Hey there, big news today!

A childhood dream for me has always been to be able to release a game on a Nintendo console and now it is actually happening!

My tiny metroidvania game Ascent DX is releasing on Nintendo Switch on August 20th! It will work on both Switch 1 and Switch 2.

Check out the trailer on the Nintendo eShop!

The game looks and sounds amazing on the switch and playing a lowres game on a big screen is a great experience.

Check out the game page on the Nintendo eShop were it can be wishlisted and pre-ordered.

If you’re interested on some background on the game, read on!

Ascent started as an game jam entry back in 2022 (lowresjam) where it placed 5th. I had made the game using PICO-8 and really tried to leverage that aesthetic in a super low 64x64 resolution. It worked well and it especially got praise for the graphics and level design, but also the narrative and music. Happy with the result I moved on to other projects as I usually do.

A few years later I was trying out the love2D framework and decided to port Ascent to it and flesh it out a bit in the process. I added more areas and more lore to be found for exploring players. Also Brent who made the music added some more tracks. This DX version ended up on Steam and has a 99% positive rating with almost 300 reviews. Again I was satisfied and moved on with picoCAD 2 and Icy Tower.

Then just a few weeks ago, I randomly bumped into Corey from Sleepy Groove Games who was looking for love2D games to port to switch. We discussed a bit and quickly found Ascent DX to be the perfect candidate. This version is tailored to the switch and has some nice bug fixes as well. It should really be seen as the definitive version of the game.

That’s it for now, hope you're looking forward to the release as much as I am!

/Johan