Hyperforma Porting history to Nintendo Switch — interview with HeroCraft

In early September, HeroCraft released the Hyperforma arcade game on the Nintendo Switch. This is one of the few Russian projects that have appeared on the site so far. We talked to the publisher about the history of the project, its porting from mobile and the difficulties the game faced during release.

Hyperforma

The questions were answered by Victoria Korolenko, the head of the console directionHeroCraft.

Alexander Semenov, Senior Editor App2Top.ru : Vika, let’s start with a question about you and your role in the company and on the project.

Victoria Korolenko

Victoria Korolenko, Head of console direction HeroCraft: Today at HeroCraft I am engaged in the development of the console publishing direction.

As the head of the direction, I fully supervised the entire process of Hyperforma publishing, starting with negotiations and ending with sending the game to release.

Tell us a little about the history of the Hyperforma game itself. As far as I remember, it was in development for a long time.

KOROLENKO: The game has been in development for a little more than two years, and was released on iOS in an unfinished form (in March 2018). In the future, about half of all levels were added to the game with a free update.

The Nord Unit team (developer studio), namely Denis Dorokhov, Fedor Danilov and Dmitry Konarev, reworked the concept of the game several times. Initially taken as a basis, the concept of the classic arkanoid has undergone significant changes and in the process of developing the game has evolved into the Hyperforma that you and I can play today.

The project appeared only on iOS. And only as a premium app. How happy was the team with its launch?

KOROLENKO:According to the guys from Nord Unit, they made the decision to release Hyperforma as a premium game during the development process. It was their first game. The study and implementation of freeplay monetization, as well as the need to regularly support the game with updates and new content after launch, seemed to them an irrational waste of their own strength.

Fedor Danilov, one of the authors of Hyperforma, noted that the team set itself the task of making a game that would give players emotions, so it was decided to focus on the visual component, the plot and the unique gaming experience.

This was the first experience of Nord Unit with the release of the game on iOS, and, in general, the team was satisfied with the results. Hyperforma received a feature from Apple around the world and was included in the “Game of the Day” selection. Also, the comments from the players received after the launch helped them make the game even better.

Hyperforma

By the way, I have seen the project at conferences more than once. And I was confused by this story: there was a very long introduction. Is that left?

KOROLENKO:We have conducted several iterations of game tests that have not revealed a similar problem. And the players did not mention anything similar in their reviews.

Hyperforma is an author’s game that is distributed on a premium model, so players who purchase the game are already prepared in advance for some features that may not meet generally accepted standards.

The game never appeared on Android. Why did the developers decide to ignore the platform?

KOROLENKO:According to the team, their decision was quite obvious, since iOS is the platform on which they pay for premium games.

Plus, for Android, it would almost certainly take additional work to optimize the game and change its distribution model to a freemium one. Based on all this, the team decided that it was worth working on this platform together with a partner or publisher.

I think now is the time to announce that Nord Unit together with HeroCraft are releasing Hyperforma on Android this fall.

Why did HeroCraft decide to take up the game?

KOROLENKO:It’s worth starting with the fact that even before Hyperforma, we had been porting our own projects to the console for about a year. During this time, the idea of creating a separate console publishing division did not leave us.

The moment we played Hyperforma for the first time, we realized that this is the very game that we would like to publish. The project seemed very promising to us, as it combined all the key elements of a potentially successful indie game: an interesting visual style, high-quality music, unusual gameplay and a fresh look at the current setting. In simple terms, the game hooked us.

Hyperforma

What rights does HeroCraft have to the project?

Korolenko: We act as the publisher of the game on Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4 and Android, and, therefore, we have exclusive rights to publish and distribute the game within these platforms. The rights directly to intellectual property belong entirely to the guys from Nord Unit.

I still can’t help but ask a question about the terms of the deal. Can you share them?

KOROLENKO:Unfortunately, I cannot disclose the terms of the deal, but I can say that they are generally quite standard for the industry.

What exactly is HeroCraft responsible for today when it comes to Hyperforma?

Korolenko: Our console division is responsible for the full cycle of product preparation and promotion. This includes: consulting, testing, localization/editing, preparation of marketing materials, interaction with platforms, establishing business contacts and PR with promotion.

Also, even at the stage of familiarization with the project, we realized that it was worth connecting a specialist from HeroCraft to the work, who would advise us throughout the process and set a common vector. Dmitry Maksyura, the producer of Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf, who already had experience working with both multiplatform projects and current-generation consoles, came up best for this role.

You have released the game on Switch. Why did you decide to start with this platform?

Korolenko: Nintendo Switch is positioned as a hybrid portable-stationary console, therefore, according to its ideology, it is closest to mobile devices on which the game has already gained popularity. Plus, both the console audience and Nintendo itself are very positive about indie projects, which also influenced our decision.

Hyperforma

What needs to be done today to get the game on Switch?

Korolenko: We need to build a working relationship with the platform, set up the means of interaction, get technical equipment, study the instructions and develop or port a project that will meet both technical and ideological standards of Nintendo.

Do I need any additional business contacts for the publication?

KOROLENKO:Of course, you need contacts of the press that will write about you, representatives of the platforms you work with, as well as opinion leaders, content creators, etc.

What difficulties did you encounter when porting and publishing the game to Switch?

Korolenko: Testing the game on the Nintendo side turned out to be the most difficult of all stages. I will not dissemble, the game was repeatedly returned to us to correct certain shortcomings. The moment of waiting for bug reports, and then fixing them turned out to be the most difficult thing for us, not even technically, but morally, since after each return the release date was automatically shifted.

Another difficulty, which was absolutely impossible to foresee, arose less than a day before the release. On the night of September 4-5, Nintendo held a presentation of Nintendo Direct, which was suddenly announced just a few days before. In terms of the number of announcements and releases, this presentation turned out to be comparable to those that the company holds during major exhibitions.

Are you talking about the sudden increase in competition?

Korolenko: All right. The game was simply lost in the flow of information that was launched after Nintendo Direct. Well, in the section with new games, Hyperforma was also almost immediately shifted from the first positions.

Hyperforma

How much did it technically take to port Hyperforma?

KOROLENKO:The team started porting the game in November 2018. In total, the whole porting process took about 5 months. With a few interruptions, the team completed the porting by April 2019. After that, the game went through several iterations of testing with our specialists, and then the testing team from Nintendo took care of it.

How many people worked on the port?

Korolenko: Dmitry Konarev, a constant and irreplaceable Hyperforma programmer, has been porting the game for the entire time. Dmitry worked alone on the port for the Nintendo Switch, and is now optimizing the game for Android. In general, applause to Dmitry!

On the part of HeroCraft, he was advised on a few issues by Victoria Logina, programmer of the Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf team, who has experience porting to the Nintendo Switch.

Was the standard toolkit enough? Perhaps it was necessary to upgrade Unity somehow?

Korolenko: Yes, the standard tools turned out to be quite enough. Unity is very well adapted for multiplatform development, and at the time of porting, the game was running on the current version of the engine, so we did not need to carry out any improvements.

On the one hand, now everyone is trying to achieve a stable 30 frames on the Switch. On the other hand, not everyone succeeds. What indicators have you managed to achieve? At what resolutions and with what performance does the game work today?

Korolenko: The game runs 720p in portable and 1080p in stationary modes. We managed to achieve 30-40 frames in both.

Those who have already played Hyperforma on the Nintendo Switch may have noticed that the porting of the game was done according to all the canons of the console: all standard Switch features were added, the interface and graphics were adapted, an exclusive two-player mode was developed from scratch.

Hyperforma

The game has a fairly low price for Switch ($ 9.99 in the USA, this is 699 rubles in Russia). How did you choose the price tag?

KOROLENKO:If you regularly monitor changes in the Nintendo eShop, you could notice that recently there has been a tendency to lower prices for games. For example, in 2017, the minimum price of an indie game was about 1000 rubles, and in 2019 there are already quite a lot of games with a price tag of 200-300 rubles, and I can’t say that these games are in many ways inferior to the titles of 2017.

There were several reasons for putting up this price tag:

• in connection with this trend, it was decided to enter the category up to 700 rubles;
• the game is a port with iOS, where the cost of the game is 379 rubles;
• the audience of different countries is very smeared, so we had to choose a price that would suit everyone, because we decided not to set regional prices.

Now the game has just come out. How is Switch marketing built in general? What are you planning to do?

Korolenko: Nintendo provides you with several options for self-promotion of your game:

• publishing your videos on all Nintendo YouTube channels;
• creating your own news channel on the console;
• sections in the eShop where you can show the game before the release (“Coming soon”) and immediately after the release (“New items”).

You can try to show the game to Nintendo representatives, and if you manage to interest them, then you will have a chance to get into Indie Highlights, as well as the “Finds” section in the eShop.

We used all the above-mentioned promotion methods and added press, podcasts, reviewers and PR to this formula. We also prepared a trailer with the actor specifically for the launch of Hyperforma on the Nintendo Switch.

A demo version of the game is coming out in October. We are continuing news support, releasing updates, and soon we plan to launch the first sale.

Hyperforma Release Trailer

How much sales of the game do you expect?

KOROLENKO:Unfortunately, we cannot name specific figures, but we can say that we will consider it a success if sales revenues double the costs of porting and promotion.

Have we already achieved this level of sales now, or are we still waiting?

While we wait.

Are there any plans for a retail release? How important do you think it is for Switch today?

Korolenko: We consider the release on physical media to be an excellent information guide, an opportunity to declare the game as a successful product, as well as an opportunity to generate additional income.

In fact, we really would like to release the game on physical media and are currently negotiating with several companies that are engaged in low-circulation (from 1000 to 4000 copies) releases of physical editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Why low-circulation?

Korolenko: I think that in our case a low-circulation release serves not so much commercial as marketing purposes, as it creates a certain touch of elitism around the project.

Will you switch from Hyperforma to other platforms?

KOROLENKO:Of course, we have plans to launch on two more platforms. In the first half of next year, the game will be available on PlayStation 4, and this fall the long-awaited release of the Android version will take place. In both cases, we plan to prepare high-quality ports that will take into account the key features of the platforms.

Thank you for the interview and good luck!