The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope: Porting a modern horror classic to Switch in just four months

When Supermassive Games needed Little Hope, the second game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, ported to Nintendo Switch on an incredibly tight timeline, they turned to Room 8 Group—seeking the expertise that had already helped them ship two other titles: The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Switch) and The Quarry (Multiplayer mode).

The challenge

Four months.

That was the tiny window of time we had to bring the Xbox One, PS4 and PC multiplayer interactive drama over to Nintendo’s significantly less powerful hybrid home/handheld console.

Crucially, our port needed to deliver a comparable play experience across gameplay and graphics — while hitting a consistent target frame rate in both the console’s docked and undocked modes.

Here’s how we delivered.

What we did

Four months is quite a limited timeframe for the classic porting approach – one that could have endangered the entire project.

Thankfully, our R&D team gave us an advantage: a unique toolset that enabled us to cover the massive scope of work in such a short time—allowing us to:

• Squash bugs speedily

Fixing known Unreal Engine bugs efficiently within the constrained timeframe was crucial for meeting Little Hope’s pre-order demands. Thankfully, our previous involvement in the Dark Pictures projects provided us with an in-depth understanding of the game, its intricacies, and unique specifications. In tackling bugs, we used our experience, unique tools, and the talents of our team to not only meet but exceed the most ambitious expectations.

• Hit a steady 24 frames per second

Getting a game originally developed for Xbox One and PS4 to run on Switch hardware without significant slowdown was one of the project’s biggest hurdles. This was where our expertise with the series and Switch architecture proved invaluable. Through comprehensive asset optimization amongst other techniques, we were able to hit a consistent 24 fps, with the implementation of our R&D patches helping us to reach as high as 30 fps in places—meaning we actually outpaced our initial projections.

• Deliver the Switch port well ahead of schedule

Our combination of fast bug fixes and frame rate mastery ultimately allowed us to go above and beyond in terms of time to market and the quality of the finishing product— concluding the project three weeks early and achieving a high quality that Supermassive Games were very happy with.

• Optimize original platform versions, too!

And that wasn’t the only way we went above and beyond. The asset optimization and bug fixing work we did on the Switch version also allowed us to go back to the other versions of the game and improve their performance too.

Specialisms delivered

1. Bug fixing
2. Developed advanced materials and shaders
3. Engine optimization
4. GPU optimization
5. Memory management
6. Optimized lighting evaluation
7. Optimized fog rendering
8. Rendering pipeline optimization
9. Writing platform-specific code

Need your game ported in record time? We can help

At Room 8 Group our specialists have the technology and expertise to handle transitioning titles in all genres, to every competitive platform—often even within the tightest of timelines.

Curious how we could help you hit release date while delivering boundary-pushing ports that gamers will love? Let’s talk.