Hello people of r/NintendoSwitch,
We are MAXART, a small indie studio from sunny Brisbane, Australia. We are the team behind Servonauts – the absurd couch co-op gas station builder for 1-4 players! In our game, you’ll manage a servo (that's Aussie for "gas station") as impatient space travellers demand prompt service. Wrangle wobbly pipes, work together with your friends to refine fuel, build pipelines and manage mayhem in many exotic locations throughout the galaxy!
Here is our launch trailer to give you an idea of what Servonauts is all about:
The people answering your questions today are:
virtualredpanda – Studio Director
taj14 – Community Manager
louis_vd – Producer
AzzyTheArtist – Art Director
We will start our AMA at 2pm PST | 5pm EDT | 11pm CET, but you can already leave some questions for us which we will tackle as soon as we come in. We also have a game key to give away. If you want to be in the running, just leave a question or comment, and we’ll randomly select the winner 24 hours after the AMA. Our game came out on the Nintendo Switch just last week, and you can grab it from the eShop right now for 20% less.
So, if you have any questions about our game, what makes Servonauts different from other couch co-op games around, what games we play ourselves, what’s our favourite TimTam and/or Aussie slang word, or anything else, just ask away!
And with that out of the way, let the AMA begin!!!
EDIT: We are taking a bit of a break, but keep those questions coming! We will answer them throughout the day.
by taj14
22 Comments
Looks pretty cool. Always looking for more local multiplayer games. How did you come up with the “servo” theme? Did the hose mechanic or whole gas station theme come first in development?
Great to see fellow Brisbanites making games! Good luck!
I usually play these kind of games with my kids. Are there different difficulty settings in the game?
Love the idea of space gas station attendants. I have to ask, in relation to Switch, what sort of difficulties did you guys face when developing for the platform?
As a follow up, can you play with shared joy cons?
Nice graphics and art style! Was there any specific inspiration for the style and characters?
Love the bright colours and frenetic gameplay. Congrats on the launch!
How big is the team that made this game, and how long was the development cycle?
Congratulations on shipping! What kind of games helped inspire you to make Servonauts?
Holy shit a Brisbane company. How’d you guys get here? What were the steps it took to get from nothing to having a development company and your own game? Was the road difficult and what’s your outlook on the industry in Brisbane/Aus in general?
I saw that you were inspired by Overcooked, and I can see it in your trailer. That being said: Are there any levels that will bring out the rage of my wife when I tell her we have a new game to play?
Side note: I worked at my grandpas gas station for four years as a teenager, and seeing impatient space travelers is slowly bringing back memories.
Congrats on the game!
If you could work with any nintendo IP which one would it be and what kinda game would it be?
The game looks like so much fun! I’m going to ask something I’ve always wanted to ask to a Switch game dev. Did you guys implement any HD Rumble in your game, and if so, how hard was it to implement after visualizing the desire effect? It’s such a cool feature and I just love every time it’s used.
I knew you had to be a fellow Aussie with the name Servonauts! My partner and I love couch co-op games, would love to receive a key.
I don’t really have any questions, but this looks great! Thanks for making a couch co-op game and thanks for the AMA.
Best of luck with everything!
Hello! Is there a single player mode and if so how did you balance it to make sure the experience works for one player?
Hi!
Is the game couch co-op only, or is there online co-op as well?
Thanks!
Cool
Im honestly super impressed with the trailer, didn’t expect it to look this good when I first read the post. And it brings a very nice twist to such a popular genre!
I guess my main question would be how did you guys decide to make an Overcooked-like couch co-op? Was it a decision made spontaneously by the studio or did the publisher and the genre’s popularity have an influence in it?
PS: would love to be the lucky one to get a key obviously hahaha
The game looks GREAT! Love the asthetic. I would want to ask as your game is heavily inspired in Overcooked, the last Overcooked game on the Switch doesn’t work that great on Switch specially 4 player mode. How many FPS is your game targeting? Which compromises you guys had to do to reach that goal?
The game looks like lots of fun, congrats on the launch!
Do you have any cool concept art
Looks great.
Does it scale based on number of players? Some of these games get rough without 4 players. Wondering with one or two if it is doable.
thanks
As the game scales per player count, does it perhaps allow for skill based scaling.?
For example, as a family we absolutely love playing these sorts of games, but are usually hindered when the game becomes difficult as we are playing with 2 adults and 2 young children. Often making it difficult to pass stages and/or challenges as the games would scale thinking it’s 4 fully competent players.
Perhaps adding a selectable age range per player, or simply allowing 4 players on a 2 player difficulty.
Oh, this looks amazing!
Graphics looks fun, music looks nice and local co-op is my thing anyway.
I know that I’m too late (I’m living in a different time zone) but which stack are you using?
Looks great! Perfect for this holiday season.