Porting the city-building simulator Fabledom
from the PC platform to all main modern consoles
and during an active development phase 

We set up a dynamic feedback system with weekly calls and detailed reports to make sure everyone stayed on the same page throughout the development process. Our past experience with multi-platform certification helped us organize the certification process early on, keeping all the platform requirements in mind.

Although our communication with Plug In Digital/Dear Villagers was infrequent, it was always very productive. We received tasks in real-time, and it was up to us to tackle them quickly. Managing merging requests was another hurdle, and we constantly switched between fixing code issues and optimizing new content. The scope of work was always shifting, and we had to hit strict, deadline-driven milestones.

We developed gamepad controls for each platform from scratch. Implementing every control scheme required extensive refactoring of the original code, which also caused many time-consuming bugs. 

We divided the necessary UI panels into vertical elements, with navigation via keys inside, to implement the multiple window controls without using the mouse. We always left some room for possible new panels, as the game was still in development.  All this purely technical part was backed up by regular gameplay tests with the QA team, game designer, and UI-UX artist to choose the most optimal solutions.

For greater optimization, we also significantly redesigned the following:

• the world map. We needed to involve as many gamepad controls as possible 
• drop-down windows appearing and closing

Although there were few references for effective gamepad control schemes in this genre, we conducted thorough research, implemented some suitable features, and developed a significant portion of the solutions from scratch.

While working on each solution, we always remembered that a PC player can click anywhere, at any time, and we have to bring the console player closer to this game flow.

The first step was simply getting the game to run on consoles, as it initially struggled with memory constraints, resulting in frequent crashes.

Memory Optimization and Shader Rewrites

We faced severe memory issues early on, especially with resource-heavy shaders. The first breakthrough came when we rewrote the math patterns used in the shaders, reducing their memory usage from approximately 800MB to under 100MB. This involved combining optimization techniques, such as simplifying the shader processing mathematics and even rewriting some shaders from scratch. By doing so, we maintained the same visual quality as the original PC version but with a much lower memory footprint.

Additionally, we optimized particle effects and reduced the use of in-game physics, further alleviating memory and CPU load. By decreasing the number of rendering calls – using techniques to limit the number of objects on screen at any given time – we minimized the amount of data sent to the GPU, leading to fewer CPU bottlenecks.

LOD System and Object Rendering

To optimize graphics performance on weaker devices, we implemented a Level of Detail (LOD) system. This allowed the game to display hundreds of objects on screen simultaneously without overwhelming the system. Objects changed in complexity based on the camera’s distance, significantly reducing the number of polygons processed by the GPU. For distant objects, we employed a system that captured images of buildings from 16 different angles and stored these as textures. These textures were then assembled into a single image by the shader, ensuring that even at high or distant camera angles, performance remained stable.

Camera and Physics Adjustments

We also reworked the camera’s tilt angle and maximum height. By limiting the field of view (FOV) and reducing the camera’s elevation, we could control how many objects were rendered at once, easing the load on both the GPU and CPU. This adjustment had a significant impact on performance, especially on less powerful platforms like the Nintendo Switch.

Additionally, we addressed several low-level issues related to GPU performance and shader processing. Through various mathematical and technical approaches, we optimized or rewrote shaders to simplify their operations without compromising visual quality.
Our optimization efforts successfully brought Fabledom to a stable 30 FPS on the Nintendo Switch, with smooth performance across all platforms. We passed all necessary certifications, ensuring a crash-free and responsive experience for players. By improving memory management and resource allocation, we delivered a well-optimized game that runs efficiently on even the most resource-constrained consoles.

Given that Fabledom was still in Early Access, our priority was addressing Early Access-related issues while optimizing gameplay for consoles. Since console players were less likely to reach the late-game stages, we focused less on optimizing that area early.

Gradual Optimization for Stable Gameplay
One of the key difficulties with Fabledom was the wide variety of gameplay possibilities. Players could arrange their kingdoms unpredictably, build different structures, and follow different storylines. Testing the game required accounting for countless combinations of building layouts and narratives, which was time-consuming. To address these issues, we tested as many combinations of building arrangements and story progression as time allowed. On PCs, players faced virtually no limits to the size of their cities. However, on Switch, the system could only allocate up to 3GB of RAM, a hard limit we couldn’t bypass. To accommodate this, we optimized the game for a maximum population of 300 in-game characters on the Nintendo Switch. Players could reach a logical conclusion with the “marriage” storyline, but gameplay beyond that point could become unstable.

Dropdown Menus for Scalability
An update on the PC version introduced a new unit selection menu for managing armies, located in the top left corner of the screen. While this initially seemed like a good solution, as the number of units grew, the menu began to disrupt the interface, making it difficult to control the hero. To resolve this, we implemented a dropdown menu for unit selection. This allowed for scalable management of many characters without interfering with the game’s original interface. The dropdown adjusted to the number of units while keeping the interface clean and manageable.

Rendering Large Numbers of Buildings
With a city-building game like Fabledom, players often rotate the camera to see dozens, or even hundreds, of buildings on screen simultaneously. This presents a significant challenge for resource optimization on consoles.
To tackle this, we developed a system that dynamically photographed each building from 16 angles-top, bottom, and sides-and stored these images in a texture file. Shaders then assembled the frames into a single texture, allowing smooth transitions between images as the player rotated the camera around buildings. This solution dramatically reduced the number of polygons the GPU had to process, leading to more efficient use of graphical resources and smoother performance on lower-powered platforms like the Switch.

 To adapt to this restriction, we had to thoroughly analyze all the data the developers were recording and explore how we could compress these saves into a much smaller footprint. The original version of the game employed a highly unoptimized method of formatting the data, which worked well for the PC and was easy to implement but consumed excessive disk space.

We had to rewrite this aspect entirely. This involved employing data compression techniques and identifying opportunities where data could be calculated dynamically instead of being written directly. Through these changes, we managed to optimize the size of the save files by more than tenfold. As a result, we were able to create 10 save slots for players on the Switch while still leaving room for future DLCs or updates.