Ruffy and the Riverside is a brand new 3D platformer that mixes 2D stylized sprites with a full open world. It features a very unique "SWAP" mechanic that allows you to pull nearly any object and texture to place (or swap out) objects in the world, and is packed full of non-stop surprises.
The game launches on June 26th on all major platforms and PC, but ahead of release we were fortunate enough to get a chance to speak with the developer to learn more! While we cannot reveal everything prior to the game's release, we did learn some surprising facts about the game's development, and even the possibility for a sequel!
Of course that's only scratching the tip of the iceberg, so instead of wasting more time, here's what Patrick of Zockrates Laboratories had to say.
Hi Patrick, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me! My name is Ben and I'm one of the founders of Netto's Game Room. Could you tell our readers a little more about Zockrates Laboratories?
We started as a team of artists that made a lot of videogame related art like paintings, sculptures etc. We even did some art shows supported by Nintendo like the "Printing Miiverse“ Art show where we showed over 10,000 Miiverse drawings. So we all love art, and video games, and it was just a matter of time that we started to do a videogame of our own.
The first question I like to ask is a pretty simple one, but we sometimes get some surprising answers! What would you say were your biggest influences when it came to developing Ruffy? The 2D style personally reminds me a lot of Paper Mario, but I also can't help but think back to a popular 2000s Sonic fan game built using Doom!
We really love the games from the N64 and early PlayStation era: Banjo and Kazooie, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Crash Bandicoot and Mario 64. Those were the games we grew up with. Also, Paper Mario proved that you can do games with 2D sprite characters. However, we never wanted to do a Retro Game. In fact, the SWAP mechanic is pretty unique and innovative.
The game is for sure very unique, and I can only imagine the difficulties you faced trying to make it a reality. What would you say was the most challenging part of developing Ruffy?
First, it was a lot to draw. Everything is drawn by hand. The textures, the characters, the inventory the map and more. Ruffy alone has over 600 drawings, because whatever he does had to be drawn from all sides.
Second, the SWAP mechanic. We knew that players want to perform great changes to the world, but at the same time we had to make sure it wouldn't overpower the players. So it took a lot of balancing. Also we wanted to give the SWAP a very natural feel. It should help in as many situations as possible, so during the design process we had one top priority: Create “SWAPPABILITIES”, lots of swappabilities, and make them all different. Variety was key here. Now Ruffy can swap all sorts of materials, like lava, ice, wood, iron, water, stone, grass and much more to change the environment. He can also SWAP numbers, colors and more and most of all the situations that require SWAPPING are different each time.
A lot of confusion went around when the release date of June 26th was first revealed, with some speculating the Switch 2 would be out before then. In reality, you had no idea when it would launch, but now that the Switch 2 is out, Ruffy is in fact on all platforms day one. How does it feel being able to release a game on new hardware so early into its life? Also is there anything Nintendo fans should know about this version over the original Switch release?
We think our game really has strong Nintendo vibes, so we are happy to have it on two Nintendo consoles. However, we also are very happy to have it on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam. The Switch 2 gave us new options and we are still working on make use of it's full potential. Eventually we plan a dedicated Switch 2 version, or at least patches specific for Switch 2.
Now before we continue, I just wanted to say how much we greatly appreciate you and Pirate PR for providing us with an early review copy of the game! Currently my co-workers Jeremy and Jonsku are both playing through it as we speak, and they had a handful of questions they wanted me to pass along. So these final questions will be from them directly.
Okay, happy to answer them!
What is the story and inspiration behind the Swap mechanic? It's a really fun mechanic and an interesting take to use it in a collectathon platformer. – Jonsku
The idea for the SWAP came about by a funny coincidence. I was looking at old level drawings and there was this drawing of a waterfall. The drawing was black and white and I couldn't tell if it was a waterfall or a lava flow. It could really be either and I thought to myself, how cool it would be if it could really be BOTH. What if you were able to swap the texture and the world would change? The idea for the SWAP was born.
Did any games serve as a sort of North Star for you guys, in terms of wanting to emulate their spirit for Ruffy and the Riverside? Tonally, the game reminds me of something like Tomba on the PS1. – Jeremy
Funny enough I never knew Tomba. It wasn`t until people told me that Ruffy reminded them of Tomba. That was the first time I looked it up! Ruffy was created before that and in fact he was an enemy at the beginning. A wild animal that ran upon you from the woods. He was our favourite NPC and it didn't take long before he became the main character.
Ruffy and his bear-folk have such an instantly iconic, unique design. What was the inspiration behind the character designs? I'm also intrigued by their "constantly moving" animations. How did that design choice happen? – Jeremy
I could name many inspirations like the Ewoks, Super Mario, Crash Bandicoot or even Nathan Drake, but this is not how it works if you are doing a hand drawn game. Your main inspiration is the progress of your drawings. Ruffy was redrawn so often and he really changed over time. So you always go back and look what can or even has to be changed. His constant movement is just a consequence of the drawing process.
When you have to draw each frame of your character this takes a lot of time and you really get into the personality of the character. Each drawing starts from scratch and so adding a lot of details, like the movement of his fingers, is no extra work. You can just bring him to life just the way you want it. I really think this separates 3D animation from the hand drawn approach: In drawings you can set the look for each perspective and for each action. And you can make sure it looks just right (not saying that we achieved this all the time).
This world and these characters demand more exploration in future games, I think. You've really created something that stands out in the immense tidal wave of video games that are coming out right now. What future do you see for this franchise? I'd love to see Ruffy in a full-fledged series. Maybe a kart racer? (Or hay bale racer?) – Jeremy
You are right. It feels like there is some much more to explore. We do have some ideas already, but they are changing day by day. I think we have set a great base for future games and this world really grew to my heart over the years. Let`s see how we can develop it in the future.
What is the game development scene like in Germany? It seems like Europe has really been blossoming into a major hub for indie game development in recent years. – Jeremy
We have really great support programs here in Germany, both at the federal level and in the individual federal states, such as here in Bavaria in southern Germany. We have received funding from both programs and are really very grateful for that. So, at this point, I would like to say a big thank you to the FFF Bavaria and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. I also think it's a good thing that there are more indie games from Europe. We really love American pop culture and I always enjoy visiting the USA (hello Philly, I miss you!), but our fairy tales, myths, stories and jokes only feature marginally in it, so it's up to us to translate them into great entertainment products.
I always ask this as sort of a wrap up question in interviews with game studios. Where did your studio's name come from? I assume Zockrates is a pun on Socrates? What's the story with the name? – Jeremy
Glad you ask. This will bring us back to the first question about who we are. As I said, we are gamers and also artists, and Zockrates reflects both in German. The German word "Zocken“ means playing video games, and Socrates is an ancient philosopher. He is famous for saying, ‘The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.’ Great motto for a newly founded indie studio.
So our name "Zockrates“ is a combination of these two words Zocken and Socrates, which unfortunately only makes sense in Germany – but over here it makes people smile immediately when they hear it.
And finally a for fun question from me. What is your personal favorite 3D Platformer?
Ruffy and the Riverside. What else? 😉
Thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedule! We all wish you the best of luck with your new game, and we already can't wait to see where you go from here! I'll leave our thoughts for our review, but I can say what you have here really is something special.
Thank you for having me!
As mentioned before, Ruffy and the Riverside will launch on June 26th, 2025, and we here at Netto's Game Room will have our very own review of the game live on June 25th. We will revise this article to link back to it as soon as we can, but in the mean time here is the full pre-release screenshot gallery and trailer as provided to us by Zockrates Laboratories and Pirate PR.
Gallery:
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