Nintendo Life: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have appeared in many games over the years, but never in a roguelike. Why did you decide to move the Turtles into this genre?
Tom Westall, Super Evil Megacorp: Our mission at Super Evil Megacorp is to create the best shared gaming moments in the world. We played other successful roguelike titles and thought to ourselves how great they would be if we could play together in co-op. We quickly became fixated on the idea of a four-player top-down roguelike and started thinking of new concepts. When someone mentioned TMNT, we knew this was the game we wanted to make. We grew up with TMNT through games like Turtles in Time and more recently Shredder’s Revenge, but they largely have a similar flow and focus to the Brawler genre. The idea of bringing the Turtles into a new genre excited and energized the entire team as an opportunity to pioneer something new with the IP.
As we explored systems and design ideas, it became clear to us how perfectly TMNT was suited for a roguelike game. It really allowed us to bring out each Turtle’s unique personalities in the story, and their in-game fighting styles opened up a wide variety of gameplay possibilities.
We see a lot of Hades inspiration in Splintered Fate. Was this a particular touchstone during development, and were there other roguelikes you looked to during the process?
Any comparison to a game as incredible as Hades is a wonderful compliment, thank you! Hades in particular opened our eyes even further to how roguelikes can tell epic stories that evolve over time and is considered a masterpiece by many for that reason. We felt that our background in social gaming in particular could be used to see how we could innovate in this area.
Prepare to be surprised with every run and make sure you play like all Turtles
There are a lot of big roguelike fans at the company, and we were definitely inspired by playing them. Games like Dead Cells and Slay the Spire changed the way many of us think about how many years and hours a roguelike can stay interesting for.
Another title that really inspired us was Children of Morta. This was a game that was all about family, something the TMNT franchise has always valued above all else. We think Splintered Fate is a great addition to the genre, with many familiar systems, but also innovations in the co-op space that fans will really enjoy.
The roguelike genre has grown immensely on Switch. How does Splintered Fate stand out from the crowd?
Co-op! And of course the IP and the ability to play the first TMNT roguelike. This game is so much fun when you play it with others. When we announced this game for Switch, it was very clear to us that players wanted one thing above all else: to play together. There is definitely something special about playing games together. Our studio’s goal is to create the best shared gaming moments, so our mission was clear: make sure Splintered Fate would be an amazing co-op experience. The team has worked incredibly hard to deliver an experience that we are truly proud of (with a surprise yet to be announced)! After testing it out with a few of our friends and family, we are very excited to share the co-op experience with the world.
A run-based game like this obviously requires a lot of repetition. How did you make sure the gameplay loop doesn’t get tiring?
Lots of content, random encounters, and a few surprises! It really helped us that the TMNT universe is a great resource full of tons of material that allowed us to add lots of little surprises throughout the game.
We’ve created over 100 Turtle Powers, and players can only collect a few during each run as they build. It was important to us that we think of different ways to combine these powers into interesting builds that players can explore, and we’re sure they’ll find some that we haven’t even thought of yet.
We also have a progression system that encourages you to play every Turtle, but benefits all characters. This encourages players to play all four brothers to unlock everything and become the ultimate ninja Turtle.
Each Turtle brings a different style and toolbox to the fight
It’s not just progression though, where there’s plenty of choice and variety. We’ve also built multiple variations of each boss fight, and loads of mini-boss encounters, so you really don’t know what you’re going to encounter each run. As you progress through the game, we’ve also added the option for players to take on tougher versions of the boss and mini-boss fights called ‘Gauntlet Challenges’ and take on special portals that increase your rewards but add a new challenge to the run, such as halving all healing you receive!
If that’s not enough, we have thousands of storylines that tell the story or just add fun and flavor as you play. In short, prepare to be surprised with every run and make sure you play as all the Turtles!
How did you approach the difficulty of the game?
We played a lot! We wanted to create a challenging experience for players to enjoy, while supporting a deep progression system. If you find a particular challenge too hard, improving your skills should help you get past it. And if you find the game a bit easy, there are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty as you progress. Only one person on the team completed the game on the hardest setting that I know of.
We knew that some players like challenges, while others want to enjoy the story. With this in mind, we also built a ‘Story Mode’. In this mode, the difficulty is lowered significantly, allowing you to play the game at a more relaxed pace. Everyone has a different skill level and time frame, so giving players this choice seemed like the best solution.
Many of the most well-known TMNT games have given each Turtle a different playstyle. How important was it to you to make each character feel unique?
Essential. The Turtles have very different personalities and fighting styles, which is part of why the franchise is so beloved by so many. We played on this to create a mix of playstyles, both for variety and to stay true to the source material.
For example, Raph is a powerful fighter. He can pull a group of enemies towards him by hookshotting them and then using his rage to hit them with a barrage of critical hits. Mikey, on the other hand, is the opposite. With his laid-back personality, he focuses on hitting multiple enemies in a large area.
Each Turtle brings a different style and toolkit to the fight, as well as their own affinities for Turtle Powers, making it more likely that you’ll encounter a different type of power with each run.
Can you talk a bit about the Splintered Fate character design? What TMNT media did you look at when designing the character models and environments?
This year marks the 40th anniversary of TMNT, so there was a lot of source material to tap into. Many of us grew up watching different versions of the cartoon, from the 1987 original to the latest shows. As you play through the game, you’re sure to see little easter eggs that reference some of our favorite moments. We also drew heavily from the comics, and have loved reading the more recent releases, including those from Tom Waltz who co-wrote the Splintered Fate story. TMNT Splintered Fate is ultimately Super Evil Megacorp’s take on the franchise, and we hope our passion comes through in the character design.
What was it like working with Tom Waltz on an original Turtles story?
The best collaborations are always the ones where you get excited about each other’s ideas and build on them. That’s exactly what it’s like working with Tom. He’s a legend and we’ve had the privilege of working with him throughout our Splintered Fate journey, both on the game and the tie-in comics. Tom has such a deep knowledge of TMNT and has helped us create an original story that’s authentic to the IP while also providing a new adventure for fans. We’ve also worked closely with Tom to ensure that TMNT is littered with awesome easter eggs and secrets that we hope fans will enjoy.
Were there any challenges bringing the game to Switch?
I am now really attached to all four brothers and love each of them as individuals
We have our own proprietary game engine (the EVIL Engine) at SEMC. This allows us to create truly unique experiences across all devices. One of our most exciting challenges for Splintered Fate on Switch was making sure we played to the console’s strengths. We didn’t originally plan to build a specific feature for launch, but when we saw the demand, we knew we had to (stay tuned for more information coming soon!). This presented a lot of challenges, both technical and design-wise.
It was also important to us that this game shines, so we did a full lighting and audio pass and reworked the UI to make it sing on Switch. We’re super proud of the results and believe Switch fans are going to love the experience.
Finally, the most important question of all: who is your favorite Turtle and did it change while working on Splintered Fate?
A few years ago I would have said Donnie, but now it’s like choosing between my children! I’ve really grown attached to all four brothers now and love each of them as individuals, but of course they’re always the most powerful together. If I really had to choose, I think Mikey’s innocence and ability to find joy when all hope seems lost is what draws me to him the most. That said, Raph is my most played.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Thanks to Tom from Super Evil Megacorp for taking the time to answer our questions, and to Barzeli and Monique from fortyseven for helping us set it up. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate launches on the Switch eShop on July 17.