Dizzy Returns

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The way Kickstarter works, a pledge is just a promise to pay if they hit their target. They won't get anything if they don't make it.

So they've ballsed this up, basically, because they're not going to hit their target.  They should have aimed for a modest 2D platformer.  A puzzle-oriented "Super Mario World" concept would have been great - lovely big world broken into different levels on a map; no need for pointlessly expensive advanced graphics.

I reckon Dizzy became contaminated with Sonic somewhere along the line.  Crystal Kingdom Dizzy on the 8 bit machines had an extra somersault thrown in, making him spin faster, and cherries hanging in the air to hit for points.  And the current artwork for Dizzy Returns puts me in mind of Dizzy speeding around in a 3D landscape like the current generation Sonic does.  I'm probably wrong with my assumptions there, but I'm trying to imagine why they think they need £350,000 for this.

[SyntadxError]

So they've ballsed this up, basically, because they're not going to hit their target.  They should have aimed for a modest 2D platformer.  A puzzle-oriented "Super Mario World" concept would have been great - lovely big world broken into different levels on a map; no need for pointlessly expensive advanced graphics.

Thats a really interesting thought. The market for Dizzy is a nostalgic one; if the remake isn't something that people can relate to in a meaningful sense, then it is going to have basically no appeal.

_{Just as a side thought, imagine if they made a new Dizzy game for an existing system accessible through emulation only? Could there ever be a market for that?}

[lazarou]

Just as a side thought, imagine if they made a new Dizzy game for an existing system accessible through emulation only? Could there ever be a market for that?

It would be much, much simpler for them to develop it in an authentic style with contemporary tools and cut out the emulation layer entirely. Mega Man 9 is a great example of that done right and was a big success.

There is a market for new games that can be run through emulators or even the original hardware, but I don't think it's big enough to be of interest to anyone beyond hobbyists like me. I love what Psytronik does and buy the odd floppy from them for my '64, but can't really see it ever getting much bigger than it already is. There's just not that many assembly programmers left anymore.

In other Kickstarter news, John Walker just put up an interesting where are they now? on the initial bunch of success stories. Lots of slippage and a few curious silences, but a couple of happy endings too.

[madhair60]

Thats a really interesting thought. The market for Dizzy is a nostalgic one; if the remake isn't something that people can relate to in a meaningful sense, then it is going to have basically no appeal.

_{Just as a side thought, imagine if they made a new Dizzy game for an existing system accessible through emulation only? Could there ever be a market for that?}

Such things do exist (Chronosoft's work with Speccy, BBC etc), but only for a very niche audience of hobbyists.

If a new Speccy Dizzy was made I'd love it, but to stand any chance of relative success they'd have to pack it with a launcher, a pre-configured emulator, and even that would be a baffling pain for a lot of users, I'd imagine.

[KLG-7B]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theolivertwins/dizzy-returns/posts/362085

"Design Survey #2 - Backers only!"

Desperate.

If I had £5000 that I had to make sure I didn't spend before Christmas, I would invest it into this Kickstarter.

[mcbpete]

A perfect example of the recent trend of overblown 'infographic' nonsense -



I don't know where this design trend cam from but by God I hope it stops soon.

[KLG-7B]

They love drawing diagrams and making PR posts. That's the most important part of game development.

[lazarou]

They seem to also love the number 20,000.

I don't think I've seen such a high-profile effort stall so badly. Past the first few days it just stopped stone dead. Even with the standard-issue big push at the end they'll be really lucky to hit 50k. I'm guessing more like 30.

[Phil_A]

Such things do exist (Chronosoft's work with Speccy, BBC etc), but only for a very niche audience of hobbyists.

If a new Speccy Dizzy was made I'd love it, but to stand any chance of relative success they'd have to pack it with a launcher, a pre-configured emulator, and even that would be a baffling pain for a lot of users, I'd imagine.

Or you could just make it in DizzyAGE, no faffing about with emulation required.

[Jemble Fred]

Sadly none of the Dizzy fan stuff works on Mac. The hours I've spent fucking around with Bottler and the likes, trying to get even one dodgy Russian-made Dizzy game to work on this laptop.

I'm so fucking frustrated about Dizzy's eternal entrapment in 'vintage gaming' hell. The Oliver Twins should have asked for tuppence-ha'penny, and just got on with putting a basic game together.

Dizzy is the best gaming franchise ever. It deserves to be at least a hundred times bigger than Angry cunting Birds. There's just no justice.

[lazarou]

Hopefully they see sense and just get on with a lower-key new title regardless, or at least let a decent indie licence it off them or something. Just because they've vastly overestimated their market doesn't mean they couldn't make it work with a more sensible outline.

Scrap the massive world, 3d art and full voice cast, just make a moderately pretty full 2d game in the same scale as the originals. They can always make their Dizzy answer to Super Mario World later if it catches on. Or they could start off with a Monkey Island-style HD remaster of Fantasy World to remind themselves how these things should play.

[SyntadxError]

quite. It would be great if they could make a game that captured the essence of the original games, only without the dated gameplay (fetch/carry, pixel perfect jumping, lives). I think they have missed the boat somewhat in trying to bring Dizzy to the third dimension - fuck, its not 1994!

[lazarou]

Looks like that's that then.

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So basically they're planning to see if they can get excited about a Dizzy game with smaller ambitions, and perhaps come back in a couple of years if they do.  What a complete waste of time this was.

[Jemble Fred]

The real travesty is that for yeeears the official line was that Codemasters were the only people standing in the way of New Dizzy. That doesn't seem to be the case at all any more, they can go ahead and create. And yet... now they're not so much interested in just making a fun Dizzy game which will make a profit, they have to try and instantly match Mario after 20 years out of the game. Damn right they need a re-think.

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This whole sorry scenario has only made me wish even more that I could get DizzyAge to work on my Macbook.