LogInIt's now considered the most-delayed game in history.
Back in 2002, a group of friends decided to make a video game for Game Boy Advance. It was a brave endeavor because they didn't really have anything to achieve this goal: no programmer or even experience. But they worked for years, full of enthusiasm.
You have probably never heard of Kien, and it's no wonder – the game was never released, that is until recently. The action platformer about a warrior and a priestess has lost all of its original developers aside from the game designer, Fabio Belsanti, as reported by The Guardian.
Kien was inspired by the early Italian Renaissance stories, visuals of early Japanese games, and action games like Turrican.
The Guardian
So what happened to Kien? Apparently, it had been finished years ago, but the chosen publisher thought it was too risky to release because Game Boy cartridges cost $15 to produce then.
"The amount of capital required just to print the initial copies was daunting, especially since the chances of commercial success were low, based on industry trends at the time," Belsanti said.
AgeOfGames
The platformer was kept in slumber for a long time after that, and Belsanti's studio AgeOfGames moved to educational games, such as ScacciaRischi, to survive. "The capitalist system is a ruthless meat grinder," the developer said, "to which I have adapted out of necessity, but I do not like it."
A comeback of retro games and lower GBA cartridge costs made Kien's revival possible recently, with publisher Incube8 helping it find its ground again.
AgeOfGames
"On a romantic level, the thought of releasing the game on its original console is simply magical," Belsanti shared. "To see Kien come to life on the very platform it was designed for is a dream come true."
AgeOfGames
Surprisingly (or maybe not), AgeOfGames is already working on a spiritual successor for Kien. Hopefully, it won't take as long this time.
"The power of the video game experience can, not always but in some cases, be much more intense and powerful in old video games made with limited graphical and technical resources. I will never forget the emotion I felt looking at the cover art of my Philips Videopac or Spectrum ZX or Commodore 64 video games, which had nothing to do with the pixels that appeared on the screen. My imagination created a bridge between the artwork and the pixels, and filled every limit and absence with fantastic stories."
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