Once again, I was lucky enough to speak with Arnaud De Sousa, Head of Marketing at Dotemu, about their upcoming title, Windjammers 2.



CI: So when did you first start development for Windjammers 2?

ADS: That’s an interesting question. If we talk about the game Windjammers 2, I would say that the pre-production started more or less a year ago. But what’s interesting is that the project itself started way before that. When we reached out to the rights holders to do Windjammers on PS4 and PSVita, the idea of Windjammers 2 was already here and was part of the project. We went to them with the desire to make this sequel, and they accepted.

Even though we started the production of Windjammers 2 a year ago, all the work we did on the first game helped us a lot for the sequel. We spent a great amount of time retro engineering Windjammers in order to understand how the game works and what makes Windjammers, Windjammers, and that was essential for what we want to do for Windjammers 2.

CI: Are there any new mechanics being added to the sequel?

ADS: Windjammers 2 is not a remake but truly a new game in the series, which means of course: new mechanics, new graphics (fully hand drawn with traditional animation), new characters, new game modes, and so on.

Because it’s a sequel, we want of course to keep that unique Windjammers feeling, but we also want to bring something new. We have tons of ideas and we’re still experimenting, so I can’t say what will be in the final game, but to give you an example, I can talk to you about the EX Move, a new mechanic that we showed at PAX West. The EX Move works basically like a super in a fighting game: you have an EX bar that fills up during the match, and when it’s full, you can press a button and release a super move unique to each character.

CI:Windjammers has seen a substantial growth at fighting game tournaments, particularly at EVO where it was one of the largest side-tournaments. Did this popularity shock Dotemu or was it something you were aiming for?

ADS: It didn’t shock us per say, as this is one of our goals for Windjammers, but we’re super happy to see that it’s getting bigger and bigger! I am a competitive fighting game player myself and I’ve been part of the FGC for 15 years, so I was well aware of the popularity Windjammers had, and especially in France where it’s played at a high level for many years now. So of course, when we started working on Windjammers, esports and competitive play was one of the first things we thought about. Bringing a game to EVO was a dream of mine and I’m super happy to have been able to do it, especially with Windjammers.

CI: Previously we talked about the Windjammers official fighting circuit. Will Windjammers 2 be replacing the original on the circuit or will they be competing side by side?

ADS: It’s a bit too early to tell as we’re currently focusing on the game itself, but esports is definitely something we love and that fits perfectly with Windjammers in my opinion, so we’re obviously thinking about it and working towards it on both the marketing and the production side.

CI: Previously we asked if there were any plans for a switch port, and you (Dotemu) stated that there were no plans at the moment. So what changed that?

ADS: The release of Windjammers on PS4 and PS Vita was very well received by the players and the fans, and we were super happy to see that much support and enthusiasm. But with that release, we saw that a lot of people were asking for a Nintendo Switch version of the game as well.

After thinking about it and with that many expectations for a Nintendo Switch release, we decided to go for it. Windjammers is an amazing competitive game, but it’s also a great couch game, and we think it fits perfectly with that console. Windjammers is easy to learn and immediately fun, and being a two button game is perfect for the joy-cons.

Nintendo is showing some great support to the game and we’re really happy about it, we can’t wait to release it!

CI: Windjammers is a pretty beloved cult classic, so were there any challenges that stood out to the team while making a sequel over 2 decades later?

ADS: Releasing the first Windjammers on actual platforms gave us a ton of challenges, and so does this new episode. For the first one, it was all about making it arcade perfect and offering the most faithful experience possible while bringing new features. I’m happy to say that, thanks to the help of the French community and the hard work of the team, we hit that goal with a game that is super close to what the arcade version offers while bringing a good online experience. And with the launch of the Flying Power League (the official Windjammers esports league), we really brought Windjammers to a new and more actual dimension.

For Windjammers 2, the challenges are close but a bit different. Since it’s a new game in the Windjammers series, it is essential for us that the “Windjammers feeling” is here. When you take the controller and start playing Windjammers 2, you have to feel that you’re playing a Windjammers game and not a “Windjammers-like” game. So like I said previously, we spent months retro engineering the first episode in order to understand how it works and to learn everything about it. It’s because of that that we could reproduce this unique feeling in Windjammers 2.

Our other main challenge is to bring something new while keeping that feeling of authenticity. Keeping the original Windjammers experience is really important, but the idea with Windjammers 2 is to go further and do more than a “Windjammers Remake.” Because it’s a completely new episode, we’re working a lot on that, and it’s really exciting.

To make it short, I think the biggest challenge is to find that balance between old and new while keeping the Windjammers feeling and make the game more fun, challenging and entertaining than the first one.

CI: Can you tell us about some of the new characters in the game, such as how they play and where they are from?

ADS: It’s a bit too early to talk about new characters, but we have a ton of ideas and I’m sure the fans will welcome the newcomers! But we’re of course not forgetting the old characters and we hope you will like what we are preparing for them as well.



CI: Will Windjammers 2 feature the same netcode as the previous game?

ADS: Again, we’re really in an early stage of production and it’s too soon to talk about online and netcode.

Windjammers on PS4, PS Vita and Nintendo Switch uses GGPO, which works great with fighting games and emulation. We spent a good amount of time improving the GGPO’s netcode that we implemented in the game to fit with Windjammers, and we’re quite happy with the result, but this netcode has its limitations and it may not fit the needs for Windjammers 2 and a possible online mode.



CI: Are there any plans for physical releases of Windjammers 2, limited or otherwise?



ADS: Too soon to tell!



