Games Co-Development
Games Porting
The Finals
A Destruction-Heavy Shooter Reaches Gamers on 4 Platforms, Including PS4
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/ Games Porting /
Strayed Lights
Embers’ Debut Title Hits Switch, PS, and Xbox In One Day
First-try
certification
passed
72/100
score
on Metacritic
80%
rating
on Steam
/ Testimonials /
A visually stunning action-adventure game
Game Informer
8/10
My eyes and ears were feasting. I entered each new open area delighted at the visual design before me.
KeenGamer
9/10
A visually stunning game, displaying a highly polished aesthetic paired with a serene soundtrack
FingerGuns
9/10
Blew me away [...] Atmospheric tale of self-discovery, rewarding combat, and a fantastic graphical and audio treat
Digital Chumps
8/10
They [developer] managed to tap into the PS5’s ray tracing capabilities to drive home the environments and reinforce the light theme
/ Project overview /
Pingle & Embers
About the game
Strayed Lights is the first game from French indie studio Embers. It’s an action-adventure where players fight with light-and-dark combat in a dreamlike world. Critics and fans alike praised its emotional storytelling, dazzling art style, and haunting soundtrack.
Client
Embers
Solution
Porting
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Platforms
Release
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch:
April 25, 2023
Partnership timeline
Month-Month, 2023
About Pingle & Embers partnership
Embers teamed up with Pingle to take their debut title beyond PC. Our job: bring Strayed Lights to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox in time for its same-day multi-platform release, while keeping the visuals glowing, the combat sharp, and the audio immersive.
/ The Challenge /
Strayed Lights’ glowing world risked fading on consoles
Strayed Lights is built on dazzling light effects, atmospheric audio, and fast, parry-driven combat. It’s mesmerizing on PC. But on Gen 8 consoles and Switch , the same effects threatened to choke performance. And if console builds failed certification? Release dates would slip by weeks.
Embers needed to preserve every glow, parry, and sound, and make the game feel native on every controller, from Joy-Cons to DualSense. And, you guessed it, that’s when they enlisted our help.
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/ Phase 1 /
Audio pipeline rebuilt, console-ready
The game’s audio was just as ambitious as its visuals, but Gen 8 consoles and Switch couldn’t handle its memory and CPU demands. So we rebuilt the audio pipeline from the ground up, making the soundscape lighter without losing vibe:
1
Integrated efficient codecs and optimized audio containers
2
Tuned reverb and refined dynamic processing effects to lower CPU load on Switch
3
Rebalanced global voice limits and added prioritization to keep combat crisp for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch
As a result, Strayed Lights carries on its haunting atmosphere on every console.
/ Phase 2 /
DualSense features built from the ground up
On PS5, “smooth performance” is the baseline. To feel next-gen, the game had to tap into what makes the console unique. We built DualSense integration from square one:
1
Custom haptics for ultimate attacks and energy drains
2
Adaptive triggers that respond to combat states
3
Light-bar changes synced to the player’s glowing transformations
The result: a console-native experience players could literally feel in their hands.
/ Phase 3 /
Certification passed on first try (yes, on Switch too)
Failing certification feels like hitting a wall at full speed, and with Strayed Lights, that risk was high, especially for Gen 8 and Nintendo Switch. The game’s heavy streaming systems, glowing particle effects, and CPU-hungry audio strained weaker hardware.
But this is where our porting team does its best work. We reworked the streaming system, reduced reliance on hard references, and added load screens in resource-heavy areas – no harm to gameplay.
Result: every console version sailed through certification, including Switch, on the first attempt.
/ The results /
Strayed Lights feels native on every console
Before
After
PC-only release
Launched on 5 major consoles
Streaming & audio bottlenecks caused stutter
Stable frame rates across all platforms
No platform-specific features
DualSense immersion + optimized controller UX
CPU-heavy reverb overwhelmed Switch
Tuned audio delivering smooth performance
Cert risks could delay launch for weeks
Passed on the first try across all consoles
/ The team /
Cast
- Peak time size: 10 specialists
- UE developers
- QA engineers
- Technical artists
- Sound designers
- UI/UX designers
- Project manager
- Localization engineer
/ Cases /
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