From Orbit is now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop in these regions:
Or search for From Orbit on your Nintendo Switch device eShop.
The Journey
From Orbit started as a game-jam in 2015, and in the years since has been gradually developed towards a shippable game, mostly as a weekend and evening side project.
After getting a Switch near the end of 2018, I found that I quite enjoyed the platform and that From Orbit would potentialy be a good fit. I requested a development kit from Nintendo, and was pleased to be granted access.
I got From Orbit working on the Switch in early 2019, but Switch development took a back seat while I pushed the PC version towards release. Launching the game, and getting it out into the real world was top priority!
Almost immediately after the PC launch, I moved to Japan, an endeavor which took up most of my time for the rest of 2019.
At the start of 2020, I began to tackle the remaining issues holding back a Switch release, mainly the gamepad controls, as the game had originally been written for mouse and keyboard. Game controller support was already present in the PC version, however it wasn’t as polished as I would have liked, and somewhat relied on the fact that the controls could be customized if players ran into any issues. For the Switch version, controller support had to be good to go from the start.
All of the screens were overhauled to work seamlessly with either the controller, the touchscreen, or keyboard and mouse, and a new unit mode switching interface was added to the main HUD. A variety of tuning and content fixes went in during this time as well, and I released them as several patches for the PC platforms on Steam and itch.
Final Destination
And now, finally, just a little over a year from launcing on PC, From Orbit has landed on the Nintendo Switch as well!
This was the final Big Goal of this project, and in my mind mostly brings it to a close. There may still be some small patches to come, for bug fixes and the like, but after several years of being my primary project focus, From Orbit has reached it’s destination!