What's the state of the Dreamcast Homebrew scene?

[DobbyDobs123]

So I was reading an (article)http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1 ... php?page=2 (albeit from 2011) that seemed pretty grim about the future of dreamcast homebrew:
"Nowadays we don't see much future in these niche systems, as the markets are [steadily] declining," said Timm Hellwig. "We still love them, but we're a business that makes money to fund our projects, after all. To date, Fast Striker only sold 60 percent of what Last Hope sold on Dreamcast, which is kind of disappointing [considering] the quality of the game... we also try to expand to more active and profitable platforms like iPhone and WiiWare."

The people at redspotgames were talking about moving onto downloadable games and leaving the homebrew stuff behind. So I was wondering, seeing as that article was published a few years back, has the scene declined at all? It looks like there's still stuff like Redux, Ghost Blade, Pier Solar HD, in the works.

Also, why are so many dreamcast homebrews shumups? I like the homebrew idea but, I dunno, that is not my favorite genre.

[noiseredux]

http://racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ew#p854254

[bacardipr05]

There's a few games been produced. Of course with Indie games anything is liable to be canceled or it can take years and years. Ive been following a publisher by the name of Tgmods or Isotope and their games Scourge/Hypertension now for about 5 years since i first heard of it. It appears now that the game may come to fruition but at this point im not sure. Im not sure and anyone can interject i think shooters are easier to program for giving that these guys are amateur to mid level programmers/developers and giving the limited tools(and resources) that they have available. You could just come up with one Schump game engine and just change a few things up and basically produce a few games. Besides the aforementioned Scourge/Hypertension future games that im aware of are. Pier Solar, Leona Trickys Adv, Ghost Blade, Elysian Shadows, Jump and Blob. I might be missing some but thats off the top of my head. Also Senile is working on a new engine Age of the Beast that im sure might spawn a few Homebrew games. So there is still some life left in the Dreamcast Indie/Homebrew scene. Duranik who produced the brilliant Sturmwind has been quiet i wonder if they have anything DC related up their sleeves. I think if the publishers are looking to get rich of the Dreamcast Indie scene might be a little disappointed. Conversely your new game/app can easily get lost in the now thousands of games and apps for Android/Ios.

[Jagosaurus]

Is Hypertension the horror FPS? Looks awesome but you're right... been in development hell for some time now.

[bacardipr05]

Is Hypertension the horror FPS? Looks awesome but you're right... been in development hell for some time now.

Yes it is..I know they had some problems with obtaining permission and had to scrap some work because of it and bunch of other stuff..Goat Store is suppose to be publishing so im assuming it may actually happen...One note to OP question about why the shooters...Schumps require little enemy AI..mainly predetermined patterns so i would have to guess this should make programming one easier..

[Pulsar_t]

The indie scene has effectively superseded homebrew development. Nowadays it's not that hard to publish your games even on consoles.

[Jagosaurus]

Is Hypertension the horror FPS? Looks awesome but you're right... been in development hell for some time now.

Yes it is..I know they had some problems with obtaining permission and had to scrap some work because of it and bunch of other stuff..Goat Store is suppose to be publishing so im assuming it may actually happen...One note to OP question about why the shooters...Schumps require little enemy AI..mainly predetermined patterns so i would have to guess this should make programming one easier..

Hm, so it was an unreleased title?

[bacardipr05]

I think its suppose to actually come out later this year...but ive been folloiwng this for like 5+ years now so who knows.....

[bacardipr05]

Razion (yes another shooter) which was released for Neo Geo might pop up on the Dreamcast as well. Although NgDev hasnt made any official announcement as far as i know.