Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 3:03
Wow, that's neat to see Tom engaging with fans like that. Most game devs I know like to keep more distance (for understandable reasons). I guess it's neat to see Keen Dreams released on Switch. I don't know that I'd buy it for that price, though I am curious about how it runs and controls.
It would be great to see a Keen-like revival. It's something I've wanted for a long time, and I'll certainly keep my eyes open for any opportunities. Sadly, it's not something that I see having an easy path to getting made. I imagine that it would be very hard to convince a publisher to fund a project inspired by a largely-forgotten IP from the 90s (especially if it's a 2D platformer... that's a genre that's at the breaking point of oversatutation). As a fan project, it's not impossible... but the odds of a project like that reaching the finish line are really slim. Without funding to fuel the game development engine, it's just impractical to ask people to put in the effort of a full-time job for years with no compensation, especially when there are a lot of technical and business hurdles involved. Even indie games are often made by teams of many people working full time, sometimes over the course of many years. As a side note, porting to Switch basically requires that you get your company/project approved by Nintendo so that they send you dev kits.The thing is we can pull all of our resources together to make a game for Steam or maybe even Switch if it gets that far. In all seriousness, I believe wholeheartedly that we could pull it off.