Stunt Cars looks like a racing game to watch out for

You may have noticed recently that we added 3 mysterious WiiWare games to our ‘coming soon’ list: Arcade Darts, Arcade Sports and Stunt Cars. These games are all in development by UK based developer Icon Games. Naturally we got in touch to find out more.

Here is what Richard Hill-Whittall (Head of Development) had to say about Icon's plans to join the growing ranks of indie developers/publishers:

It was always our long term aim to self-publish but were not expecting to do so so soon. To be honest it was the ever increasing inability of traditional publishers to make decisions in a timely fashion that has given us the final push towards self-publishing. The old business model of developers pitching ideas/demos to publishers has become harder and harder to sustain as publishers take longer and longer to make decisions about signing games.

It's not unusual for a game to take 6-12 months to go through publisher submission and contract negotiation (during which the developer must find some way to pay their staff). These ever increasing delays have made it harder and harder for professional developers to manage their businesses, to the point where it has now become easier to take on the challenge of self-publishing than to continue with the old business model.

Obviously there are still great publishers out there and we still have on-going relationships with some of them but more and more they are in the minority and for this reason we now find ourselves unexpectedly bringing forward our plans to self-publish. We have launched a new website at www.icongames.com and plan to release three games on Wiiware and PSP between now and the end of 2009 (five SKUs in all). We have the following titles in development:

Arcade Darts - Wiiware due Q3 2009 and PSP due Q4 2009
Arcade Sports - Wiiware due Q3 2009
Stunt Cars - Wiiware due Q3 2009 and PSP due Q4 2009"

Who are Icon Games?
We are an independent game development & digital publishing studio committed to creating games with a focus on compelling gameplay & fun! To date we have developed and released over 20 games for a variety of platforms – including Wii, PS2, PSP and PC.

The team has over ten years of successful development experience, working with various publishing partners – including Playlogic, Zoo Games, IN2Games, Ghostlight, Lego Media, THQ, TDK, Majesco, PlayIt, Midway, Midas Interactive, Mforma, Datel and Acclaim.