We’re working on a review for Across the Grooves on Nintendo Switch, so I got in touch with Geoffrey Vincens at Nova-Box to talk a bit about the game’s development. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Morning! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Can you please tell our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
Hello, everyone, I’m Geoffroy Vincens. I’m a writer. I develop and publish narrative games with Nova-box, a small independent game studio located in Bordeaux, France, which I created about thirteen years ago. The studio went through different phases across the years, but we’re best known for the interactive graphic novels we’ve been releasing for the last few years, such as Along the Edge, Seers Isle, and now Across the Grooves.
PS4B: On that note, Across the Grooves is ready to go on Nintendo Switch. What can you tell us about this game?
Across the Grooves is what we call an “interactive graphic novel.” It’s a kind of game that’s at the crossroads between a comic book and a “choose your own adventure” storybook. You could also compare our games to visual novels, but with a European comic book visual style.
In this particular game, you step into the shoes of Alice, a woman in her thirties who sees her sheltered life being shattered by the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend, who sends her a vinyl record with the power to alter the reality of the listeners by rewriting their past. It motivates her to go on a quest across Europe to uncover the mysteries of this peculiar artifact, and to learn what happened to Ulysse, her ex-lover.
PS4B: How long did it take to port the game to Nintendo’s console? Were there any hurdles or challenges you had to overcome during development?
Well, it’s been a while since we’ve released anything on console, but thankfully things are way easier than they were ten years ago! Thanks to the Unity platform, we were able to port our in-house game engine and make it compatible with the Nintendo Switch without too much of a hassle.
It’s our friend and fellow game developer Daniel Borges from Manufacture 43 who took care of the technical side of the port. He’s a very talented developer, and he did an excellent job! On a side note, we encourage you to have a look at his own game, Pawarumi, which came out last year and is quite excellent. It’s a great shoot ’em up best described by its tagline: “rock-paper-scissor with lasers.”
PS4B: Is there any chance of getting a physical release for Across the Grooves on Nintendo Switch?
It’s not in our plans for the time being, but never say never, right? If the opportunity arises, we might act upon it. In other words: stay tuned!
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Would you like to add anything else?
Thank you for this opportunity to chat a bit about Across the Grooves. Every new release we manage to put out is really a big deal at our level, and we’re very grateful for the interest in our creations. Please note that the game has been freshly released on Steam, itch.io, and Nintendo Switch, so we hope you’ll give it a try!
