Platypus on PSP?

I hear a rumour that Platypus is going to be released for the PSP and poor Antony Flack isn't even going to be credited, let alone get any royalties. Does anybody know if this is true? I don't quite know how I feel about this if it's true. I'm happy for Mr Flack for spawning such a successful game, but he must be gutted at selling the IP.

It's not rumour, it's fact. That's all I'm going to say except to add that I find it remarkably shortsighted to do this to the author. Sharing the credit and some of the money is not legally required but it's great developer relations and avoids tarnishing the name of all companies involved. I suspect at least one company is going to get bad press out of this that they do not deserve. Quite possibly more.

Check here for a detailed discussion, started by Anthony:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9220

http://psp.ign.com/articles/749/749820p1.html

Can it be a mere coincidence that certain MumboJumbo staff are ex-Idigicon?

Something very smelly going on here... the silver lining to this particular dark cloud is that IGN didn't like it very much.

Remind me not to buy any games off folks here and improve upon them, then sell them! Sheesh!

Anthony made a bad business decision, and PSP development kits aren't free. Nor was all the time Mike put into improving the game. I was offered something like $2K for my tank game several years ago, but I didn't take it because I didn't want this sort of thing to happen to me. Five years later, and I haven't made a dime off it.

So which would have been the better decision? Selling the tank game, getting $2K, then watching as someone else turned it into a hit title and made a bundle off it, or keep the game to myself, get NOTHING, just so that I don't have to watch as others profit off my work?

This is how the industry works. If you don't like it, you can do what I did and keep your game to yourself and try to make something of it yourself eventually. But if you choose to sell your IP, then don't complain when the publisher gets all the money. They took a risk when they paid for the product. There was no guarantee that Platypus could be turned into something that would sell. If someone offered me $10K for my tank game, I'd consider selling it, and sure, I'd be a bit distraught like Anthony if someone turned it into a game that sells 100,000 copies. But don't pile on the folks that bought it from him like they're the bad guys! They have no obligation to give Anthony anything, and Anthony probably got his money's worth for the work he did on the art anyway. They may not even know anthony worked on it for all you know.

Doing business is gambling. Don't gamble if you're not willing to lose once in a while!

You probably should have read a little more. Mike didn't get any credit either ;)

Hi

Anthony is credited in the manual that comes with the PSP version.

I have also emailed him to try and work something out. As of last week, I will be dealing with the conversions of Platypus and I WILL sort something out for Anthony if he would care to answer my email.

Steve.

I'm not sure wether to say cool...or ....damm...?

Wow! That was a very informative thread and Mr Flack seems to be pretty cool about the whole thing. I suppose it's cool to see your work getting recognition no matter what the circumstances might be.

I remember the time when Anthony was a regular poster around here. Them were the days.

Good job making such a successful game, Anthony. Platypus may single-handedly outlast that first-person shooter craze :b
Really too bad about the licensing stuff. If it's any consolation, that mistake has been a great lesson for many people.

I'm sure they'll be in a panic when you've finished Cletus Clay, though. That shall be most exciting :)

I think this is the time where I should count to ten and not unleash a verbal assault on the ***&&^%!!! people responsible - well I did (kinda) censor myself.

*CHOKE*
That does it. Death to IGN!

That's two crappy reviews in a row that I've read from them.
Lots of the writers there seem to way too set in their ways. I don't think this guy even understands that Platypus is meant to be a retro sort of game.
(Although Anthony says they screwed up the gameplay, so I guess it's not as bad as I thought...)

As usual, the person who reviewed the game doesn't seem to understand the ratings system. He decided that since he didn't understand it, he would just bring every score down to 5 to rub his opinion in.

Waiting for Gamepot's review, which will hopefully be a lot better.
So far the user reviews, made by people who aren't paid by big organizations that spam even their paying users with advertisements, are looking good.
(Although none on IGN or Gamespot... you have to hunt a bit)


Edit:
There's a nice post here by the lead programmer for the Platypus PSP port at MJ.
It's a shame that nobody seemed to check Wikipedia to see the title's history (including a link to Squashy Software).

I wondered how long it would before people start fighting for no good reason.

Devil's advocate:

If you sell 100% of the IP, can you really expect to still have some kind of ownership of the game? No-one cares who wrote it, anyway.

The author cares.

Would you like it if someone pointed at your work and called it their own?
Would you like it if someone bought a house that you built with your bare hands, then said they built it themselves?

Of course not!
It's the principal of it all.

Yeah. The architect that designed it doesn't deserve any of the credit.

IF you sell 100% of the IP, you might as well have not made it. Whomever owns the IP made it.

It can be good or bad. If all you enjoy is making the games. finding someone to sell the IP to can be good.. make a game every 3 months and sell it for more and more each time as the person buying realizes how good your games are.

Happens all the time in the music biz. Granted, those songs are written in an afternoon in most cases. But they get a lot less for them too.

So happens I have a PSP that I just acquired within the past couple of weeks, so count me in on this game.

thats a pile of shit and i know how mr flack must feel. if there's anything its called pride

if you have kids you'll understand, I have kids, and a game is like that kind of. you INVEST your soul into making it work and you want to see your name passed on

its an instinctive thing, I'm not talking bollocks, he put love into platypus, he burned his house down and still got it made

people stink,

but mr flack, we think your little gem of a game rocks.

Make some more games for us.

Rob

..but how Anthony lost his game without any rights?? Whats the deal behind all this mess regarding Platypus??

Yeah, all it says on Amazon is that it's made by "Mumbo Jumbo" or whatever that company is. $30, should be well worth the price tag for that effort. Of course, with Anthony's effort, it should be twice that price tag, IMHO.

I'd wait for the movie to answer that question, if Flack ever does sign to Sony he should possibly talk to George Michael first.

I think the lesson is simple here. If you feel you have a great product, never ever sell the full rights to it.

Although some may argue Idigicon ended up with a great deal, it certainly shows no morals or ethics at all with how the original author has been treated. A company with knowledge took advantage of an individual, threw him a bone and then left him out in the cold.

I really really hope that his next game is a huge massive success and Idigicon scream over the fact that had they not shafted him over one game they could of been laughing with his second game.

For those that want the FULL story to Anthony and his game, here's an interview he did:

Anthony interview pt1:
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/squashysoftware-part1-podcast.mp3

Anthony interview pt2:
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/squashysoftware-part2-podcast.mp3

god damn it, why cant these people normalise the volume so i can hear the bloody thing.

Yes Anthony's volume is a fraction of the interviewer's - thanks for posting though Dustin.

For all the screaming about Idigicon being unethical and what not, it should be pointed out that while Idigicon did get a good deal, they where too incompetant to actually capitalize on it themselves.

For all who haven't read:

http://www.squashysoftware.com/makingplatypus.php

And when somebody did start making some money they terminated the contract.

Interesting interview. Cheers for posting that, Dustin. ;)

I'm sure Mr Flack has learned many lessons from his Platypus experience, and will be much more careful with his Cleytus Clay IP. :)

Like to hope that there'll be a Wii version of this game.

When you make a game deal that is for a decent amount of money, hire and entertainment lawyer. They're worth every penny. They will create a contract that will force the buyer to not pull crap like this. Actually, a publisher will still still try, but then you can nail them and get royalties for a product you didn't even work on. That's what a friend of mine did when they made a budgetware title. The publisher pulled the same thing but didn't check the contract they signed. Whoops!!! Free money!!

wow that was interesting!


sounds like a conspiracy... what really happened to Anthony's harddrive?

I read that, and it was great, but the bit I don't understand is that Mr Flack says Idigicon cancelled the contract with Retro64 so they (and by implication Mr Flack) couldn't sell Platypus anymore.

But but but... it's still for both download and sale on Retro64's site. It doesn't seem to redirect or mention anything to do with Idigicon anywhere. It seems to be just as buyable from Retro64 as it was when I bought it years ago.

Anyone got any ideas? Is Mr Flack getting shafted more than he thinks he is?

"sounds like a conspiracy... what really happened to Anthony's harddrive?"

He should have brought it to these guys. Click "Burned PC: Data Recovered 100%" for a picture:

http://www.ibas.com/press/pictures