We’ll be working on reviews for Ghost Grab 3000 and Singled Out, so I got in touch with Matt Glanville to talk a bit about the games on Nintendo Switch. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Hi Matt! Good to have you back. How are you today?
Hello! I’m doing well, thank you. It’s been such a busy period for me lately, but I can finally take a little breather before my new games are released. It feels like the eye of the storm. The preparations are all done, but the word has not got out just yet. It’s a bit scary.
PS4B: You’re getting ready for the release of Ghost Grab 3000 and Singled Out on Nintendo Switch. What can you tell us about these games?
Ghost Grab 3000 is a bullet hell wave-based game in which you chain ghosts together for huge score multipliers.
Whereas Singled Out is a quick-fire identification game where you must find the correct target in a crowd by quickly matching facial features.
These are two small arcade action games focused on a pure score-chasing challenge. They were both made in 2019 and released on PC towards the end of the year. When January rolled around, I started working on bringing them to Nintendo Switch, and six months later here we are, both of them are ready to go!
I didn’t originally plan to release them at the same time, but once I finished Ghost Grab 3000 and submitted it to Nintendo for approval, I managed to carry over a lot of the same code and tools into Singled Out. That meant I was able to port it to Nintendo Switch much more quickly than I anticipated, and so I decided to make it a double release.
They both share a common thread of knuckle-biting challenge and cute pixel art characters, so I felt like they worked really well as a pair.
PS4B: Has anything changed for the games in their move from Steam to Nintendo Switch?
They’ve both had a lot of polish and quality-of-life improvements though! Some of those improvements made it into post-release PC updates, but some of them are brand new.
One new thing I’m particularly happy with for Ghost Grab 3000 is that the game will now show you a score from the leaderboard that’s just above your own high score to tease and encourage you to improve. If any of your friends have beaten your score, it will show you their scores as well. It’s a real ‘carrot on a stick’ thing. I hope it teases and frustrates people just enough to keep striving to do better!
Overall, they didn’t actually change all that much, at least not compared to my last game, Switch ‘N’ Shoot, which had several new features added for the Nintendo Switch version. When I built both these games, I had a Switch version in mind from the start, so I was able to design them around its strengths and constraints.
PS4B: With both games, as well as Switch ‘n’ Shoot on Nintendo Switch, can we expect to see Dungeon Deathball and the Legion Saga Trilogy on Nintendo’s console?
Dungeon Deathball is a real possibility once I’ve finished the PC version, yeah. But it’s a little too soon to say for sure.
Unfortunately, the Legion Saga Trilogy won’t make it to Nintendo Switch, though. Those games were made about 20 years ago using RPG Maker 2000, and porting them over would be far too much of a technical and logistical challenge.
A new Legion Saga, though? Never say never!
PS4B: And now it’s time for us to go. Would you like to add anything else before we end this one?
I’d just like to say, firstly, thank you for helping to share the news about my games. I’m a solo indie developer, and I’m always grateful for anyone’s support in getting the word out there, so thank you!
Secondly, if anyone wants to see more of my work, they can find all of it on my website.
I also run a Patreon which partly funded both Ghost Grab 3000 and Singled Out’s development. If anyone would like to support my future projects, that’s a really great way to do so, and you can get early access to all my prototypes and work-in-progress games.
Thanks again! I hope people enjoy these games!
