Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans have been all over gaming (plus movies, comics, and television) lately, and their latest adventure on PlayStation 4 and 5 is TMNT: Splintered Fate. PlayStation LifeStyle spoke to Super Evil Megacorp’s Lead Game Designer Daniel Stansens about bringing the hit mobile game to consoles. We were big fans of the release, which you can learn more about in our review.
“In TMNT Splintered Fate, brace yourself for fast-paced, roguelike action where no two runs are the same. With randomized power-ups, room layouts, and boss modifiers, the excitement never ends. Take control of all four Turtles, each wielding unique powers, and team up with friends for bodacious co-op gameplay. Explore iconic NYC locations, upgrade your Turtle powers, and prepare to face off against formidable enemies,” reads the official description.
PSLS: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate took its time to come from mobile to consoles, and it feels right at home as a result. What were the biggest challenges in that transition?
Daniel Stansens: The biggest challenges were mostly technical—learning the particularities of each platform and ensuring cross-play compatibility so everyone can play with their friends, regardless of platform. From a game design perspective, we approached Splintered Fate with a console-quality experience in mind from the very beginning. So while transitioning to consoles, most of our effort focused on adding new features and polishing existing ones in parallel with our release preparations. We really wanted the game to feel right at home on consoles.
There’s a stigma around mobile games that they lack depth, which Splintered Fate certainly has plenty of. As we’ve seen more premium mobile games make the leap to consoles and vice-versa, do you feel like that stigma has lessened in recent years?
We believe that the market is evolving and that mobile devices are considered by many to be a serious gaming platform. There is still a stigma, though, among gamers around the level of quality that a mobile game can be, but the increasing power of handheld devices has brought premium mobile games back to the same level as console games. As we mentioned above, this game was born as a console-like experience on the palm of your hand. We have had a lot of comments from our players who are in disbelief that this was a game that was first released on mobile devices. With this being said, we are focused on maximizing every platform, and we have enjoyed getting the best out of the power and capabilities of PlayStation 5.
A lot of roguelikes are single-player experiences, but TMNT: Splintered Fate features co-op play, which is always fitting for the property and stands out as a selling point. How important was it to make sure people could play with their friends?
It is definitely a core pillar for us to enable play with friends. All my fond memories of playing Ninja Turtles games as a kid were memories playing together with my friends, as we battled over who gets to pick which brother, who will pick up the pizza first, and more. We also believed the roguelike experience could be really enhanced by group play. We find the co-op dynamic in roguelike especially exciting, getting to play turtles with friends as well as creating clutch moments for players to save each other.
Roguelikes are inherently difficult at first. How was it fine-tuning the game so that defeat was met with players wanting to go for another run versus giving up on ever being victorious?
This is always a careful balance that comes down to game feel, as opposed to a deeply technical approach. Fine-tuning requires a lot of playtesting! You have to know what feels just right in terms of the balance between difficulty and progress, as well as take in player feedback. For us, it was really important to provide meaningful power progression that is easily understood by the player, so they can define various objectives for themselves to get stronger. In addition, we ensured there was a story mode added for players who want to experience our high-quality, fully voiced story, even if they are not looking for the challenge of the regular campaign.
TMNT has to be a dream property for any studio to get to use, and there are a lot of fun callbacks and references in Splintered Fate. How was it making sure you paid homage to the series throughout the game, rather than it just being a skin on a roguelike?
It was an incredible experience working with the IP. We were very fortunate to get to work directly with legendary comic book writer Tom Waltz (Last Ronin), and his love and passion for the IP really came across during the development of our game.
It’s been a great time for TMNT fans, as several games have been released over the past couple of years. Were you ever worried about the constant release cycle, or is it good for all associated projects for the brand to always be making news?
A rising tide lifts all shells! We’re all big TMNT fans on the team, and it’s been great for us to have so much other content to enjoy. We’ve definitely seen positive impacts coming from other TMNT product launches, such as the Mutant Mayhem film.