Rogue Waters: How Ice Code Games charted a course for a multiplatform launch

Going from PC to console is a common strategy for expanding a game’s reach. But how should you approach a multiplatform launch? We interviewed Ice Code Games’s Mateusz Pilski (CEO), Błażej Krakowiak (director of business), and Adam Suchodolski (senior Unity developer) to see what this team learned working on their debut multiplatform game, Rogue Waters – now available on all major console platforms.

Setting out with multiplatform in mind

Ice Code Games is a Warsaw-based game studio known for PC games like Deep Blue, Re-Legion, and Hard West 2. Their latest release, Rogue Waters, is a pirate-themed tactical rogue-lite that launched on PC in September 2024 before arriving on consoles in February.

Rogue Waters is Ice Code Games’s first multiplatform release, and they’ve been planning for it from the onset of development. Their strategy was to launch on PC first to generate interest and sales while they worked with porting partner Crunching Koalas on polishing their console builds.

“After Hard West 2, we wanted to make something that was more console-first,” says Mateusz. “In Hard West 2, we had big levels that could cause performance issues for consoles, whereas with Rogue Waters, everything is much more contained.”

Taking a proactive approach meant Ice Code Games avoided having to retrofit their game for consoles, saving them costs and development time on everything from UI design, player onboarding, optimization, and more. Many of the console-first design decisions they’d made benefited players on PC as well.

“Consoles give you greater discipline that, design-wise, benefits all versions of the game – we had to think about UI, text legibility, and brevity, so you don’t overload people with text. And on PC, those improvements are also appreciated by a majority of the fan base,” says Błażej.

One major new feature they implemented for consoles was in-game tutorial videos, which offer a richer onboarding experience than standard, text-based tutorials. “We really pushed ourselves to create video tutorials for pretty much every new feature the player encounters, which represents a serious functional improvement that benefits all platforms,” Błażej explains.

Key takeaway: Designing your game to support consoles from the beginning can save you major headaches later – and you may even find your approach has positive implications for your wider playerbase.

Collaborating with trusted crew

Crunching Koalas did the bulk of the porting work they were responsible for in the last year or so of Rogue Waters development, but they’ve been closely involved in the project from the beginning in an advisory role.

“Crunching Koalas warned us about numerous traps we could have stepped into, like avoiding certain codecs that were incompatible with different consoles, and suggested more efficient ways to implement console-centric features like controller support,” says Błażej. “These regular check-ins helped make sure we didn’t add anything that would end up complicating our lives.”

Controller support

To implement gamepad controls, Ice Code Games were evaluating a few different options, and asked Crunching Koalas for advice: “We said, ‘We want to use ReWired, the plug-in for Unity for controllers on the Asset Store,’ and they said, ‘Oh nice. It’ll be very easy to port, use that.’ So we have a validation for some of our third-party candidates,” says Adam. ReWired simplified implementation for controller support across platforms, saving the team significant development time.

For audio implementation, Crunching Koalas recommended Wwise. “Koalas were strongly in favor of Wwise because it makes both localizing and porting easy for all the soundbites, voiceover, and things like that.”

With Crunching Koalas on their side, Ice Code Games were able to get Rogue Waters’s console builds validated first try – an impressive feat for the previously PC-focused studio.

Key takeaway: Working with a porting partner isn’t just a time saver. These teams have a trove of specialized knowledge to draw on, whether you’re wondering about tooling compatibility or platform-related pitfalls.

Optimizing the rogue waters of Rogue Waters

Because Rogue Waters is a pirate-themed game, nailing the fantasy of exploring the high seas was absolutely crucial. It also meant tackling some technical challenges.

The game’s nautical setting meant Ice Code Games had to create realistic, resource-efficient ocean water simulations that would perform with equal fluidity across different consoles. And the exploratory gameplay aspects meant they needed to render distant objects like enemy ships and coastlines in a way that made these landmarks clearly visible to the player without sacrificing performance.

Water optimization

Water can be complex to render, in part because there are so many ways to approach it, from using built-in systems, to different combinations of shaders, visual effects, and physics systems.

“We knew the water could be resource-intensive, especially on different platforms,” says Adam. “This was one of the areas where Crunching Koalas told us, ‘Yes, your PC build might handle these instructions easily, but it’ll choke on consoles if you’re not careful.”

“This is one of the areas where the difference between [the Universal Render Pipeline] and [the High Definition Render Pipeline] was especially pronounced,” says Błażej. “HDRP already supported water very well, but at that point, we were already committed to URP.”

Ice Code Games ended up building Rogue Waters’s water system by hand, with Crunching Koalas providing technical references and benchmarks for consoles.

Optimizing draw distances

Rogue Waters’s two-part gameplay loop has players exploring an ocean overworld in search of ships to plunder (Strategic Mode). Once they find and board an enemy ship, the game switches to combat (Tactical Mode).

To optimize exploration during Strategic Mode and render distant objects in an efficient way, lead programmer Adam Suchodolski implemented Impostor Graph from the Unity Asset Store. This tool allowed the team to use simpler 2D models as stand-ins for distant objects like complex 3D meshes, improving rendering efficiency.

“We built a system where complex objects are rendered as a single plane, which greatly improved our performance on PC. We were able to downscale these imposters even further to varying degrees for different platforms,” Adam explains.

Again, these console optimizations were mutually beneficial for the PC build. “On consoles, we optimized trees using impostors instead of complex meshes, and we ended up applying this in all of our builds. Even on PC, it’s nicer to save some frames and performance where you can because it helps across the board,” says Adam.

Key takeaways: Tailoring your game for different platforms involves smart optimization choices – and the earlier you can implement these, the more benefits you’ll likely see.

Running a tighter ship

For Ice Code Games, console development represented the next logical step in their studio’s progression – an opportunity for the studio to skill up and approach development from a different angle.

“Now that we have the know-how, we plan to release all of our future projects on consoles,” says Błażej. “However, we’ll probably take the same approach we did with Rogue Waters: Launch on PC first, make sure the game sells well enough, and then we’ll be porting.”

The studio still plans to prioritize PC-first launches partly due to Steam’s massive influence and audience reach. This decision isn’t just about shifting more copies – launching in Early Access allows Ice Code Games to collect critical user feedback and ultimately deliver a better game.

“Community feedback and community-driven development is only becoming more important,” says Błażej. “Not to mention the halo effect we can get from demos, play tests, Steam Fests… These are among the few marketing tools that have not collapsed completely in recent months, so that’s something that Steam is really well equipped to handle.”

Key takeaways

For Ice Code Games, launching Rogue Waters as their first multiplatform title was as much a voyage of discovery as it was a technical endeavor. By planning for consoles from the outset, collaborating closely with their reliable porting partner Crunching Koalas, and leveraging Unity’s extensible ecosystem, the studio successfully transitioned from being a PC-focused developer to delivering their first multiplatform game.

This experience not only strengthened their technical chops – passing console certifications first try – but also helped refine their design philosophy. Improvements such as better controller support, accessible UX, and performance optimizations leveled up the gameplay experience for players.

As Mateusz notes, Rogue Waters represents a pivotal milestone for the team. “Every small detail was new and exciting because it was our first game on consoles… This new knowledge will be Rogue Waters’s lasting legacy for Ice Code Games.”

Learn more about Ice Code Games's latest launch here and explore more Made With Unity games on our new Steam Curator page. Explore more inspiring stories from creators on Unity's Resources page.