A few days ago, the independent podcast and gaming show MinnMax interviewed Atari’s CEO, Wade Rosen, on the company’s future, and the topic of note was the notable platformer mascot, Bubsy.
While important stuff was discussed here, like layoffs, acquisitions, etc., the most important thing is that Atari is looking for someone to take on Bubsy and is especially interested in indie devs.
We’ve seen this happen several times before, not just Bethesda publishing Hi-Fi Rush, but SEGA taking in a small group of talented fangame creators to create ports of their beloved classics, as well as Sonic Mania, one of the highest-rated Sonic games.
Supporting indies and letting them work on a triple-A franchise works, and some devs are stepping into the challenge.
Who Wants to Make Bubsy 7?
If you didn’t already know, Bubsy has been an incredibly “meh” franchise for its entire life. The first two games did pretty well, being released on Nintendo and SEGA consoles.
![SNES Longplay [032] Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (US) - YouTube](https://indiegameculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/maxresdefault.jpg)
Still, when the series moved to Atari exclusivity, then an incredibly cumbersome PS1 platformer, it faltered quite a bit. It was revived in 2017 and again in 2019, but interest in two mostly generic 2D platformers was waning.
Atari is in desperate need of new developers with great new ideas for this mostly dead franchise, and due to this news, so many indie devs have stepped up to the plate and reached out to try and get noticed.
We don’t have a concrete idea when or what the next Bubsy game will be, but just the concept of an indie Bubsy is enough to excite people.
For example, Mark Rambleprism, a freelance Youtuber and artist on Twitter (or X if you’re a nerd), has shown off their well-done re-design of Bubsy, staying true to the original form of the character while revitalizing him for a more modern take, all rendered with an excellent 3D model, which brings up the point, 2D or 3D?
Bubsy 3D has become one of the most comedically terrible games ever, but it didn’t necessarily need to be. Many people have brought up Bubsy 3D’s potential and the fact that it had some pretty good ideas and concepts without the knowledge or execution to do it.
This leads to even more space for indies to innovate if they get their hands on this franchise.
This potential for the franchise to be exciting and do really well has led to a bunch of discussion on the internet for how different devs or fans would personally love to take on the series, and even novelty horror dev Samer Khatib wants to get in on the action, stepping up and asking to be the one to develop a brand new Bubsy game.
And, if you, reading this, are an indie dev wanting to get in on the action, then Wade Rosen encourages you to reach out using the contact form on their website, assuring that they do, in fact, read it. We haven’t heard any concrete news of a new Bubsy game with a new dev just yet, so before that happens, now is the time for any dev to shoot their shot.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this article and want to hear about some really cool indie platformers while waiting for news on Bubsy, stick here for more.
Best Indie Platformers – Jump into Something Special
The 15 Best Fan Games To Play In 2023
Boti: Byteland Overclocked Review – A Bit of Fun That Doesn’t Byte
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