"I cannot accept that outcome," Montagna says. Would a Kickstarter failure spell the end of Shantae? Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero seems fairly likely to mop up the remaining $130,000 it needs to hit its goal within the next 20 days, but nothing is given. 9 project for a recent example - most experience a hard struggle to the finish line. While a few lucky ventures achieve meteoric success - see Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. The downside to Kickstarter, of course, is that a project needs to hit its funding goals in able to reap the payout from its supporters. Up until now, those games have been funded by us." By turning to crowdfunding, WayForward hopes to ease the financial strain of their independent project and speed it through development. "I think it’s just a matter of, those games are self-funded. "The Shantae games do very well," Montagna adds. We’re not 'building up a money bin,' is what Matt says."īesides the detailed art, 1/2 Genie Hero includes detailed lighting and color-shifting effects - typical for 3D games, but unusual in hand-drawn art. Once the game is finished, Capcom doesn’t say, 'Hey, thanks for making that, here’s a ton of money.' We finished the game.
We get our milestone checks as the game is being made. "But I think what they don’t realize is, when we work on DuckTales, we’re being paid to make the game. "There are always people who are just mad at the idea of Kickstarter," WayForward director Tomm Hulett concedes. Shantae, like Mighty Switch Force, is a wholly original WayForward project, which means it doesn't benefit from outside funding.
#SHANTAE GBA SPRITES PORTABLE#
In their case, those projects mostly take the form of portable titles based on family-friendly movies, though they've also dabbled in popular game franchises such as DuckTales and Silent Hill: Book of Memories. Like many smaller development studios, WayForward keeps the lights on by doing contract work for larger companies. There will be times where it’s put aside or put on hold so we can prioritize and work on a work-for-hire project." For instance, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse has been going on for a while. "But we do always prioritize a lot of our work-for-hire projects.
"Shantae has been something that we’re focused on," he says.
#SHANTAE GBA SPRITES SERIES#
Not only is the third chapter of the series (The Pirate's Curse) due soon on 3DS eShop, WayForward has also launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to kick off a fourth Shantae that will slip the surly shackles of portable consoles and finally bring their heroine to televisions (without the need to shell out for a copy of the Game Boy Color game and a Game Cube Player, that is).įans of the original Shantae may find the upcoming (pending Kickstarter funding) 1/2 Genie Hero curiously familiar in places.īut does a prolific developer really need to crowd fund a chapter in a fairly established series? Absolutely, says WayForward's James Montagna. Even with the portable boom initiated by the success of Nintendo's DS, a Shantae sequel went unwanted by the industry at large until the advent of DSiware allowed WayForward to slip past the traditional retail distribution system and publish the game themselves.Īfter all those years of teases and disappointment, the latest development for Shantae seems almost like an embarrassment of riches. A planned Game Boy Advance follow-up withered on the vine as publisher after publisher turned it down. Shantae was a fine (if flawed) game, but WayForward couldn't find a home for a proposed sequel for years. You should know the story of Shantae by now: Born as a passion project by WayForward's Matt Bozon, it kicked around for years until finally coming to fruition as an homage to '80s and '90s 8-bit platformers in the waning days of the Game Boy Color.