Door Kickers: Action Squad: Porting a Tactical Co-op Side-Scroller to Three Consoles

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Title: Door Kickers: Action Squad
Release Date: 2019
Developer: KillHouse Games
Publisher: KillHouse Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Engine: Custom / proprietary

Door Kickers: Action Squad is a tactical side-scroller from Romanian indie studio KillHouse Games that launched on PC in September 2018 to strong reviews. Sickhead handled the ports to all three major consoles, shipping PS4 and Xbox One on October 24, 2019, and Nintendo Switch just four days later on October 28. Getting three separate console certifications across Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to land within the same week is a serious coordination challenge on its own. Add to that the game’s co-op networking, both couch and online, which had to be adapted to each platform’s distinct multiplayer infrastructure and party systems. Online co-op on Xbox routes through Xbox Live, on PS4 through PSN, and on Switch through Nintendo’s own online service, each with different session management, NAT traversal behavior, and matchmaking requirements. Delivering all three cleanly, in the same week, meant running parallel cert pipelines while keeping the online systems stable across fundamentally different network backends.

Sickhead Games is the leading game porting studio, skilled in porting Unity, Unreal, Godot, and custom engine titles to every major console and handheld including Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. We’re trusted by solo indie developers and major publishers alike to handle everything from codebase assessment to post-launch support, bringing great games to the audiences they deserve. Satisfied clients and partners include Humble Games, Sony Interactive, Nintendo, Annapurna, Good Games, ConcernedApe, MegaCrit, 17-Bit, Maddy Makes Games, Zachtronics, Keen Software House, Thomas Happ, Pocketwatch Games, EXOK, Young Horses, Taito, Jaleco, and Microsoft. We’ve ported over 100 releases including Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, TowerFall, Axiom Verge, and Space Engineers, and also specialize in bringing retro console and PC games to modern audiences like Grandia, Enclave, and Jaleco Sports titles.