Developed by ascendant indie studio Vea Games and published by Knight’s Peak, Nikoderiko: The Magical World was released on October 15, 2024 across multiple platforms, including Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 4, Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch, later followed by a Steam release on December 5. A loving homage to platformer classics like Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nikoderiko has been a hit with critics and gamers alike. Gaming Furever’s own reviewer played it for xbox and overall had a good time with it. Now Gaming Furever is here to bring you an interview with its Game Director, Dmitry Smirnov.
Brandon Billingsley, Gaming Furever: Firstly, let me thank you immensely for the opportunity and taking the time to sit down and talk to us. We very much appreciate it. Anyway, onto Nikoderiko; the game reminds us of classics like Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong Country. Did you draw a lot of inspiration from those?
Dmitry Smirnov, Game Director: Yeah, it should be no surprise that Nikoderiko pays tribute to these amazing games. When we first started development (longer ago than we’d care to admit), fans of high-quality 2D platformers were a hungry bunch. Let me start with a personal story. As a child, I absolutely loved the Donkey Kong Country series on the SNES for its mysterious, beautiful atmosphere and incredibly expressive music. At the time, nothing compared—it felt like an animated movie brought to life with an amazing setting and memorable characters.
DK was my gateway into the world of video games and ultimately shaped my future career as a game developer, and my dream has always been to bring people something that gives them the same feelings I felt when first playing it.
DK was my gateway into the world of video games and ultimately shaped my future career as a game developer, and my dream has always been to bring people something that gives them the same feelings I felt when first playing it. After graduating from university, I started working as a level designer for MMORPG projects and later as a producer for online games. When the time came to decide on a personal project, I chose to finally follow that dream. Now, it's incredibly rewarding to watch my own children play Nikoderiko and feel the same emotions I once did.
Our whole team loves platformers and draws inspiration from Nintendo's meticulous attention to detail and gameplay polish. We've played through most of the genre's classics—Klonoa, Duck Tales, Chip 'n Dale, Yoshi, Mickey Mania, and many more. We started as a small team of enthusiasts and grew into a studio of skilled professionals. As we evolved, new platformers such as DKC Returns, Tropical Freeze, and Crash Bandicoot 4 were released by highly experienced teams, setting the bar sky-high. As newcomers to the genre, we worked tirelessly to meet those standards while also introducing some fresh ideas to a genre that's been around for decades, and where many of the best tricks are already associated with Mario.
We believe we've achieved something truly special, and the entire team has poured their hearts into Nikoderiko.
Brandon: The main duo - Niko and Luna are very charming. I love their designs and being mongooses makes them pretty unique compared to other mascots. What inspired the idea to make them mongooses and the main bad guys snakes?
Riffing off that old children’s story gave us the opportunity to create adorable, charismatic heroes while designing their fun, lazy, yet devious serpent-like foes—the "Cobrings." We wanted to give the game a memorable atmosphere where a classic heroic adventure takes on a new and vibrant form in the world of Nikoderiko.
Brandon: On the subject of the main duo, was the couch co-op always a planned feature? Or did that come about later in the development cycle?
Dmitry: Originally, the concept and early prototypes of the game were closer to the classic DKC series, where the second character, Luna, was envisioned as a companion with unique abilities. She would always accompany the player, controlled by AI, providing a sense of companionship and allowing the player to switch to her at any time.
It sounds great on paper, but we quickly discovered there’s reasons why most other platformers don’t do this. During playtesting, we realized that the AI companion got in the way and became more distracting than helpful. Eventually, we made the difficult decision to remove the AI-controlled buddy.
But this also opened the door to make Nikoderiko a more exciting experience for multiple players on the same screen. We were inspired by the spirit of classic co-op games like Chip 'n Dale on the NES, where playing together was a delightful (and sometimes chaotic) experience full of interaction and shared fun moments. If an AI buddy does something annoying, there’s not much you can do about it, but if your friend on the couch does, at least you can poke them!
Brandon: The game's presentation makes it a lot of fun to look at and our own reviewer said it made him think of Saturday morning cartoons. Was that the idea you guys were going for as you designed the visuals?
Dmitry: When we first started working on the initial concepts for the game, we initially opted for a more realistic setting with detailed forms and materials. However, after developing the first prototype, another lesson we learnt the hard way was that excessive detail overly complicated the gameplay experience. Platformers are a flow-state genre, so you want to trim back anything making it harder to read collisions and understand the environment. Moreover, even if we did love the original designs (attached below an early character concept, which we later redesigned - credit to the brilliant Kate Shapovalova) it felt quite odd to have a realistic character jumping on the head of another realistic character.
Initial prototype characters:
The Redesign:
And some prototype brainstorming concepts:
All leading to this, the final Luna redesign:
Eventually, we shifted towards a more fun and cartoony vibe, which allowed us to create a more readable and expressive visual style. We deliberately stripped away unnecessary details to ensure that enemies, backgrounds, and environments were easy to read and didn’t overwhelm the player. We took inspiration from games like Overwatch and Dota, which balance stylization with clarity and appeal.
It was hard not to panic a little when Crash Bandicoot 4 landed, as its visual style turned out to be quite similar to ours. Clearly some kind of cosmic convergence occurred, as we noticed that one of the female protagonists in Crash 4 looked strikingly similar to our early version of Luna—complete with glasses, white hair, and a handbag. To avoid comparisons (in hindsight, a little naive🙂), we decided to redesign her, and let her accessorize with a scarf, going back to one of the initial draft design ideas from the beginning of the project.
Brandon: Moving on to the soundtrack, what was it like to work with David Wise, known for his work on the aforementioned Donkey Kong games?
Dmitry: Working with David Wise has been a tremendous honor for our entire team. When I was a child, my father set up our SNES sound to run through a high-quality amp and speakers instead of the TV’s tinny hardware. I would spend hours just listening to the soundtracks of Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct. Those melodies created an incredible atmosphere and left a lasting impression on me, becoming a cornerstone of my gaming experience.
I gathered the courage to write a letter to Mr. Wise, proposing a collaboration. We sent him early prototype footage of Nikoderiko’s levels, and to my delight, David believed in our team.
Understanding how crucial music and sound are to a game's impact, I gathered the courage to write a letter to Mr. Wise, proposing a collaboration. We sent him early prototype footage of Nikoderiko’s levels, and to my delight, David believed in our team. He approached the soundtrack with incredible professionalism, crafting a musical experience that brought the same magic I once felt as a child listening to his work. Collaborating with such a legendary composer has been an inspiring and invaluable experience for the team, and me in particular.
Brandon: Were there a lot of challenges in developing this game? Maybe some you guys weren’t able to anticipate?
Dmitry: Yes, we definitely have a lot to share! Developing a great console game requires much more than just having a solid idea and being proficient in Unreal Engine—the key is to find like-minded people and build an amazing team. Developing a serious project is not a one- or even two-year adventure; it demands a great deal of willpower and motivation. Beyond the game development itself, there are numerous challenges such as balancing budgets, payroll and other business operations—all of which take a significant amount of time and effort.
Developing a serious project is not a one- or even two-year adventure; it demands a great deal of willpower and motivation.
We always aimed to make everything the best it could be, and over the past year and a half, we feel that we've truly mastered the art of platformer design, if you’ll allow us a little hubris. In fact, we’ve learned so much that if time allowed, there’s so much we could revisit and redesign with our newfound experience, including many levels, bosses, and mechanics. But it just means that whatever we do next will be even more fantastic.
I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to our team—sacrificing weekends, personal time, and their sanity—to bring this project to life for the players. And huge thanks also goes to our partners at GEM Capital, who have always supported us through challenging times. They are not only highly professional but also truly understand the gaming industry.
The game's launch was another significant challenge. Preparing tons of materials, trailers, and promotional content in advance while still finishing the game to meet the deadline was quite a balancing act. We were fortunate to work with our publisher, Knight’s Peak, and we are especially grateful to Eugenio Vitale for believing in us and supporting the project all the way through. Just making a great game isn’t enough these days - you need to have a whole team supporting you and getting the word out about it!.
Brandon: Once again, thank you for your time! Can we expect to see more of Niko and Luna in the future? As an up and coming developer, do y’all have plans for our new favorite mongooses to go on further adventures?
Dmitry: Absolutely! We definitely have plans for Niko and Luna’s future adventures. We’re thrilled that players have grown fond of our characters, and can’t wait to share with you soon. Stay tuned and follow our social media channels – there's plenty more to come!
Brandon: Lastly, what is something you guys hope players will take away from the experience of this game?
Dmitry: We hope that players (especially our younger ones) take away a simple yet important message from Nikoderiko: good always triumphs over evil. Yes, it might sound cliché, but we believe it’s crucial to convey these truths, and the belief that you can stand up against villainy in all its forms. We aimed to create a world full of fun, adventure, and lighthearted humor that brings a smile to players’ faces and reminds them that there's always room for friendship and believing in something better.
Good always triumphs over evil...there's always room for friendship and believing in something better.
Thank you again for your time, insight and all that concept art! It's always great to sit down and talk about how games get made! As stated above, Nikoderiko is available on all modern platforms right now for $29.99, freshly updated! Now’s a good time to check it out if you haven’t already!
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