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Anyone else disappointed with the quality of indie ports on the Switch?

Heruderu

Heruderu

Member
Oct 29, 2017
694
Just from the top of my head, the indie games that I can see framerate issues when playing are:

Overcooked - It got a lot better after patches, but some friends and I can still notice that it is not 30fps stable when in 4-player coop in later levels.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - Has some dips when playing 4-player coop as well, but not very noticeable.
Oxenfree - has framerate dips and long loading times. Purchased after patch, so I'm not sure how worse it was at launch.
Kingdom: New Lands - Purchased after patches. Still has some framerate issues. I'm quite sure it is not running at 30fps after the second island, except in the beginning.
The Mummy Demastered - After I got the Flamethrower weapon, it only ran at 30fps in small rooms. Whenever I ran or fought enemies, it was clearly stuttering.

Of course, none of these games is unplayable and I'm enjoying all of them. Overcooked and Lovers are some of the most played games I have when with friends. I just think that the games I cited shouldn't really compromise to run well on the Switch. Because of that, I decided to wait a while before purchasing indies.

Obviously, these are just a few games compared to how many are launching every month. Maybe I was just unlucky some of my gaming choices have these issues.
 

cnrm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
202
EricOfSeattle said:
Enter the Gungeon - Framerate issues
Oxenfree - Framerate and long ass load times
Slain - Framerate issues
Sexy Brutale - Framerate issues
Battle Chef Brigade - Framerate issues
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For one reason or another, Unity-powered Nintendo Switch games purportedly not running very well seems to be more and more of a common occurrence. Other examples include Super Bomberman R (which does not maintain a consistent frame rate in spite of its performance patch, albeit still higher than the launch build), I Am Setsuna (which had its frame rate cut in half entirely), or Overcooked (perhaps one of the most infamous Nintendo Switch ports using the engine yet). Unity Technologies is aware of development struggles but have there been many results of keeping that promise towards making life easier for developers with porting? Yooka-Laylee showed potential that better optimization can be possible, but the apparent majority of games using the engine otherwise set a concerning precedent for future ports to come. Consequently, I'm not expecting Hollow Knight to be 1:1 par with its PC counterpart, for example, but if they're able to pull it off without too many issues then I'll be impressed nonetheless.

I have no animosity towards neither Unity nor developers using the engine trying to squeeze what they can out of Nintendo's console, but I think it's unfortunate that things have to be this way for so many games powered by it regardless. Hopefully something can be done.

Edit: In hindsight I'm not sure if Overcooked was ever fixed or not, but the way it ended up at launch is still telling.
 
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Watershed

Watershed

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,892
In general I think indies have been great on Switch including performance-wise. There's a difference between technical compromises and poorly optimized ports. Only a handful of indie games are what I would call bad ports. Most are really good. Basically I think OP is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
 
Lord Brady

Lord Brady

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,392
The two ports I bought are Puyo Puyo Tetris and Stardew. Puyo is great but obviously not an indie, Stardew had issues with audio and terrible load and save times. All fixed now. Hoping for great ports of Hollow Knight and Meat Boy. Would love to see N++ ported as well. I just can't get into it on console.
 
Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,353
I'm honestly just getting tired of late, high priced and poorly optimized indie ports on Switch. Some even priced higher than their launch prices on other platforms.

Hopefully now that the hardware is in full swing the late ports will stop, but it seems to still be a recurring thing that most indie games have their Switch version as a TBD date or confirmed to launch later.
 
Jon Carter

Jon Carter

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,746
EricOfSeattle said:
Yooka-laylee is the only one I haven't played and it sounds like they've done a good job of tailoring it to the switch but it's still not on par with other versions. It is a game that had to make compromises to play on the Switch...if I wanted to play the game I would get it on one of the other consoles before switch for the best experience.
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The selling point of the Switch is you can play it as a home console and a handheld. The Switch version is the best experience, unless you don't care at all about portability.
 
weblaus

weblaus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
944
Spider-Man said:
I'm honestly just getting tired of late, high priced and poorly optimized indie ports on Switch. Some even priced higher than their launch prices on other platforms.
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But in these cases you're getting the Ultimate/Deluxe Edition for that price hike - it's written in the titles, so it must be true!

Which sometimes actually is indeed true (SteamWorld Heist being a prime example, and that actually kept its launch price despute adding the DLC campaign), while others clearly are some kind of joke (Stikbold costs at double its PS4/X1 launch prince and has added, um... support for 6 players? Meh).
 
ShadowGP

ShadowGP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,437
Yes Indies need to put more hours to their ports but don't forget we are just in the ninth month of Switch...
 
Gustaf

Gustaf

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
14,926
rocket league on switch doesnt have shadowwwwwwwwws?????

never would have realized without this thread lol

my cousins didnt seem to care about that when we were playing over the holidays
 

Deleted member 2620

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,491
The only game of these I've played is Gungeon, and I was kinda surprised to see how often it strains performance-wise even in the low-detail mode.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,042
There are so many indie games on Switch you can pick some that are so so ports. I think the headliners are all very good ports.
 
DigitalOp

DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,320
Rocket League didn't look that great in handheld at launch. People complain

Psyonix takes out some stuff to help with performance and resolution

People complain there's no shadows.... Some posters are insufferable


Hollow Knight delayed to 2018 specifically to have a better performing game

Slain got a patch to run better

Enter the Gungeon has a patch coming

Sexy Brutale has a patch coming

Yooka is a great port.


I don't even have a Switch and I know this stuff OP, seems like your extrapolating hard to make a point. The other games have issues and Im sure a patch will be in the pipeline.
 
pulga

pulga

Banned for alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,391
I've bought a ton of indies and only am disappointed by the resolution in Rocket League. hopefully its patched some more.
 
woolyninja

woolyninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,029
Rocket League is fantastic. The game I'm most impressed with is Steamworld Dig 2. Smooth as silk - I can't put it down!

The game I'm most disappointed with is Overcooked - its ok but the graphics/framerate/resolution combination makes it a little tough for me to play at the moment. Its not terrible, just something is not agreeing with my brain and making me a little dizzy.
 
justiceiro

justiceiro

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
6,664
EricOfSeattle said:
Obviously this doesn't apply to all indies on the switch and hopefully it's just a passing phase since the switch is new
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Don't count on that. A lot of switch ports are done by outside devs, so the original creators get zero experience with the machine. In my opinion, this helps on getting subpar results, as devs don't seems to want to deal with the hurdles of developing for a new architeture all together, and also don't go for high profile "port houses".

I do find interesting that even them those games still sell better there. This proves that the argument "people don't buy subpar ports" is pure bs.
 
Mandos

Mandos

Member
Nov 27, 2017
31,282
Heart and Slash's issues have been established as an unity update issue that slipped under the radar, should be fixed in a week
 
Enforcer

Enforcer

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,962
It's pretty silly as most indie games are "2D" and yet half or more aren't even running at 60 fps and there are some slowdowns.

So are some of these games actually technically demanding for the switch to run or another issue entirely? Portability isn't that big of a deal for me for me to overlook these issues. I've been playing Mario Odyssey on portable and the fact that can run 60 ffps while some of these games can't is just weird.
 
Askherserenity

Askherserenity

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,059
A lot of those games you listed run perfectly fine for me? Enter the Gungeon has frame rate issues??
 
BernardoOne

BernardoOne

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,289
Part of it is because everyone wants to be a part of indie gold rush. They see how much indies sell right now and they know it wont last forever, so they just rush it out the door and fix them later.
 

SpokkX

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,495
Unity is just bad on Switch - any game that perforns great? Some are "ok" (yooka) but overall none run flawlessly in my experience

Unreal Engine runs ok but at a price of lower res far below it should need (rocket league, tiny metal , snake pass)

Non middleware games are easily the best yes
 
Dogo Mojo

Dogo Mojo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,180
There are frame rate issues with Enter the Gungeon?

I noticed a few hiccups when entering a new room occasionally and a few times when things get really nuts with projectiles but nothing that's diminished the experience for me.

If anything I would have said the opposite, a lot of great indie games were released this year on Switch, and my experience with them has generally been good/great. Admittedly I went into Switch ownership knowing the console wasn't as advanced as its competitors so my expectations were lowered accordingly from the start.
 
Kouriozan

Kouriozan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,243
I'm fine with Enter the Gungeon (always play on beautiful) but aren't most of those game made with Unity aka welcome to hell for console ports?
 
Polioliolio

Polioliolio

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,401
Any issues with Crawl? I don't usually do this kind of thing, but might double dip for that one. Already have it on PC, but having on switch could be convenient.
 
TarpitCarnivore

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,250
Maxximus said:
Gunna need someone to point out the issues on Enter the Gungeon for me. Playing on balanced and I'm not seeing any issues after 25 hours of gameplay.

But I do agree, some ports have had issues and I think Nintendo needs to help keep porting standards high.
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I've seen slight dips when entering a newly unlocked room, but nothing yet during battle.
 
AfropunkNyc

AfropunkNyc

Member
Nov 15, 2017
3,958
When it comes to indie games. there's no much compromise that need to happen with these games to get em running but more optimization. I don't expect indie Dev's to be proficient when it comes to optimization, though.
 
berryman69

berryman69

Banned
Dec 3, 2017
265
VyechnayaSlava said:
Totally disagreed. I haven't noticed any framerate issues in Enter the Gungeon, Oxenfree, Battle Chef Brigade, Snake Pass or Rocket League. Not saying that they are perfect, but I'm normally sensitive to frame stutters and noticed nothing for any of these. The resolution differences for Snake Pass are negligible due to some clever tech work and Rocket League has been improved since launch. I own 40 games on my Switch now and it is my go to console, especially for Indies. Any perceived port "issues" have never affected my purchase decision or enjoyment of the games, even for my double dips.
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There is nothing wrong with anything guys. Move on and don't ask for improvements. :)
 
Braaier

Braaier

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
13,237
Not had any real issues with games I've played. The load time when saving on stardew is a little long, but not awful as some are suggesting.

Playing overcooked tonight for the first time so I'll see how that one plays.
 
Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,789
funo said:
Well. Have those insanely long loading times (or saving times, if you will) for Stardew Valley been fixed yet? Super annoying and stopped me from playing it.
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I'm not saying it shouldn't be critized and yes, I believe a patch has cut down load times but,... really?

Stops you from playing? This Ps1 level 60 second + waiting. It was like 20-30 seconds at max at launch. Seems odd to stop playing a game for waiting, what 20 more seconds than you should every 15/20 minutes of gameplay?
 
ApeEscaper

ApeEscaper

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,726
Bangladeshi
I'm thinking some of the Devs thinking "oh they think it's a portable device so that way they will excuse bad performance etc more so let's do this quick and cheap for a quick buck"
 
DeuceGamer

DeuceGamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
cnrm said:
For one reason or another, Unity-powered Nintendo Switch games purportedly not running very well seems to be more and more of a common occurrence. Other examples include Super Bomberman R (which does not maintain a consistent frame rate in spite of its performance patch, albeit still higher than the launch build), I Am Setsuna (which had its frame rate cut in half entirely), or Overcooked (perhaps one of the most infamous Nintendo Switch ports using the engine yet). Unity Technologies is aware of development struggles but have there been many results of keeping that promise towards making life easier for developers with porting? Yooka-Laylee showed potential that better optimization can be possible, but the apparent majority of games using the engine otherwise set a concerning precedent for future ports to come. Consequently, I'm not expecting Hollow Knight to be 1:1 par with its PC counterpart, for example, but if they're able to pull it off without too many issues then I'll be impressed nonetheless.

I have no animosity towards neither Unity nor developers using the engine trying to squeeze what they can out of Nintendo's console, but I think it's unfortunate that things have to be this way for so many games powered by it regardless. Hopefully something can be done.

Edit: In hindsight I'm not sure if Overcooked was ever fixed or not, but the way it ended up at launch is still telling.
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Admittedly I haven't experienced many issues as I haven't purchased the games most are mentioning as being problems, but it does seem like we've heard of issues with Unity. Hopefully they get the issue sorted. Didn't Yooka Laylee have to work with Unity to get their port where it is currently (which is quite good from my understanding)?
 
Vazra

Vazra

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,932
The Count of Lucanor had a weird framerate issue in the beginning of the game but then it ran well. That was weird. Gotta check what else I bought recently that runs like that.
 
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