Swap Fire may not have been the most popular games available from the NA Wii U eShop, but as Midnight Status has previously confirmed, it is getting a sequel and its devs have their sights set on Switch!
When news of the game first broke, it was Nintendo Life who lead the charge, but with the door opened, we slipped in and asked Jeremy Alessi a couple of questions of our own. Specifically things like “Why a Swap Fire 2? How will it differ to Swap Fire 1?” and just general stuff like that, which you can see for yourself clicking here. But that was just the beginning.
More Swap Fire: Season 2 news arrived thanks to a new Nintendo Impact Gaming video and with the door open once again, we were able to ask Jeremy a couple more questions regarding both Swap Fire titles and you can catch a few of the responses right here:
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In terms of the name for Swap Fire: Season 2, for clarity why that particular name as opposed to anything else?
Jeremy Alessi: We love what we started with Swap Fire 1 but the goal was always a series. Swap Fire 1 was just what I like to call a “direction vector”. Now it’s time to scale it. We saw over 20k new players during our free giveaway with the first game so that indicates that people are very interested in Swap Fire though they might recognize that the first game has relatively low production values because we had no budget and it was basically made by one person for the most part. We had a team but in terms of actual hours contributed, the vast majority were mine and I was responsible for many elements from voice acting to AI code, in fact all the code.
Were you able to make Swap Fire 2 a reality, what would you do differently on it?
Jeremy Alessi: Its Season 2 just like any reality TV show would be. So it’s inline with the lore to do our sequels like this.
The cat’s out of the bag, you’re working on both Swap Fire and Swap Fire: Season 2 at the same time. How are you finding the process, given the reaction Swap Fire 1 had?
Jeremy Alessi: Honestly, at this point we’re looking for a way to get investment to keep working on Swap Fire the series. I’m working odd programming jobs to pay the bills. We have several other ventures at Midnight Status but Swap Fire 1 eradicated any and all safety nets. Financially, it was the biggest mistake of my life as of right now.
We have some changes that have already been made to Season 1 on Wii U and we’ve been listening closely for other small tweaks. For example many people were upset because they thought basic options like look inversion were skipped. Meanwhile, we actually improved on that by assigning the look inversion to the minus button during gameplay. This fits with our “jump in” anytime mentality. That’s why we have the 4-way split screen as the default view with AI that can dynamically “jump in” or a human that can “jump in”. Who wants to quit out to a menu to reconfigure controls? I hate that.
Anyway, long story short, it tells players in 3 places that they can invert controls (tutorial, loading tips, and e-Manual) yet that wasn’t enough so we have to find another place.
It also seems like many people missed our 8 Display Options that can be configured from the Wii U GamePad when the game is paused.
So, there were some small details that hampered the experience. Also, we may do something like swap “Drop ” Zone” and “Capture the Flag” in the play order.
Capture the Flag was designed to be a familiar game type along with “King of the Hill” but as it turns out I think it ended up being a little confusing and that it would be better to get players into “Drop Zone” earlier because it’s more fun and straight forward even though it requires a more refined understanding of the controls. Then once we figure out every little update and release in the US we can finally release in Europe.
Going by the screens you gave Nintendo Impact Gaming, Swap Fire: Season 2 features a different art style. What prompted the change and how are you enjoying the new direction?
Jeremy Alessi: Swap Fire 1 did not have a really great art direction. “Sci-Fi/Game Show/Comic” was all part of it but none of our artists were full time so I played Art Director and I’m a generalist. With Swap Fire 2 we will bring on a very strong Art Director. As many have noticed the new character “Charlotte” is gorgeous and that was a week’s work for our secret weapon, ex-Epic 3D master. I’m hopeful that we can continue to work together but it’s all dependent on funding the project. People are already talking about wanting a “Charlotte” amiibo.
And you’re also doing a Kickstart campaign as well. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Jeremy Alessi: The Kickstarter is live. Our goal is to raise $5k in two weeks as proof of market validation for our investors. Then we will raise $1mm+ to develop the game on Switch.
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Just like Jeremy said, the Kickstarter campaign is live now and you can see it by clicking on the link below:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/548762282/swap-fire-season-2-for-nintendo-switch
While it does not go all out with details for Swap Fire: Season 2 at this time, it does cover it albeit briefly and shares a couple of images pertaining to the game. Still there is plenty of other information and text worth checking out as it does cover the first game rather well, but if you check it out and feel like getting to know even more about the game, use the link below this paragraph to check out the interview we did last year with Midnight Status, regarding Swap Fire for Wii U:
https://miketendo64.com/2016/12/24/midnight-status-a-miketendo64-interview-jeremy-alessi-swap-fire/
As soon as any new Swap Fire: Season 2 news arrives, we’ll be sure to share it, just don’t get your hopes up too much about the Charlotte amiibo as amibo is a very expensive affair.
Until next time, keep on gaming!
[…] Full interview here […]
[…] Full interview here […]