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Crickey mates! Throw some prawn on the barbie and come on down to the Outback, another Ty the Tasmanian Tiger game is in the works!

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger was just one of many in the large stable of PS2-era 3D platformers… and the bane of editors everywhere for it’s alliteration. Ty 3: Night of the Quinkan was the last in the series, released way back in 2005 for the PS2 and Xbox. Now, more than an entire console generation later, the franchise is coming back with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4. And it’s set to be released exclusively for the PC (via Steam… sorry console owners. In addition to moving platforms, the new game will shift planes and take place entirely in 2D… sorry 3D platformer fans.

Perhaps the weirdest bit of news, besides the fact that this fourth game exists at all, is that it’s coming out in only a few weeks on September 18. It’s rare for a game to be formally announced this close to its release date, but we’re going to have to give Krome Studios the benefit of the doubt.

If Ty 4 is a success, Krome hopes to bring the three earlier entries in the series to Steam as well. Hopefully, fans of the franchise can make that happen. But first, I’m going to go ahead and write a few million apology notes to everyone in Australia.

Hatoful Boyfriend, a pigeon dating sim, is a real game that exists. It is also genuinely regarded as a pretty good game by contributors to the Metacritic average. And despite being a game about dating pigeons, it eventually even found its way to the PS4 and Vita.

You know a developer has to be good when they make a game about the mating habit of teenage pigeons and people legitimately love it.

That developer, Moa Hato, recently announced Black Holmes, his next romance game… minus the pigeons this time. Black Holmes was revealed through its own new website, which is all in Japanese. However, Warp Zoned’s highly skilled team of translators, lead by Goog L. Tran-Slate (it’s French), were able to gather some facts about the game.

It’s not clear where the name “Black” Holmes comes from, but the star of the game is indeed a detective named Holmes. Rather than Sherlock, the main character is Noah Holmes, and he “loves the crime bad conduct detective.” Don’t we all?

The site doesn’t have much to offer besides that, a few pictures, and the briefest of plot summaries:

1889, London.

Dazzling light prosperity and civilization has brought dropped a well-colored shadow on society, Malicious people in stagnation had undergone a deepening.

Human history and criminal history just like coins of both sides. Crime In response to the evolution of civilization also will increase the diversity.

This is a detective that has been fascinated with the art serving crime that gave birth of humanity, He committed the crime lord of the story.

Judging by the artwork available, Black Holmes will likely have a manga feel to it. We also know it’ll be another visual novel, like Hatoful Boyfriend, and may be released episodically.

As a big fan of visual novels and Sherlock Holmes, this kind of game seems right up my alley. Look forward to more information about the game when we can get our hands on it… and when Goog L. Tran-Slate can be bothered to do his job.

If the failure of the Red Ash Kickstarter campaign has taught the developers of the world anything, it’s that you should always have something of your game to show besides concept art. Gameplay is ideal, but at least a trailer showcasing the world and it’s characters would be better than nothing.

KnightMayor, the developer behind Mooncrest, did not heed this lesson.

After a week on Kickstarter, the team reached just slightly more than 10% of their intended goal of $400,000. The reason for this slow start is likely because they had nothing but a vague idea, a few pieces of concept art, and one piece of music. According to their latest update, they had a basic pitch video at one point, but took it down because it was “weak.” The entire campaign was halted after this update was posted:

Coming out of the gate things looked great, but a weak project video, coupled with poor messaging, and no in game footage was the death of us.

It seems like the whole campaign was built around the fact the team was composed of several former developers from BioWare, as they proudly boasted in the actual title of their campaign. KnightMayor also seems to have misunderstood where they went wrong, and have promised a more triumphant return to the crowdfunding platform in the future:

Our future plans are to lick our wounds, address all of the criticisms/complaints we received, and move forward with another Kickstarter once we’re ready. Our focus will be on having a pitch video that actually, ya know, pitches the game, having in game footage to show, and just going more in depth on what we have in place to see this game through production and to release.

I appreciate their openness and honesty, but this is a mistake that should never have been made in the first place. It goes to show that despite the fact that they’re proven industry veterans, this is the first time they’re running their own studio, and they’re bound to make mistakes.

Good luck to KnightMayor in the future and we’ll let you know when a refocused Kickstarter campaign for Mooncrest is ready to go.