First off, this "news", is actually a few months old but no one has mentioned it on here and I only recently found out most of this. In all fairness that's largely due to Humanature's tendency to neglect telling us anything for several months at a time (can't say they're overhyping it at least). After a month or two of no news from them, I forgot to check back anymore, then I accidentally stumbled across this interesting bit of information...


TJ&E Developers Get A Publisher

Yes, you read that right. This news didn't sit well with me initially, and frankly, it still doesn't, much like almost every single thing I've heard about this project and it's developments. For example see my previous article on this game's development: Toejam & Earl: Back In The Groove - The Controversy. It's been a troubling process so far, one that seems riddled with perceived dishonesty in terms of funding. Now bear in mind, I am not saying that they're doing anything wrong or even immoral, but rather that there are things that don't seem quite right from an outside perspective.

It started with highly questionable stretch goals asking for ludicrous amounts of additional money for what should be a fairly simple porting process, and now it's that they've picked up a publisher.

A publisher? After receiving receiving over $560,000 from over 18,000 fans to cover development and publishing costs?


Okay, so let's back up and see why this is so upsetting.


A Synopsis Of TJ&E's History:

Since I covered this in depth in the article I linked above, I'll just touch lightly on it here.

In the mid nineties Toejam & Earl released on the SEGA Genesis and was met with great reception by gamers and became a big hit despite a lack of advertising by the publisher (SEGA).

The developers, JVP, decided to make a sequel. It would be like the first game but with new features, for example some levels would allow you to enter buildings (something I somehow never noticed the first had an utter lack of. An Earth without buildings). SEGA however, decided that this was not a good idea for some reason, and said the game would have to be a platformer, so the true sequel wasn't made.

A few years later Toejam & Earl 3 is slated for release, and a good ways into the game the publishers once again stepped in and said it couldn't be made the way they were making it, and it had to be changed into something else. Once again JVP was unable to make a true TJ&E sequel.

Fast forward to 2015 and we get a TJ&E4 announce. This time they proclaim they're going Indie to avoid a publisher so that they can finally make the game exactly how they want to, and give us the true TJ&E sequel we've wanted for years.


The fans, understandably get excited and money starts pouring in. They want to make this indie dream where TJ&E is 100% free of publisher pressures and demands, and so can be made as true to form as possible, a reality. And so between two crowd funding sites -- Kickstarter and Backerkit -- and nearly 20,000 people giving money out of their own pockets with no possibility of a monetary return (profit), they reach this goal.

Several months later Humanature (JVP closed and one of the two men behind it started Humanature) signs a deal with an anonymous publisher.

Publisher. You know, that thing 18,000+ people donated $560,000+ of their own money to help them avoid getting? Yeah, they got one of those anyway...and of course kept the $560,000 they were given by fans not to do so.

Understand the aggravation yet?


In Defense Of The Developer

Now before I seem to be attempting to villainize Humanature, let me say that Greg Johnson, the J from JVP and the CEO of Humanature, seems like a sincere and good guy. I don't think they mean to scam anyone at all. I simply mean to say that their handling of the publishing matters and the monetary aspects of the project in general seem to be lacking in courtesy to the customer, as well as lacking in good business sense. If they somehow don't end up alienating their fans before this game releases, it'll probably only be because of the intense love for Toejam & Earl that the fans harbor.



The Publisher Revealed

It was announced months before we knew who it was that there was a publisher involved, but recently we learned that it's Adult Swim of all companies. This both comforts and disturbs me for various reasons.

It disturbs me because Greg is already talking about a possible TJ&E show on Adult Swim if the game is popular. Though he only mentioned that perhaps they would offer at some point to allow Humanature this possibility. It doesn't appear that Adult Swim has any intentions of doing this currently, but if it does happen it would put Humanature in a position to terribly compromise what TJ&E has always been in so many ways. Remember that game-turned-cartoon that turned out really well with high quality episodes and great reception? Me neither.

It's also disturbing because one has to wonder if history will repeat itself. Would you be willing to invest your business' money into the development, publishing, and advertisement of a game that you had absolutely no say in the making of? Not likely. Perhaps Adult Swim will settle for simply having their name on the package and getting a portion of the money, but there's the distinct possibility that they will not, or that they will affect the thoughts of the developers indirectly and still change what should have been the final project.


On the other hand, it's comforting because it almost certainly guarantees a release on PS4 and Xbox One since console ports have been confirmed due to the partnership with Adult Swim. Here's to hoping for PS Vita, 3ds, Wii U and Nintendo Switch ports as well, but I'll be happy with PS4 and Xbox One.



In Conclusion

The partnership is good in ways and bad in ways. It's good because it gives us the console ports that we should have been promised from the start, especially with those stretch goals. It's bad because it sets up a beloved franchise for potential disaster...again. Additionally it can be seen as a betrayal of fan trust and overall bad taste and lack of tact.

For better or worse though, this is what we have. What are your thoughts on it?

I'll say this, when I heard that there was a possibility for a TRUE TJ+E reboot/sequel coming out I was BEYOND excited (as I know Eirinn realizes since we have talked about it a lot since it was teased) but with each update on the project (which has been scarce) I get more and more disappointed with it. To the point where now, I'm expecting to hate it. Which is sad, since I'm a HUGE fan of the original game.

Eirinn : Thank you for writing this update. I'm sorry it took so long for me to see and respond and a lot of these new developments I wasn't quite aware of.

Based on this article this has gone from a poorly managed project to a complete **** show in my opinion and really, this is one of the biggest reasons I'm so weary of contributing to any kickstarter campaign that I find interesting. Just because there are ZERO guarantees that you are going to get ANYTHING out of it. You don't know if stuff really hits the fan if these people behind these kickstarters are going to do the right thing...

That being said, if I HAD given money to this project I would be LIVID that they have now taken on NOT ONLY a publisher, but a HUGE CORPORATE MEDIA CONGLOMERATE. One whom most certainly is going to have something to say about how this game is developed and released. Which is probably why the game currently has no release date currently and is still sounding a long ways off based on what I have read on their kickstarter updates. I mean this has already dragged out for like 2 years now on a game that really shouldn't be that hard to make. Whats worse, is that they are really getting all of their backers irritated, because as far as I know, they still haven't been able to play a DEMO of the game at all.

Not only that, how does a project with this much attention not even have A WEBSITE THAT WORKS???

To be honest, it looks like they are more worried about manufacturing cheap merchandise than to make an actual game.

With this type of game, 600k should have been MORE THAN ENOUGH to develop. Honestly that price tag is a little crazy for the type of game it is. It's not like we are talking about some graphically robust FPS RPG or something like that. There's no excuse on why this game couldn't have been released long ago...but at this point they DON'T EVEN HAVE A RELEASE DATE!!!! WOW

All of this stuff doesn't even delve into the fact that I haven't liked the art style of the game that they've shown so far or the music. I don't get how some of these developers don't understand what their fans of these franchises WANT.

sonicbros : Sorry for the late reply. I was waiting to see if anyone else posted here first, but then forgot.
I understand your sentiment on this, and I too want to play it badly just because it's TJ&E, but I'm getting my hopes lowered just in case it turns out to be the huge failure they're setting it up to be. Basically it feels as though they had a chance at a clean shot for an amazing sequel, and now they're putting obstacles in their own way. It could very well be amazing still, but I'm not really hopeful at all at this point. I hope they surprise me in a big (and positive) way.


Jordanv78 : Ah thank you so much for that reply. That summarized just about exactly what I wanted to say, but I didn't want to say it in the actual article since I tried not to be overly biased in it.

The thing is, the same alarms went off in my head when I heard Adult Swim, yet Greg was saying things like "Could you imagine a better publisher for this game? Me neither!" though that may not be verbatim, it's very close as I recall. I'm just shocked that this guy could be less concerned about the potential of Adult Swim stepping in and calling the shots, ruining the game, than the fans are. I mean he's the one who had already made a working prototype for TJ&E 2 when publishers said to trash it and do something else, AND had made (I believe) a ton of progress on the actual game of TJ&E 3 when the publisher again said "trash this idea. Do it the other way instead". This is his and Voorsinger's brainchild, yet he seems so carefree about it's future. Like it could never happen that way again. Getting ANY publisher was wrong, but why accept an offer from Adult Swim of all companies? And the mention of hoping for a show, along with the half million that was used in a way not agreed upon (and opposite of the original purpose) makes it sound like a money thing. Like I said, he seems like a good guy, but I can't tell that by how he acts in an interview, only by his actions, and at this point what I saw in the interview and what I see in his actions in business are conflicting. I don't know man, I hope we're wrong but this feels like a bust in the making.

Not to mention the music, art style, and additions such as the returning hyperfunk zone, flying presents, and more all make this feel more like an idea based on TJ&E than an actual TJ&E game. I'm none too thrilled with the development so far. Hopefully it changes directions soon, for the better.

Eirinn : I'm not surprised that the lead of the project would try to put a happy face on and make it seem like everything was bubblegum and puppy dogs when announcing that they took on a Publisher. He knew it would be a bad look, but instead of coming with hat in hand and telling his fans what was REALLY GOING ON, he decided to act like he thinks we are all stupid....

If you want my opinion on it, they didn't want to come out and say that they mis-managed the project and that they blew a lot of the money that the Kickstarters so graciously gave to them in hopes of a good game. (The rest is best guess based on my life experience working in the software industry but bear with me)

When they started releasing information regarding the game and seeing the backlash from fans and supporters alike, they probably panicked and realized they needed to go a different route. Which at that point, they were starting to run out of money as well as probably realizing that they did not have the proper business sense to market this on several different platforms...so along comes a huge conglomerate like Time Warner to swoop up the project and inject some cash and hype into the project as well as the publisher getting a franchise with some sort of cult following, rather than most games they put their names on, which might be fun, but aren't all that engrossing or have all that much replay value.

A lot of this may have to do with personal money issues as well. (which we have seen a ton of times with failed Kickstarters with grand plans) but again a lot of this is just speculation based on life experiences.

I really do hope I'm wrong because I feel like this franchise is in DESPERATE need of a PROPER sequel. Sadly, this project seems to be the end of such hopes, as it seems even the project team doesn't understand what the fans need and want.

It's really irritating that some devs won't go "all in" when re-creating the retro feel of rebooted franchises. Some that come to mind off the top of my head: Rocket Knight, Bionic Commando, and most of the Modern Sonics (although the new one might redeem that??)

Why can't companies look at what Capcom did with MegaMan, Or indie games like Fez, CaveStory or Shovel Knight and see that TRUE 8/16 bit looking games with cool updated music THAT FITS THE ERA THESE GAMES WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN are certainly in demand and what the fans really want?? (oh and the upcoming teased Double Dragon 4 game modeled in 8 bit graphics for the 30th anniversary of the original release)

I can tell you as a fan of a lot of these franchises, it's FRUSTRATING as all heck.