We are delighted to be joined by Dana Peterson from Super Evil Megacorp. Dana is the Production Director for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate game. We got to chat with Dana about the game and the new update for the game. The game is currently available on Apple Arcade, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X.
Hi Dana, it’s so wonderful to have you here with us.
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi! My name is Dana Peterson, and I’m the Production Director for TMNT: Splintered Fate. As a producer, I connect the team with other parts of the company, making sure we prioritize the most important initiatives, and generally helping resolve any problems that arise within the course of development. The role can feel very broad and unspecific, and a lot of the time, it really is! I love the new and different challenges the producer role brings every day.
What can you tell us about Super Evil Megacorp?
I’ve been with Super Evil Megacorp for 4.5 years now, so it’s been a major part of my career. It’s been an honor to watch SEMC grow from a small, single title studio into managing multiple ambitious projects and securing deals with major players like Netflix and Paramount.
SEMC is still a small company, but we pride ourselves on being able to do a lot more with what we have than people expect. A lot of the magic here is in our team culture of prototyping and creative problem solving. With Splintered Fate, we have been expanding beyond a mobile game studio and growing our expertise across all platforms.
Could you tell us about the origins of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate?
As a studio we love roguelike games. We were playing other successful roguelike titles and thinking to ourselves how great they would be if we could play together in co-op. Our studio is also focused on social action, so we quickly locked onto the idea of a four-player co-op roguelike. We generated some concepts around this and, once someone mentioned TMNT, we knew that was the game we wanted to make. We love those classic TMNT games like Turtles in Time and, more recently, Shredder’s Revenge, but they tend to lean into the Brawler genre. The thought of bringing the Turtles to a new genre really excited us with its potential, and it quickly became clear that TMNT is perfectly suited to the roguelike genre! Unique personalities, strong narrative, and a range of fighting styles brings perfect variety or play.
What can you tell about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate?
TMNT: Splintered Fate is an online and local co-op roguelike where you guide the Turtles on a mission to rescue Splinter from Shredder’s clutches. You grow in power as you defeat waves of enemies and overcome challenging bosses from TMNT lore, using various elements to craft a build capable of taking on Shredder himself.
How did Tom Waltz get involved with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate?
At the time, Tom Waltz was a writer for the IDW Publishing line of TMNT comics. While Splintered Fate is not strictly canon, our universe is inspired by this line, so getting Tom’s expertise to help us write a story for Splintered Fate was a no-brainer. We continue to work with Tom any time we add new narrative, to ensure that the characters and story feel true to the world he helped build.
What has the feedback been like for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate?
One of the main things we hear is that it’s “like a multiplayer Hades,” which is honestly a comparison that we are very flattered by. Superevil has a rich history of multiplayer play, and we were enamored with the evolving story of Hades and the replayability of roguelikes. When approached to make a game with the Ninja Turtles IP, a co-op story game just made a lot of sense.
A free update for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate has been released. What can you tell us about this free update?
This is a very exciting update for us, because it’s our biggest one yet! It adds a new Arcade Mode that gives players a brand new way to play– short challenges with zany new combos of Flexes and Hexes that really amp up the combat experience quickly. There is a brand new storyline that goes along with this mode, new levels, new visual improvements throughout the game, and new Robotics Powers to explore in any mode.
What can you tell us about the new Arcade mode?
Arcade Mode starts with the Turtles learning that Metalhead has accidentally opened rifts to a mysterious place over NYC, and they must work together to close them or else they threaten to plunge the city into chaos. As a player, you select a challenge in one of our new levels, collect Flexes that turbo-charge your abilities, and gain lots of powers in rapid succession for a fun and frenzied combat experience. But if that sounds too easy, Flexes always come with Hexes that make the challenge much tougher.
Can you tell us what features the Casey Jones DLC and Metalhead DLC add to the game?
Both the Casey Jones and Metalhead DLCs add a new playable character and 5 new Artifacts to Splintered Fate. The characters have brand new combat kits, starting Tools that can be shared amongst any of the playable characters, new masteries, and new upgrades. The Casey Jones DLC also comes with a new chapter that provides an alternate path to the Streets, where you can experience a storyline featuring Casey and the Punk Frogs, and culminating in a new boss fight.
How important is it to Super Evil Megacorp that console gamers can get a physical copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate?
Players have been requesting a physical copy of the game since we launched on Switch, and we knew we had to make it happen. This was a brand new undertaking for SEMC, and it was definitely a labor of love to get it into players’ hands. We are so excited to finally have it on the shelves, and we really can’t wait for the Collector’s Edition to be available later this year. The Deluxe Edition is available now on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox X / One.
What makes the collector’s edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate special?
It’s packed with amazing content made by and for collectors and TMNT fans! It has everything that a TMNT fan could ask for: a special Splintered Fate comic book, a retro manual with game art, tabletop RPG dice, posters, cards, a coin… all wrapped inside a TMNT pizza box. We are really proud of this edition and we really hope that players will enjoy it.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
We really hope to see you playing Splintered Fate, we hope you invite your friends for some chaotic roguelike co-op action, and we would love it even more to hear from you in our Discord community!
We would like to say a big thank you to Dana for chatting with us and wish her and her team at Super Evil Megacorp the best of luck with the update for the game, and also for the physical release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate.
