Fans of Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn have been clamoring for a Nintendo Switch port since the game’s release in late 2018. Pope teased that an Obra Dinn Switch port will probably come in the future along with a possible separate VR game.
Pope spoke to Metro UK during the BAFTAs earlier this week. Obra Dinn won the game design and artistic achievement awards during the BAFTAs, beating out games like God of War and Celeste. When Metro asked Pope about bringing an Obra Dinn Switch port, had the following repsonse.
“A lot of people are asking for it,” he admitted. “Actually, the first response when I released it for desktops was, ‘when is it coming to Switch?’ So the writing is on the wall on that I guess. I haven’t figured anything out yet solid for it yet though.”
Pope went on to hint at what he wants to do next.
“I’m pretty bullish on VR. I’m interested into looking at VR at some point, but I haven’t spent any time on it now,” he said.
Maybe we’ll see a VR Obra Dinn in the future, but don’t get your hopes up on that front anytime soon. He also shot down any interest in game streaming like Google Stadio for Obra Dinn, citing concerns of poor video encoding with the service.
Pope began development on Return of the Obra Dinn shortly after releasing Papers, Please in 2013. Obra Dinn is a 3D puzzle game set aboard a ghost ship in the early 1800s. Players are an insurance investigator tasked with discovering what happened to the ship’s crew. The game released in late 2018 to critical acclaim, winding up on many year end lists. Return of the Obra Dinn‘s striking visual design — 1-bit dithered, high contrast 3D — is something Pope worked for years to look right.
