We had a lot of fun playing Zarvot for our review, so I got in touch with snowhydra games to talk about its development for its Nintendo Switch release. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Welcome to PS4Blog.net! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Can you please help us get started by telling our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
Hi Antonio! Glad to be here. I’m Sam Eng, director of snowhydra games, a games studio in New York City. We just shipped Zarvot for the Nintendo Switch just under two weeks ago!
PS4B: Zarvot is now out on the Nintendo Switch later this year. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
Zarvot is a charming, surreal, and lighthearted arcadey game. You play as a very expressive and capable cube, either alone in the story mode or with friends. You can shoot laser beams, use this deadly spin attach, zip around the stages, and blow up walls.
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the game? Any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome?
Zarvot has been in development for about four years! The entire journey was difficult. Making a game is not as easy as I thought it would be–there is so much that goes into every single little part of it, and I was not prepared for that.
Convincing myself that it was worth it and that there would be an ending was crucial to finishing, as well as giving up on things that just will not make it in the final cut. I had to cut co-op mode, for example, to hit my deadline. Letting go of such big features that seemed so important was very difficult for me, but I think I made the right decision given my budget, time, and sanity.
PS4B: With the game now ready to go, are you considering developing some extra content for it to be made available as free or paid DLC? Or are you perhaps now working on a new project?
There will be additional content post-launch! I have a few ideas, but I would love to see what players request and would like to see in the game. I plan to put in some more content, maps, and add in some features that I wish made it in the first cut, such as co-op mode.
I’m sort of holding back a little bit to see what people want. Maybe people want more story content, or more multiplayer content. I hope to be able to divert my resources to where there is the most demand. Separately, I also plan to port Zarvot to other platforms in the future! That will be fun.
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Is there something else you’d like to add before we end this one?
Thank you, Antonio, for having me. I’d love to tell everyone to send me suggestions for content or DLC for Zarvot it you decide to pick up the game. Thanks!
