Commandos-Like Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew - ghost pirates stealth strategy from Mimimi Games

[Zombra]

https://www.shadowgambit.com




https://af.gog.com/game/shadow_gambit_the_cursed_crew?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Excerpt from the latest Mimimi Games mailing list message:

The Future of Mimimi Games
Hey friends,

It's BIG news time!

No worries, I won't bore you with a long intro. Let's get to the juicy details right away.

Ok, after this picture of Mimi eating some delicious sweet potatoes ...

Our next adventure is about to begin and many of you have already asked us: What is your next project?

Well, I published an elaborate statement on our homepage regarding what is next for us: https://www.mimimi.games/the-future-of-mimimi-games

If you don't want to read it that's fine (I'm only a little hurt since I put so much effort in drafting it) as I also created a short summary of the announcement.

Check this out:

• Long live real-time tactics: Our next project Codename Süßkartoffel is going to be our third real-time tactics game.
• Self-published by Mimimi Games: Moving forward, we will take full control and responsibility regarding all our creative and business decisions by publishing Codename Süßkartoffel ... ourselves.
• Merkel approves: Codename Süßkartoffel is going to be co-funded by the German government via official games industry grant.

Wow, that is quite something, right?
Guess we can't take it back anymore. We definitely have to make another real-time tactics game now. Which is going to be 100% made by Mimimi.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

 

[CyberModuled]

Certainly hope this gives them as much creative freedom as possible and any other self publishing benefits for their next game (though I don't get that much of an impression Daedalic or Nordic were holding them back in any form).

Is this

?

Secret project was announced about a month back but the self-publishing news is definitely new.

 

[Infinitron]

Why don't you post their statement: https://www.mimimi.games/the-future-of-mimimi-games/

The Future of Mimimi Games
We are going to self-publish our next real-time tactics game!

• Long live real-time tactics: Our next project Codename Süßkartoffel is going to be our third real-time tactics game.
• Self-published by Mimimi Games: Moving forward, we will take full control and responsibility regarding all our creative and business decisions by publishing Codename Süßkartoffel … ourselves.
• Merkel approves: Codename Süßkartoffel is going to be co-funded by the German government via official games industry grant.

Hmmm … Codename Süßkartoffel … delicious!

The path to Codename Süßkartoffel
Mimimi Games has been making games for twelve years now. But let’s be real: Most of you have never heard of us before we released Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun in 2016, which revived the real-time tactics genre. Although we came close to bankruptcy, the investment paid off in the end. This summer, we released Desperados III for PC and consoles together with THQ Nordic. It is a prequel to the classic real-time tactics genre hit Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive.

Now, the next chapter is about to begin and many of you have already asked us: What is your next project?

Well, it’s kind of an open secret really. Random team members have already used various places on the internet to confirm what I’m about to tell you. Also, I mentioned it like 100 times in this post already …

But to make it truly official: We are proud to announce that our next project Codename Süßkartoffel is going to be our third real-time tactics game!

“Süßkartoffel … ? Sounds … funny?!” Yeah, but the game will not actually be called Süßkartoffel (English: “sweet potato”) once it is released. It is the internal codename that we use for the project. As that it is an evolution of the previous codename Kartoffel (English: “potato”), which we used for Desperados III. Fun fact: Before we made the Kartoffel project public we fittingly called publisher THQ Nordic “farmer” in our internal communication. What can I say? Germans just love a good Kartoffel and have an excellent sense of humor – as is well known. Oh, while we are at it, here is another little tease: Although we have no idea when we will start working on it, the game after Codename Süßkartoffel also already has a vegetable codename. You can find out about it on our Discord server!

We are ready to embrace self-publishing
But wait, there is more! During a time of consolidation for our industry, the whole team made a watershed decision that takes quite the opposite direction: With our next real-time tactics title Codename Süßkartoffel we want to embrace self-publishing!

First of all, instead of simply “bashing” publishers, we actually want to thank our previous partners Daedalic Entertainment and THQ Nordic for believing in us and publishing our previous real-time tactics games. They took a huge risk in helping to resurrect this genre with us.

But we felt a strong desire to, at least once, make our own choices (and mistakes). This is why we decided that we are going to carve our own path with our next game. It was a very big and certainly not an easy decision for us, but one that was made by the whole team together – and one that will open up new opportunities for us as studio and our next game.
We are going to be able to take full control of every creative and business aspect of game development and publishing. We will get to choose how to distribute our resources and assets. We will be able to decide for ourselves what we want to talk about regarding Codename Süßkartoffel and when. And we can start arguing internally about the tone of this whole statement text that you are just reading, without blaming someone external. In short, this move will make it possible for us to really produce a game that is 100% made by Mimimi Games.

At the same time, new challenges will arise that we do not see coming yet. We will also face many new tasks, which we have never done before. This really sounds like a true and exciting adventure to us. An adventure that we cannot wait to embark on – together with our friends, fans and our trusting community that we are so thankful for!

Spoiler

The German government believes in Mimimi Games!
Now, certainly some of you will ask yourselves: How will Mimimi Games, a studio based in Munich consisting of around 30 people, finance their next project?

Well, financing Codename Süßkartoffel will be made possible through different building blocks. The core block, which is making all of this possible in the first place, is an undisclosed and independent investor that we will talk about at a later time in more detail!

One of the others is the German government. Yes, THE German government officially approves our real-time tactics game and our plan to self-publish our next project. This means, we are going to be one of the first (!) studios to receive governmental funding as part of the official games industry grant program, which was initiated and is managed by the “BMVI” (Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure).

We strongly appreciate this initiative by the German government. This is not only great news for us, but for all other German developers that have been granted funding as well. Also, our managing director Johannes has actually invested countless hours in association meetings to get this grant started. Therefore, he rejoices twice over.

We need your help!
“WE NEED SÜßKARTOFFEL NOW!”, I already hear you screaming. Well, it’s going to take a few years but you might actually be able to help. We are planning to expand the team to almost 40 employees in 2021 in light of the upcoming project. Therefore, we are currently hiring and especially looking for:

• IT Manager (div/f/m)
• Senior Developer (div/f/m) with specialization in animation, tools, consoles or rendering

More announcements will follow in the future, but unsolicited applications for these positions are already possible:

• Animator (div/f/m)
• 3D Character Artist (div/f/m)
• QA Lead (div/f/m)
• Product Manager (div/f/m)
• Line Producer (div/f/m)
• Communications Assistant (div/f/m)

You can find more information on current and future job offerings here: https://www.mimimi.games/#team-jobs.

Stay tuned for more Codename Süßkartoffel news!
Phew, this was certainly a lot of info to digest. But it feels good to finally share these news with you all. We will share further updates regarding Codename Süßkartoffel in due course. So stay tuned! The easiest way to do so is by signing up to our newsletter here. You can also simply enter your email down below.

And in the meantime, if you want to chat with us and the community directly you can hop on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/mimimi

Cheers,
Matthias
Communications Lead @ Mimimi Games

 

[zool]

I wish they would go for a sequel to Robin Hood but I think I've seen it mentioned somewhere that it won't be the case.

 

[zool]

I loved how you could tailor the difficulty level to your own needs in Desperados III but what has always been missing from those games IMO is a way to customize enemy view cones to your liking. I'd love it in their next game if you could change it to whatever value you want in terms of width and depth.

Default view cones in Shadow Tactics and Desperados III must be around 50-55° and with a depth of approximately 20-25 meters. I'd love to test the game with a 90° and 35 meter view cone for example. It'd also be great to if you could choose to deactivate the striped "no detection if prone" part of the cone when it is only purely due to to distance and not to an obstacle obstructing view.

This might of course make some parts of the game impossible but with the toolset you have at your disposal, there seems to always be a solution that you can find.

 

[vortex]

Why don't they make some cool cRPG like Pathfinder Kingmaker?

 

[thesheeep]

Why don't they make some cool cRPG like Pathfinder Kingmaker?

Yeah, why doesn't everyone make the same kind of game?
It's so annoying!

 

[gerey]

Hopefully it's the Roman-themed game they were talking about.

 

[zool]

Hopefully it's the Roman-themed game they were talking about.

That would be great. Source?

 

[Harry Easter]

Hopefully it's the Roman-themed game they were talking about.

If that is true: sold!

 

[CyberModuled]

Did a bit of digging and found them sort of tease it here.

https://archive.is/UAPuY

But we love the idea of exploring different settings, and we now have an IP that lets us do that. So if we ever get the chance to make “Shadow Tactics: Legions of Rome”, that’s one less thing to worry about.

Sounds more playful than anything but hey, I don't have a problem with more interesting historical settings for a game like this. If anything, getting German funding sort of guarantees it won't be a WW2 related game by association alone.

 

[Harry Easter]

Sounds more playful than anything but hey, I don't have a problem with more interesting historical settings for a game like this. If anything, getting German funding sort of guarantees it won't be a WW2 related game by association alone.

I salute you for this burn, mein Herr.

 

[kreight]

This is one of the studios which deserves to be discussed. Instead youre discussing soyer and obsidian. Americans what can I say.

 

[Great Deceiver]

What's the point of self-publishing when you're being partially funded by taxpayer money?

 

[JarlFrank]

What's the point of self-publishing when you're being partially funded by taxpayer money?

German taxpayer funds are given to any game project that's considered high quality enough for the government to consider supporting. It's completely hands-off: the government gives you the money, and they hope that this will support the growing video game industry here in Germany. They don't really care what you do with the game (but they do kinda expect you to keep it PG-16 and not turn it into adults only porn or gorefest). All they care about is supporting this growing industry and making Germany an attractive location for game developers.

At least that's how it works in Bavaria, I don't know how the less civilized states handle it

 

[Heroic Liberator]

in Bavaria

I see, my Northern Austrian friend.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.mimimi.games/new-codename-suesskartoffel-details-revealed/

New Codename Süßkartoffel details revealed!
These are the simple ingredients that will make our next game delicious

• Original Süßkartoffel Recipe: Our first self-published and third real-time tactics game is a brand-new IP – with a fresh setting and an original story!
• Served Hot with Kowloon Nights: We are revealing our mysterious investor. THEY ARE NOT A PUBLISHER!
• 100% Homemade Mimimi Sauce: We are in full control over everything, including the IP rights and all creative choices.

Delicacy deluxe: Codename Süßkartoffel

Original Süßkartoffel Recipe
Y’all are probably hungry for some new details about Codename Süßkartoffel (at least that’s what we hope!). Well, you have come to the right place: Today, we are announcing that Codename Süßkartoffel is a brand-new, original IP!

This means that our third real-time tactics game will feature a fresh setting, completely new characters and an original story – all served in a delicious Mimimi real-time tactics coating that we are working on refining even further.

Mhmmm… I hope that this news appetizer will stimulate your imagination! What’s even more exciting: this announcement has more layers than you might think! Like an onion so to speak – and that’s where I’m going full vegetable circle.

It does mean that, on one hand, we are not working on Shadow Tactics 2. Nor are we working on a Commandos or another Desperados game. On the other hand, it signifies that with the decision to create a new IP we are able to create a whole new world, with a new setting, story and characters that all follow our own creative design choices. That’s mouth-watering!

Served Hot with Kowloon Nights
Perhaps you remember the paragraph in our last blog post in which we stated that financing Codename Süßkartoffel will be made possible through different building blocks?

One of those blocks is the German government that is co-funding our next game. Known fact by now. In this context, we also mentioned the core ingredient: a mysterious investor, which is making self-publishing possible in the first place.

Finally, I can reveal the identity of this ominous investor. We’re very happy to announce that Codename Süßkartoffel is part of a new lineup of game projects supported by Kowloon Nights!

Yes, we love each other!

Kowloon who? This news might be confusing for some, so let me resolve that immediately: Kowloon Nights is not a publisher and we’re still doing the self-publishing thing.

Ok, so who are they? Well, Kowloon Nights is a team of business professionals and seasoned studio heads that invest in game projects, without claiming any shares of the company or IP rights of the game.

And here are five reasons why we enjoy having Kowloon Nights, who we actually met at the European Games BizDev Gathering for the first time, as a partner for Codename Süßkartoffel:

1. They leave us 100 % full creative control and all the rights to Codename Süßkartoffel! They don’t take a single share or ownership of our IP – and neither a percentage of derivatives such as the soundtrack.
2. Kowloon Nights only does 3-page contracts! Traditional contracts can easily be 50+ pages long, which can distract developers from focusing on what is important: the game!
3. If you buy Codename Süßkartoffel we receive all the cash from Steam and other platforms directly. We then transfer a reasonable share to Kowloon. Normally, with the usual contracts it can sometimes take multiple months before developers receive their share because of the accounting complexity. Hence, the Kowloon system reduces financial pressure in-between projects and secures the overall stability of Mimimi Games.
4. They have a very approachable team that maintains a flat hierarchy and can quickly support us with platform relations and deals, for example.
5. Being part of the Kowloon family means that we gain access to their experience and network of fellow game developers, who are happy to support each other.

You can read more about who Kowloon Nights is and what the team stands for on their official homepage or in this tweet:

100% Homemade Mimimi Sauce
When we mentioned that the German government is involved in Codename Süßkartoffel, some of you were concerned that this means that they could creatively influence the project.

However, we are not required to include German-specific topics in the game. Although the German government is co-funding the project, they have no say in any creative decision or the development in general.

Codename Süßkartoffel is 100% cooked by the Mimimi team and the Mimimi team only. It is our game!

*Munch munch munch*

Stay Tuned!
We will share more news regarding Codename Süßkartoffel in due course. So, stay tuned and sign up to our newsletter here if you want to receive further updates.

You can also simply enter your email down below:

If you want to chat with us and the community directly you can also hop on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/mimimi.

Cheers,

Matthias
Communications Lead @ Mimimi Games

 

[Zombra]

Well Kowloon Nights are certainly talking the talk to make a better world for gaming. Here's hoping they walk the walk.

 

[zool]

Here's hoping they won't go for a fantasy setting.

I want muh historical setting, whatever it is, but Medieval or Antiquity would be great.

 

[Riddler]

At least that's how it works in Bavaria, I don't know how the less civilized states handle it

I've heard it's much the same in Hamburg.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Shadow of Rome has put me off ever wanting another roman stealth game.

I think vampire hunters would be a great match for the game type.

 

[zool]

I think vampire hunters would be a great match for the game type.

That would be an interesting twist since Spellbound's cancelled sequel to Robin Hood was precisely called Vampire Hunter.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/vampire-hunter-commandos-like-game.80310/

 

[KateMicucci]

In the hiring section what do they mean by (div/f/m)? I hope its not what it sounds like.

 

[Heinrich]

In the hiring section what do they mean by (div/f/m)? I hope its not what it sounds like.

Required by law to include a third gender, it isn't on them.