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Rumour: Artwork surfaces from pitched Retro Studios projects

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These have just cropped up on various sites. They come from an artist who worked at Retro Studios and worked on such titles as Metroid Prime 3 and Donkey Kong Country Returns. He no longer works at the company and has stepped away from the industry altogether due to things like exploitation and abuse. The two games that the artwork is from are concepts for a Zelda game that was all about the Sheikah and a Boo game.

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Art from the “cancelled Zelda project” depicts a fun pre-production origin story of the Master Sword, set within the bad ending of Ocarina of Time, that never made it beyond pre-production. The title, described as an “action/JRPG”, would have explored the journey of the last Sheik while Dark Gerudo are giving their 100-year birth to Ganon. Art from the “cancelled Boo project” doesn’t offer very many details, but Hall has titled one of his sketches as “tiny stuff for tiny handheld resolutions” which could suggest that this was originally a Nintendo DS title. The Boo art also includes sketches titled “possession powers” and “Broomies”, alongside a sketch of a potential world map. Some of this artwork was published just two days ago, with others uploaded over the past two years.

sammy-hall-petrifiedmanaroots.jpg?157048

sammy-hall-forge.jpg?1570488877

sammy-hall-ghostface.jpg?1553626716

sammy-hall-ghostfacethumbs.jpg?155362672

sammy-hall-spiritcapetransition02.jpg?15

sammy-hall-spiritcapetransition01.jpg?15

sammy-hall-beardcolor.jpg?1587936970

sammy-hall-horntown.jpg?1553626389

sammy-hall-neocastlespeedpaint.jpg?15879

sammy-hall-boothumbs01.jpg?1542417800

sammy-hall-boothumbs02.jpg?1542417702

sammy-hall-boogoostiny.jpg?1588453454

There is a hell of a lot more artwork at the LINK

If this is indeed true, you have to wonder just what is going on over at Retro Studios? Sure, these pitches were done a while back now but just how many of these have there been? You have to remember it's been a HELL of a long time since Retro put out anything substantial. Recent stuff has clearly been cancelled over there but this shows that there is other stuff that never got the green light.

Shame. Both of these sound great. For a long time now many have wanted a Zelda game that featured the Sheikah tribe in general and a game that has you playing as a Boo/ghost has lots of possibilities. Zelda looked to have been a console game and the Boo game looks to have been for a handheld. Shame. :( 

 

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Boo game looks like a fun concept.

I hope this isn't the start of every man and his dog who left a company thinking they can just reveal confidential work from a studio. I know that's allegedly not what happened at ND, but that's what most still believe.

Edited by Ronnie

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That's a shame. The artwork for that Zelda game looks great.. I would have liked to see a Retro take on the Zelda franchise. How disappointing that must have been for them, getting their hopes dashed of working on a project like that..

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3 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Boo game looks like a fun concept.

I hope this isn't the start of every man and his dog who left a company thinking they can just reveal confidential work from a studio. I know that's allegedly not what happened at ND, but that's what most still believe.

On the contrary I wish we saw more of this (preferably released by the studio of course). NDAs should really have a time limit, particularly if a game is canned, and can act to restrict people from building a portfolio (at least a public one). 

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1 minute ago, Ashley said:

preferably released by the studio of course

That's the difference. I'd love for studios to do it, not one guy with axe to grind.

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1 minute ago, Ronnie said:

That's the difference. I'd love for studios to do it, not one guy with axe to grind.

Why are you assuming they've got an axe to grind? 

The boo one was allegedly for the DS. It's got to be about 15 years old at this point. If they've got an axe to grind they sure as hell took their time. 

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I didn't mean this guy in particular, but even with this guy

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has stepped away from the industry altogether due to things like exploitation and abuse.

(...And then he goes to work in the non gaming sector and find things like that aren't exclusive to the gaming industry)

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Just now, Ronnie said:

I didn't mean this guy in particular, but even with this guy

(...And then he goes to work in the non gaming sector and find things like that aren't exclusive to the gaming industry)

So it's fine that the gaming industry has problems with exploitation because others have too...? Or at least, it's a welcome deflection of a very serious labour issue?

He can choose to leave the industry because he has issues with it and release old work those two things don't have to be the same. If he's out of the industry he no longer has to worry about being blackballed so felt free to release them. He could have even just been looking back over his career and wanted to share stuff he enjoyed working on or felt showed his best work. 

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I never said it was fine that the gaming industry has problems with exploitation.

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Supposed to be set in the Downfall Timeline... in the middle of the DS's lifespan? Huh, I guess Nintendo really had that branched timeline in mind for a long while before revealing it.

I can think of several reasons as to why that Sheikah game didn't leave pre-production/pitch phase. I can see Nintendo being reticent to doing serious Zelda spin-offs, I can see them disapproving of the overly dark art style, I can see them wanting to avoid touching the Sheikah side of the lore, I can even see them not wanting to have a story too entangled in the timeline... It's a shame they rejected it for sure, though. That sounds like it could morph into a Tenchu-style Zelda spin-off.

The Boo thing baffles me more. I don't see why they would reject it, I see so many inventive ideas in that artwork alone. Maybe a logistics thing? Perhaps it would've interfered with Donkey Kong production.

But considering their low output over the years, it might just be that Retro Studios is just unfocused in general.

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

(...And then he goes to work in the non gaming sector and find things like that aren't exclusive to the gaming industry)

No, but the Gaming industry is infamously unsupportive to the people who work there. There's no organized union, stories of unhealthy crunch are frequent... Exploitation and employee abuse might happen in other branches, but I can easily believe that the gaming industry is particularly bad in this regard.

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I would cancel Metroid Prime 4 in a heartbeat for that Boo game. Even if it was a DS game. Especially if it was a DS game. Especially if the actual title was "Boo Game"

The world is a sadder place for not having it.

EDIT: Man, if the Boo Game pitch was from 15 years ago, then Donkey Kong Country Returns is forever ruined because Boo Game died for it.

Edited by Glen-i
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