Why Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP isn't on Android

We caught up with Capybara's Nathan Vella and Superbrothers' Craig Adams after the awards show to chat about the victory--and why the winning iOS game will never come out on Android.

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Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP managed to beat out big names--Super Mario 3D Land and Infinity Blade 2--when it won the Game Developers Choice Awards for Best Handheld Game. We caught up with Capybara's Nathan Vella and Superbrothers' Craig Adams after the awards show to chat about the victory--and why the winning iOS game won't release on Android.

"We got our start making pre-iOS mobile games. We used to make Java games and it was really hard to make games for so many different types of devices. One has a big screen, one has tilt, one has three buttons... it's not something we're super-keen to get back into," Vella told us. "We just want to focus on making games."

"We're not trying to be exclusive. There's limited resources. People think it's a simple trick to just press a button--to send it to a different studio," Adams followed-up. "But then, what happens to the craft? What happens to the soul?"

"We went through hell making this. This is a personal thing. Going back to revisit it, just to bring it over for that purpose, it has a cost. It has a cost in terms of time, energy, and sort of a psychic cost," Adams added.

While Android users will be disheartened by the news, Adams said that the studio has done their research. "We've definitely looked at it, but we also have data points telling us that the audience might not respond even if we went through all that nonsense."

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is available exclusively on the App Store. And will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 13, 2012 11:00 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Why Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP isn't on Android.

    We caught up with Capybara's Nathan Vella and Superbrothers' Craig Adams after the awards show to chat about the victory--and why the winning iOS game will never come out on Android.

    • reply
      March 13, 2012 11:58 AM

      I feel the same way about porting my iOS themes to Android. Also, I don't own anything Android, nor want to.

    • reply
      March 13, 2012 12:01 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        March 13, 2012 12:40 PM

        Apple apologist fanboy!

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        March 13, 2012 1:10 PM

        I find it funny because that same response can be used for the lack of PC port for most games, but you won't see any replies like yours in those articles.

        Although, usually publishers aren't as honest and have to bring up piracy instead of just stating, "It's a huge pain in the ass and we don't even think we'll make that much money."

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      March 13, 2012 1:10 PM

      I don't mean to criticize, prophecize, theorize, or otherwise empathize... but with the proper code base construction, it seems like it would be possible to port it to android. They have plenty of Java experience already... it probably wouldn't take them more than a month... why not do it? Free money.

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        March 13, 2012 10:47 PM

        Then apparently you really didnt read his response. He doesn't want to go through that month long headache. He wants to make extremely awesome games on one platform. That focus alone is so nice and rewarding that you dont need that extra "free money"

      • reply
        March 13, 2012 10:51 PM

        [deleted]

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      March 13, 2012 1:28 PM

      if that video is what i could expect from the game, i am completely ok with this.

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