Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s ambitious Nintendo Switch port took 2 years of work, lead programmer reveals details

The Nintendo Switch port of Warhorse Studios’ realistic open-world medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance was finally released in March this year, 6 years after the game’s initial launch. The port was handled by Saber Interactive, the studio that famously got The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to work on the Nintendo Switch. A recent interview with the lead programmer of Kingdom Come’s porting project Anton Vasilev on our Japanese sister-site reveals some interesting insights into how the port came to be. 

When first presented with the idea of porting Kingdom Come: Deliverance to the Switch, Saber Interactive knew that they had an “extremely difficult challenge” before them. The studio started out by examining the game’s source code and assets to evaluate whether a Switch port was theoretically possible. After getting the game to run, they entered the stage of optimization, which Vasilev describes as the most difficult part of the process – “It’s not just about getting it to be playable, we had to make it enjoyable, which is why optimization was the most challenging task. It took about two years to complete.” 

Considering Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s impressive scale, the team at Saber Interactive had to make balanced decisions about what to leave out and what to keep in the Switch port. As Vasilev explains, “The Nintendo Switch version runs at the equivalent of the PC version’s “Low” Image Quality setting. In development, we used the art assets of the Xbox One version, from which some static objects were removed, and then cut the highest resolution MIP level for all assets. We also removed some static objects with high LOD models, partially simplified the terrain graphics, and reduced the key frame rate of some animation sequences. In addition, we gave up on having surround sound support for audio.” 

Vasilev reveals that the most difficult part of optimizing Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s performance on the Switch was having it run at a sufficient frame rate, especially in large villages and busy battlefields. Ultimately, the team managed to achieve 30 fps in both TV mode and handheld mode. The developer notes that the most important goal in porting a game is to achieve a good balance between performance, memory handling, stability, and final quality. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is available for the PC (Steam), PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The “Kingdom Come: Deliverance Royal Edition,” which includes the main game and five DLCs, was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 15, 2024.