We’re currently working on a review for Light Fingers, so I got in touch with Numizmatic to talk about the game’s development for it’s Nintendo Switch release. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Hi! Thank you for joining us this morning at PS4Blog.net. Could you please get us started by introducing yourself to our readers and telling them a bit about your work?
Hello everyone! Thank you for having me! My name is Hubert Bibrowski. I’m the founder of Toronto based Indie game studio Numizmatic. I am the lead game programmer, artist, and designer of Light Fingers. My team and I just launched the game last month on the Nintendo Switch. If you have any questions or comments about Light Fingers you can find me on Twitter.
PS4B: Light Fingers is now available on Nintendo Switch. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
The game is played by thieves, who get together, in a dark tavern, after a long night of looting and play a game of Light Fingers to prove to themselves who is most deft. In Light Fingers, players take control of miniature avatars and are tasked with collecting and securing loot. To acquire this loot, they explore a magical clockwork board seeking opportunities to steal from shops or raid dungeons while evading the guards and each other along the way. This game is both strategic and up to chance, as cards and tiles in the board are randomly generated to create a unique game each time. The gameplay turns more towards action when players enter a dungeon raid, where they can steal coins while escaping the traps and deadly contraptions being controlled by the other players. Ultimately the winner is the one who can gather the most loot and make it back to camp without losing it.
The game also features a mode called Dungeon Rush where 1-4 players can take on a sequence of dungeon challenges working together to get through the traps and collecting coins to unlock cards that become available in the main Board Campaign.
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the game? Where there any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome on Nintendo’s console?
The concept for this game started at the Toronto Game Jam in 2014, but we did not have the resources to take it on at that time, so it remained a tiny prototype on the backburner. Thanks to some help from Ontario Creates, which is a government body that helps fund digital media projects in Ontario, Numizmatic was able to take on a small team of talented individuals and begin full production on Light Fingers in the spring of 2016. In August 2017 the game was officially announced at PAX West in Seattle, and as you know, we launched a year later on September 20, 2018.
As for Nintendo, they have an amazing team supporting the “Nindies” which made for a smooth development process. The Switch itself is a great hardware platform to work with, and we have Nintendo and the folks at Unity to thank for making our transition onto the console very straightforward. We didn’t really have any hurdles. We had a few third-party plugins that were just adding support for the Switch at that point but they were very quick to sort it all out, so it didn’t really impact our development.
PS4B: Are you considering working on some additional content for the game to be made available either as free or paid DLC?
Absolutely. We have been actively listening to our players’ suggestions and have been hard at work since the release to offer free DLC alongside bug fixes and quality of life improvements to Light Fingers. We hope to ship our “Pumpkin Patch” very soon. We have also heard the audience’s calls for a more involved single-player experience on the game board which we will be working towards in the future.
PS4B: Now that the game is out on Switch, are you currently working on a new project or are you taking a short break?
The pace had slowed down a bit in the days coming up to launch, but it is ramping back up. We have a roadmap for the future of Light Fingers and plan to continue providing updates and new content for the game.
PS4B: And now it’s time for us to go. Would you like to add anything else before we go?
I’d like to personally thank all of the players who have shared their experiences with us as well as the YouTubers and the Twitch streamers who have shared Light Fingers with their audiences. The team is thrilled to hear you are having a good time and we are taking all of the feedback and suggestions you send us into consideration for the future updates. We are very excited to have you with us as we continue our voyage into this magical mechanical world of mischief and thievery. Finally, a thank you to PS4Blog.net for having me!
