Porting a recreation from PC to console is difficult, particularly if the sport in query is from a style historically one native to the PC. It may be tough to make the transition throughout platforms with out shedding one thing alongside the way in which, however within the case of Dune Awakening, the sport has been “designed with a controller in thoughts”.
All this, with none phrase on when a console model is popping out. The truth is, the sport’s launch on PC (which we all know can be coming first) can also be a thriller. To assist work out what issues had been taken with this inevitable multi-platform launch, I sat down and spoke to Nils Ryborg. Ryborg is a producer on Dune Awakening, however previous to his time at Funcom he labored on the console port of Pillars of Eternity at Paradox, and so might present some distinctive perception on the method.
“The battle there, I bear in mind Pillars of Eternity (laughs) we spent plenty of time attempting to determine the UX in it, and introduced in a little bit little bit of influences from motion RPGs, particularly with how you progress.” Ryborg acknowledged. “It is primarily a really tactical recreation, and clearly you are very restricted if you use a controller. So we created AI architects you would work with, so you would make your NPCs make higher choices, and direct them a little bit bit.”
He continues, “We made it simpler so that you can transfer your character round and make fast choices, and do real-time fight a bit extra successfully. However we additionally left within the mechanics that allowed you to pause and pull off extra sophisticated methods. All this alongside primary UX issues like discovering methods to cycle totally different buttons and what not. However the driver there was shifting issues to extra of a ARPG whereas conserving as a lot tactical stuff as we might”
So that is what the Paradox group needed to do, what about Funcom? Was its strategy the identical, or had been issues taken to make the transition rather less trouble?
“So from the beginning, it is the better approach of constructing a recreation, going console-first. Loads of that transitions simply again on the PC, whereas for those who make a pure PC recreation the place you utilize a mouse and keyboard to manage, it is actually troublesome to port over. So it has been designed with a controller in thoughts from the get-go.”
“Clearly, we’re releasing on PC first, proper? In order that’s the place we’ll have a very good setup, however the console UX-wise, I am not tremendous involved. Clearly it is all of the basic tech stuff, y’know, the place they’re a little bit extra restricted in sure {hardware} issues. So it must carry out nicely and different tech stuff. It should not be overly sophisticated.”
So, whereas these anticipating Dune Awakening on console are nonetheless going to should bunker down for some time, ready for more information, they need to not less than be completely satisfied understanding that the model they get will not be drastically totally different from their friends on PC.