SeafoamGaming
Moblin
A bit of a weird thing i got reminded of again today (around the anniversary of another thing from this company that I remembered, and that one I did get: the Atooi Collection on 3DS which still has a game breaking bug 3 years after launch!), but a few days ago Hatch Tales got a new kickstarter update.
For those unaware, Chicken Wiggle was a pretty fun platformer with a level designer focus made for the 3DS in 2017. It of course, bombed because the 3DS was a dead system by that point, but the game itself was pretty fun, and I decently liked it when reviewing it for SFG... But then Jools Watsham, the creator proposed making an HD port of it for the Nintendo Switch, and then opened a kickstarter for Chicken Wiggle Workshop in 2018, with an ETA of late 2018 for delivery. Needless to say, it has been over five years with no game in sight. All the while the status updates on the game get less and less frequent, until a few years ago when it was retitled "Hatch Tales" with a new ETA that it also missed.
Then it got a ETA for 2022. Missed completely. Bumped to 2023.
It's nearly 8 months into 2023 and well... It's still not out! In fact outside of initial promo vids for the rename we haven't even seen much in terms of b-roll, so people have been impatient for updates. Game dev is tough and as an outsider I just assumed it was one of those games that hit some snags along the way and would come out pretty good, but with it having been 14 months since the last kickstarter update, being reminded of this game when a backer friend linked me to that new update with rage due it literally being nothing more than a fancy screenshot of the level select screen... Yeah, i can see why some are impatient for status updates. At this point it's less of a "oh they're taking so long to make it because they wanna polish it" and more of a "oh this dude just blew the money on stupid shit", since in said status update...
This is a bit of a red flag since well, the funds were meant for the chicken wiggle game to begin with... And games that released since Hatch Tales was backed have not been received well. Run Box Run was the last atooi made game and I'm literally the only reviewer of it on the internet (no other websites seem to have covered it), and yeah, it's utter shite, a far quality decrease from the glorious Mutant Mudds Super Challenge of old. If this is what's meant to fund hatch tales, then I don't think this game is ever coming out, especially if they're being rather dodgy about showing b-roll in action. Needless to say, backers are angry in the comments section. Below is the image that took 14 months to publish.
That would be where I'd normally end the thread, going "wow haha the dude has taken an ass long time on a silly chicken game and gave us a screenshot", but it gets even wilder since the main reason that update seems to have been cobbled together... Was a post on Gamexplain's youtube channel interviewing Jools about something else. Hatch Tales gets brought up, and he really treats it in a rude way, especially considering the fact it was crowdfunded with hardly any status updates, telling backers waiting 5+ years for even basic B-Roll or monthly updates to "Relax". It seems to have been posted before, if not a bit around when this update went live, so I wouldn't be surprised if this maybe got him off to post the crumbs of an update we do have.
So uh yeah, quite a weird ride. I liked Jools' 3DS games a lot and was rooting for this game, but didn't back it back then due to lack of money. I may have dodged a bullet it seems, with the whole "we don't have funds to make it, buy our other games" aspect, the lack of communication, and angry backers occasionally pinging me on twitter to write an "investigation" into this whole thing because Jools apparently has blocked backers who keep @ing him on twitter too much for status updates. Again, I usually give long-term project makers leeway since stuff takes time (a game on my steam wishlist since 2018, Gravity Circuit, just came out and was well worth the wait!), but Jools' reasoning seems to not hold much water.
And well... as a bit of a final soapboxy bit, that atooi collection bug I noted earlier has made me very sour on the company myself since I joined their discord server mid-last year to try and get a status update on the patch that would fix the major bug, (you cannot clear chicken wiggle's final stage, it will hard crash to the 3DS menu every time you try) since well, I bought the damn thing in 2020 and legitimately want to go through and play all the games, but when one title is literally unbeatable going on 3 years this month, it becomes very obscene into how long it takes for a 3DS game to get patched. In 2022, I was told that all hands were on deck for Run Box Run, which if you look at that game, uh, yeah, not good. Then after that game dropped I poked again and noted the eShop was closing soon, and they told me pretty much not to worry about it and it would be submitted to NOA soon.
The bugfix patch got submitted in Feb 2023, per a tweet they made, with not a word since (I had since left their discord as i got sick of the non answers) The eShop then closed, and I dunno if retail game updates can still be published even. If any 3DS devs with knowhow can chime in, lemme know as I'm really annoyed I can't play the game I spent money on years ago, and that along with this whole kickstarter ride just leaves me soured on a 3DS indie dev I loved back in 2012. Super Challenge literally won my GOTY award for 2016 and I still think that game holds up well, so I have no clue why Atooi seemingly imploded since then...
For those unaware, Chicken Wiggle was a pretty fun platformer with a level designer focus made for the 3DS in 2017. It of course, bombed because the 3DS was a dead system by that point, but the game itself was pretty fun, and I decently liked it when reviewing it for SFG... But then Jools Watsham, the creator proposed making an HD port of it for the Nintendo Switch, and then opened a kickstarter for Chicken Wiggle Workshop in 2018, with an ETA of late 2018 for delivery. Needless to say, it has been over five years with no game in sight. All the while the status updates on the game get less and less frequent, until a few years ago when it was retitled "Hatch Tales" with a new ETA that it also missed.
Then it got a ETA for 2022. Missed completely. Bumped to 2023.
It's nearly 8 months into 2023 and well... It's still not out! In fact outside of initial promo vids for the rename we haven't even seen much in terms of b-roll, so people have been impatient for updates. Game dev is tough and as an outsider I just assumed it was one of those games that hit some snags along the way and would come out pretty good, but with it having been 14 months since the last kickstarter update, being reminded of this game when a backer friend linked me to that new update with rage due it literally being nothing more than a fancy screenshot of the level select screen... Yeah, i can see why some are impatient for status updates. At this point it's less of a "oh they're taking so long to make it because they wanna polish it" and more of a "oh this dude just blew the money on stupid shit", since in said status update...
This is a bit of a red flag since well, the funds were meant for the chicken wiggle game to begin with... And games that released since Hatch Tales was backed have not been received well. Run Box Run was the last atooi made game and I'm literally the only reviewer of it on the internet (no other websites seem to have covered it), and yeah, it's utter shite, a far quality decrease from the glorious Mutant Mudds Super Challenge of old. If this is what's meant to fund hatch tales, then I don't think this game is ever coming out, especially if they're being rather dodgy about showing b-roll in action. Needless to say, backers are angry in the comments section. Below is the image that took 14 months to publish.
That would be where I'd normally end the thread, going "wow haha the dude has taken an ass long time on a silly chicken game and gave us a screenshot", but it gets even wilder since the main reason that update seems to have been cobbled together... Was a post on Gamexplain's youtube channel interviewing Jools about something else. Hatch Tales gets brought up, and he really treats it in a rude way, especially considering the fact it was crowdfunded with hardly any status updates, telling backers waiting 5+ years for even basic B-Roll or monthly updates to "Relax". It seems to have been posted before, if not a bit around when this update went live, so I wouldn't be surprised if this maybe got him off to post the crumbs of an update we do have.
So uh yeah, quite a weird ride. I liked Jools' 3DS games a lot and was rooting for this game, but didn't back it back then due to lack of money. I may have dodged a bullet it seems, with the whole "we don't have funds to make it, buy our other games" aspect, the lack of communication, and angry backers occasionally pinging me on twitter to write an "investigation" into this whole thing because Jools apparently has blocked backers who keep @ing him on twitter too much for status updates. Again, I usually give long-term project makers leeway since stuff takes time (a game on my steam wishlist since 2018, Gravity Circuit, just came out and was well worth the wait!), but Jools' reasoning seems to not hold much water.
And well... as a bit of a final soapboxy bit, that atooi collection bug I noted earlier has made me very sour on the company myself since I joined their discord server mid-last year to try and get a status update on the patch that would fix the major bug, (you cannot clear chicken wiggle's final stage, it will hard crash to the 3DS menu every time you try) since well, I bought the damn thing in 2020 and legitimately want to go through and play all the games, but when one title is literally unbeatable going on 3 years this month, it becomes very obscene into how long it takes for a 3DS game to get patched. In 2022, I was told that all hands were on deck for Run Box Run, which if you look at that game, uh, yeah, not good. Then after that game dropped I poked again and noted the eShop was closing soon, and they told me pretty much not to worry about it and it would be submitted to NOA soon.
The bugfix patch got submitted in Feb 2023, per a tweet they made, with not a word since (I had since left their discord as i got sick of the non answers) The eShop then closed, and I dunno if retail game updates can still be published even. If any 3DS devs with knowhow can chime in, lemme know as I'm really annoyed I can't play the game I spent money on years ago, and that along with this whole kickstarter ride just leaves me soured on a 3DS indie dev I loved back in 2012. Super Challenge literally won my GOTY award for 2016 and I still think that game holds up well, so I have no clue why Atooi seemingly imploded since then...
