Konami Competition Tasks Indie Devs With Reviving Its Classic IP

Good. This is good news. Goemon's return is imminent.

I want Dance Dance Revolution back to modern consoles again.

Nice to see they're doing SOMETHING.

This is actually a good move since Konami themselves can't be trusted to make a quality game nowadays, Sonic Mania is proof fans are better at knowing what makes a game great than the company that owns the IP.

"Ah, screw it. You want it? Just do it yourselves!"

As long as these classics get new entries true to their respective series, I don't care who makes them as long as they're done right.

While I hate the "Hire fans lol" mindset, this is a good idea. Konami did the messy splat that was E-Football last week so it's fair to say that they're a failing company.

Well think about it this way. If the games are bad and the devs screw up it's not Konami's fault. I mean, Konami hasn't done ANYTHING in the last decade outside of pachinko machines and terrible mobile games.

@Zuljaras
Konami is still making DDR and other BEMANI games on Arcade until today.
The newest series on this year was Beatmania IIDX 29 Cast Hour (13 Oct 2021)
https://youtu.be/Vlc5hVogdvM

I really hope this can bring Ganbare Goemon back.

Team Cherry! Make a castlevania whre you play as a bat!

Your company is only as good as the talent you retain (or let go).
Konami hosting a talent search like this is good news for us fans of all their old languishing IP.

Igarashi-san should enter a new Castlevania 2D game! How about a decent Frogger or Jackal game?

Can western developers also participate?

Wow that's super cool

All I want is a new Metroidvania style Castlevania game, with 2D graphics and a catchy soundtrack.

Does this mean someone else can make a PES? And put it in Switch? EA’s half-hearted Fifas are one thing, but Konami hasn’t only not even bothered, it’s even sabotaged its own football game for the platforms it still supports. Sigh.

I want a fan-made MGS, please. I’d throw in Suikoden too, but fortunately that’s already in the works (kind of).

This is a fun idea and I’m looking forward to results. If it was available outside Japan I’d be making further considerations. I couldn’t quite make out what the submission is supposed to be. A pitch, a vertical slice demo? Probably the demo. Can’t be the whole game because that’s what the finding would be for

This is going to stimulate the creation of at least a handful of great games, not just the one that wins.

No matter how many times they tried to go back to videogame design, everything they produce somehow ends up as a Pachinko machine.

Is Gyruss in there?

"Yes, uhh...please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a small time, independent developer. Last name Hojima first name Kideo. I would like to develop, out of my garage, a game called Silent Hills with my two no-name kotaku friends Gorman Needus and Robert Rodriguez, but make sure to swap the capital 'R's in Robert Rodriguez' name."

@Zuljaras
A lot of peoples (BEMANI fans) out there including me still playing DDR and other BEMANI games.
There are BEMANI games community that still exist, they are not here by majority but i can found them a lot in zenius-i-vanisher.com
BEMANI gamers are definetely not a minority of Konami games since you didn't know a lot about BEMANI games.
And if DDR is a niche IP, Konami will never make a sequel after DDR 1st Mix in year 1999.

I could see Pop N Music in the list. Now that’s a title I haven’t thought about in ages.

If this is a 'come up with a concept and a few stills and we'll fund it', great. But if it's a 'make a complete game with our IP and we'll decide if we want to fund it', I can't see many indies biting.

But if they do we need Suikoden 6 and another Azure Dreams.

It's sad to see what has become of the once great Konami (and Hudson). 80 different games says it all.

@syrupdash
Did someone say Pop'n Music ? 😀

This is pretty cool! Good move, Konami!

NINJA APPROVED

@Zuljaras
Correction, DDR II Wii was the last DDR on console in year 2011 while Konami was still making DDR X3 Arcade at same year.
DDR II Wii consist major DDR X2 Arcade songs including Replicant-D-Action songs, some songs from DDR UNIVERSE 3, a few DDR X Japan PS2 songs, DDR II songs that will be used for DDR X3 + DDR 2013 + DDR 2014 Arcade.
I believe Konami will reconsider DDR and other BEMANI games for modern consoles because i'm not the only one people here who keep wishing BEMANI games return on Switch and other consoles.

Indie devs have already made great sequels to Konami games - they just use different names.

Joymasher is the new Konami. They made Blazing Chrome which is one of the best Contra games ever made. They also made Odallus, a great Castlevania game. On a side note, they made a strider clone called Oniken which is much better than Strider.

Also, the three Bloodstained games on the Switch are really Castlevania games with a different name.

Of course, it's good that Konami is trying to get some good games made.

It almost appears that Konami is regretting burning the bridges with their past talent and are desperate to find replacements.

Wait, what do you mean only the winner will be paid for making a game?
That's uh... That doesn't sound that good of a deal, I'll be honest.

@PickledKong
DDR and BEMANI games are also part of Konami games.
It has been 10 years ago Konami made last DDR on Wii.
Of course me as BEMANI gamer really want DDR and BEMANI games return on modern consoles.

This amounts to zero (or very little) risk for Konami and potentially a lot of time and effort by independent devs that could all end up being for nothing (i.e. risk).

One could argue this is better than nothing and we'll likely get the revival of a "Konami" IP out of it, but is it really true said IP's is simply stamped onto whatever effort wins their contest? Seems that outsourcing non-"core" IPs has become the new norm for multiple Japanese publishers, most notably Sega (Shenmue 3 was a Kickstarter, Panzer Dragoon HD and others recently were outsourced to third parties). Again, maybe it's better than nothing...but as someone who remembers how prolific these once industry-leading giants were back in the day when some were making consoles and others' games (like TMNT: Turtles in Time, Axelay, Castlevania IV, Contra III: The Alien Wars, etc.) were considered some of the very best on their platform, it's kind of heartbreaking to see how far they've fallen.

No other segment of the videogame industry right now could use genuine risk-taking more than the Japanese side of it. At the very least, I'd love for these once-great companies to rediscover the spark that made them household names back then.

wonder if igarashi will participate, he wanted to finish a story didn't he? indie is a wide umbrella if not meaningless.

You want to be happy about Konami making games again (as monkey paw as it might seem), but then you remind yourself that this is only being done as a response to Covid. Had Covid not decimated Konami's pachinko and health club business, they would still be the horrible company we've grown to despise.

@Anti-Matter you want a new DDR? Konami is giving you the opportunity to make one yourself!

This is literally awesome!

@Chamver Stop moaning, it's happening, who cares why.

@PessitheMystic
Oh, wait....
Stepmania ?

Well, better than another Metal Gear Survive.

Sega has made this painfully apparent for years: the IP back-catalogue is only coming back through fan-developers.

Good to see Konami seemingly in full embrace of the situation. Hopefully their support means making available original creators as much as possible for creative input. That should not be much of an expense for them

@Chamver only Santa makes toys purely for the joy of the children. Konami is a game publisher

@NoxAeturnus actually they are not that’s why they are asking other people to! 😂

I wish Capcom would do this. Maybe then we could get Viewtiful Joe 3 (or just a reboot)

@Jackpaza0508 "Hiring the fans" worked out for Sonic Mania.

This is some scummy BS. I hope there's more to this than Konami straight up exploiting indie devs and if not then no one takes them up on the offer.

Indie devs inspired by Konami IP have been making way better games than Konami has for years.

This is the Reality TV style of game publishing. Smart move on their part. It gets them a lot of publicity and fan interest, cuts Konami's costs, moves most of the risk over to the participants, and possibly produces a good crowdpleaser for Konami in the end. And yes, one lucky team gets what could be their big breakthrough.

I'm super cynical about the motives, but this can actually produce some good things.

How cool is that? That sounds like any up and coming developer's dream. Looking forward to seeing what the winners come up with.

@Mopati It means that they'll be paid and funded by the company. What's not to understand?

@sketchturner Me too. I'd immediately suggest MMX Corrupted, or Mega Man Maker.

Imagine every single indie team does their version of a new Silent Hill

@Anti-Matter @Zuljaras - While I'd like a DDR revival, that's not gonna happen with this competition. Konami aren't going to fund a game that requires a peripheral, it's way too risky and niche.
DDR using a PC keyboard has made an indie comeback in the form of Friday Night Funkin, so there is some hope that in a few years music games will eventually become popular again.

@Tempestryke Only a single winner, though!
All the other people will create games that they won't be paid for or even be able to sell (due to not being their IP).
That seems like a really bad deal to me.

@MrGawain That is how I was reading it too. Surely they do not expect people to give them a near complete version? Maybe a demo strong enough to get them to agree to fund it further..but it is quite an ask! Game devs would have to either crowd fund to get started, or just really put in a huge amount of unpaid hours. Task seems huge, and may not go anywhere for them.

Still. I am quite convinced that this will bring back Goemon!

This is giving me Beyond Good & Evil 2 vibes, but on a grander scale; at least with BG&E2, Ubisoft was asking people to only help make assets for the game, but here Konami is asking people to make the whole freaking game for them! They are basically acknowledging that firing the brains behind series like Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania was the stupidest thing they'd ever done, and now they are trying to recover from that stupid decision by leeching off of other creative minds! Like, I'm happy for whoever wins this competition, and I will probably buy their game if it means supporting that team, but I won't feel good about Konami getting a fraction of that money.

If Konami pulls this off and gets a great game(s) out of this, they are getting the deal of a century. Asking a dev to make a game for 18K, is dirt cheap. I hope the devs can do it without great personal cost. Even a tiny indie game takes tremendous time and effort. Are they asking for a demo, I'm not clear on this? It looks like the competition ends with further development and polish. Konami could afford to have 10-20 "winners" at that cost, even with extra money they are planning to put in afterwards. In the end, maybe the consumer wins??? Maybe there is profit sharing with the devs?

That works for me. There's tons of super talented devs who could do a lot of these dormant and semi-dormant (glares at Contra Rogue Corps) IPs MUCH greater justice than current-day Konami could ever hope to do. Action, shooters, and Castlevania resurrections? Sounds good on paper. I'd love to see:

-Contra (2D, 2 player done proper. Blazing Chrome says hello).

-Castlevania (Just call up Igarashi, please...)

-Goemon (I miss this franchise with a passion but the gameplay and humor has to click)

-Metal Gear (2D style believe it or not. Go back to the roots.)

@Teksetter I doubt Igarashi would want to return to Konami after having such a good run with the Bloodstained series.

@Mopati To be fair, I don’t think they have to complete an entire game, otherwise the development budget reward would be rather pointless. Developers have made game demos for IPs in the past, they just need to make sure that they have other projects available if they want to take this risk.

@Tempestryke Well, they did take that one Megan vs Street Fighter fan game under their wing. It wasn’t the best but it shows Capcom isn’t adverse to the idea.

Well. Will have to wait and see on this one.

This is incredibly exciting. I am excited to see what comes out of it.

Now this is interesting, and a very smart approach that is something I've been advocating for a long time.

A lot of people reading this are thinking "oh no, like Contra: Rogue Corps?", when they really should be thinking "whoa, like GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon?".

@syrupdash Pop'n Music just got a new game recently, and it also just got a PC version; both of these were at the end of last year. That series has been on the chopping block for years because of its "iidx lite" (and sometimes not even "lite"!) status scaring people away, but Konami insists on keeping it alive.

@AtlanteanMan The Japanese developers are the ones that actually try to take risks. Have you seen the creative bankruptcy that's been going on with big American and European developers for many years now? It's disgraceful. There was no way we were ever going to get something like Dark Souls out of anyone besides a Japanese developer. There is no American or European developer that allows for games like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona to coexist. The people responsible for massive, very risky, overhauls like Tales of Arise and Monster Hunter World are, surprise, Japanese developers. Who's working on open world Zelda and Mario right now, the first of which has already changed the game industry in a huge way? Yep, that's right, Japanese developers.

Theres one indie dev in mind that has successfully done this. His name is Koji F*cking Igarashi

Awesome. Someone make a Jackal sequel.

If it's castlevania, Give it to the sure things like team cherry, YCG, drink box studios, elden pixels, or sabotage.

Please give me a proper remake to the first Contra or even a awesome remake to lifeforce Nes one of the best space shooters ever made

I have a better idea give us Symphony of the Night 2 and i will be very happy

I love this, put a bounty on remaking classic games and let the cream float to the top. It’s basically the opposite of these other companies and their mod takedowns.

Well, I was excited about Castlevania's chances for this, but then you mentioned Goemon. To think, a Mii costume was all it took to bring him back. At least I can hope.

Next, how about letting them work on some Hudson IPs like Bonk, Milon's, Galaxy Fräulein Yuna, Neutopia, Adventure Island, and Military Madness?

People should keep their expectations in check with this one. $270k is a pretty tiny budget in games development terms and the fact they haven’t been able to just find a partner from the outset is a bit odd. TBH this reads like the equivalent of getting a game developed on Fiverr. Either we’re going to get something pretty low key or a talented dev is going to be utilised for less money than they deserve. Hope I’m wrong but something about this doesn’t sit quite right.

I remember when i was a youngster (god that makes me sound old) being exited for konami games. They were one of the best. Top drawer. The anticipation before the MGS release was out of this world. Wish Konami could be something like it used to be again.

Now if Rare could do this with Banjo Kazooie that would be great!

This could work very well. I'm sure there will be many candidates, and then the best will be chosen.

@CactusMan Why would you end up with a banned demo of a horror game?

@CactusMan I agree. Chances are good we'll get a game that "good enough". Not amazing, not terrible. A game that hits the nostalgia button hard enough and is moderately well made. But you never know. There's a chance it will actually be different.

Either way it's a win for Konami. Good will from the fans, renewed interest in whatever series they go with, and possibly a whole new hit game.

This is called a Sega move lmao

The peeps that made Dead Cells should do a Castlevania

"Konami Competition Tasks Indie Devs With Reviving Its Classic IP"

After the winner wins, it gets canceled.

@Supaguy true

Don't tease us with the listing mentioning Goemon.... we all know we're not getting another Goemon game...

Awesome , come back to life frankenami