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Snake Pass

Snake Pass has been updated on Switch to version 1.2, Sumo Digital announced today. It’s highlighted by the addition of Time Trials and leaderboards on Switch. A number of fixes and improvements have been implemented as well.

Below are the full patch notes:

Snake Pass is a significant game on Switch having been the first Unreal Engine 4 title on the platform. On the whole, it stacks up quite well against other versions. Technical director Pete Harrap posted a blog this week that not only offers insight into getting Snake Pass up and running on Switch, but also looks back on overall cross-platform development.

The image attached above is a “super early” look at Snake Pass during an internal game jam. Ultimately, the company decided to move forward with the project after selecting it out of a number of different pitches.

Harrap’s post later goes into Switch development specifically. Here’s what Snake Pass looked like on the system after just two days:

Snake Pass has been out for around a month. With that in mind, Sumo Digital prepared a special infographic containing various stats. You can view that below.

In other Snake Pass news, Snake Pass will be supported with patches that range from “quality of life changes, right through to exploring other possible avenues of getting Snake Pass into YOUR hands.” Sumo Digital also teased new content once again: “Oh, and there may or may not be additional content being explored too…Not that we can confirm or deny that either way.”

Sumo Digital will have more news about Snake Pass soon, including details about the game’s next update.

Nintendo UK has posted on their site an interesting interview with Snake Pass creator, Seb Liese.

One of the most important tidbits that we could extract is that developer Sumo Digital still has a lot of funny ideas that couldn’t be implemented in the final game, so the potential for downloadable content or even a sequel is there.

But Seb Liese notes that they would have to make sure that players have already mastered controlling the snake Noodle before implementing new and creative challenges:

“There’s so many crazy things that Noodle could still do, if only we were sure that people have the skills. So if and when we go DLC, you’ll get some really cool things that we know he can do.”

The full interview is available at Nintendo UK’s website. Check it out if you want to learn more about Snake Pass.

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Snake Pass is an important release on Switch in the sense that it’s one of the first Unreal Engine 4 games on the platform. The development period is really fascinating, as Sumo Digital had the game ready in just a few months. As part of a feature on GamesIndustry, the team went in-depth about how it was brought over so quickly.

Sumo was invited by Nintendo to get a look at Switch last December. Teams were sent to both Nintendo of Europe in Frankfurt and Nintendo of America in Redmond. Sumo was happy with what they saw, and received dev kits five days after they were ordered.

Snake Pass developer Sumo Digital recently held an AmA on the Nintendo Switch Subreddit and answered quite a few questions. You can check out the full AmA here; we’ve highlighted some of the most interesting answers below:

On the possibility of a physical version:

We’re exploring our options.

On the lack of Time Trial mode in the Switch version:

It was a tough call to make considering how we wanted to ensure we were able to launch the Switch version with all the other platforms day and date on top of how much time we had to work on the Switch to begin with. Needless to say, we are getting Time Trials in a future patch.

On the possibility of a sequel:

We’d definitely love to continue Noodle’s and Doodle’s adventures, so here’s to hoping!

On how the game got started:

It came from an internal game jam that Seb [won] with his “Snake Simulator” project. We felt like we had something special and took it to a concept phase for four months trying to make a game out of the idea. We took it to EGX Rezzed last year and it got a lot of praise, so it got green lit to full production!

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Digital Foundry published a second technical analysis for Snake Pass today. This time around, it’s been updated for game’s recent patch.

The patch adds in depth-of-field for cut-scenes when playing in portable mode while shadow maps have been improved. And as previously mentioned, all rumble issues have been fixed. However, frame pacing is still a problem.

Here’s the full analysis:

System: Switch (eShop)
Release date: March 28, 2017
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher Sumo Digital


There are a lot of short tips that cycle through the brief loading screens of Snake Pass. The most helpful was perhaps the most obvious: “Remember, think like a snake.” I wouldn’t be entirely satisfied categorizing this as a physics-based puzzle game. Calling it a platformer is closer, but you can’t jump. Stick this game into any established category and you’ll find that its slithery nature slips right back out. Snake Pass is, mechanically speaking, a sort of deconstruction of the 3D platformer. It’s not quite like anything I’ve ever played.

Snake Pass is supposed to come with Time Trials after finishing the main game. This is an option in almost all versions, but it’s apparently missing on Switch. A prompt should appear when selecting a level, giving players the ability to choose between normal play and the new Time Trials. However, it simply doesn’t show.

Fortunately, Sumo Digital has confirmed that Snake Pass on Switch will be receiving Time Trials at some point in the future. Design lead Brad Davey confirmed via NeoGAF:

“I thought I’d out myself to pass on some good news; I can confirm that we’re working on getting Time Trials patched in to the Switch version of the game. I can’t tell you exactly when this is going to happen, it’s not quite as simple as flicking a switch, there is some work on our end involved on getting this up and running. As soon as I have more news I’ll be sure to pass it on.”

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After experimenting some problems with the HD Rumble, Snake Pass has been updated on Switch to version 1.1. This patch should fix the loud rumble issue that we reported before. We’re also hearing that the visuals may have been improved, but we can’t verify that just yet.

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