Update [Sun 12th Jun, 2022 15:30 BST]: Atooi's owner Jools Watsham has provided a brief update (via Twitter), mentioning how Run Box Run will be coming soon to multiple platforms including the Switch.
He's also shared some new gameplay footage on YouTube:
"RUN BOX RUN is our new #COPG (Casual Online Party Game) that we're extremely excited about. It's coming to #NintendoSwitch, #Steam, and #AppStore soon in 2022. Check out the video below for some gameplay footage. #atooi #gamedev #online #multiplayer"
Original [Sat 2nd Apr, 2022 12:30 BST]: Mutant Mudds and Hatch Tales developer Atooi yesterday announced it would be releasing a brand new "casual online party game experience" for the Nintendo Switch. Don't worry, it's not an April Fools joke.
This game is officially titled Run Box Run and will launch at some point this year. Here's a brief rundown of what to expect along with some screenshots, courtesy of the PR:
- Global online matches with players
- Fast menu access to the lobby
- Race to the end of level
- Last place eliminated
- Trivia intermission
- Up to 13 players
- Survive to win
- Stream-friendly: show/hide code
- Share unique room code w/friends
- Host your own private party matches
According to Atooi founder Jools Watsham, more information about Run Box Run will be shared in the near future, so keep an eye out for any updates. Does this look like your kind of game? Leave a comment down below.
Comments 56
Character design looks boring.
Boxes can work, HAL's BoxBoy is an example of a box being well-characterised.
But this is not.
They should concentrate on finishing Hatch tales which I backed but have tried to get my money back, with no success. Their contempt for us backers is appalling!
@Mossii has that game really not come out yet? Man..
Come to think of it, don’t they have trunk full of unfinished games? Treasure-nots.. what else?
@EarthboundBenjy : Absolutely. This looks generic as hell. While BoxBoy is hardly the most visually awe-inspiring series around, it's very charming and has a lot of personality.
And I wuvs my pwecious Qbby amiibo.
@Mossii : I hold firm that any established developer who resorts to crowdfunding should quietly retreat from the industry.
If their products aren't turning a profit and/or they cannot find a publisher to help with financing, then there's likely a very good reason why they cannot be trusted with money.
Looks painfully by-the-numbers.
Speedrunners had to give away a few hundred thousand copies and sell in bundles to keep any player base for this sort of game.
Atooi is one of those devs that i try to stay away from. I bought two of their games, the mutant mudds and soccer slammers. major disappointments and insanely hard. not my jam
I just never got attached to anything Atooi have done
So it's Runbow.
They've ripped off 13AM Games' Runbow.
Maybe finish a game first? Where’s Hatch Tales? Where’s Petadachi? Where’s Treasurenauts? All we get from Atooi are excuses why we get nothing from Atooi.
Petadachi was being promoted in 2020 for a 2021 release and it’s still not out. Starting a game and not being bothered to finish it is what I do. But I’m playing them not making them.
Not a fan of this company. They keep promising all sorts of stuff but they don't deliver. Mutant Mudds is also horribly designed game and I can't fathom why it is as popular as it is. The only guess I have is that it launched at a good time when 3DS eShop was at its infancy but that doesn't explain why it's still doing great to this day.
@Late Before that, as Renegade Kid, they made two amazing DS horror fps games, and a good DS sci-fi fps, so coming from DS and seeing they just went independent, so all that talent could turn into even better games on stronger hardware, with more freedom, I was a fan of them. They promised 3ds remakes of the DS games when they got the copyrights back, but only delivered Dementium 1 (and Moon, the sci-fi one, in episodes, in US, not here, as far as I know). Dementium 2, the best one, never happened, their new 3ds fps Cult County, which I really looked forward to, never happened. Apparently the publisher of those games became Devolver Digital, from what I see now. That is both surprising and a moment of 'of course they did', they have eye for low budget high quality games with a smaller market appeal.
@CharlieGirl Well, I admit that this reminded me of Runbow too (just because of the use of color), but Runbow isn't the only platform racing game. Games like Speedrunners, Rayman M etc.
@commentlife They've mentioned many times that they need to make these "side projects" to finance the development of other games like Hatch Tales. I don't like it either but it is what it is. Making games is very expensive.
Wait, he not only thought it was a good idea to announce on a saturday, but April 1st at that? Do we know if this is real?
Yuck. Five years of silence, and THIS is what they reappear with?
Mutant Mudds, Chicken Wiggle, and Xeodrifter weren't masterpieces, but they were still pretty good. They had a sense of personality and identity.
This looks like the most generic, corporate mobile game in the world.
Where the hell is my TREASURENAUTS!?
So does this come out before Treasurenauts and after Hatch Tales?
Or the other way around?
I enjoyed Xeodrifter from this dev. I don't like the look of this box thing.
I have enjoyed his previous work so I am willing to see what the reviews say about this. Like others, I am awaiting a release date for Treasurenauts on the Switch
These people really need to stop working on games other than “Hatch Tales”. Garbage company.
@Fiskern April 1st was yesterday.
I enjoyed Chicken Wiggle and Mutant Mudds as platformers and Xeodrifter as a mini-metroidvania.
I too backed Hatch Tales and hope that it releases this year, but wouldn’t bet on it.
I haven’t tried Pictooi yet (waiting for a sale). Has any one here tried it?
Something else they were doing instead of releasing Hatch Tales like they’ve been paid to do.
I mean, the harsh reaction is somewhat justified...but perhaps their strategy is to put out a smaller budget game with broad, casual appeal so as to direct some of the revenue from it into finishing games like Hatch on time.
I mean, if I was in a situation where a very important game began to take a much longer time to finish, but I still needed to put food on the table, I'd probably be more than tempted to put something out there in the meantime. Just because a developer is crowd sourced, that doesn't mean that unforeseen delays won't happen, or that they're somehow immune to unanticipated spikes in development costs.
If such problems arise during development, then - unless you're a AAA company like Nintendo, that can afford to delay games for as long as necessary - for everyone else - and especially for crowdfunded devs - things get super tricky. I mean, aside from scrapping the developmentally challenged game entirely, a small developer basically has maybe one of two realistic options:
1 ) beg for more donations - a seemingly simple option, however repeated drives tend to draw rapidly diminishing returns and worse still, devs who do this can spook their backers who may suddenly demand their money back, or...
2) work on a game that you don't really feel very passionate about but it's one that has a shot at selling well enough despite a very short development and release schedule. The returns on releasing such a cheap but broadly appealing game could theoretically generate enough money to not only put food on the table, but also enough for the dev to finish their long awaited main projects, while at the same time, not outwardly begging for more cash.
The intensely negative drawbacks to option two can be seen here in the comments section haha. The developer may gain a new revenue stream to fuel their main passion project and a cheap game might keep food on the table, but it can have the effects of angering those who have long supported the developer and who might now see them as hacks, frauds, and sellouts, and it makes backers rightfully want to know where the hell their game is and why their money seems to be directed in some way to questionable shovelware games instead of whatever game it is that the backers want.
Perhaps in the developer's mind, the latter option would will appear to be the better solution right now and that the hope is their credibility will be restored once the game everyone is backing actually arrives - late, but in a quality state.
Obviously the best solution is to release the game everyone wants, but as stated earlier, things in life are rarely so simple.
And who knows, maybe they really are scammers and con artists and deserve the extreme backlash that they're getting atm, however... I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if sometimes my optimism ends up looking like naivety. Either way, I do hope that - regardless of what's going on with them - that the developer can achieve its goals and that their backers get the game they've put their faith in.
@Andy_Witmyer No. The game is ridiculously late, the reason that it is late is that he decided to make changes to the game that nobody wanted or expected when they funded it, and their communication has been horrible. They have plenty of money to get backers the game they paid for, they’ve had plenty of time to make it, and every time they show that they’ve been working on something else, it’s incredibly frustrating and disrespectful.
Jools came off as being a very likable dude when the Switch first came out (and presumably before that, though I wasn’t really aware of him). He interacted with fans on social media, he made appearances on podcasts, he really just seemed like a dude who likes/makes simple retro-style games and is kinda one of us-just a dude who loves playing and talking about games. Also seemed like he was a little down on his luck with the timing of Chicken Wiggle coming to the 3DS. I supported him despite never loving any of his games. He has now completely lost me as a fan. He’s a scammer and a crook and he doesn’t care about the most loyal of his supporters. I’ll be giving that trash away as soon as the code pops up in my inbox.
It's really interesting to see how much Atooi has fallen over the years. People used to be excited for their titles, but now it seems like they burnt too many bridges.
I feel like their problems comes to them working on too many titles at once. It feels like Jools can't focus on one thing at time and it drags them down. They showed off a 3D horror game that they are looking for funding for too a few weeks ago. So they have like 4-5 titles that may be currently being worked on. They need to re-focus and get Hatch Tales out before showing anything else off.
I feel like this won't get enough of a userbase to stay fun for very long, Online only games from even bigger studios suffer from this too.
Been following them since their DS debut with Dementium. Loved their older games, including Mudds, Xeodrifer, and the 3D remakes of Dementium, Moon, and even ATV Wild Ride. I even have a signed Dementium 2 poster from Jools, and a sealed copy of Atooi Collection from those ***** at LRG.
Some recent games like Totes the Goat was a lame Qbert clone, and Soccer Slammers is absolutely atrocious. 🤮
Disappointed we never got Dementium 2 3D or Treasurenauts, and the wait for Hatch Tales has been ridiculously overdue. By spreading themselves thin over so many titles, they've kept their base waiting too long, and it folsters anger. I've lost some professional respect for Jools as well, if I'm being honest. 😔
@Krambo42 Wow. That really sucks. Thanks for the insight, depressing / anger inducing though it is.
Doesn't look appealing at all. Looks like a generic, low budget version of Runbow. Runbow is awesome, but this, It seems nobody asked for it. The last Atooi game that had me excited for was Xeodrifter, which is a pretty good Metroidvania. And Renegade Kid that an excellent run on the 3DS. But after announcing Treasurenauts and never finishing, seems like they entered a black hole in which bigger scale games are never finished and budget games such as Totes, Pictooi and now this, come like a dime a dozen, always disappointing. Really sad.
@JasmineDragon and if you look at when he announced it on Twitter it was drumroll on Friday!
Removed - inappropriate language
This is a huge ripoff of Runbow.
It looks fun but depends how much it is.
His first Mutant Mudds is hard, but playable and fun. The sequel not.
@Nontendo_4DS There's a lot of history behind the dev and that's why you are seeing the negative comments. Unfinished games and constant new announcements. I personally was never a fan of any of his game and I own quite a few.
@Late Very strongly agreed. Mutant Mudds was one of the most boring experiences I had on the 3DS. I have no idea why anyone even remembers it.
Hatch tales chicken wiggle? I won't buy any new games from that company if he doesn't sort out and finally release my game that I already paid for!
Looks god awful
Renegade Kid was one of the most promising Indie devs 10 years ago. Now, look at them. This doesn't seem fun at all. Runbow had more appeal 7 years ago.
wow@ tough crowd.. this might not have the looks that you want however, with up to 13 people could be insanely fun.. this game is about simple fun. it could do quite well on Switch.
'Tis a shame because I really enjoyed Mutant Mudds and its sequel, to the extent that I've bought it no less than four times (on 3DS, Wii U, and two physical copies on Switch), and I usually find "retro" style indie games to be quite overrated.
reminder that treasurenauts was announced back in 2013.
yeah, im not gonna support this company ever again.
it’s runbow without the fun
@Smug43 The general negativity is more to do with the fact Atooi ran a kickstarter to get their 3DS game “Chicken Wiggle” on the Switch. It was funded successfully and has never come out. Instead we keep getting other games being announced by them, most rip offs of things like Picross and Runbow. Games that would be fine if we just had the simple thing they took the money off us to do years ago. But that goes silent or occasionally we get a “we’ve been adding stuff you didn’t want or changing things like the name” and this stuff gets churned out, presumably using a chunk of the kickstarter money as this is a very small studio.
Not sure if I even want to support him now after seeing him do a video interview with an known hateful and racist person last week. Like how did he think it was a good idea to do a video with the BitBlock guy.
I really love Jools Watsham when he first hit the scene. But shortly thereafter he revealed some opinions that I found quite distasteful and his games just weren't good enough for me to push past that obstacle.
@KanaMomonogi Him and Jools are basically eternally stuck in the past, it's fitting.
I agree with a ton of comments here regarding this situation. Very well said. This is some of the best commentary I've seen on the developer as a whole so far.
I'm also reminded of how this very site is likely largely responsible for pointing people in the direction of these games and the Kickstarter itself, so thanks for having a hand in that (maybe that's why so many of your readers also happened to back Hatch Tales!). I like y'all, but c'mon. I offer a suggestion that NL really should do the right thing and publish a critical overview piece on the entire situation that's happened over the years, since they're so keen on covering this one indie developer so consistently and positively promoting their work regardless of the quality standards, business practices, and other junk that the consumers have to put up when dealing with this dev.
Some other notes:
@Tandy255 can’t say first hand because I haven’t played it. But read comments that the functionality isn’t great
@T-Speed Yeah, I have since bought Pictooi during a sale. It plays okay. I like the facts they give after each puzzle. Just a few issues:
1. After you finish a puzzle it does take about 15 seconds to go back to the menu. Feels like a very long time for a basic game. As of yet, this hasn’t been fixed.
2. A few times the puzzles ended with some ambiguos hints that didn’t have enough information to solve the puzzle. Since it was the last few squares, it wasn’t hard to guess.
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