We’re currently working on a review for The Journey Down: Chapter One, so I got in touch with SkyGoblin to talk about the trilogy and its release on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Good morning! Thank you for joining us today at PS4Blog.net. Could you please help us get started by telling our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
Good morning! Thank you for taking the time to review The Journey Down. My name is Henrik Englund. I moved to Gothenburg 2004 to start SkyGoblin together with Mathias Johansson and Theodor Wearn. During the production of The Journey Down, I worked on everything involving creation and animation of characters and cut-scenes. We used a home made 2D engine for the The Journey Down called Gobby. So a big part of the daily routine was to set up render scrips in Maya and script the 2D animation in the engine together with Mathias. When I´m not working on games, I love to play around with Arduinos and other types of DIY projects.
PS4B: The Journey Down trilogy is making its way to the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch. How would you describe the series to someone who’s never heard about it?
The Journey Down is a classic point and click adventure game with a lot of inspiration from 90´s Lucas art games. Its a relaxed, happy adventure game about the two brothers Bwana and Kito who are looking for their long gone father Kaonandodo. Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito struggle to make ends meet at their run-down gas station. Little do they know that they are about to be thrown into a spine-tingling adventure that will take them far from home and right into a twisting plot of corruption and danger.
PS4B: How long did it take to port the game to the PlayStation 4? Where there any particular challenges or hurdles you had to overcome during the process?
Porting games is always a big project. Both the code and all admin surrounding the platform. We have some game dev friends from Gothenburg who had done ports before, and discouraged us from making the port by ourselves. So we were recommended to ask Blitworks if they could help us. That was when we were still working on chapter three about 2-3 years ago. I think Blitworks did a fantastic work with the ports.
PS4B: How is the port to the Nintendo Switch coming along? Any update on when we can expect to be able to play the game on Nintendo’s hybrid console?
The port is coming along nicely, but right now it’s hard to say what it’s release date will be.
PS4B: What are the odds of getting a physical release for The Journey Down trilogy on PS4 or Nintendo Switch, perhaps by partnering with someone like, for example, Limited Run Games, to bring a small batch of physical awesomeness for us collectors?
That would be super bad ass! Maybe something we can consider in the future!
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Is there something you’d like to add before we go?
Yes! We have an unannounced game, that will soon be released on Steam for PC. It’s an extremely fast paced action-strategy couch game for 1-4 players. It can be described as a light mixture of Starcraft and towerfall. Sign up here to get the announcement when its released: http://eepurl.com/bUz-C5
