Atooi's Switch Game Hatch Tales Is Finished, But It's Been Delayed Again

""We know this last minute delay might be frustrating"

Yeah... sure... the frustrating thing is this last delay... sure...

You can't write this stuff...how is this experienced of a developer this bad at releasing one game. Honestly baffling...

How farfetch'd!

What bothers me the most is that after 6 years it still looks like a flash game from newgrounds

Jools is a joke and will never get a cent of my business. Way to completely alienate any potential customers.

My question is why in the love of god does Nintendo Life devote so much time and space giving this fool and his company coverage that they very much do not deserve?? There are umpteen hundred DESERVING indie devs that would kill to get some of the publicity that you shower on Jools/Atooi. Is he friends with someone on the staff or something? I really don't get it.

@Supervideoman22 I was just thinking that myself. 😩

I loved all his 3DS games, but this is beyond ridiculous.
I guess the game will have probably more than 256460 levels, because if not, I really can't understand how is taking this long.

One of the worst examples of project management I've ever seen in the industry. Truly insane.

@JackieCMarlow I completely agree. If Nintendo Life ever gets to sit down with this cowboy they should ask him why he thinks it's acceptable to take people's money and sit on it for 6 (SIX) years before finally releasing the game!

I backed this game because at the time my teenage son liked the look of it and thought it would be good to support the project and then play the game together. He is now 21 and has left home! 🤦‍♂️

Working on and releasing several other projects all while having taken money for a Kickstarter 6 years ago is honestly insane. I used to root for Jools and have enjoyed some of his games but this is just disrespectful at this point

On a more serious note. This experience has completely stopped me backing any other games through Kickstarter. I tried to get my money back several times but got nowhere. I don't mind normal delays, a year would have been fine but 6 years delay, whilst releasing other projects. Utterly disrespectful of the people who supported the project and damaging to decent indie/small developers.

I loved Chicken Wiggle on the 3DS, but part of it's charm for me was the pixel art style. I don't like how this one looks and even the main character looks like a downgrade in terms of design.

Backing a developer who's previously released a bunch of games, including some at retail, and who should damn well have enough of a nest egg to fund his own projects (especially ones that look as cheap as this) is absolute bananas.

If you want to back a dev that badly, purchase/gift their existing works.

And to put the laughable development cycle of this game into perspective, the groundbreaking DOOM took only a year to make.

Jools needs to step down as a head developer if he doesn’t know how to (or hire somebody who will) communicate without any bull. Both Cuphead and Hollow Knight knew their situations, so near the end of their life cycles, they just said, “It will be ready when it’s ready.”

You’re an indie developer, Jools; you have no stockholders to please with the numerous amount of exact release dates.

It's hard to imagine a worse squandering of fan support than Jools has displayed with this game. Six years ago he had cultivated a nice following in the indie Nintendo space because of his support for 3DS and Wii U. People rooted for him. It's shocking to see how poorly he leveraged that support.

checks
Whoa... 2018??

What’s insane to me is the amount of focus placed on this title and not what everyone else actually wanted - Treasurenauts.

That game seemed to keep getting pushed aside again and again for other weird or inane titles across the numerous years of dev hell. Thankfully we’re at a point that Shovel Knight scratches a similar itch that I no longer care.

This guy is the worst. Can’t wait to throw my code away. And no, I will not be giving it away. I don’t want to be responsible for getting this stupid game in anybody’s hands. I hope nobody plays it.

It looks like a student game someone whipped up on their summer break

Used to be a big fan of Renegade Kid and early Atooi, but this is just ridiculous. They have lost my trust completely.

Looks like a game jam game at best lmao

@JackieCMarlow I’m sure any story involving Hatch Tales and Jools gets a lot of clicks at this point. Hardly surprising Nintendo Life keeps reporting on the story.

Can’t make this up I swear.

I don't think I've ever noticed this game before, but from the trailer I don't think it'll be added to my library. I bet it's rough making a game solo for 6 years. Just unfortunate that it isn't a product I'm not interested in.

@Krambo42 If you want, I wouldn't mind taking the code. I probably won't play it much or at all, so it will be kinda like 'throwing it away." But it's up to you of course.

Wow, 6 years for this?? I didn’t follow it at all but this is straight up embarrassing.

Hey, good news. Now he will start to develop Treasurenauts, right? I can not wait to play in the Switch 3 Lite XL with my Axe.

So the bird looks like he ate his buddy wiggle and is a bit older and angrier now? Is there a symbolism here..

Everytime I see this guy's name it makes me think of Jools Holland and that unbelievable performance of Alice in Chains in their prime. Which is probably better than whatever this game turns out to be.

@roy130390 Agreed! Bringing the small 3DS pixel art to an HD TV could be challenging, but I would think that there are filters and tools that would make it look decent. And having it focused as a title best played in handheld mode would be just fine. 😊

Regardless, I did back the Kickstarter ($15) and am looking forward to this game.

So is it free? At this point… 🤷‍♂️

@JackieCMarlow So I truly get your frustration. I can only say that I appreciate Nintendolife just posting articles like this to see it through to release.

Like they came this far with coverage, may as well let those of us who have been following know how it ends. Lol. I won’t be buying the game unless it’s $1 to 5$. However I have followed development from the 3ds days so I was curious about it.

@Mossii "If Nintendo Life ever gets to sit down with this cowboy they should ask him why he thinks it's acceptable to take people's money and sit on it for 6 (SIX) years before finally releasing the game!"

They interviewed him eleven months ago, in September 2023. Not the first time they've interviewed him either.

https://www.nintendolife.com/features/we-wouldnrt-give-the-silent-hill-ip-to-a-team-like-yours-dementium-the-wards-origins-and-switch-return

Watsham gave a PR response back then, and used a pun to lock in a March 2024 release date. And like someone else has already said, in addition to this being Nintendo eShop related news, the frustration around Watsham and Atooi drives engagement and comments.

Just watched a few seconds of the video and I have literally no interest in this

This game is Atooi’s Paprium, but I bet the manual with the game won’t be as mean spirited and odd though…

I think at least part of Nintendo Life's obsession with Atooi is that it reposts GoNintendo a lot and they are personal friends with him as well. This is a lot of favoritism going back a decade plus.

@Tupin Welcome to the corporate world.

Just filled out the form for what to be called in the credits. I went with: "I Wish I Never Backed This Game".