Porting Astroneer to Nintendo Switch 

In 2022, developer System Era Softworks needed a trusted partner to bring Astroneer to Nintendo Switch. A proven track record of porting complex, demanding games to the Switch, a platform with different requirements than other modern consoles, was essential. The partner made the decision to entrust the project to Room 8 Group. 

The challenge 

The goal: complete a full-scale turnkey port, from initial evaluation and analysis to store certification. The Switch version of the game had to include all functionality and features found in the original game, despite the limited performance of the target platform.  

The solution 

Based on the partner’s request and our preliminary evaluation, we planned the project, created a detailed milestone-based development plan, and listed key challenges to overcome.  

Room 8 Group set a team of top-notch engineers and technical artists who optimized every aspect of the game and found solutions to every problem we encountered.  

Highlights 

Voxel engine 

The game has a voxel-based open world, with full destructibility as one of its core features. Our engineers did an outstanding job of making the game’s engine run smoothly on the weakest of today’s game consoles in terms of technical performance. Optimization included improvements related to CPU, GPU, and memory consumption. In doing so we provided Switch players with the same gaming experience as on higher-performance platforms—without compromising gameplay or visuals. 

Local multiplayer 

Since multiplayer is a core element of Astroneer, an important task for Room 8 Group was to bring it to Nintendo’s platform and enhance it with a Switch-specific feature: local multiplayer.  

To achieve that, engineers made the console itself work as the server and handled all the related calculations internally.  

What the partner said 

Room 8 Group was one of several teams we approached about porting our project to Switch, which had many unknowns. We felt confident in their ability based on their previous experience on porting a similar game. During the height of development, the response time of the team was fast and they were happy to integrate into our processes and work with us, even managing the difference in time zones. We appreciated their flexibility and willingness to approach challenges head-on. The project passed certification and we’re excited for a successful launch!

– Aimee E. Smith, Senior Producer, External partners, System Era Softworks 

The outcome 

Our team did an excellent job porting a complex open-world multiplayer game with a voxel engine and fully destructible environment to a console with limited performance. We took full responsibility for the game certification and submission process, effectively managing internal and external resources.  

Our attention to the partner’s needs meant that we began another partnership with them soon after. We’re grateful to System Era Softworks for their trust in us, and for the opportunity to help bring Astroneer to Switch players!