During the the recent Curve Studios Showcase I got some hands on time with The Swapper and also got to chat to the games original developer Olli Harjola and asked him a few questions.

When you were building the game, did you expect it to be as big as it was?

Olli: Well, not really. Our marketing sucked. We didn’t do that much (marketing), it really helped us a lot that we did Indie Fund. (Indie Fund is an independent group working with developers to release their titles on their own terms, see indie-fund.com)

There’s no target with that? They just let you go?

Olli: Sort of yeah. It’s a different thing if you run out of money, you have this awkward conversation…But this game was really small, we were still living from our student apartments.

I’ve spoken to other developers in your area (Olli’s from Finland) and they have good infrastructure (for game developers). Did you find that when you were building the game that there were people around you doing the same thing?

Olli: I think that the infrastructure we have in Finland doesn’t really support this kind of game. It’s really business focused. If you go to them with a game like this, they are like “why doesn’t this game have micro-transactions?” I'm like “f@#k YOUUU, f@#k you guys”. they don’t really understand game development as an art form, they think of it as a business and that sucks for me.

Do you find different people reacting differently to it (the Swapper), like you see people really getting the puzzles?

Olli: Yeah, for example Otto, who was mostly a level designer. While I was doing more general designing, programming and art, the reason he started working on the game was that he tried the game. We were in a lecture in Uni and I was just writing the game, and he was asking me “what game is this? can I try it?” he said he really enjoys puzzle games. I was like “sure, yeah go for it”. Then I saw him playing the game and was like “have you designed this game or what?” because he was so fast. I thought he has some kind of special ability. I asked him make a couple of puzzles and we started working together.

Do you find the Playstation 4 version and the playstation Vita version pretty much identical or are there slight graphical differences?

Olli: Yeah, I feel that this version here (Vita). For example we don’t have the blur here, one of the reasons is that it wouldn't  be running as well if we had it there. This game is already really pushing the hardware to it’s limits.

Yeah, i play it on a 13” MacBook Air. 

Olli: (laugh) Yeah, it’s not really supposed to be on those things. But I think removing the blur on the vita wasn’t a problem. I think it actually makes sense because the screen is a lot smaller, like on here (the TV displaying the Playstation 4 version of the game) your eyes aren’t blurring but on the vita screen it doesn’t really need it.

YouTuber, Jackfrags, has released a video today highlighting a massive issue with Battlefield 4. Calling it a “Death Shield”, Jack has discovered that newly downed soldiers will act as a shield for other enemy players. 

The revive system in Battlefield 4 lets you resurrect dead teammates within a set time period. Jack has discovered that when the soldier is in this revivable state, bullets, projectiles and grenades will not pass through the area that the downed player would be standing (the players hit-box) if still alive. This effectively shields other players standing behind the downed soldier.

Battlefield 4 has had multiple patches since it’s release last year, but with more than six months passed and issues like this still present in the game, it’s still difficult to recommend it.