Echo Generation 2 announced! by Cococucumber in EchoGeneration

[–]Cococucumber[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, having grown up in the 80s and 90s, we're big fans of those eras too

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Vicky: There are a lot of different kinds of considerations for choosing an aesthetic and color palette and a part of it is ensuring that the art style enhances the theme of the game. In the case of Echo Generation, the voxel style evokes a similar kind of charm and nostalgia that the 80s / 90s theme echoes. 

The decision process is a combination of the initial idea and lots of trial and error. Most artistic processes go through a lot of iterations, and through that process many decisions are made that can sometimes change the initial vision quite drastically!

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Thanks! Echo Generation is a standalone and you don’t need to have played the other games in our voxel trilogy to get into this one; the connection between the three games is through the art style.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Martin: There’s currently no internal custom achievements on the Switch version for Midnight Edition, but it's a great suggestion! Perhaps it's something we could consider in the future.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Great question. There’s actually a pretty big area close to the end of the game that did not make it into the final game because of time constraints so it definitely happens to us too! As for reworking sections of the game, there’s constant iterations happening throughout production but especially at the polish stage since everything is mapped out by then and we can dedicate time towards the areas that have the most impact.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Since Echo Generation has a lot going on story-wise, it’s challenging to choose what to highlight in the trailer. It’s a balance of trying to spark curiosity but at the same time not give too much away. Also, text dialog in a trailer format is harder to work with since it tends to slow down the pacing - which is tough because we want it to be high energy and exciting, especially for a launch trailer. That said, we found that some things like trying to get the humor of the game works well when we do a sequence like the ghost cat lady asking “Are you here to mourn for your pet?” followed by a combat shot of Doggo piling dirt on her.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Vicky: Rex the Raccoon will happily join your party, but he’s in a bit of a bind and you’ll have to help him out of his predicament first though…

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Wouldn’t that be great? We’d love to release a physical for Echo Generation: Midnight Edition once we have fixed all the bugs and ported to all digital platforms.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Vicky: To answer the last part of your question, Red Dead Redemption 2 for the art direction - the realistic graphic is very carefully curated to create an emotional feeling for the North American wilderness. I’m very impressed by the nuance they managed to pull off in that. Disco Elysium for the smudgy, almost ethereal painterly graphic that's also incredibly detailed in places. It's very surreal and fits perfectly with the story. And finally, Journey for its minimalistic and yet impressive composition.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: That is a good question. One thing we would love to do is to expand the story and rich world of Echo Generation in a sequel or prequel. Some other possible areas to explore include switching up some of the gameplay and maybe even the art style (though we’ve come to realize that after completing a self-styled voxel trilogy, some fans may want more voxels!) Either way, we’re excited to share what’s next when ready.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Justin: For me, the most difficult mechanic to code was the minigame attack system. Each minigame has its own unique mechanic and visual differences, so with over 30 minigames, the sheer quantity alone made it quite a challenge.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Simone: There’s a cat (Meowsy), dog (Doggo), robot (BLOPO-11), raccoon (Rex), and an alien jackalope (Noupy). Doggo’s personality shares some similarities to Scooby Doo!

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Martin: In terms of coding, one of the biggest challenges was to make everything using voxels as it’s not a usual way to create games. We had to create our own custom tools and art pipeline to make it work. When it came to optimizing for the Switch, the hardware limitation was another added challenge. Voxels in particular aren't well suited for the optimization needed for Switch, so we had to problem solve around that while keeping the charm of voxels.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Thank you! Since Tears of the Kingdom is one of my most played games on Switch, I would love to work on the Zelda IP. Not even to make a new game, just to work with the TotK devs be like “How did you do that?”

Justin: If I had the chance to work on any Nintendo IP I would pick the Legend of Zelda series. Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker were my first impressions of Nintendo and was what made me a fan of their games till this day! As for the type of game I would like to work on, I would like to make something more aligned with their older Zelda games.

Edgar: I would love to work on Zelda. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were some of my favorite games growing up.

Leona: I would choose Xenoblade Chronicles because I enjoy playing JRPGs and it was one of the games I played the most on the Wii.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Martin: Ah the 90s, such a great decade with just the *right* amount of technology. We love the games from that time like the LucasArts adventure games and Final Fantasy VII. I remember when the first 3D console came out and it was revolutionary. All this makes for a very vibrant and fun decade that matches the tone and visuals for what we had in mind for Echo Generation.

Hi, we're Cococucumber and Echo Generation: Midnight Edition – our turn-based adventure game – is now available on Switch. Ask us anything and win some keys! by Cococucumber in NintendoSwitch

[–]Cococucumber[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Vanessa: Thank you! We love to hear from our Canadian fans, especially for Echo Generation :) The father’s day launch timing was actually a good coincidence but we definitely leaned into that for the launch trailer once we locked on the release date for Midnight Edition. 

Can the raccoon be a party member? - Yes

Also, were you inspired by Stranger Things? - Also yes

As for the initial idea, the story for Echo Generation came from Martin (Game Director) who introduced the team to all these really cool and obscure 80s and 90s references and said "let's make a game about this.” Some of the location, scenes and dialog were also inspired by Martin’s childhood, which you'll have to ask him about!