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

Door Kickers: Action Squad, a tactical co-op side-scroller by KillHouse Games, ported to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch by Sickhead Games

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, bringing Unity, Unreal, Godot, and custom engine titles to console and handheld including PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. From codebase assessment to post-launch support, we're trusted by solo indies and major publishers alike, including 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 shipped over 100 releases, among them Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Axiom Verge, Space Engineers, and Celeste. We specialize in bringing retro masterpieces, indie darlings, and PC classics to modern audiences like Grandia, Enclave, and Jaleco Sports titles.