"I Think A Lot Of AAA Titles Miss The Mark On What Makes A Game Fun" - Retro YouTuber Launches New Nostalgia-Focused Game Studio

TigerChainsaw Studios also teased its first title

by Jack Yarwood 2:45pm

TigerChainsaw is a retro games YouTuber with 13.3k subscribers, who is primarily known for posting documentaries, countdowns, and retro reviews.

However, yesterday, he revealed that he is taking on a fresh and exciting challenge, launching a new video game studio called TigerChainsaw Studios that will focus on producing titles for "retro gamers who love physical collecting."

Over on Twitter/X, TigerChainsaw called the venture "a dream come true" and posted a link to a video, where he gave more insight into why he has decided to take the plunge into retro game development.

"As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really appreciated retro games," TigerChainsaw said in the announcement. "Games from my childhood. That is why I’ve opened up this studio — to recreate the nostalgia I had playing video games as a kid."

He continued, "I think a lot of AAA titles miss the mark on what makes a game fun. So I’ve gone back and I’ve really tried to learn what made games from the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s fun. And [I believe] that’s single-player experiences, a good difficulty curve, and just that experience of achievement that you don’t get anywhere else.“

According to the YouTuber-turned-developer, TigerChainsaw Studios will be responsible for publishing physical games for classic consoles, with the first of these scheduled to be Maiden of the Dark — a new action platformer for the Nintendo Game Boy inspired by games like Operation C and Return of the Ninja. This is a new game that will be given a proper announcement next week, and will be crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Beyond that, not a lot is known about it, with TigerChainsaw only showing off a handful screenshots and some promotional artwork, as of the time of writing.

"As someone who loves physical video games, it's important to me that the games we create in the studio come out physically," TigerChainsaw said. "These games you will be able to play on your retro video game consoles. To me, there was no greater feeling than opening up a package, seeing a video game in there and popping it in your console, and I want to keep that nostalgia with TigerChainsaw Studios"

You can watch the announcement in full below:

[source youtu.be, via x.com]

Hailing from Manchester, Jack has a particular fondness for point-and-click adventure games. In the past, he’s written about lost games from studios like Sony Manchester, Genepool Software, and DMA Design, and has made a habit of debunking video game rumours.

1
mariteaux
2:57pm

With all due respect, is a YouTuber with 13k subs launching a vanity game publishing company with basically no information about their first game out really newsworthy? Did he pay for this article?

@mariteaux Nope, we never do paid for articles. My editor spotted it and submitted it to our news tips. It seemed interesting enough to me - a new Game Boy homebrew title with the promise of more physical homebrew titles on the way for classic consoles.

It's also pretty fascinating to see someone make the jump from retro content creator to retro game developer, as it'll no doubt be worth following along to see how well they actually do with the studio side of things.

3
Damo
3:23pm

@mariteaux Not every newsworthy item comes from a source with a big following. We cover hardware mods, homebrew projects, fan translations, and more, almost all of which are from people with very small online presences. We're a retro gaming site at the end of the day, and that's a pretty niche sector of the market.

4
mariteaux
3:26pm

@JackGYarwood I guess we have different definitions of fascinating.

@Damo It's not about it being niche, it's about it being substanceless. There's no actual news here other than some guy starting up a vanity publishing company and intending to make a game at some point in the future. This is fluff. Not every article has to be heavy-hitting or anything, but y'know, what's the actual story here? Not a hardware mod, a homebrew project, or a fan translation. A vanity company with his channel name on it and no product to sell. Cool for him I guess.

I give it a month, tops.

6
NoirConceit
4:08pm

Oh look, another Kickstarter which wants its customers to shoulder the risk for the developer's passion.

7
Sn0w
4:22pm

@Mariteaux I am respectfully disagreeing. I personally like articles like this. I like learning about new content creators and couldn't agree more that AAA titles are missing the mark in more ways than one. An unknown channel with only 13k subs is a growing channel and won't always stay unknown.

Up until 2007 I was excited for AAA games, but now they just feel like cookie cutter constant repeats and the masses keep playing the slop. So, for me, retro games and homebrew games are where it's at. I like finding the gems in the rough. Sometimes, it's creators like these that release something epic. I have been fortunate enough to join a community or contribute to a project early on and be there as it grew.

These are exactly the types of articles I like and look for. This site is the polar opposite of pcgamer.com, where it's clear they are paid to do multiple inane articles of AAA titles, and you'll find many personal opinion fluff pieces. Especially from one of the authors who even closes the comment section on his articles.. yet, no one cares to read his pointless pieces. Haha.

@JackGYarwood @Damo Thank you for the articles that you post. This is one of my top daily 'go to' sites.

8
mariteaux
4:35pm

@Sn0w Great! I'll be excited to learn about their games when they actually put some of those out. Until then, this just isn't a story. This is a vanity thing. I also don't have any interest in "rising star" YouTubers--in general, I don't have a high opinion of them, I don't find most of them particularly entertaining, and I already have too many videos and channels to enjoy as it is.

I wish this guy luck with his projects, but I'm still not convinced this needed to be an article, especially not because "well the AAA market is full of slop and these guys save the day". A YouTuber making a vanity publishing company is exactly the type I'd imagine to put out some kind of cookie-clutter retro revival game that just copies older, existing, much more fun games like the indie market is already inundated with. Again, when he does something good, I'll be interested. This isn't interesting.

9
hste
27m ago

Over the years i've grown to strongly dislike youtubers

10
FirMatt
26m ago

@mariteaux You must be fun at parties.

11
FirMatt
25m ago

@hste Funny - over the years, I've grown to strongly dislike people who blindly hate on YouTubers.

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