One is on our radar and it would be a great platform for Awesomenauts. Hopefully we’ll have more news on that one soon!
Q: You also had a very successful Kickstarter campaign for the expansion called Awesomenauts: Starstorm. How was your experience with Kickstarter, and how big is the chance that you’ll use crowdfunding again in the near future?
A: Kickstarter was a great way for us to fund new features for Awesomenauts that wouldn’t be possible to fund in another way. Spectator mode and custom game options for instance. Last week I heard Kickstarter is opening up to projects from the Netherlands, which will make it even easier to get a project up and running. You’ll probably see more Kickstarter projects from us in the future!
Q: Will the PS4 version of Awesomenauts have twin-stick support? What about the spectator matches, are they going to be there or are you happy with the built-in streaming functionality of the console?
A: Yes there is twin-stick support and as for spectator mode, the built-in streaming is mode is quite good. We didn’t want to do double work there, instead we want to focus on getting the Starstorm content on PS4 as soon as possible.
Q: How big do you see the Awesomenauts roster becoming? With Major MOBAs like League and Dota boasting a 100+ hero roster, do you think that is too much for your game?
A: Personally I think part of the success of Awesomenauts is the small roster. It’s a lot easier to handle for players and the characters are really diverse. We do want to keep adding new characters but maintaining that diversity in skills and feel of the character is very important to us.
Q: MOBAs are notoriously difficult to get into, what do you think made Awesomenauts the success it is today with audiences that don’t tend to play other MOBAs?
A: There are many things that I think added to the success, most importantly is the platforming gameplay that is so familiar to many players. Awesomenauts is also the only MOBA you can play in splitscreen with your friends on the couch, and this is where the game shines. Also in the details, I think we made some strong improvements, such as the drop-pod sequence, which gives players something to do during respawn, taking away those frustrating seconds, even minutes, makes the game flow way better and keeps you in the action.
Q: You recently announced Swords & Soldiers II coming for WiiU. Is there any chance to see it on other platforms such as PS4, XB1 and PC?
A: Well it wouldn’t be a first that we ported a game to another platform. ;)
Thanks for your time!