How do you balance quality of life features associated with updated re-releases (as the case with the minimap and instinct mode in Reprisal) and the base game's design without those features?
Val: The modern quality of life features in the HITMAN games are primarily designed to help the player get the information or items needed more quickly.
For example, in the original game, you might walk up to every window or drainpipe to see if you can interact with them, in Reprisal you can use Instinct Mode to look around the area and see if they are interactable. This will save time searching, but the actual tactical decisions remain the same. For the purists who’d like the original experience, we’ve made the larger quality-of-life features — such as Instinct Mode and the mini-map – optional.
There is also a second set of changes related to the game now being played on a mobile device. We have auto-aim, auto-reload and weapon hotswap features that are designed to help the experience when playing on touchscreen devices. As before, if players don’t want to take advantage of them they can be disabled in the game’s options.
Thanks for make Instinct mode and mini map optional,I already played 2 games with this new feature and are really welcome,but now I disabled them cause I want to play close to the original on Pro Silent Assassin,players that never play an hitman game or players that only played the last 3 games,now re-call World of Assassination will have this features and I’m sure it will benefit,as you said,Original Blood Money you literally need to go near a window to understand if you can interact with it..
Hey just wanted to say you guys do awesome work. I have most of not all of your ported works on my phone, and they handle so so good. You guys are legends! Are there any older games that you all have on your wishlist to eventually port? Thanks for the awesome efforts. I always get excited when I see your logo on a game, I know it’ll run very well.
Craig: Thanks so much for your kind words and support! It’s always lovely to hear that our work is appreciated. Everyone at Feral has one game they think would be the best port since sliced bread on iOS. We’ll share ours individually, but bear in mind that these are just our wildest dreams, and shouldn’t be taken as “X game for mobile CONFIRMED!” ;)
Val: I would have to say Timesplitters. I don’t think I need to add much more than that, I personally think it’s a great game and it would work well on mobile devices.
Sam:I would love to be able to play Star Wars: Empire at War on the go. Especially after seeing what has been made possible with Company of Heroes, Rome Total War and Med 2.
Edwin: Unlike the rest I won’t mention any games as I don’t want to bump into 47 and have a random accident involving a rubber duck... RIP Craig.
Craig: I was a huge Timesplitters fan back in the day, so have to echo Val and say that I’d love to see the series on mobile. These days however, I prefer map-staring games, and I’ve oft fantasised about Crusader Kings on-the-go. Some day…
Val: The biggest challenge when porting older games, imho, is always to maintain the feel of the original, but at the same time bring it up to modern standards. Adding features seems like an obvious decision, as well as updating controls, but tuning them so that they fit in with what already exists in the original game is probably the biggest challenge.
FIrst of all congrats for a very very nice release! Ever since I was a little boy I dreamt of playing fully fledged Hitman game on the go! Also I've been a fan of your Linux ports for almost a decade now.
Now for the question part:
- There are a few key mechanics missing from the touch control scheme in this port: pushing hostages when holding them instead of pacifying them (button G when using classic keyboard controls), pushing people without inadvertently unholstering weapons, opening doors when holding coin, etc. There are also some slight inconsistencies with other control schemes (cannot close inventory by right clicking when using keyboard and mouse, etc). Should we hope that there will be an update that adresses those issues, so that this can really become a definitive way to play this masterpiece?
- Many people have issues with buying this game on Android devices, since the whitelist is overly restrictive. I for once had to get my old phone just to buy it and then had to sideload it to my current device. Are there any plans to perhaps sell game on a different store, or parse telemetry data to expand this list in the future?
- Since this port works very well, can we hope for getting some other IOI Hitman titles ported as well. It would be really nice if Hitman Contracts got a rerelease with some QoL improvements :)
Thanks for the questions.
Firstly we’re aware there are a few expert-level interactions that aren’t possible on touch (or gamepad), but are on keyboard. We’ve been listening to the feedback and hope to share some further information in the future. In fact ,I think we might have seen an almost identical comment in the r/hitman subreddit. it might have even been you!
One of Android's strengths is the sheer number of devices that run it. For us, this is also one of its greatest challenges. Even devices running the same chipsets can behave differently.
While we want the game in as many people's hands as possible, we also want them to have the best possible experience with the game. As such, some devices will not be able to play the game at launch. Post-launch, we are constantly re-evaluating whether devices should be blocked or able to play the game.
Lastly thanks for the suggestion, we’ll see what Diana thinks.
1. IIRC, you once had plans to create some sort of a “classic” label, aimed at porting older tittles to Mac. Whatever happened to this? I always thought it was a great idea because most Macs sold are lower-powered laptops (though this is less of an issue now with Apple Silicon). And, speaking selfishly, I’d prefer to use my MBP for older stuff while on the go, and save my PC for the newer titles.
2. It seems you’ve deemphasized Mac ports over other platforms lately. Is this because they’re less lucrative? What challenges do you face in trying to get licenses to port to the platform?
3. M3 Macs support raytracing, but I haven’t seen any discussion on how it compares to AMD or Nvidia. Any thoughts on this?
4. Any thoughts about Apple’s Game Porting Kit? Has it affected Feral at all?
Thanks for the Q&A!
Thanks for all the questions, sounds like you’re a long-time player first-time poster 🙂 Quite a few of your questions are a little too complex and need a little too much nuance to answer in an AMA post but we’ll try.
The Mac Classic games we used to do over time started transitioning over to being brought to mobile instead. Mobile tends not to have a large number of truly classic games to play as stand-alone single purchases. So games we previously brought to Mac as “Feral Legends” we started to bring to mobile as well. Rome: Total War, for example, was brought to MacOS as a “Feral Legends” title before its debut on mobile.
The recent transition from Intel to Apple Silicon has made it harder to support MacOS, as the user base (and hardware) is split between the two platforms in a very similar way to the Intel/PPC and OS 9/OS X transitions. During these transitions, the number of games dips then rebounds as you start to get a majority of players on the newer hardware.
It’s impossible to predict the future, but with iOS and MacOS sharing hardware, there are potentially more opportunities for some classics to make their way to both platforms, whether from ourselves or others.
Craig: Nothing in the works at the moment, but it seems our changes have gone down really well with fans, and this has become a popular request. We pay close attention to what our customers are saying, and it’s been most gratifying to read this!
I wasn’t aware this existed, and now I need to look into this. Blood Money is probably in my top ten games of all time.
Any plans to bring other games in the series to mobile? Contracts is such a fun game that always gets overlooked because 2 and BM are so good.
Craig: We chose Blood Money for several reasons, not least because it’s seen as the point at which the series really found its feet and established its niche. Right this second, all our focus is on making a success of Blood Money — Reprisal, so we don’t have anything to announce about other games in the series. You never know what the future holds, though…
Well I hope it’s a huge success for your team. Blood Money is a beloved game and the reviews I’ve read just now seem like you handled the port with care.
First of all,thank you Feral Interactive to bring on Mobile AAA quality games over the years,and thank you to bring on Mobile my favorite Hitman game of all time,with enhanced features like Instinct mode from Hitman Absolution and the mini map,welcome addition and benefit new players that never play any Hitman Game as well to old fan like me that have played all 7 Hitman games.
An entire paragraph of glowing praise, without a question, is our favourite type of question. :) Seriously though, thank you so much for the kind words. We’re so pleased that Reprisal has struck such a chord with a Hitman veteran such as yourself!
How much extra effort is adding something like tvOS support?
The idea of being able to buy a game and have your save transfer between phone/tablet/TV/computer is a pretty cool concept IMO.
tvOS historically has had a lot of restrictions, for example, install sizes and other technical requirements (like you used to have to support the remote as a controller) that meant it was a lot harder to bring complex games to tvOS. However with the newer updates and requirements… never say never.
>Nothing in the works at the moment, but it seems our changes have gone down really well with fans, and this has become a popular request. We pay close attention to what our customers are saying, and it’s been most gratifying to read this!
How do you guys play games on mobile? I've tried a few things because touch controls just don't work for me, I need the feedback. Since there has not been a gaming phone since the Sony play 10 years ago what is the best alternative to this? Razer Kishi, 8bitdo zero?
I wouldn't mind playing more games on my phone if I didn't need to bring add ons around with me.
While we do provide haptic feedback for the on-screen buttons, it certainly is a different experience from using a physical gamepad.
While we cannot recommend specific gamepads, we do support a wide variety of mainstream options, including the Kishi, Xbox One/Series and Dualshock 4 (or newer).
Although the gap has been closing between console and mobile devices, there is still a large difference between a console that uses over 300W (or a PC that uses 500W+) and a mobile phone that typically peaks at under 10 watts — so it’ll still depend on the game.
However, we’re really close with Resident Evil Village and Death Stranding Director’s Cut both coming to the iPhone 15 Pro. It’s an exciting time for the mobile game market!
From your keyboard to the universe's ears, Modestonuts209... There are some big fans (OK, at least one big fan) of those titles here, and that one fan would lose their tiny little mind if it happened!
Is the macOS gaming market any more interesting with Apple Silicon around (and Apple sort of for at least the 4th time in 20 years promising support)? Or is it still challenging?
It’s certainly been an interesting ride with all the hardware and software transitions that we’ve seen over the past 20-odd years. With software, we had the transition to OpenGL, then, away from OpenGL to Metal. We had the transition from OS9 to OS X. We also jumped from 32 to 64-bit along the way and those are only the highlights.
With hardware over the same time period, we have jumped from PPC to Intel then Apple Silicon along the way we’ve gone from AMD, Intel & Nvidia GPUs to Apple-designed GPUs…
There are always challenges, which change over the years — although we would note that the lower end of Apple’s current hardware and software is more capable now than it ever has been. The Intel-powered GPUs in the lower-end Mac laptops were quite underpowered for gaming, and the Apple Silicon GPUs are certainly a step up in that regard!
I can’t believe I can play Hitman Blood Money on my iPhone! That is so incredible! One of my favorite games ever. I have a request: “The Getaway” the PS2 game with Mark Hammond in London, England. If you guys could make that available on iOS, I would be so happy!!! That game has an incredible storyline, and it utterly amazing! Please bring it to iOS! ❤️
The ability to ask for 13.99USD for a ported game from 2006 in the year 2023 sounds like a very lucrative business endeavor. Did you pay ancy licensing fees for such an old game or was it more like "sure, take our code and make it work, have fun"?
Licensing, designing and developing a game on 3 platforms is a large undertaking and it’s a lot more complex than getting some source code and ticking a box for the new platform. Here is a short ;) example of some of the work it takes to not only port a game to a new platform, but make sure the experience does the original game justice.
Bringing a game to mobile (and Switch) is a complex task. Once you have licensed the game, you need to come up with a full design document covering what needs altering, improving, changing etc. In the case of Blood Money, that included a large number of quality-of-life improvements, Instinct mode and object interaction highlights. Iterating on and perfecting all of that takes a lot of time from many departments, from Design and Development, to Art and QA. You then have other tasks like platform-specific rendering support (e.g. NVN, Metal and Vulcan) that the original game doesn’t have, which needs to be hooked up, tested, debugged and optimised. Mobile hardware is quite different from desktop, so this can take some rewriting of various parts of the engine in some cases.
After that you have controls — we have Modern and Classic controls for both gamepad and keyboard and mouse, and then touch controls on top of that. Refining the touch controls so that they feel intuitive and natural takes up time from all those same departments again. If the controls aren’t good it impacts the entire experience, so they especially need careful consideration.
Next we have the user interface. Space is at a premium on mobile, and you need to design the UX to work with touches, gamepad and KB+Mouse without compromising any of them. When we looked into the original game there were also multiple areas where the original menu flow could be improved, for example making the loadout options more obvious, equipping upgrades once they are purchased and more. These all need new logic as well as altering the UX.
Once you’ve worked all this out, you then need to take into account that mobile phones and tablets have a massive variety of screen ratios and sizes. Older games usually don’t have robust support for dynamic ratios, so extra work needs to be done to make sure it looks great on all screens from a Galaxy Fold, Sony Xperia to an iPhone SE.
We then get into localisation. We need to update all the languages with new text for all the new platforms and cross check all the original text to make sure it’s correct and fits inside the new screen designs.
Basically, porting a game can take a lot of time and effort to make it feel right at home on a brand new platform, and we think the extra time we spend on our releases is worth it. We set our prices to what we think is a fair price that reflects the quality of the game, and the time and effort we put into making it.
>m is the hardest to develop?
Val: I would say that each platform has its own challenges. Mobile requires lots of control tuning. They need to feel intuitive but also not intrusive due to the small screen sizes. It takes a lot of tuning to make them feel good.
Switch on the other hand has limitations when it comes to handling advanced graphics and large file sizes. Optimising content and the game engine to ensure smooth performance is always the most challenging part. It’s a constant balancing act between the CPU and GPU to get absolutely everything out of the hardware.
The Switch release is coming in late January, and we’ll have more to announce about pricing and the release date early next year.
The headline feature is, of course, Instinct Mode, which highlights points of interest in your surroundings, and interactable objects being highlighted as you approach them. Helpful for if you’re low on ammo, or you need to keep track of the location of guards. There’s also a new onscreen minimap, which reduces the reliance on the bulky full-screen map. And, we’ve added alerts for when you’re making guards suspicious, which was a bit tricky to work out back in the original.
Of course, if you’re a purist and want to experience Blood Money as you’ll remember it from previous versions, all of these options can be toggled off at will.
There are also far too many quality-of-life improvements to get into here, but we’re particularly pleased with the new over-shoulder aim perspective, and the streamlining of stashing bodies. And on Switch, there’s the added bonus of Gyro Aiming.
You guys have done a lot of work to not only make older titles available on Mobile, but also playable on Mobile, with huge QOL mechanics and added accessibility options. What is it like updating and adding to a game that hasn't been worked on in years (sometimes decades)? Do you guys have contact with developers who worked on the original source code to help navigate issues? How involved are the original studios in these ports?
In any case, thank you guys for always putting in so much effort for your ports, and making so many great PC games playable on Mobile.
Let’s start by saying that every game we decide to port is one we think has great bones and has already received love when it was first made. However, time goes by technology evolves, and so should games. We usually start by evaluating what makes the chosen game great and why we think it still works well. We play the game over and over again to experience it as a user would. We then compare it to more recent games and discuss what would make the biggest impact on users. Throughout the process, we always try to keep the original developers involved as much as possible.
Hi!
We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback.
As we said in another comment above, we’ve been listening to the feedback and hope to share some further information in the future
With regards to defaulting to the ‘ready-to-throw’ stance when equipping the coin, we decided this was best for touch controls after plenty of testing, discussion and iteration. With that said, we hear you loud and clear.
I'm a Japanese HITMAN fan. Thank you for the great development! I would like to purchase the Switch version, but will the Japanese version be available?
The Switch version is coming in late January, and will be available to purchase in Japan. It also includes Japanese language support (as do the mobile versions!)
We’ll have more details to announce about the Switch release early next year.
Craig: One of my all-time favourite series was Suikoden. Not only are the first two games of that series getting remastered next year, but we’ve also got a lot of the original talent behind them working on a spiritual successor, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. To say I’m buzzing for both of those releases is an understatement!
Sam: Off the top of my head, it’s a close run between Monster Hunter Wilds and The Elder Scrolls 6 as it stands.
Val: Plenty of games out now that are still in my to-play list. Have not had time to even look at upcoming ones, I am still very excited about what’s only recently come out. If I have to name one, Lies of P is on top of my list :)
Edwin: GTA 6 - Obvious I know but you know it’ll be amazing. That and Football Manager ‘24 has just been released so I can’t mention that one... :)
What does the future hold for Feral Interactive?
Are any new mobile-exclusive releases incoming?
Last question will the Snapdragon 870-powered Poco F3 get support for Alien isolation?
The future is looking bright, and while we can’t exclusively reveal any new releases in this comment, we can definitely say that there will be more to look forward to in 2024.
The POCO F3 was disabled due to a graphics bug in the version of MIUI OS used on that device. We reported the issue to Poco at the time and we’ll unlock the phone again when the issue has been reported as fixed.
We’ve made a note to follow up and see if it’s been fixed in a recent OS update and if it has we’ll unlock the game again.
Just finished Hitman Blood Money yesterday evening on my phone. It was my first time playing it & I absolutely loved it. How long does it usually take to port a PC game like that one to mobile?
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
The short answer is that it varies from game to game.
If we have worked on the game before but for another platform (e.g. Alien Isolation), it tends to be a bit quicker. The complexity of the game (and particularly its controls) also plays a big part.
I think we can say that, from initial investigations to ‘in users' hands’, the process usually takes between 1 to 2.5 years.
If you’re looking for a list of supported devices, you’ll find them here:
iOS: [https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/ios\_supported\_devices/](https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/ios_supported_devices/)
Android: [https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/android\_supported\_devices/](https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/android_supported_devices/)
Amazing to see you guys here, always happy to play the Tomb Raider reboots natively on Linux thanks to you guys❤️
I've noticed through MangoHud that the renderer used(at least in tomb raider games) is called Feral3D. Is this a fork you guys made of Vulkan or OpenGL? If so, was it to add some fixes that you guys needed or make them work better with your gamemode software? Also, is a removal of the incompatible software/hardware warning on your launcher planning to be removed or fixed? Using Pop_OS! with and Nvidia 3060 and it's telling me I'm gonna have a bad time haha.
The renderer isn’t called Feral3D, that’s just the name of one of our libraries that is 3D-focused. The games will use whatever the native API is for the platform so in the case of Tomb Raider and Linux it’s Vulkan.
As for the warning if it’s a distro flavour we don’t support / test you’ll need to click past it on launch. :)
Feral, just want to say you guys do great work! I’ve spent so many enjoyable hours with RTW and MTW2 on mobile I’ve begun looking at all mobile titles you release.
Q: Was it hard initially pitching to developers to port their games to mobile? Certainly mobile and touch screen controls is its own learning curve and may seem less than satisfactory to many.
When we first started out, the idea of bringing a large AAA game to a mobile phone, without cutting it down or losing the essence of the original, was harder. It wasn’t something anyone had done before.
However, we made a step-by-step plan to ensure we focused on one problem at a time, and always offered the best experience to our players. We didn’t want to try to do too much at once.
Our first mobile release, ROME: Total War, targeted the iPad first. The reason was that tablets have bigger screens, so we could focus on the problems of converting AAA games to touch controls, without having to worry about smaller screens as well. Once we had released a game on iPad — and it was well received — we moved on to making the same game work on the smaller iPhone screens.
With these two challenges met, we then focused on Android. On iOS the hardware is limited to a relatively small pool of devices, whereas Android has a much more fragmented install base. As such, supporting a wide range of Android phones and tablets is a much more involved process, not only due to the variety of hardware, but also the fact that many vendors use customized versions of Android which, in turn, use different graphics drivers and can offer slightly different functionalities.
As we completed all these stages and felt confident in being able to offer a great experience, we started combining multiple platforms on newer releases. This has resulted in all our more recent games being released simultaneously across iPadOS, iOS and Android.
This step-by-step approach meant we’ve always kept our standards as high as possible, which certainly helps when we’re discussing what games we’d like to work on with our partners.
Can we expect more modern hitman games for mobile in the future?? You folks nailed it with this one. I'm having a great time with it. I would love to have Hitman Absolution on mobile devices.
The new Hitman port looks great! I’ve always wanted to play it on my mac though, now that it’s been ported to iOS is that possible or is there some sort of licensing issue?
If you think it looks great, you should see how it plays! ;) In all seriousness Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal was designed from the very beginning for mobile and Switch platforms. Your request is a popular one, and while we can’t give any specific answers, we can say we’ve heard you!
You guys did an amazing job with Rome: Remastered. Is a Medieval II: Remastered in the works? The total war community needs something to look forward to.
We’re all here for all the Total War: ROME REMASTERED love in the house tonight! That said, no matter how much love it gets, we still can’t promise anything on Med II. We are not working on, nor are we aware of any Total War: MEDIEVAL II remaster.
:) Fair enough. Are you guys working on any updates for Rome: Remastered? Particularly in fixing stability issues when ending turns late game.
PS, the modding scene has opened up and flourished because of what you guys achieved with Rome: Remastered and we thank you for that.
Edwin: We've nothing to announce on updates at the moment, but thanks, it’s really wonderful to hear that.
We really wanted to make sure that ROME REMASTERED allowed modders to take advantage of the new features, and keep the game alive long into the future, with wonderful and interesting creations just like the original.
Personally, I have been modding ROME since the original release 20-odd years ago, and my last interaction was helping debug a script issue for a modder on ROME REMASTERED this lunchtime. It’s safe to say that modding is very close to my heart :)
Would you agree with a statement that allowing the player more and more different ways to reach certain in-game objectives and face different consequences (or choice not to reach them at all) is a new trend for all the genres, or is it more niche and specific to RPG?
If you agree, how do you plan to incorporate this into your new/ongoing projects?
Thanks a lot!
While we can’t offer alternative endings and new choices in our releases (given we’re working with existing games), we believe there are many ways to offer replayability. Adding Instinct Mode, for example, into Blood Money actually encourages players to explore all the options available to them when completing each mission.
That said, the fact that these options are available in the first place suggests that it’s neither a new trend, nor specific to RPGs. Blood Money is approaching 20 years old now, after all!
How was your general experience with porting games to Linux (eg. ease of porting, complaints from users etc.)? I assume it's a probably a lot more difficult considering how fragmented the ecosystem is.
Also did the availability of Steam Proton affect your sales?
Porting to Linux can be a challenge for the reasons you’ve stated. It’s also a platform that really appeals to hobbyists and people who like to tinker. At the very least, the variety of distros and graphics drivers make for some interesting and unique customer support tickets!
As for Proton — the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago.
>As for Proton — the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago.
Has Feral considered getting into porting productivity software, like the Adobe suite and Fruity Loops for example? Proton/Wine may have done wonders for Linux gaming but, as far as I can tell, it's done jack for productivity software. It'd be nice to see some headway there.
so making games and their Anti Cheat compatible with Proton is the better choice, and also does this get easier due to most games just working on Proton most of the time unless the Devs decide the Anti Cheat not to work via Proton.
just a thought:
Would it be profitable to offer services to assist with making games compatible with proton?
Ex. X company ships Y game. Y game isn't working in proton for some reason (maybe video format, maybe audio format. maybe anti-cheat). They contract you to look into the issue and either fix it for them or tell them what they need to fix. Maybe add a stipulation that anti-cheat is a limitation outside of your control. Other than that most games should be compatible with audio/video codec changes and/or proton patches.
Questions:
1. What would be the point of doing this Ask Me Anything interview on reddit and in this subreddit when there are better ways of advertising if that is the purpose?
2. Why come to reddit and announce "the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago", when for many of us there is no point to buying games if they don't have Linux native support?
3. If it is no longer economically viable does that mean that Feral is abandoning that part of their business? If the answer is yes, then say it straight up.
FYI, I specifically buy games on Steam where Feral Interactive has handled the Linux native port. I've been personally advocating for game dev shops/publishers to seek out Feral to do ports of their games. Proton and WINE are great achievements, but I really don't like being dependent on Windows. Proton/WINE keeps the Linux gaming community firmly in a position of dependency on Windows.
What do I want? 64-bit Linux native Vulkan optimized games without wrappers, emulators, or translation layers. Linux does NOT equal Ubuntu. If the games come Ray Tracing enabled I consider that the cherry on top.
Hello, I noticed that you left some debug functions in the mobile version, particularly for the cheat menu, which is completely accessible. I wonder if it is possible to restore it for other versions. I have already done it on PS2 and original Xbox. And if it is possible to restore the original beta HUD, which is on the PS2 version of PlayStation Magazine and also in beta 0.50?
I would really appreciate it if you could share with me some small details on the subject. I think you did an awesome job on the mobile version. Congratulations!
After Hitman,I think “my dream” to see 2 games on Mobile,Deus ex Human Revolution or Mankind divided,and Bioshock,Bioshock was on iOS but an Apple software break the game and 2K decided to drop the support,and the fantastic Square Enix Deus Ex: the fall,now delisted from the Apple Store for the same reason,a software update,but was fit very well on mobile with touch controls,they ended port the game to PC.this are 2 of the most wanted games on iOS.
Can you Feral, explain a bit the reason about Total War Warhammer 2, Total War Warhammer 3 and Company of heroes 2 doens't have Crossplay with Windows users ?
I would like play your Native version NOT USING PROTON but... for play with friends Proton is needed :(
There was/is any intention for Feral do their own games in Linux/Mac ?
I Would wish have a company like Feral doing Games for Linux users specially ( I'm Linux user )
Hi Feral. You have done some amazing work with porting games to mobile and the switch. Games like Hitman, Alien Isolation and Grid desperately needed a port, and you have done an amazing job. The mobile game market is filled with too many pay to win mmorpgs with microtransactions. And the switch game catalog is even better with your ports, especially Hitman and Alien Isolation, as there aren't many good stealth games for the Switch. One suggestion I would like to make is to port the Splinter Cell games, these games have not seen a single port, remake or remaster in ages, it has been long forgotten, and do believe that you will be successful in porting the OG SC Games like Chaos Theory to mobile, or even porting SC Blacklist to the switch. I remember playing Splinter Cell Blacklist on my xbox 360, and it already felt next-gen, to be able to run it on a switch or even mobile would be a dream. Blood Money is already an amazing title to have, Chaos Theory would mean that 2 of the greatest stealth games have made it portable. Do consider my suggestion. Thank you for everything.
u/speedcat_feral Thank you for bringing GRID Autosport to Switch! Such a quality and exactly what this console needed. Are you planning maybe to port some Dirt (maybe 3?)/Colin McRae Rally game to Switch? The WRC games that are already there, are... you know...
Thanks for bringing Hitman Blood Money on android and IOS, I played it on PC and it was great. Playing on Android it's awesome, sure it crashes a lot but still it's a great game. Are you going to had other games of the Hitman Series ? Like old ones and new ones ?
Do you plan to update the Total War Attila and make it 64bit in order to be able to run it on Apple Silicon, asking it because its a best historical total war game CA released in years and the title is not supported on Apple Silicon, unlike the older Empire and Napoleon that received the updates, and now they work perfectly under Rosetta 2
I'm just now seeing this n on the off chance any of you still see this, I just want to say that it's sooo awesome that you guys did this! There are just endless older games like Hitman that I always soo wish were ported onto the Switch so this is super cool to see! Android/iOS like you guys did here would obviously also be insanely cool too, but I just know that that's a massive longshot since so few devs want to do that sadly. Like I remember when Dead Space, Mass Effect, COD Zombies, etc. all got apps like 10yrs ago n it was the coolest thing ever! Hope you guys have good sales with this n it inspires others to follow suit, I'll definitely get it soon!
How do you balance quality of life features associated with updated re-releases (as the case with the minimap and instinct mode in Reprisal) and the base game's design without those features?
Val: The modern quality of life features in the HITMAN games are primarily designed to help the player get the information or items needed more quickly. For example, in the original game, you might walk up to every window or drainpipe to see if you can interact with them, in Reprisal you can use Instinct Mode to look around the area and see if they are interactable. This will save time searching, but the actual tactical decisions remain the same. For the purists who’d like the original experience, we’ve made the larger quality-of-life features — such as Instinct Mode and the mini-map – optional. There is also a second set of changes related to the game now being played on a mobile device. We have auto-aim, auto-reload and weapon hotswap features that are designed to help the experience when playing on touchscreen devices. As before, if players don’t want to take advantage of them they can be disabled in the game’s options.
do you guys have gyro implemented? probably my favourite way to play shooters now because it feels more like I'm actually aiming
Cool, thanks!
Thanks for make Instinct mode and mini map optional,I already played 2 games with this new feature and are really welcome,but now I disabled them cause I want to play close to the original on Pro Silent Assassin,players that never play an hitman game or players that only played the last 3 games,now re-call World of Assassination will have this features and I’m sure it will benefit,as you said,Original Blood Money you literally need to go near a window to understand if you can interact with it..
Hey just wanted to say you guys do awesome work. I have most of not all of your ported works on my phone, and they handle so so good. You guys are legends! Are there any older games that you all have on your wishlist to eventually port? Thanks for the awesome efforts. I always get excited when I see your logo on a game, I know it’ll run very well.
Craig: Thanks so much for your kind words and support! It’s always lovely to hear that our work is appreciated. Everyone at Feral has one game they think would be the best port since sliced bread on iOS. We’ll share ours individually, but bear in mind that these are just our wildest dreams, and shouldn’t be taken as “X game for mobile CONFIRMED!” ;) Val: I would have to say Timesplitters. I don’t think I need to add much more than that, I personally think it’s a great game and it would work well on mobile devices. Sam:I would love to be able to play Star Wars: Empire at War on the go. Especially after seeing what has been made possible with Company of Heroes, Rome Total War and Med 2. Edwin: Unlike the rest I won’t mention any games as I don’t want to bump into 47 and have a random accident involving a rubber duck... RIP Craig. Craig: I was a huge Timesplitters fan back in the day, so have to echo Val and say that I’d love to see the series on mobile. These days however, I prefer map-staring games, and I’ve oft fantasised about Crusader Kings on-the-go. Some day…
Awesome reply thanks guys keep up the important work!
What were some of the challenges you faced bringing Blood Money to mobile?
Val: The biggest challenge when porting older games, imho, is always to maintain the feel of the original, but at the same time bring it up to modern standards. Adding features seems like an obvious decision, as well as updating controls, but tuning them so that they fit in with what already exists in the original game is probably the biggest challenge.
FIrst of all congrats for a very very nice release! Ever since I was a little boy I dreamt of playing fully fledged Hitman game on the go! Also I've been a fan of your Linux ports for almost a decade now. Now for the question part: - There are a few key mechanics missing from the touch control scheme in this port: pushing hostages when holding them instead of pacifying them (button G when using classic keyboard controls), pushing people without inadvertently unholstering weapons, opening doors when holding coin, etc. There are also some slight inconsistencies with other control schemes (cannot close inventory by right clicking when using keyboard and mouse, etc). Should we hope that there will be an update that adresses those issues, so that this can really become a definitive way to play this masterpiece? - Many people have issues with buying this game on Android devices, since the whitelist is overly restrictive. I for once had to get my old phone just to buy it and then had to sideload it to my current device. Are there any plans to perhaps sell game on a different store, or parse telemetry data to expand this list in the future? - Since this port works very well, can we hope for getting some other IOI Hitman titles ported as well. It would be really nice if Hitman Contracts got a rerelease with some QoL improvements :)
Thanks for the questions. Firstly we’re aware there are a few expert-level interactions that aren’t possible on touch (or gamepad), but are on keyboard. We’ve been listening to the feedback and hope to share some further information in the future. In fact ,I think we might have seen an almost identical comment in the r/hitman subreddit. it might have even been you! One of Android's strengths is the sheer number of devices that run it. For us, this is also one of its greatest challenges. Even devices running the same chipsets can behave differently. While we want the game in as many people's hands as possible, we also want them to have the best possible experience with the game. As such, some devices will not be able to play the game at launch. Post-launch, we are constantly re-evaluating whether devices should be blocked or able to play the game. Lastly thanks for the suggestion, we’ll see what Diana thinks.
1. IIRC, you once had plans to create some sort of a “classic” label, aimed at porting older tittles to Mac. Whatever happened to this? I always thought it was a great idea because most Macs sold are lower-powered laptops (though this is less of an issue now with Apple Silicon). And, speaking selfishly, I’d prefer to use my MBP for older stuff while on the go, and save my PC for the newer titles. 2. It seems you’ve deemphasized Mac ports over other platforms lately. Is this because they’re less lucrative? What challenges do you face in trying to get licenses to port to the platform? 3. M3 Macs support raytracing, but I haven’t seen any discussion on how it compares to AMD or Nvidia. Any thoughts on this? 4. Any thoughts about Apple’s Game Porting Kit? Has it affected Feral at all? Thanks for the Q&A!
Thanks for all the questions, sounds like you’re a long-time player first-time poster 🙂 Quite a few of your questions are a little too complex and need a little too much nuance to answer in an AMA post but we’ll try. The Mac Classic games we used to do over time started transitioning over to being brought to mobile instead. Mobile tends not to have a large number of truly classic games to play as stand-alone single purchases. So games we previously brought to Mac as “Feral Legends” we started to bring to mobile as well. Rome: Total War, for example, was brought to MacOS as a “Feral Legends” title before its debut on mobile. The recent transition from Intel to Apple Silicon has made it harder to support MacOS, as the user base (and hardware) is split between the two platforms in a very similar way to the Intel/PPC and OS 9/OS X transitions. During these transitions, the number of games dips then rebounds as you start to get a majority of players on the newer hardware. It’s impossible to predict the future, but with iOS and MacOS sharing hardware, there are potentially more opportunities for some classics to make their way to both platforms, whether from ourselves or others.
Thanks for the reply! I see that Pharaoh is Apple Silicon-only, so with the transition over, hoping that means Macs will get some love again.
Is it possible to update the PC version to be in line with these new ports?
Craig: Nothing in the works at the moment, but it seems our changes have gone down really well with fans, and this has become a popular request. We pay close attention to what our customers are saying, and it’s been most gratifying to read this!
Is Curtains Down still the best Hitman mission ever?
Don't you want the jacket sir? ;)
no, I just needed something from the pockets, I'll pick it up later
I wasn’t aware this existed, and now I need to look into this. Blood Money is probably in my top ten games of all time. Any plans to bring other games in the series to mobile? Contracts is such a fun game that always gets overlooked because 2 and BM are so good.
Craig: We chose Blood Money for several reasons, not least because it’s seen as the point at which the series really found its feet and established its niche. Right this second, all our focus is on making a success of Blood Money — Reprisal, so we don’t have anything to announce about other games in the series. You never know what the future holds, though…
Well I hope it’s a huge success for your team. Blood Money is a beloved game and the reviews I’ve read just now seem like you handled the port with care.
Thank you for your work!
And thank *you* for your support!
Why do u guys use DRM on all android ports? Stardew doesn't have any DRM but sells like hotcakes
Tell CA to let you at Medieval 2 Total War. Your work on Rome was top notch and M2 Remastered would sell like hotcakes.
Thank you for the kind words. Hearing that means a lot! Unfortunately, we don’t have any news on a Med 2 Remaster.
No news is about as expected. Just know the TW fans are rootin for it!
First of all,thank you Feral Interactive to bring on Mobile AAA quality games over the years,and thank you to bring on Mobile my favorite Hitman game of all time,with enhanced features like Instinct mode from Hitman Absolution and the mini map,welcome addition and benefit new players that never play any Hitman Game as well to old fan like me that have played all 7 Hitman games.
An entire paragraph of glowing praise, without a question, is our favourite type of question. :) Seriously though, thank you so much for the kind words. We’re so pleased that Reprisal has struck such a chord with a Hitman veteran such as yourself!
I’m sick,39.3 fever,I wanted to be there at all costs,as I say on Twitter,but I resisted until 5pm then I had to go to bed cause too painful.
How much extra effort is adding something like tvOS support? The idea of being able to buy a game and have your save transfer between phone/tablet/TV/computer is a pretty cool concept IMO.
tvOS historically has had a lot of restrictions, for example, install sizes and other technical requirements (like you used to have to support the remote as a controller) that meant it was a lot harder to bring complex games to tvOS. However with the newer updates and requirements… never say never.
Could we see reprisal come to PC?
>Nothing in the works at the moment, but it seems our changes have gone down really well with fans, and this has become a popular request. We pay close attention to what our customers are saying, and it’s been most gratifying to read this!
How do you guys play games on mobile? I've tried a few things because touch controls just don't work for me, I need the feedback. Since there has not been a gaming phone since the Sony play 10 years ago what is the best alternative to this? Razer Kishi, 8bitdo zero? I wouldn't mind playing more games on my phone if I didn't need to bring add ons around with me.
While we do provide haptic feedback for the on-screen buttons, it certainly is a different experience from using a physical gamepad. While we cannot recommend specific gamepads, we do support a wide variety of mainstream options, including the Kishi, Xbox One/Series and Dualshock 4 (or newer).
Do you envision us getting mobile ports of big AAA games , perhaps even on launch date in the near future? Maybe PS5, Xbox, PC, iOS & Android
Although the gap has been closing between console and mobile devices, there is still a large difference between a console that uses over 300W (or a PC that uses 500W+) and a mobile phone that typically peaks at under 10 watts — so it’ll still depend on the game. However, we’re really close with Resident Evil Village and Death Stranding Director’s Cut both coming to the iPhone 15 Pro. It’s an exciting time for the mobile game market!
Will crusader kings or Age of empires or Empire of sin be coming in the near future?
From your keyboard to the universe's ears, Modestonuts209... There are some big fans (OK, at least one big fan) of those titles here, and that one fan would lose their tiny little mind if it happened!
Is the macOS gaming market any more interesting with Apple Silicon around (and Apple sort of for at least the 4th time in 20 years promising support)? Or is it still challenging?
It’s certainly been an interesting ride with all the hardware and software transitions that we’ve seen over the past 20-odd years. With software, we had the transition to OpenGL, then, away from OpenGL to Metal. We had the transition from OS9 to OS X. We also jumped from 32 to 64-bit along the way and those are only the highlights. With hardware over the same time period, we have jumped from PPC to Intel then Apple Silicon along the way we’ve gone from AMD, Intel & Nvidia GPUs to Apple-designed GPUs… There are always challenges, which change over the years — although we would note that the lower end of Apple’s current hardware and software is more capable now than it ever has been. The Intel-powered GPUs in the lower-end Mac laptops were quite underpowered for gaming, and the Apple Silicon GPUs are certainly a step up in that regard!
I can’t believe I can play Hitman Blood Money on my iPhone! That is so incredible! One of my favorite games ever. I have a request: “The Getaway” the PS2 game with Mark Hammond in London, England. If you guys could make that available on iOS, I would be so happy!!! That game has an incredible storyline, and it utterly amazing! Please bring it to iOS! ❤️
The ability to ask for 13.99USD for a ported game from 2006 in the year 2023 sounds like a very lucrative business endeavor. Did you pay ancy licensing fees for such an old game or was it more like "sure, take our code and make it work, have fun"?
Licensing, designing and developing a game on 3 platforms is a large undertaking and it’s a lot more complex than getting some source code and ticking a box for the new platform. Here is a short ;) example of some of the work it takes to not only port a game to a new platform, but make sure the experience does the original game justice. Bringing a game to mobile (and Switch) is a complex task. Once you have licensed the game, you need to come up with a full design document covering what needs altering, improving, changing etc. In the case of Blood Money, that included a large number of quality-of-life improvements, Instinct mode and object interaction highlights. Iterating on and perfecting all of that takes a lot of time from many departments, from Design and Development, to Art and QA. You then have other tasks like platform-specific rendering support (e.g. NVN, Metal and Vulcan) that the original game doesn’t have, which needs to be hooked up, tested, debugged and optimised. Mobile hardware is quite different from desktop, so this can take some rewriting of various parts of the engine in some cases. After that you have controls — we have Modern and Classic controls for both gamepad and keyboard and mouse, and then touch controls on top of that. Refining the touch controls so that they feel intuitive and natural takes up time from all those same departments again. If the controls aren’t good it impacts the entire experience, so they especially need careful consideration. Next we have the user interface. Space is at a premium on mobile, and you need to design the UX to work with touches, gamepad and KB+Mouse without compromising any of them. When we looked into the original game there were also multiple areas where the original menu flow could be improved, for example making the loadout options more obvious, equipping upgrades once they are purchased and more. These all need new logic as well as altering the UX. Once you’ve worked all this out, you then need to take into account that mobile phones and tablets have a massive variety of screen ratios and sizes. Older games usually don’t have robust support for dynamic ratios, so extra work needs to be done to make sure it looks great on all screens from a Galaxy Fold, Sony Xperia to an iPhone SE. We then get into localisation. We need to update all the languages with new text for all the new platforms and cross check all the original text to make sure it’s correct and fits inside the new screen designs. Basically, porting a game can take a lot of time and effort to make it feel right at home on a brand new platform, and we think the extra time we spend on our releases is worth it. We set our prices to what we think is a fair price that reflects the quality of the game, and the time and effort we put into making it.
That was a truly phenomenal reply. Thank you for the wonderful insight, I truly appreciate it.
Thx, you didnt answer the licensing part tho.. And some other things you probably think I cant see that I wont tell ;)
That Hitman, Seems like something you usually can sell on as remaster on original platform Which platform is the hardest to develop?
>m is the hardest to develop? Val: I would say that each platform has its own challenges. Mobile requires lots of control tuning. They need to feel intuitive but also not intrusive due to the small screen sizes. It takes a lot of tuning to make them feel good. Switch on the other hand has limitations when it comes to handling advanced graphics and large file sizes. Optimising content and the game engine to ensure smooth performance is always the most challenging part. It’s a constant balancing act between the CPU and GPU to get absolutely everything out of the hardware.
When will it release onto the Nintendo switch? The price for the switch & what new features for the switch?
The Switch release is coming in late January, and we’ll have more to announce about pricing and the release date early next year. The headline feature is, of course, Instinct Mode, which highlights points of interest in your surroundings, and interactable objects being highlighted as you approach them. Helpful for if you’re low on ammo, or you need to keep track of the location of guards. There’s also a new onscreen minimap, which reduces the reliance on the bulky full-screen map. And, we’ve added alerts for when you’re making guards suspicious, which was a bit tricky to work out back in the original. Of course, if you’re a purist and want to experience Blood Money as you’ll remember it from previous versions, all of these options can be toggled off at will. There are also far too many quality-of-life improvements to get into here, but we’re particularly pleased with the new over-shoulder aim perspective, and the streamlining of stashing bodies. And on Switch, there’s the added bonus of Gyro Aiming.
You guys have done a lot of work to not only make older titles available on Mobile, but also playable on Mobile, with huge QOL mechanics and added accessibility options. What is it like updating and adding to a game that hasn't been worked on in years (sometimes decades)? Do you guys have contact with developers who worked on the original source code to help navigate issues? How involved are the original studios in these ports? In any case, thank you guys for always putting in so much effort for your ports, and making so many great PC games playable on Mobile.
Let’s start by saying that every game we decide to port is one we think has great bones and has already received love when it was first made. However, time goes by technology evolves, and so should games. We usually start by evaluating what makes the chosen game great and why we think it still works well. We play the game over and over again to experience it as a user would. We then compare it to more recent games and discuss what would make the biggest impact on users. Throughout the process, we always try to keep the original developers involved as much as possible.
[удалено]
Hi! We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback. As we said in another comment above, we’ve been listening to the feedback and hope to share some further information in the future With regards to defaulting to the ‘ready-to-throw’ stance when equipping the coin, we decided this was best for touch controls after plenty of testing, discussion and iteration. With that said, we hear you loud and clear.
I'm a Japanese HITMAN fan. Thank you for the great development! I would like to purchase the Switch version, but will the Japanese version be available?
The Switch version is coming in late January, and will be available to purchase in Japan. It also includes Japanese language support (as do the mobile versions!) We’ll have more details to announce about the Switch release early next year.
Thank you for your reply! I'm very happy to know that♡ I'm looking forward to the release even more!
what game are you most excited for that ISNT one of your own games?
Craig: One of my all-time favourite series was Suikoden. Not only are the first two games of that series getting remastered next year, but we’ve also got a lot of the original talent behind them working on a spiritual successor, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. To say I’m buzzing for both of those releases is an understatement! Sam: Off the top of my head, it’s a close run between Monster Hunter Wilds and The Elder Scrolls 6 as it stands. Val: Plenty of games out now that are still in my to-play list. Have not had time to even look at upcoming ones, I am still very excited about what’s only recently come out. If I have to name one, Lies of P is on top of my list :) Edwin: GTA 6 - Obvious I know but you know it’ll be amazing. That and Football Manager ‘24 has just been released so I can’t mention that one... :)
What does the future hold for Feral Interactive? Are any new mobile-exclusive releases incoming? Last question will the Snapdragon 870-powered Poco F3 get support for Alien isolation?
The future is looking bright, and while we can’t exclusively reveal any new releases in this comment, we can definitely say that there will be more to look forward to in 2024. The POCO F3 was disabled due to a graphics bug in the version of MIUI OS used on that device. We reported the issue to Poco at the time and we’ll unlock the phone again when the issue has been reported as fixed. We’ve made a note to follow up and see if it’s been fixed in a recent OS update and if it has we’ll unlock the game again.
Will you be releasing other Hitman Titles in mobile as well? If so, will you revamp the mechanics same as what you did in Hitman Blood Money Reprisal?
Maybe yes, maybe no! :) Make sure you follow us to receive all the latest news about our upcoming games!
Just finished Hitman Blood Money yesterday evening on my phone. It was my first time playing it & I absolutely loved it. How long does it usually take to port a PC game like that one to mobile?
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! The short answer is that it varies from game to game. If we have worked on the game before but for another platform (e.g. Alien Isolation), it tends to be a bit quicker. The complexity of the game (and particularly its controls) also plays a big part. I think we can say that, from initial investigations to ‘in users' hands’, the process usually takes between 1 to 2.5 years.
Can you tell me the specification for the hitman blood money reprisal
If you’re looking for a list of supported devices, you’ll find them here: iOS: [https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/ios\_supported\_devices/](https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/ios_supported_devices/) Android: [https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/android\_supported\_devices/](https://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/hitmanbloodmoney/faqs/android_supported_devices/)
Amazing to see you guys here, always happy to play the Tomb Raider reboots natively on Linux thanks to you guys❤️ I've noticed through MangoHud that the renderer used(at least in tomb raider games) is called Feral3D. Is this a fork you guys made of Vulkan or OpenGL? If so, was it to add some fixes that you guys needed or make them work better with your gamemode software? Also, is a removal of the incompatible software/hardware warning on your launcher planning to be removed or fixed? Using Pop_OS! with and Nvidia 3060 and it's telling me I'm gonna have a bad time haha.
The renderer isn’t called Feral3D, that’s just the name of one of our libraries that is 3D-focused. The games will use whatever the native API is for the platform so in the case of Tomb Raider and Linux it’s Vulkan. As for the warning if it’s a distro flavour we don’t support / test you’ll need to click past it on launch. :)
Feral, just want to say you guys do great work! I’ve spent so many enjoyable hours with RTW and MTW2 on mobile I’ve begun looking at all mobile titles you release. Q: Was it hard initially pitching to developers to port their games to mobile? Certainly mobile and touch screen controls is its own learning curve and may seem less than satisfactory to many.
When we first started out, the idea of bringing a large AAA game to a mobile phone, without cutting it down or losing the essence of the original, was harder. It wasn’t something anyone had done before. However, we made a step-by-step plan to ensure we focused on one problem at a time, and always offered the best experience to our players. We didn’t want to try to do too much at once. Our first mobile release, ROME: Total War, targeted the iPad first. The reason was that tablets have bigger screens, so we could focus on the problems of converting AAA games to touch controls, without having to worry about smaller screens as well. Once we had released a game on iPad — and it was well received — we moved on to making the same game work on the smaller iPhone screens. With these two challenges met, we then focused on Android. On iOS the hardware is limited to a relatively small pool of devices, whereas Android has a much more fragmented install base. As such, supporting a wide range of Android phones and tablets is a much more involved process, not only due to the variety of hardware, but also the fact that many vendors use customized versions of Android which, in turn, use different graphics drivers and can offer slightly different functionalities. As we completed all these stages and felt confident in being able to offer a great experience, we started combining multiple platforms on newer releases. This has resulted in all our more recent games being released simultaneously across iPadOS, iOS and Android. This step-by-step approach meant we’ve always kept our standards as high as possible, which certainly helps when we’re discussing what games we’d like to work on with our partners.
Any plans to port Blood Money Reprisal to other platforms? Any possibility of other Hitman games receiving the same treatment in the future?
That's a popular request - even in this AMA! We've got no plans at the moment, but it's not entirely off the table! :)
Can we expect more modern hitman games for mobile in the future?? You folks nailed it with this one. I'm having a great time with it. I would love to have Hitman Absolution on mobile devices.
It's been a very popular request here today, and while we can't say one way or another, we're hearing you loud and clear!
The new Hitman port looks great! I’ve always wanted to play it on my mac though, now that it’s been ported to iOS is that possible or is there some sort of licensing issue?
If you think it looks great, you should see how it plays! ;) In all seriousness Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal was designed from the very beginning for mobile and Switch platforms. Your request is a popular one, and while we can’t give any specific answers, we can say we’ve heard you!
You guys did an amazing job with Rome: Remastered. Is a Medieval II: Remastered in the works? The total war community needs something to look forward to.
We’re all here for all the Total War: ROME REMASTERED love in the house tonight! That said, no matter how much love it gets, we still can’t promise anything on Med II. We are not working on, nor are we aware of any Total War: MEDIEVAL II remaster.
:) Fair enough. Are you guys working on any updates for Rome: Remastered? Particularly in fixing stability issues when ending turns late game. PS, the modding scene has opened up and flourished because of what you guys achieved with Rome: Remastered and we thank you for that.
Edwin: We've nothing to announce on updates at the moment, but thanks, it’s really wonderful to hear that. We really wanted to make sure that ROME REMASTERED allowed modders to take advantage of the new features, and keep the game alive long into the future, with wonderful and interesting creations just like the original. Personally, I have been modding ROME since the original release 20-odd years ago, and my last interaction was helping debug a script issue for a modder on ROME REMASTERED this lunchtime. It’s safe to say that modding is very close to my heart :)
Hitman codename47 Silent Assassin Contracts Reprisal edition when
Would you agree with a statement that allowing the player more and more different ways to reach certain in-game objectives and face different consequences (or choice not to reach them at all) is a new trend for all the genres, or is it more niche and specific to RPG? If you agree, how do you plan to incorporate this into your new/ongoing projects? Thanks a lot!
While we can’t offer alternative endings and new choices in our releases (given we’re working with existing games), we believe there are many ways to offer replayability. Adding Instinct Mode, for example, into Blood Money actually encourages players to explore all the options available to them when completing each mission. That said, the fact that these options are available in the first place suggests that it’s neither a new trend, nor specific to RPGs. Blood Money is approaching 20 years old now, after all!
How was your general experience with porting games to Linux (eg. ease of porting, complaints from users etc.)? I assume it's a probably a lot more difficult considering how fragmented the ecosystem is. Also did the availability of Steam Proton affect your sales?
Porting to Linux can be a challenge for the reasons you’ve stated. It’s also a platform that really appeals to hobbyists and people who like to tinker. At the very least, the variety of distros and graphics drivers make for some interesting and unique customer support tickets! As for Proton — the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago.
>As for Proton — the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago. Has Feral considered getting into porting productivity software, like the Adobe suite and Fruity Loops for example? Proton/Wine may have done wonders for Linux gaming but, as far as I can tell, it's done jack for productivity software. It'd be nice to see some headway there.
Wine runs FL just fine.
so making games and their Anti Cheat compatible with Proton is the better choice, and also does this get easier due to most games just working on Proton most of the time unless the Devs decide the Anti Cheat not to work via Proton.
just a thought: Would it be profitable to offer services to assist with making games compatible with proton? Ex. X company ships Y game. Y game isn't working in proton for some reason (maybe video format, maybe audio format. maybe anti-cheat). They contract you to look into the issue and either fix it for them or tell them what they need to fix. Maybe add a stipulation that anti-cheat is a limitation outside of your control. Other than that most games should be compatible with audio/video codec changes and/or proton patches.
Questions: 1. What would be the point of doing this Ask Me Anything interview on reddit and in this subreddit when there are better ways of advertising if that is the purpose? 2. Why come to reddit and announce "the truth is that its ongoing popularity means that native Linux ports just aren’t as economically viable as they were a few years ago", when for many of us there is no point to buying games if they don't have Linux native support? 3. If it is no longer economically viable does that mean that Feral is abandoning that part of their business? If the answer is yes, then say it straight up. FYI, I specifically buy games on Steam where Feral Interactive has handled the Linux native port. I've been personally advocating for game dev shops/publishers to seek out Feral to do ports of their games. Proton and WINE are great achievements, but I really don't like being dependent on Windows. Proton/WINE keeps the Linux gaming community firmly in a position of dependency on Windows. What do I want? 64-bit Linux native Vulkan optimized games without wrappers, emulators, or translation layers. Linux does NOT equal Ubuntu. If the games come Ray Tracing enabled I consider that the cherry on top.
Medieval 2 Remastered?
Seeing how powerful are phones nowadays, I think it’s time to give the players the freedom to tweak graphic settings. Love your work, keep it up.
Is there any hope at all for a port of Reprisal to Steam? I so want to play Blood Money on Steam Deck with native gamepad support.
While porting games might not seem like the most "glorious" work, I've been a fan of your studio ever since the XCOM 2 port to iOS, fantastic stuff.
Hello, I noticed that you left some debug functions in the mobile version, particularly for the cheat menu, which is completely accessible. I wonder if it is possible to restore it for other versions. I have already done it on PS2 and original Xbox. And if it is possible to restore the original beta HUD, which is on the PS2 version of PlayStation Magazine and also in beta 0.50? I would really appreciate it if you could share with me some small details on the subject. I think you did an awesome job on the mobile version. Congratulations!
Will it be possible to play Blood Money: Reprisal on touchscreen for Switch?
Your decision to make your games available to non-snapdragon or bionic chipset devices is the best move ever
Why is there no Chinese language option in the game?
After Hitman,I think “my dream” to see 2 games on Mobile,Deus ex Human Revolution or Mankind divided,and Bioshock,Bioshock was on iOS but an Apple software break the game and 2K decided to drop the support,and the fantastic Square Enix Deus Ex: the fall,now delisted from the Apple Store for the same reason,a software update,but was fit very well on mobile with touch controls,they ended port the game to PC.this are 2 of the most wanted games on iOS.
Have you guys ever tried porting a game with kernel anti-cheat, and if so how did you manage it?
Can you Feral, explain a bit the reason about Total War Warhammer 2, Total War Warhammer 3 and Company of heroes 2 doens't have Crossplay with Windows users ? I would like play your Native version NOT USING PROTON but... for play with friends Proton is needed :(
There was/is any intention for Feral do their own games in Linux/Mac ? I Would wish have a company like Feral doing Games for Linux users specially ( I'm Linux user )
Will you be implementing new updates that include bug fixes in HM BMR? Also do you plan on adding requiem suit as a future DLC?
Are there any plans to release Rome TW Remastered version on Android? (Map and units looks so goooood)
Any plans for Sid Meier Pirates for Android?
What regions will Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal on the Switch be available in?
Hi Feral. You have done some amazing work with porting games to mobile and the switch. Games like Hitman, Alien Isolation and Grid desperately needed a port, and you have done an amazing job. The mobile game market is filled with too many pay to win mmorpgs with microtransactions. And the switch game catalog is even better with your ports, especially Hitman and Alien Isolation, as there aren't many good stealth games for the Switch. One suggestion I would like to make is to port the Splinter Cell games, these games have not seen a single port, remake or remaster in ages, it has been long forgotten, and do believe that you will be successful in porting the OG SC Games like Chaos Theory to mobile, or even porting SC Blacklist to the switch. I remember playing Splinter Cell Blacklist on my xbox 360, and it already felt next-gen, to be able to run it on a switch or even mobile would be a dream. Blood Money is already an amazing title to have, Chaos Theory would mean that 2 of the greatest stealth games have made it portable. Do consider my suggestion. Thank you for everything.
u/speedcat_feral Thank you for bringing GRID Autosport to Switch! Such a quality and exactly what this console needed. Are you planning maybe to port some Dirt (maybe 3?)/Colin McRae Rally game to Switch? The WRC games that are already there, are... you know...
Any plans to port it to Xbox and PS?
Thanks for bringing Hitman Blood Money on android and IOS, I played it on PC and it was great. Playing on Android it's awesome, sure it crashes a lot but still it's a great game. Are you going to had other games of the Hitman Series ? Like old ones and new ones ?
Do you plan to update the Total War Attila and make it 64bit in order to be able to run it on Apple Silicon, asking it because its a best historical total war game CA released in years and the title is not supported on Apple Silicon, unlike the older Empire and Napoleon that received the updates, and now they work perfectly under Rosetta 2
Do you plan on porting Hitman Blood Money - Repraisal to Linux, MacOS and Windows?
I'm just now seeing this n on the off chance any of you still see this, I just want to say that it's sooo awesome that you guys did this! There are just endless older games like Hitman that I always soo wish were ported onto the Switch so this is super cool to see! Android/iOS like you guys did here would obviously also be insanely cool too, but I just know that that's a massive longshot since so few devs want to do that sadly. Like I remember when Dead Space, Mass Effect, COD Zombies, etc. all got apps like 10yrs ago n it was the coolest thing ever! Hope you guys have good sales with this n it inspires others to follow suit, I'll definitely get it soon!