We spoke to Panic Button about adapting the landmark shooter to the hybrid console.
Doom Eternal is one of the Game of the Year candidates and it’s no wonder. It takes one of the most revolutionary sagas in the shooter genre to a new level and, like its 2016 predecessor, it has adapted to current technology without giving up what it has made famous: blood, demons, violence and a rhythm hectic. Likewise, its release came at a very peculiar and optimal moment: it came out at the same time as Animal Crossing, whose concept is the antithesis of glorified violence; and in the middle of a confinement in which the public wanted more than ever an oasis of escape.
As with Doom 2016, Panic Button is moving Doom Eternal to Nintendo Switch, whose launch is confirmed for December 8, although we will only enjoy its digital version. At FreeGameTips we have had the opportunity to talk with the studio about a project that has proposed them a great challenge: transferring this Bethesda masterpiece to the Nintendo hybrid console. Far has been the exclusively familiar Nintendo, to open up to titles of various themes that we can take from home to bag.
A dream and a challenge
“Doom is a dream come true,” says Cody Nicewarner, the studio’s senior producer. “It is part of the history of video games and Bethesda, which has brought this milestone back.” For this mission, id Software and Bethesda have provided all the necessary material, and from the same study they highlight and appreciate the support received to make a worthy adaptation. In addition, development has had to overcome the stumbling block of the coronavirus, although in the study they claim to have adapted effectively to teleworking. Communication between studios, he says, has always been transparent and fluid.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest challenge has been adapting the graphics and sound. It is inevitable to make some sacrifices, but Travis Archer, Panic Button’s chief engineer, assures that they have maintained the quality as much as possible. “The sound has also been a challenge,” he says. “But we have been able to take full advantage of Nintendo hardware. Doom Eternal will now be ideal to take with us on the bus and then play it on the couch, and playing in both modes will be a joy. I am very proud of this port, because Doom Eternal is a crazy, hectic and insurmountable experience that we have preserved on Nintendo Switch ”.
“It’s a very advanced title for its time,” adds Nicewarner. “Everything is new, and the saga has been and is the best in its terms. Adapting Doom Eternal to the Switch has been quite a challenge. It’s like starting over with the development of a game, while at the same time recovering everything before it ”. Doom of 2016 is the preferred title of the saga, as mentioned in the interview, and the adaptation has been a lesson learned to bring us a port superior to the previous one.
A comfortable pointing system
On the port to the hybrid console, Panic Button highlights a “unique motion-pointing system”: “We are delighted with this addition for Nintendo Switch, which will be very significant for first-person shooter games for the platform. Thanks to this, we can customize our style of play; I have loved how we have taken it to the next level, with great precision and immersion ”. Thus, we will have the comfort of using the gyroscopic controls to aim, and we can add the control lever, which will achieve an intuitive and organic gameplay.
The love they exude for the saga is palpable during the intervention. Both cite the BFG as their weapon of choice, which is also one of the most memorable in the history of a video game that offers a very varied and juicy arsenal. Regarding their preferred level, they quote Mars Core: “It’s the best phase, it has very inventive designs and, without wanting to get into spoilers, it has a unique three-dimensional scope and perspective.” Likewise, both Archer and Nicerwarner emphasize that the part they enjoy the most of the creative process is seeing how the levels of the game take shape and all the pieces of the adaptation fit together perfectly.
Currently, the studio is focused on polishing the last details of the port and the campaign of its launch, so they have not commented on projects on the horizon. In a version that they assure faithful to 1: 1 scale, Doom Eternal will be released with the Battlemode mode available from day 1. Until next December 8, we await the landing of our Doomslayer on Nintendo Switch. Thus, for this Christmas campaign we have a very juicy gift for those players who want to slaughter demons on the hybrid console.
