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90s Arcade Racer seemingly cancelled for Wii U and PC

I

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
plufim said:
I know right. I really wish the games press/blogs/influencers would stop treating nicalis with kid gloves and hold them to the same standard as they do AAA.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% with this.
 
F

fernoca

Member
Sounds like a mess. So the developer sold the rights to Nicalis, moved on assuming they were going to finish and release the game?

Or was it something else?

Heck, why not tell backers about it? "Hey guys, I just signed a publishing deal, so the game is out of my hands...sorry"...or something.
 
R

rrs

Member
nicalis claims another victim

EDIT: reading the whole story makes this even more of a mess and shortsighted greed from both parties involved. ugh
 
J

Jon Carter

Member
An explanation from both parties would have been nice. As is, they both look bad. The developer for selling the rights without telling the backers even though the Kickstarter was successful, and Nicalis for buying the rights to a game they seem to have zero interest in releasing.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
Thankfully, I didn't pledge to the kickstarter and at times felt like the gameplay looked only superficially like it got the Sega racer vibe, but I was at least interested in being proven wrong. There simply aren't enough (any) actual arcade racers being released (and Burnout, NFS, et al do not qualify).
 
@

@MUWANdo

Banned
Jon Carter said:
An explanation from both parties would have been nice. As is, they both look bad. The developer for selling the rights without telling the backers even though the Kickstarter was successful, and Nicalis for buying the rights to a game they seem to have zero interest in releasing.
Click to expand...

If I had to speculate, I'd say they got to a point where the original developer couldn't finish the game for whatever reason--scope creep, poor budgeting, etc--and Nicalis bought him out with the intention of finishing the game themselves, with one of the conditions of the buyout being that the original developer wasn't allowed to comment on what went down... in which case, neither party is going to confirm/deny anything, are they?

It's worth reiterating that this KS did not bring in a lot of money, even relative to the modest original pitch, and that the scope blew out massively once Nicalis got involved: more promised platforms, more content, more features, etc.

The developer's other game seems to be coming along fine, so I don't get the impression he's incompetent, necessarily.

If Nicalis really did try to complete the game on their own then that explains why it's not out--they can barely even port games in a timely manner, let alone make them.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
This is just messed up. I've been waiting for this game for ages and want to play a racer that brought me back to the days of Sega arcade stuff :<
 
B

Barkley's Justice

Member
Everyone acting lile they owed something. Even if you were a backer, there are inherent risks involved when using Kickstarter. Neogaf is "enlightened" enough to know that by now. Does it suck we potentially lost out on money? Sure. But everyone throwing the developer under the bus without getting their side of the story. I have to assume he did what he thought was right at the time, or perhaps even necessary, to get the game completed. Give him the benefit of the doubt ffs. The game is his baby, not yours. As someone else mentioned, he's likely under NDA and cannot publicly comment. Or perhaps he's doing his best to fix the situation and will comment when there's something to actually comment on (ya know, like good news?). Such knee-jerk reactions. Go play your backlog.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Teknopathetic said:
Who the fuck sells rights after a kickstarter?
Click to expand...
The ones who don't have any other chance to continue with the project, maybe?

The money wih a KS typically isn't enough to fund an entire development, and it's pretty common that developments get delayed and/or need to increase the budget during mid development.
 
P

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
isamu said:
I agree 100% with this.
Click to expand...

I do not, you cannot hold to the same standard a garage dev and a billion dollars corporation... well you can and in ten years do not wonder why we have less companies and the ones remaining are even bigger conglomerates...
 
D

Dunkley

Member
Yeah reading over it I take back what I said about the passion project.

Fuck them for selling the rights after the Kickstarter.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"The ones who don't have any other chance to continue with the project, maybe?

The money wih a KS typically isn't enough to fund an entire development, and it's pretty common that developments get delayed and/or need to increase the budget during mid development."


Seeking a publishing deal or other financing to finish a project, sure, fairly common for better or worse.

Selling off the entire project so someone else entirely can finish it while you make a different game? Not even close to the same scenario.
 
R

ramparter

Banned
Sanjay said:
If you think about it, it's a brilliant idea. Why make the game when you can sell the idea of the game, Peter Molyneux would be proud.
Click to expand...
They won't expect me to make the game if I don't own it.
reece.JPG
 
S

SpacePirate Ridley

Member
As an indie dev I met Tyrone from Nicalis at a nintendo indie conference in Spain. Even there after some weeks trying to work with him, he came off as super unprofessional.
The way that Nicalis works reminds me a lot to spanish indie publishers, just with much better ganes under their belt.
 
M

MaLDo

Member
Relaxed Muscle said:
So basically the guy got the funding, sold off the IP and with that money and KS money he started other game? Lol
Click to expand...


Pelikan13 wanted to make a car game in the style of the old SEGA arcades.

In his spare time, development began.

To be able to finish it with the right conditions, he launched a kickstarter asking for the minimum amount that believed that would be sufficient (only 10.000 pounds)

Then, Nicalis saw the potential of the game and offered Pelikan13 their collaboration as publisher so that it could make a more ambitious game, and above all, to have a port to WiiU in exchange for a part of the profits. They also offered a lot of tech support in Unity Engine. It seemed like a good deal.

It turned out that Nicalis and Pelikan13 relation did not go well, Nicalis wanted more control over the game. The conflict was resolved only when Nicalis offered to buy all control of the game. As Pelikan13 was responsible for the original idea and the kickstarter, air it in the media could be counterproductive, so a purchase clause forced Pelikan13 to keep strict silence on any medium.

Pelikan13 could not do otherwise; ending the game without paying attention to its publisher is impossible. He could only sell it and hope that something good would come out.

With his hands tied about 90s arcade racer, and his mouth sealed by contract, Pelikan13 could only devote his time to what he does best. Games. That's why it started with another genre that he wanted to rescue from oblivion, beat'm ups, with The Takeover. Knowing that a kickstarter was going to generate bad publicity, opted for an Early Access in steam, that could give something solid that play to the adventurers who dared to pay for something done by the man that left to all thrown with the 90s arcade racer.

This is purely an assumption and any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence.


SpacePirate Ridley said:
As an indie dev I met Tyrone from Nicalis at a nintendo indie conference in Spain. Even there after some weeks trying to work with him, he came off as super unprofessional.
The way that Nicalis works reminds me a lot to spanish indie publishers, just with much better ganes under their belt.
Click to expand...

Tyrone was the one that offered the deal to Pelikan13.
 
K

Kresnik258

Member
yurinka said:
The money wih a KS typically isn't enough to fund an entire development, and it's pretty common that developments get delayed and/or need to increase the budget during mid development.
Click to expand...

The money from this KS was particularly low for the scope of the game, I thought.

I remember when Nicalis were tweeting about interest in this game on PS3/PS4/Vita. I got my hopes up. Now it's 2017 and it's not available anywhere.

Knowing them, it might at least come to Switch I suppose, lol.
 
A

Atolm

Member
MaLDo said:
Pelikan13 wanted to make a car game in the style of the old SEGA arcades.

In his spare time, development began.

To be able to finish it with the right conditions, he launched a kickstarter asking for the minimum amount that believed that would be sufficient (only 10.000 pounds)

Then, Nicalis saw the potential of the game and offered Pelikan13 their collaboration as publisher so that it could make a more ambitious game, and above all, to have a port to WiiU in exchange for a part of the profits. They also offered a lot of tech support in Unity Engine. It seemed like a good deal.

It turned out that Nicalis and Pelikan13 relation did not go well, Nicalis wanted more control over the game. The conflict was resolved only when Nicalis offered to buy all control of the game. As Pelikan13 was responsible for the original idea and the kickstarter, air it in the media could be counterproductive, so a purchase clause forced Pelikan13 to keep strict silence on any medium.

Pelikan13 could not do otherwise; ending the game without paying attention to its publisher is impossible. He could only sell it and hope that something good would come out.

With his hands tied about 90s arcade racer, and his mouth sealed by contract, Pelikan13 could only devote his time to what he does best. Games. That's why it started with another genre that he wanted to rescue from oblivion, beat'm ups, with The Takeover. Knowing that a kickstarter was going to generate bad publicity, opted for an Early Access in steam, that could give something solid that play to the adventurers who dared to pay for something done by the man that left to all thrown with the 90s arcade racer.

This is purely an assumption and any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence.




Tyrone was the one that offered the deal to Pelikan13.
Click to expand...

I think I can have some kind of closure with this story even if it's your own invention. It seems like the most plausible explanation.
 
T

TimmiT

Member
@MUWANdo said:
Y'know what doesn't make sense? Nicalis' months (years?) of radio silence.
Click to expand...

Of course it doesn't, I'm not defending them for being completely silent on the game. Just also it doesn't seem like they are just sitting on the game doing nothing.
 
@

@MUWANdo

Banned
TimmiT said:
Of course not, I'm not defending them for being completely silent on the game. Just also it doesn't seem like they are just sitting on the game doing nothing.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone believed they were literally doing nothing, were they? We know they've been showing this game behind closed doors and even at semi-public events, the problem is they refuse to acknowledge any of it publicly--the game itself, the potential name/platform change, the situation with the developer, the Kickstarter, etc.
 
T

TimmiT

Member
@MUWANdo said:
I don't think anyone believed they were literally doing nothing, were they? We know they've been showing this game behind closed doors and even at semi-public events, the problem is they refuse to acknowledge any of it publicly--the game itself, the potential name/platform change, the situation with the developer, the Kickstarter, etc.
Click to expand...

If you look at other posts in this thread, pretty obvious there are people in this thread who did believe the game is just being sat on. Though of course Nicalis themselves are to blame for that since they went radio silent on it.
 
D

Diablohead

Member
As someone who had a kickstarter (which made me £1849 after fees) i'm still working on my game when possible even though I ran out of money, it sucks for the guy who was making this game but at the same time he could have found spare time or a weekend now and again to keep working on it, now the game is just in limbo and pretty much dead and both parties look stupid.
 
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