Where are they now...?

We haven't heard much from Steel Penny Games lately since the release of their WiiWare puzzler Bruiser & Scratch so it was a bit surprising to see a post from their own Jason Hughes on their web site letting fans know what they've been up to since the release of Bruiser & Scratch.

You can check out the full contents of the post below for some insight into what's in store for Steel Penny Games down the line. There's even an interesting little rant at the beginning to kick things off just right.

Some folks have been asking about Bruiser & Scratch, about what we're up to right now, and about what we're planning to do in the near and far future. Some folks are just complaining that I don't post enough. Given that there's no good way to answer all of this to each person individually, and that I'm pretty sure we can release the information, here's the scoop.

Bruiser & Scratch has been available on WiiWare for a while, and as expected, we haven't been blown away by sales figures. Partly, this is our fault for allowing the game to ship when it wasn't Crash Bandicoot. Oops. I know, I know, we should have made a chintzy 2D version of the game, cut the characters, cut the story, and basically shipped it 6 months earlier. We'd probably have gotten more sales because for some reason, people ignore shitty art when it's "retro styled", but it's flame-on if there's even a whiff of 3D going on. Also, if we'd released earlier there would be less puzzle game exhaustion on the part of the user base.. by the time we came out, there were more than enough puzzle games on WiiWare to go around. The initial reviews skewered us, and that's all she wrote.

So, what have we been doing in the meantime? Jeff and I have been working on Ghostbusters Wii with our friends at Red Fly, doing some heavy lifting tech work for an unannounced title at Red Fly, working on some of our own prototypes, and porting a really cute family-friendly game to the Wii for Conspiracy Games. All at the same time. So, pardon me for being a little lax on the updates.

One cool mention is a dear friend, Will Loconto, was nominated for Best Original Instrumental for The Heist this year at GDC by the Game Audio Network Guild Awards people. He helped us out on Bruiser & Scratch and is doing the remastering for our port work with Conspiracy. Very cool. He was up against Afrika and Little Big Planet, both of which swept awards this year, but to be nominated is quite the feat. Congrats Will!

And that pretty much wraps up our first quarter. On the off-chance you are a publisher looking for a small but talented studio to do a game for you, drop me a line. As busy as we are, I'll make time for you.

JH

We'll have more information regarding any future Steel Penny Games developments as it becomes available, but until then we'd like to hear your thoughts on this interesting Steel Penny Games blog post.

[source steelpennygames.com]