Devil Engine (PS4,Switch, PC) 2018- Hyakutarou music

[xxx1993]

Now I’m even more worried!

[jigenbakuda]

I dont know what to believe, but I do know in my current version of devil engine, the ignition demo is in it all ready. Sinoc said it would be out in winter. This leads me to believe that substantial portions of ignition were likely done by summer. I would imagine the delay is not due to development. I also would guess that if sinoc was recieving royalties, he would be hesitant to suggest anyone torrent the game. He could have released the game as doujin at Comicon if he were not concerned about sales... This leads me to believe the delay likely has something to do with dangan.

I will be highly pissed if I paid for this game and none of the money went to devs. I bought the ost on bandcamp, instead of pirating it because I wanted to support questa. If for any reason devs arent getting paid, I have a serious problem with that. Im sure it happens all the time, and that doesnt change that its morally wrong everytime as well. Im just angrily typing so I will stop, but this sucks...

[MJR]

https://nichegamer.com/2019/12/06/repor ... e-another/

Check this article out...

I saw actually the original anonymous allegation, before it was pulled, before I read the rebuttal, and we discussed it with colleagues.

Basically any allegation that is anonymous, and then pulled off from the web, is hardly something you should be taking seriously. What should be taken seriously, is how easily mud can be slinged anonymously in the web.

Also, in the original, and now removed post, the allegations had nothing to do with harassment: it seemed to be more like some disgruntled employee not happy with her employer throwing in some "he was 12 years older than me and dared to throw a flirt"-type allegation, that could easily be interpreted as sexual harassment in these triggered metoo-times.

In any case, while accusing of her employer of unprofessional behaviour (granted, I agree that flirting with employees or with girls who want job from you may appear as bit iffy for some people), she was unprofessional herself by taking all that dirty laundry in the public. And doing it anonymously made it worse. The wrongdoings of the employer were not serious enough for public lynching and all that she would do to herself was simply shooting herself in the foot, and ensuring that no sane person would want to hire her. I wouldn't hire her.

[Sumez]

Basically any allegation that is anonymous, and then pulled off from the web, is hardly something you should be taking seriously. What should be taken seriously, is how easily mud can be slinged anonymously in the web.

1. Despite being "anonymous", it doesn't take too much detective work to figure out who made the allegations. At least for any involved party.
2. No one "pulled" the allegations. They were forcibly removed thanks to Dangen. It is the intentions of the people who write the allegations for them to stay up, so they made a second post to back up everything. Here you go: https://medium.com/@dangenwarning/dange ... 1e04ab78ea

she was unprofessional herself by taking all that dirty laundry in the public. And doing it anonymously made it worse.

The only mistake here was not going public with this shit earlier. Ben Judd has obviously pulled a lot of BS, and as long as it's kept under wraps he'd be able to go on with it.

[MJR]

Basically any allegation that is anonymous, and then pulled off from the web, is hardly something you should be taking seriously. What should be taken seriously, is how easily mud can be slinged anonymously in the web.

1. Despite being "anonymous", it doesn't take too much detective work to figure out who made the allegations. At least for any involved party.
2. No one "pulled" the allegations. They were forcibly removed thanks to Dangen. It is the intentions of the people who write the allegations for them to stay up, so they made a second post to back up everything. Here you go: https://medium.com/@dangenwarning/dange ... 1e04ab78ea

she was unprofessional herself by taking all that dirty laundry in the public. And doing it anonymously made it worse.

The only mistake here was not going public with this shit earlier. Ben Judd has obviously pulled a lot of BS, and as long as it's kept under wraps he'd be able to go on with it.

Thank you for clarifying with point 2. As for the last point you made, I am not sure I agree, although I must give certain benefit of doubt due to the fact that I don't know these parties personally. Are you personally involved with them in any way?

[Sumez]

Not at all, but I've heard a lot of crap over the past year or so.

[MJR]

Ok.

Generally speaking, it may be a good idea to take any internet rumblings and hearsay gossips with a certain grain of salt, and usually attacking employer publicly and anonymously is not considered helpful in any case. But I am convinced that there has to be some serious problems. No smoke without fire, and all that yadda yadda. Very well, maybe better if I don't make any further comments. I hope things sort out and it doesn't get worse.

[BurlyHeart]

2. No one "pulled" the allegations. They were forcibly removed thanks to Dangen. It is the intentions of the people who write the allegations for them to stay up, so they made a second post to back up everything. Here you go: https://medium.com/@dangenwarning/dange ... 1e04ab78ea

This one was pulled too, but it can be read at https://archive.md/JiK3g .

[djsheep]

Ben Judd steps down from Dangen: http://dangenentertainment.com/ben-judd-s-statement​
Dangen restructures: http://dangenentertainment.com/dangen-c ... ructuring​

​

[Udderdude]

More like Drama Engine, amirite? : badum-tssh :

[guyot]

usgamer spoke to other sources who offered corroboration too:

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/report ... -indie-dev

Ben Judd steps down from Dangen: http://dangenentertainment.com/ben-judd-s-statement​
Dangen restructures: http://dangenentertainment.com/dangen-c ... ructuring​

​

Not much of a statement. Hope they at least give up the rights and let Sinoc & Protoculture do what they want with DE from now on.

[jigenbakuda]

Tangential Related

Details of Ben Judd's misconduct.

https://twitter.com/OnTakahashi/status/ ... 63392?s=19

[Sumez]

Ben Judd steps down from Dangen​

I guess that's...... better than nothing?

[SPM]

I thought the situation was sorted out... but only KIND OF...

Positive side:
https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/stat ... 67522?s=20

Negative side:
https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/stat ... 24832?s=20
https://twitter.com/Qwesta6/status/1349 ... 80423?s=20

[Udderdude]

What a shitshow.

[DietSoap]

The drama continues.

Musicians reiterating it's still not safe to buy the game
https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/stat ... 0541561856

Protoculture finally responding to the allegations
https://steamcommunity.com/app/891790/d ... 122080023/

Musicians responding to the response
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srieb8

[CStarFlare]

I don't really know what to think of the whole thing except

When we initially complied with the terms of their agreement with Dangen on their behalf, they in return did not comply with core tenets of our understood agreement with them and began making it clear they intended to sell our work regardless of any objections we had.

red flag

edit: Just read Protoculture's post. I can't make any assumptions about the honesty of the claims they make, but if you've ever taken an introductory business law class this sounds exactly like the scenario your professor would have presented when telling you to always negotiate and sign a real contract when entering into a business relationship with anyone:

5) Like many small gamedev startups, there was a lot of informality during the development of DEVIL ENGINE. Now, years and a very successful indie game later, there is confusion about rights, there are hurt feelings, and there are a lot of accusations from multiple people, about multiple people.

The fact the Protoculture has a lawyer at least means they have someone advising them how to present themselves publicly. Depending on the lawyer, he might be making an honest assessment of the rights situation here, or he might have correctly identified that the other side isn't equipped to fight this anyway so Protoculture should just hold its ground. Whatever. As I recall Sinoc told people to just pirate the game ages ago so I guess do that.

[Sengoku Strider]

red flag

edit: Just read Protoculture's post. I can't make any assumptions about the honesty of the claims they make, but if you've ever taken an introductory business law class this sounds exactly like the scenario your professor would have presented when telling you to always negotiate and sign a real contract when entering into a business relationship with anyone

Yeah, it's like sorry, but you have no contract and now you're coming back saying you're unhappy with the deal you got. I'm sure it sucks to feel jerked around at the end of all this. But you're talking about a cut of a cut of a 2D retro indie shmup with a 72 metacritic that came out two years ago, was badly mishandled by the publisher, then subsequently had the developer running around telling the whole internet not to buy it.

I've been following this since it first happened, and yes, the developer clearly has a tendency to become verbally abusive and has difficulty with written language. He's also on the spectrum, so you can only read so much ill intent into his actions. It's just as likely he's been seeing this all in very black & white terms from the beginning, and has been acting accordingly.

I'm sure every dollar counts in a pandemic, and I understand not wanting to back down - especially with how poorly the value of artists' work is treated by some these days. But long term, publicly getting into names & accusations on the company Twitter account is probably not the best way to make use of the brief spotlight they've got here, over what is probably not a very large sum. Especially if they're not in a position to lawyer up, so literally nothing is going to come of it aside from getting them further into the muck of a he-said she-said in one of the biggest shitshows to ever hit the indie scene.

[BloodHawk]

red flag

edit: Just read Protoculture's post. I can't make any assumptions about the honesty of the claims they make, but if you've ever taken an introductory business law class this sounds exactly like the scenario your professor would have presented when telling you to always negotiate and sign a real contract when entering into a business relationship with anyone

Yeah, it's like sorry, but you have no contract and now you're coming back saying you're unhappy with the deal you got. I'm sure it sucks to feel jerked around at the end of all this. But you're talking about a cut of a cut of a 2D retro indie shmup with a 72 metacritic that came out two years ago, was badly mishandled by the publisher, then subsequently had the developer running around telling the whole internet not to buy it.

I've been following this since it first happened, and yes, the developer clearly has a tendency to become verbally abusive and has difficulty with written language. He's also on the spectrum, so you can only read so much ill intent into his actions. It's just as likely he's been seeing this all in very black & white terms from the beginning, and has been acting accordingly.

I'm sure every dollar counts in a pandemic, and I understand not wanting to back down - especially with how poorly the value of artists' work is treated by some these days. But long term, publicly getting into names & accusations on the company Twitter account is probably not the best way to make use of the brief spotlight they've got here, over what is probably not a very large sum. Especially if they're not in a position to lawyer up, so literally nothing is going to come of it aside from getting them further into the muck of a he-said she-said in one of the biggest shitshows to ever hit the indie scene.

This pretty much nails it on the head IMO... I don't know the personal situations of everyone involved, so I am not sure how many people were depending on the game's profit to put a roof over their head or food on their plate (if so I feel for them), but as good as the game is it's still an indie shmup so from the outside looking in I am thinking more has been spent on legal fees than the game's actual top line revenue.

[SPM]

I was reducing my wishlist to a sensible size and I'm on the fence about Devil Engine.

I looks and sounds great, but... is the gameplay mainly about abusing bursts? I like some bullet cancelling but not if it's overdone. I enjoy dodging stuff you know

It seems like both for survival and scoring bursting is the way to go

[EmperorIng]

You use the burst non-stop; it really is the only way to deal with some of the game's patterns imo. Even then you will have some stuff you can't burst that will insta-kill you if you don't know it's coming (like the flame bombs in stage 2). If you die too much or don't fill your burst too much (which is normal when you are starting out), you won't have much burst to deal with the bullets, which will lead to a lot of chain deaths in a row.

You don't need to be quite as good as Kiwi's play, but his videos should be a good indicator of what high-tier DE play is supposed to look like.

BTW, the composer of the game has the soundtrack up on his own bandcamp now if you want to throw some cash to him directly. Note this lacks the 2 or 3 tracks Hyakatarou contributed.

[Rastan78]

I work in the arts. I have had some issues with lucrative and time consuming projects turned south. It can be gutwrenching and leave you in a position where it is hard to move on. I've seen other artists/ craftspeople / freelancers end up in legal battles, usually with former clients who have much more resources to continue in court than they do. You could end up bankrupting yourself by pursuing something like this too far. Not to mention the hit to your self esteem and productivity.

There's a time to walk away and move to the next project. Take it as a lesson to be more selective about who you work with and have your contracts tightened up by a lawyer. Everyone makes mistakes when the start out. The ultimate price is paid when you let one project define you and lose sight of your value and your potential for future work. It can be especially painful if the project turned bad initially had the promise of high dollars or exposure leading someone to feel like it was a big break in the making. The more irons you have in the fire, so to speak, the easier it will be to move past it. Take the valuable lessons learned, protect yourself better with ironclad contracts in the future, and focus towards the future ASAP.

[EmperorIng]

I agree 100%. The last thing I want to see is everyone involved having the tether of this game's drama-filled fighting strapped around their necks. Sometimes you have to move on and be wiser about how you go about signing up for the next big indie smash.

[Rastan78]

Usually someone taking advantage of you or treating you in an abusive way will start by degrees. Sure, just fly out here and get a hotel room. We need to discuss the project. Don't worry about out of pocket expenses now, because you'll be reimbursed and then some when you get your big paycheck . . .

Putting your foot down early is the best way to deal with jackasses. If it means losing that great big next thing, then so be it. You were better off.

I think Maya Angelou said when someone shows you who they really are, believe them.

[SPM]

You use the burst non-stop; it really is the only way to deal with some of the game's patterns imo. Even then you will have some stuff you can't burst that will insta-kill you if you don't know it's coming (like the flame bombs in stage 2). If you die too much or don't fill your burst too much (which is normal when you are starting out), you won't have much burst to deal with the bullets, which will lead to a lot of chain deaths in a row.

You don't need to be quite as good as Kiwi's play, but his videos should be a good indicator of what high-tier DE play is supposed to look like.

Thanks! Not much of a fan, but I feel like I'll have to give it a go and see it myself. It just looks gorgeous and that OST rocks! Also, I love the Thunder Force IV and Last Resort references

[m.sniffles.esq]

Devil Engine: Complete Edition coming to PS5, PS4, and Switch on October 12

[Sumez]

Well that was really surprising

[xxx1993]

Devil Engine: Complete Edition coming to PS5, PS4, and Switch on October 12

About time, too! It’s been stuck in limbo for so long now.

[Sengoku Strider]

Devil Engine: Complete Edition coming to PS5, PS4, and Switch on October 12

It says 3980 yen, includes 1993 Shenandoah as a bonus ('93 incomplete Amiga project, finished & release on PC & Mac in 2016 as 1993 Space Machine).

[Marc]

Devil Engine: Complete Edition coming to PS5, PS4, and Switch on October 12

It says 3980 yen, includes 1993 Shenandoah as a bonus ('93 incomplete Amiga project, finished & release on PC & Mac in 2016 as 1993 Space Machine).

It was released under the original title on Switch?
I was playing it the ither day. It's a hori Xenon 2 and just as shit.