News From Lik Sang
“Long gone are the days of arcades filled with shoot ’em ups, as are the days when a few guys could get together to create a game they wanted to, have it published, and see it on the store shelves. This was the videogaming industry style of the 80’s and early 90’s, not the multi billion dollar mass market ways of today. One developer however, Triangle Service, seems to be the opposite, as just over a month before the Dreamcast port of Trizeal is released, the creator is on his hands and knees literally begging for people to buy his game.
On their company website, an “SOS message” was posted in both Japanese and English last week, which in a surprising and, somewhat insane manner (save us from the Spanish bulls??), explains the trouble they are in. Releasing their first shooter, XII Stag, they ran out of money and were faced with a tough choice. The founder and several other like-minded “samurais” decided to go into debt to ensure their game was finished and “came into the world”. This group however, make no attempts to hide the fact both XII Stag and their latest title, Trizeal have developed poor revenue streams in arcades, and one can only assume pre-orders for the DC release ain’t exactly rolling in either. In fact just recently their website was suspended, with a message from the hosting company asking them to contact the billing department”
“It’s hard to know exactly what to think of all this, as the creator actually says, on their official website, “It’s Triangle Service’s fault because we weren’t able to create a product which would sell well even in adverse conditions.”, but clearly they took many risks to try and live out their dream, and their hearts are filled with “shooting love”:
“I’ll apologize if it’s a little expensive.
But we’ll more than make up for it in ‘service.’
That’s why we are called Triangle Service.
‘Shooting love.’ is not a bluff.”
In the hope of attracting fans, the SOS message offers a one level demo of XII Stag for PC, plus a movie (9.7mb – mpeg) of what was to be their next project, a 3D shooter named Lambda. If there’s one feeling I got from reading their web page it was passion. As I look around the industry today I see buy outs, mergers, and the likes of how EA chooses to compete with the Sega/Take-Two sports games; rather than improving their own games, they use the customers money to buy the exclusive rights for years to come, and ensure the customers’ money keeps coming in because they don’t have a choice. That’s not passion for games, that’s business. Triangle Service however, while a bit tacky in their methods, looks to be a company I can respect, and one I’d like to see more of. I think it’s pretty ironic the creator calls his team mates samurai as he begs for help at the same time, but then again, he is fighting for what he believes in:
“‘Shooting Love.’ is not just a bluff at all.
But you can’t always do what you want to by desire alone.
If you want to enjoy the same DREAM,
then please pre-order TRIZEAL for DC!”
Hence Lik Sang is now in contact with these guys, and is ready to offer as much help as possible, taking up international pre-orders and hosting their promotional movies for your viewing pleasure on our servers being one side of things. Trizeal is following the stepstones of glorious shooting legends such as Ikaruga, Border Down, Shikigami 2, Psyvariar 2 or the recent Chaos Field, by coming to the “supposedly dead” Dreamcast on April 7th.”
Visit Lik Sang for more information and screenshots etc.