Hey!
My name is Andrea Pessino, I am the director on Deformers. I am NOT here to change the tone of the conversation or convert the skeptics, but I just wanted to contribute a couple extra bits of information. I hope it's OK.
We will support cross play everywhere they lets us. Up to 4 player split screen, 8 players total per match, with heterogeneous teams and the ability to mix couch and online players as desired. 60FPS on all platforms (except using splitscreen on some platforms). Dedicated servers all around. We are building some very unique features to encourage competitive play – a lot more will be announced later.
As for the game itself, it is really hard to communicate what the experience is like in a video (much less a screenshot). It plays and feels like its own thing. Now this is not by itself a guarantee of quality, of course, but honestly we spend insane amounts of time playing it and it’s so much fun we can’t stop even when we are just debugging it.
A lot of the novelty comes from the fact that the game is completely physics based – the way the characters interact with the platforms and with each other feels very tactile and immediate (a main reason why we wanted the combat to rely heavily on melee). Smashing, blasting, grabbing, stomping, parrying, etc. everything feels very connected.
We have been iterating on the core gameplay for well over a year, trying to refine the pillars of the combat: fast and frantic, easy to pickup but very layered, centered on skill, social and competitive. Everyone we have shown the game to so far has had a really fun time with it – so we are hopeful we are on the right track.
On a personal note: this game has been a wonderful, emotional experience for me. The original concept for it is something I have been dreaming of making for over 25 years, that’s a part of it for sure. But by FAR the biggest factor has been the spirit and determination of the team that has built itself around it – they have turned it into the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on, personally and professionally. It’s like a crazy club of shit talking gamers spending insane amounts of time together, arguing and polishing and experimenting and playing, playing, playing... We have a so much fun coming up with the crazy and goofy stuff, looking for the most gameplay possible and just spending time together on a small project we really believe in.
Now, I really hope the game will resonate with players looking for something different , but however it comes out at the end don’t feel sorry for us since we are having a fucking blast working hard on it.
