Topic: Jason Rohrer's DS Game Diamond Trust of London Now on Kickstarter

[NWR_DrewMG]

The developer of artistic games such as Sleep is Death has a new DS game on the way, with a little help from his friends.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30143

A new DS game by independent developer Jason Rohrer has been approved by Nintendo, and has appeared on Kickstarter.com as a way of raising the manufacturing costs to produce retail cartridges. The game, which has been in development since 2010, was at one point to be published by Zoo Games. It seems as if that deal is now off, with Rohrer self-publishing the game.

According to the development blog, Rohrer wasn't interested in pursuing a digitial distribution due to the limited availability of DSiWare among gamers. Rohrer noted in his blog: "I did some research about DSiWare and was disappointed: it had a narrow reach (only 10 million units) and poor sales numbers. Not only would my game likely not sell well on DSiWare, but my existing fans would be unable to get the game without buying DSi units. You know, everyone has a DS lying around. Very few people have a DSi."

The game is a board game-style strategy game about diamond trading, and features single-cartridge download play. The Kickstarter is attempting to raise $75,000 to produce DS cartridges for the game. There are multiple points of entry for contribution, with the minimum to actually receive the game being $35.

The fundraising campaign is set to go through May 26, and is currently sitting at $57,995 out of $75,000. 

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm surprised Nintendo would officially license the game and manufacture the cards for him without a publisher. I can't think of that ever happening before on a Nintendo system with physical media.

[Tlon]

I'm surprised Nintendo would officially license the game and manufacture the cards for him without a publisher. I can't think of that ever happening before on a Nintendo system with physical media.

 Isn't the whole idea of the kickstarter campaign is that he would act as a publisher to the game? Usually a developer has negative cash flow making it necessary for outside funding to order the cartridges and promote the game, unless the developer is cash rich. I doubt there is/was an "authorised" publisher on Nintendo platforms. In the past,  a developer didn't have a medium in which funding can be raised directly from the customers. If the publisher decided to stop funding a project and the developer couldn't find any other company to back it then it's dead.

[Lithium]

well i've never played any of his games but im all for supporting indie devs so i've pitched in to the donation bucket. The premise sounds pretty cool as well.

[Ceric]

I think the Premise sounds cool, but I've already drew the line in the sand on DS games.  I may pick the game up, but I'm going to support another  DS game coming out that could go on 3DS.

[pjeigh]

You do need a publisher  to release a game on a Nintendo system. Look closely at the box in the video and you'll see indiePub's logo (which is a subsidiary of Zoo).

[Chocobo_Rider]

This is all pretty cool.  Sadly, it's not a game I am interested in.  But I wish him the best of luck!

BTW, thanks for running this article, NWR.  This is the kind of feel-good story that tends to get swept under the rug when it comes to Nintendo's business.

[Kairon]

I got the DSiWare 'Jason Rohrer Anthology" and was pleasantly surprised at how he'd taken such high-concept ideas and translated them into what are essentially art-games. Based on that alone I'm hyped to find out what he's done with this game, and I've given to this kickstarter project as a result.

[Tlon]

I'm surprised Nintendo would officially license the game and manufacture the cards for him without a publisher. I can't think of that ever happening before on a Nintendo system with physical media.

. I doubt there is/was an "authorised" publisher on Nintendo platforms.

You do need a publisher  to release a game on a Nintendo system. Look closely at the box in the video and you'll see indiePub's logo (which is a subsidiary of Zoo).

I was wrong. Sorry for the mistake. I should have researched before commenting. http://www.warioworld.com/licenseeapplications/software/ By now I should have figured out that you guys know better!