Review Fix Exclusive: Jean Simon Otis Talks ‘Knight Squad 2’ And More

Review Fix chats with Jean Simon Otis, Co-Founder and Technical Director of Chainsawesome Games, who breaks down the development cycle of “Knight Squad 2.”

About the Game:

Knight Squad 2, the follow-up to Chainsawesome Games’ chaotic arcade party game enjoyed by more than 1.8 million players, unleashes knightly mayhem on April 14 for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One with Xbox Series X|S compatibility, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Sally forth into glorious combat across more than 13 game modes, including a fresh take on Soccer where weapons and violence are expressly encouraged and Battle Royale, where only the most chivalrous and cutthroat champion emerges victorious. Dominate the arenas in 8-player online multiplayer and smite foes with everything from swords, drills, and ray guns.

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Jean Simon Otis: Knight Squad was originally created during a 48 hours game jam called Pixel Challenge. 4 years after the original was released, we thought about a lot of new things we could add to the concept to push it even further and decided to go through with it and develop a sequel.

Review Fix: What is your role in the game?

Otis: I’m the technical director on the game. I took most of the technological decisions and took care of the biggest chunk for the online crossplay multiplayer part of the game.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

Otis: It has been pretty smooth actually. It definitely took longer than we expected at first but we wanted to make sure everything was awesome. Since everyone on the team has around 10 years of experience, we haven’t encountered any real major roadblock that stopped us in our tracks.

Review Fix: What makes this game special?

Otis: I think one of the things that sets our game apart on the PC and console markets is it’s arcade-inspired simplicity. Knight Squad 2 is extremely easy to pick up and play. It requires little to no explanation of the game’s objective and controls. Gamers of absolutely all skill levels can have a good time with our game.

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Otis: Knight Squad 1. But seriously the first ones inspiration were still very valid for the second opus. I like to say that it’s a happy mix of Bomberman and Gauntlet.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Otis: While in development and working with temporary art assets, the technical artist goofed around and created a sheep. We don’t quite remember why. He fell in love with that sheep and forcefully found a way to keep the sheep in the game even though half of the sheep wanted the sheep gone. Now the game is finished, with a hidden sheep that half of the team hates.

Review Fix: What were the major lessons learned?

Otis: Making an online multiplayer game with crossplay across multiple platforms is HARD. There is so many things to take into consideration for each platform and you have to make sure that all versions stay in sync.

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Otis: Yes. Well, in our case it was crucial to keep the core that made the first opus great. So, we made sure to bring back those old game mechanics and put them in the center of the sequel. We then built on top of those to add even more chaos to the game.

Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?

Otis: I really think it’s the memories that I currently make with my 5-year-old son who started playing games recently. We play a lot of cooperative games and have had a really good time playing Super Mario 3D World lately.

Review Fix: How have your previous experiences in the industry helped this game?

Otis: Having shipped other multiplayer games in the past really helped make sure this one was built properly from the get go for online. This is something a lot of devs that don’t have experience with online often struggle with by building the game for local first then try to slap online onto it. I know because I’ve done it in the past.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?

Otis: A good old “Friendship Destroyer”. By that, I mean that people will have a great time yelling at their friends/relatives because of really close call games that will end up something along the lines of NOOO! WHAT? NO!

Review Fix: What’s next?

Otis: We’ve started prototyping something new and are also looking at adding more content into Knight Squad 2 post launch.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Otis: We released a preview of Knight Squad 2 on Steam entitled Knight Squad 2 Trials so you can try it for free to get a sense of the game. What’s also neat with this trial is that you can use it to join games made by owners of the full Knight Squad 2 and effectively experience all the content.

We really hope the game picks up and the world falls in love with our goofy knights. Hopefully, a gamer parent somewhere will create great gaming memories with their kids through Knight Squad 2. 

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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