I recently had the chance to speak with Xavier Liard and Florian Boeuf from Playdigious, the developers of Dead Cells for Mobile devices. Have a look below for some insight.
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JB:
How did the mobile version come about? Who approached who about making mobile version?
Xavier Liard, Playdigious CEO:
I first met Steve Filby (Motion Twin marketing guy), in Brazil for BIG Festival and we had such a great time there with other fellow developers that we are still talking (and laughing) about it even today. We worked then with Shiro Games, founded by previous Motion Twin’s team members, on the mobile version of Evoland and Evoland 2. It was quite successful and since we knew that Dead Cells was sharing the same game engine (Haxe/Heap), we started to pitch the idea to Steve.
At first, Motion Twin was not really into it due to the technical and control challenges. So we took a bet and said: “Give us a month and we will do, free of charge a first prototype. Then we will see from there”. We won the bet and one year later here we are!
JB
What were some of the challenges in creating a mobile version of dead cells?
Florian Boeuf, lead developer of Dead Cells mobile:
Porting from a platform like PC to mobile is about working around the platform constraints, and not only technical ones. The mobile platform is vastly different from PC or consoles, both in hardware (even though the hardware gap is smaller than it used to be) and software. It is also a very different user experience, if the game has not been designed for it. As such, our biggest challenge has been to adapt the game, and specifically user interface, so the players are not frustrated by the platform and ideally can find a new way to appreciate the game.
We wanted the users to play Dead Cells smoothly, without the platform or input model interfering with their experience. It demanded a lot of thought and some innovative solutions, like designing a new game mode, or a screen to allow players to customize their input positions and sizes.
JB: Did anything need to be changed or altered to make the experience optimal?
Florian:
On the technical side, to increase performance or work around device limitations, we had to adapt the assets and parts of the code (mostly rendering). We also tweaked some aspects of the gameplay to preserve the game feel and game pace. Only minor changes though, as we worked hard to preserve the original game and experience as much as possible.
JB:
Are the visuals and framerate an issue in any way?
Florian:
We are reaching 25-30 fps on the lowest devices that we are targeting (iPhone 6, iPad Mini 2). By default we limit the game to 30fps but we add an option to unlock the fps and the game works very smoothly (60fps+) on iPhone X and above.
Recent smartphones and tablets are almost as powerful as a Nintendo Switch, so it will be less and less of an issue as the market progresses.
JB:
Is there any specific reason you went with iOS first before android?
Xavier:
Even if Dead Cells is a 2D games, making it working perfectly on mobile devices is quite a challenge. It is much more difficult to reach a high product quality on Android than on iOS especially because we are not using a traditional game engine such as Unity or Unreal. Without getting too much into technical details, there are over 10.000 different Android devices with so many GPU, CPU and various other parameters while there are a handful of iOS devices to support with very similar hardware.
Consequently, for big projects we prefer to focus first on iOS and come to Android in a second time where we can put 100% of our energy.
JB:
Will all the additional content from the pc and console release be included?
Xavier:
At launch the mobile version would be very similar to the 1.1 version. We are still thinking how and when we will add the DLC but there is 99% chance that they will come at some point.
JB: How did the auto hit play mode come into being? Do you feel it changes the game too much, or provides enough of a challenge still?
Florian:
Many people, professionals and players alike, believed a game like Dead Cells could not be adapted to mobile. Instinctively, touch screen is not the most common or accessible interface for such a fast-paced game. There is an « entry fee », as the player needs time to adapt to the input layout and response time, that is often higher than on other platform. There is also the time the brain needs to register and optimize your reaction on specific gestures or hands positions, the “muscle memory”. The eye-to-hand synchronization skills are used quite differently than when you grab a controller, especially if you play on the go, with the phone held or moving, and not laid down on a table.
Motion Twin helped us tackle that issue and suggested to ease the player in the game to lower that fee. Make the game easier to learn by removing the need for a control (the attack). This is where the auto-hit mode comes from, and it has been designed for a more « casual » play giving the player time to get used to a new way of playing the game. As it is quite important for us that the original game experience remains available for all players, the auto-hit mode is just a feature that can be switched on or off at all times, even during a run.
The game challenges are still there, the only challenge overcame by this mode is the « brain rewiring » the input layout demands.
JB:
Related to the above, auto hit may change how some proceed through levels and challenges. Did that affect the way the levels are laid out in the mobile version as a form of accommodation?
Florian:
Absolutely not, the game experience has been preserved as much as possible. It is up to the players to discover the new possibilities this mode offers. Some gameplay rules have been adapted, but not the game flow.
JB:
This is a premium release on mobile, but were there any thoughts of F2P elements? Was there any pressure?
Xavier:
We knew from the start that both Motion Twin and we didn’t want to include F2P mechanisms in the mobile version. It could be tempting to win “big bucks” with a good license such as Dead Cells but it was not in our DNA.
Nowadays, at Playdigious we took the bet to focus exclusively on paid games even if that means saying goodbye to 99% of the mobile gaming market. Our goal is to focus on one thing and to do it well, or at least do our very best.
JB:
What was the most rewarding part of this experience bringing Dead Cells to mobile devices?
Florian:
Dead Cells is a wonderful game. Porting games is generally very interesting as it allows a team to dive into the code, processes and creations of other talented people from our industry. Motion Twin is definitely talented, working with them has been a breath, and working on their game has been both enlightening and challenging. As gamedevs, we typically struggle on tasks for days if need be, only to reach that incredibly satisfying moment when everything works. Having Dead Cells running smoothly for the first time on a device that fits in your pocket, it’s magical and indeed rewarding.
Xavier:
The most rewarding part on the previous games we launched was to get happy feedback from players but also from the developer. We were so excited to see such good vibes when we released Cultist Simulator on mobile for example. I really hope to achieve the same with Dead Cells and that would definitely be the most rewarding part for me.
We thank Playdigious for their time and speaking with us.
Follow them on twitter @Playdigious