Talking RiME on Nintendo Switch with Tequila Works’ Remy Chinchilla

Talking RiME on Nintendo Switch with Tequila Works' Remy Chinchilla

At EGX last calendar month I had a chance to sit downward with Remy Chinchilla from Tequila Works while I played Rime, i of Tequila Works' biggest and virtually well-known titles, on a new platform, the Nintendo Switch. Sitting downwards in a darkened office room near the master EGX halls, Remy hands me a Nintendo Switch with Rime running - luckily he's non offended that this is my first time playing.

Rime starts seamlessly. Stranded on a beach, the protagonist, a young boy, awakens, and the game just begins. Remy tells me; "One of the things in RiME we wanted to do was to brand sure at that place was no tutorial. And there is no tutorial, text or dialogue and there's very express HUD. We wanted it to exist intuitive and equally shine equally possible, and so players could simply turn on and enjoy it immediately."

Exploring the game world on Switch'due south smaller screen takes nothing away from the experience. Fifty-fifty though it was my first time playing, I could barely tear my attention away from it, only able to bring myself back to reality and talk to Remy in intervals. Rime is captivating and charming from the outset moment, and ensuring every metre of the world was as enrapturing equally the last was a big function of the art and pattern squad'due south task; "There is a lot of intendance, I know that the artists looked at every inch of the world and polished and they really cared well-nigh it. They would stay at work past 6pm because they wanted to make it perfect. […] We have a dynamic night wheel likewise, and the shadows are rendered depending on the position of the sun, then you'll be able to run into plenty of unique sights in RiME, and you tin get a different view of the world depending on the time of mean solar day."

Getting lost in that globe and immersing yourself in the experience was the club of the day for Tequila Works, and much of the game's blueprint was congenital around that. Early puzzles had to teach the thespian mechanics without a single line of text or dialogue, no unnecessary tutorials. Fifty-fifty the minimal HUD and UI was at that place for this purpose; to prevent the role player from being reminded they're in a game; "When yous look at the puzzles in identify, there's quite a few mechanics; presentation, perspective, push-pull, and none of these are taught with a directly tutorial halfway. Which is what we wanted. That'south also why there's minimal HUD. This is the kind of game where we want you to be completely immersed into the world. Just forget it'south a game, and experience it."

Puzzles are where RiME volition exam your wits and volition pause your exploration of the globe, just of course that meant they had to be extensively tested, so Tequila Works could see how their globe and puzzle design was moving players effectually the map, and how obvious or obtuse their puzzles were; "Nosotros did quite a scrap of user testing to see what was obvious to the player, what wasn't, what was frustrating, what wasn't. Puzzles are very subjective, sometimes we take people getting stuck on easy puzzles, and others who are flying through them considering they've played games before. […] Perspective is a big element in a few puzzles. Since RiME is very visual, for united states of america it's very important. We play with it because it'due south something that's always used in games, perspective, and it'due south something we really wanted to employ to change the fashion the actor sees the globe."

Merely a new platform brings new challenges, and with the Switch there are new opportunities likewise. The Switch offers JoyCons, motion controls and Hard disk Rumble which other platforms simply don't offer - and Tequila Works' position was, sensibly, to only implement what made sense; "One of the features nosotros put in was the Hard disk Rumble. Aye, it'south actually cool. The designers put in a curve to how much they vibrate depending on what you're doing in the globe. The simply thing really in there is in the menus - y'all tin can touch the screen. But that's all, considering we didn't desire to add any other gimmicks. RiME was never planned with any gimmicks in mind, and we thought if we add them at present they might non fit with the game as we intended."

Ultimately, RiME is a game built with a certain kind of experience in mind, and they didn't want to spoil this ideal experience they'd built by hamstringing information technology with half-implemented gyroscopic controls or anything like that; "We also wanted the players that only played on Switch to have the aforementioned experience that players who played on PS4 or other consoles take had. If we put in the gyroscope or something like that in puzzles, and then it would've been dissimilar to the manner information technology was played elsewhere."

The Switch is patently a unique console compared to the Xbox 1 and PlayStation iv - the handheld hybrid is less powerful, and although it's perfectly capable of running a polish RiME experience at present, information technology wasn't always that style; "In that location were some challenges in porting to Switch, we had to optimise a few things. Information technology was besides due to the software, Unreal. We started porting on Switch around a year ago, and at commencement the Unreal Engine wasn't ready straight away on Switch. We had to integrate several versions on the engine that were released. In that location was some middleware and software where the support wasn't there on day ane, so nosotros had to adapt."

Luckily, Tequila Works had support from Tantalus, a studio already experienced with Nintendo hardware after porting The Fable of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hard disk to Wii U. The Australian studio quickly took up the task of porting RiME to Switch, and the fourth dimension zone difference worked out beautifully; "The skillful matter about Tantalus being in Commonwealth of australia is that when we get home we transport an email saying what nosotros did and they selection that upward immediately later, and when they finish their twenty-four hour period, we start immediately afterward. I used to say the sun was never out on RiME because there was e'er someone working on it effectually the world. Nosotros took advantage of it when information technology comes to arrangement because if you lot inquire for something to be checked in the evening every bit you leave, it'll be ready for y'all in the morning. Information technology was great. Tantalus did all of the code, all of the logic, and we helped with optimising assets considering we couldn't use all of the original assets, but we did our all-time to go along the aforementioned visual way."

RiME is a personal project from the squad at Tequila Works, they put their hearts into making a projection unlike any other on the market come to fruition, and it shows with the kind of deep respect Remy talks about the game and the team with; "Information technology's really a personal projection. I've been in games for years and it's the first time that I've seen a game where the whole team is 100% passionate about information technology because nosotros wanted to practise something different. For me, information technology's the first game I've done that doesn't have claret, shooting or violence. And information technology nonetheless has its storytelling, and information technology has a deep meaning backside it. Nosotros have a lot of staff who worked at big companies, and these people came together at Tequila Works to create something dissimilar, something unique and personal."

RiME comes to Nintendo Switch on Nov 17^th in Europe and November 14^th in America - if you oasis't played RiME still, this might be the perfect opportunity. It'southward certainly a game y'all shouldn't miss, equally pointed out by Francesco in his review.