You Got Xbox 360 in my Nintendo

Newest Pre-order Spot

Great news! Before the funny story about porting the game to the Switch, I'm happy to say Game Type DX on pre-order right now for the Switch!

 Here's the link to the North American store.

And the linke to the European store.

(And is also on pre-order for Xbox One.)

 

Making a Game For The Wrong Consoles

Game Type was inspired and heavily references the Xbox 360.
When creating the upcoming DX version for it, things got pretty difficult considering we're releasing it for the Nintendo Switch and the Playstation 4 and 5. 

Now the worst possible thing to happen would have been for Nintendo and Sony to simply not allow the game in its present form, or to request a complete overhaul before we could release it. That would have stopped all work for the game. I was happy to create some new content for the DX release, and incorporate each platforms achievement and leaderboard systems. But to redo everything would have not been possible. The great news is, Nintendo and Sony are letting us release it!

However, both Nintendo and Sony sure didn't let our game in easily, or seemingly even understand what the game is about. I guess a "documentary style game about a competing game console" IS a pretty unusual concept!

RGB

Not surprisingly each platform, including the Xbox One, has rules about advertising a competitor's platforms. Plus, you have to adhere to each consoles naming conventions. Our game gets pretty "meta" though, because we have a made-up console in which you are playing the game. That console is called the "MediaBall" and its interface is a direct reference to the Xbox 360. To that end, I would have liked to have use terms such as "Dashboard", and "Game Marketplace" to complete the connection to the Xbox 360. 

"Switch Red" variant dashboard color

 But unfortunately for the Switch and Playstation, those terms and several things were required to be changed or removed. Even the number "360" in one of our fake ads got nixed! We also couldn't use the green color from the Xbox 360 Dashboard. In some ways we did end up with some pretty cool changes. Now each platform has it's own version! The Nintendo Switch version has "Switch Red" for the menu. And the Playstation has their blue for the menu tiles. 

I guess what puzzles me is that the Xbox 360 is completely off the market and not a true direct competitor any more, so it surprised me how much they pushed back on every little thing references it. Maybe it's more a long-standing brand concept than one console. I don't know!

You're on the Naughty List

Here is an incomplete list of things we had to change when adapting to Sony and Nintendo (I can't get too specific with the details as they are very touchy about mentioning their internal rules to the public).

• Can't use term "Dashboard" as this is the Xbox 360's term. I chose "Control Panel".
• Can't use term "Xbox 360". So I chose "Certain Game Rival's console" and made sure to print it in green. :D
• Can't use term "Game Marketplace", so we picked "Game Store". 
• Can't use green menu blocks. Green! Okay, they didn't say can't use green exactly, they just said the menu system looked too close to the Xbox 360. So change it some way.
  That's where the red and blue colors came in.
• Can't show a cartoony controller that is even vaguely like the Xbox 360. So I dropped the other stick.
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  Microsoft on the left, Sony on the Right
  

  
   
• Can't say "Control Stick". Um... what? I think that was more of a "must use our term" thing but it made me laugh. 
• Can't say "360" or "Rumble" action. So I went with "720" on the fake ad name and "Deep Tissue action" in the text description.
  
  
  
  
  When you click on the fake controller massage ad, you get these texts.
  
  
  
  

All in all, it really wasn't that bad to make the changes. I think it was just funny how it didn't seem like they noticed what the game was doing or what it was about. But I'm thankful we get to release it on all consoles! 

Release in September

Game Type DX is coming out September 8th!
It's ready for pre-order on Switch and on Xbox One.
(PS4 is tough to get a pre-order for it, but that's a whole other story!)