Are you guys ready for a reminder how fucked up the game industry is, well here you go. This time for Nicalis, the publisher who ported many indie games like Binding for Isaac and Cave story
https://kotaku.com/inside-the-ghosting-racism-and-exploitation-at-game-p-1838068522
As always I recommend you read the article but if you want some cliff notes I can give them to you.
So what do you guys think about this?
https://kotaku.com/inside-the-ghosting-racism-and-exploitation-at-game-p-1838068522
As always I recommend you read the article but if you want some cliff notes I can give them to you.
?There was some light correspondence about helping them to get it to compile, then we never heard anything else back regarding the arrangement,? Crooks told Kotaku. ?I believe that Devolver prodded them a couple of times, but we never heard anything back. Due to the lack of communication, we were forced to move on, and found another partner to help us with the port.?
Ghosting stories like these are common when it comes to Nicalis, a game developer and publisher that has grown big in the independent scene thanks to smash hits like Cave Story and Binding of Isaac but also has cultivated a reputation for mistreating employees and outside developers. Nicalis, based in Orange County, California, employs a staff of around 20 and handles a number of ports, re-releases, and original games, usually developed with external partners. In recent years, fans have noticed some public scuffles between Nicalis and game developers, but the extent of Nicalis?s troubled history has not yet been revealed.
Ghosting stories like these are common when it comes to Nicalis, a game developer and publisher that has grown big in the independent scene thanks to smash hits like Cave Story and Binding of Isaac but also has cultivated a reputation for mistreating employees and outside developers. Nicalis, based in Orange County, California, employs a staff of around 20 and handles a number of ports, re-releases, and original games, usually developed with external partners. In recent years, fans have noticed some public scuffles between Nicalis and game developers, but the extent of Nicalis?s troubled history has not yet been revealed.
Later, in 2016, when Nintendo started recruiting third-party developers for the forthcoming launch of the Switch, Nicalis was one of the first companies to get Switch development kits, according to two people familiar with that process. ?They proceeded to order as many of those kits as they possibly could, and acted as a go-between for developers who wanted to get their games on the console early, re-shipping their extra kits to their partners,? said a former Nicalis employee.
In interviews with Kotaku, seven former Nicalis employees painted a picture of Rodriguez as a boss who wielded his power over staff in exploitative ways. ?The level of control he has over his employees is definitely a problem,? said one former staffer. ?It was, ?Anything I tell you to do, you have to do this, because I?m the boss.?? Sometimes that meant employees wasting days or weeks of work because Rodriguez wouldn?t respond to their questions; other times it meant more personal grievances. For example, two former Nicalis employees said they?d be rebuked for taking dinner breaks during crunch hours or taking time off to go to the doctor or take care of sick relatives.
So what do you guys think about this?
