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Renegade Kid

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Renegade Kid LLC
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2007; 17 years ago (2007)
Founders
  • Gregg Hargrove
  • Jools Watsham
DefunctAugust 29, 2016 (2016-08-29)
FateDissolved
Successors
  • Atooi
  • Infitizmo
Headquarters
Austin, Texas
,
U.S.
Key people
  • Gregg Hargrove
  • Jools Watsham
Websiterenegadekid.com

Renegade Kid LLC was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded in 2007 by Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham, video game development veterans formerly of Iguana Entertainment. In August 2016, Hargrove and Watsham announced that they had split their operations, with the intellectual property rights distributed between each's own studios, Atooi (Watsham) and Infitizmo (Hargrove).

History

[edit]

Prior to founding Renegade Kid, Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham had been working together for 12–13 years, starting at Iguana Entertainment.[1] The two launched Renegade Kid in early 2007.[2] Hargrove and Watsham incorporated their expertise in Nintendo 64 (N64) game development into Renegade Kid's projects, and Watsham described the Nintendo DS, which would become the studio's primary target platform, as "basically a portable N64".[3][4] The studio's first game, Dementium: The Ward, was announced on March 5, 2007, and found Gamecock Media Group as its publisher by June.[1][3] At that time, Renegade Kid had three employees.[1]

In March 2012, Renegade Kid and Gamescribe jointly announced PitchWinPlay, a competition in which people could pitch their game ideas to the two companies, the winning entry would be developed as a game for the Nintendo eShop.[5] However, the following July, Gamescribe announced that it was shutting down and PitchWinPlay was canceled.[6] Also in 2012, Renegade Kid released Mutant Mudds, the first game it funded and published on its own. Afterward, Renegade Kid went back to cooperating with publishers. The studio arranged a publishing deal for a licensed game in which the publisher would grant Renegade Kid a budget of US$500,000 but only allocated $125,000 of those, keeping the remaining $375,000 locked down until the later stages of the game's development. This meant that any financial risk the publisher could have faced would have been shifted to the developer instead. Renegade Kid rejected the deal and, from that point on, turned its business model entirely to indie game development.[7]

Renegade Kid's 2014 game Moon Chronicles sold poorly and the studio struggled to survive. The situation stabilized following the release of Xeodrifter, but running the studio still proved to be a financial challenge for Hargrove and Watsham. As a result, the two decided to split up.[8] On August 29, 2016, Renegade Kid announced that it was shutting down. The intellectual property rights were divided between the companies set up by Hargrove and Watsham independently: Atooi, founded by Watsham in 2015, obtained the rights for Renegade Kid's two-dimensional games (including Mutant Mudds and the then-in-development Treasurenauts), while Infitizmo, which was established in 2016 by Hargrove, received the three-dimensional titles (including Dementium and Moon Chronicles).[9] Five games from the former were included in a compilation video game for the Nintendo 3DS, titled Atooi Collection[10] and released on August 7, 2020[11] by Limited Run Games as the 3DS' final physical title prior to Nintendo's official discontinuation of the system.

In September 2018, Hargrove died of pancreatic cancer.[12]

Games

[edit]
Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s)
2007 Dementium: The Ward Nintendo DS Gamecock Media Group, SouthPeak Games
2009 Moon Mastiff, Gamebridge
2010 Dementium II SouthPeak Games
2011 ATV Wild Ride Destineer
Face Racers: Photo Finish Nintendo 3DS Majesco Entertainment
2012 Mutant Mudds iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS Renegade Kid
Bomb Monkey Nintendo 3DS
Planet Crashers UTV Ignition Games
2013 ATV Wild Ride 3D Renegade Kid
Mutant Mudds Deluxe iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U
2014 Moon Chronicles Nintendo 3DS
Xeodrifter Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U Renegade Kid, Gambitious Digital Entertainment
2015 Dementium Remastered Nintendo 3DS Renegade Kid
2016 Mutant Mudds Super Challenge Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U Renegade Kid, Nighthawk Interactive
2017 ATV Renegades PlayStation 4, Xbox One Nighthawk Interactive

Unreleased

[edit]
  • Demon's Crest (Game Boy Advance)[13]
  • Son of the Dragon (Wii)[14]
  • Crash Landed (Nintendo DS)[15]
  • Maximilian and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds (Nintendo DS)[16]
  • Razor Global Domination Pro Tour (PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox One)[17]
  • Cult County (macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox One)[18][19]
  • Dementium II Remastered (Nintendo 3DS)[20]
[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Dobson, Jason (June 8, 2007). "Q&A: Renegade Kid Talks DS Tech, Independence". Gamasutra.
  2. ^ Dobson, Jason (April 14, 2008). "Joystiq interview: Renegade Kid versus the Moon". Engadget.
  3. ^ a b Ronaghan, Neal (February 10, 2012). "Developer Spotlight: Renegade Kid". Nintendo World Report.
  4. ^ Ishaan (May 26, 2010). "Developing For A Portable Nintendo 64: A Renegade Kid Interview". Siliconera.
  5. ^ Dillard, Corbie (March 23, 2012). "pitchWinPLAY Competition Announced". Nintendo Life.
  6. ^ Sanchez, David (July 24, 2012). "Well, this sucks: Renegade Kid's game dev contest shuts down". GameZone.
  7. ^ Watsham, Jools; D., Konstantinos (April 18, 2013). "How a bad publisher deal made Mutant Mudds dev Renegade Kid go indie". Indie Games Plus.
  8. ^ Whitehead, Thomas (August 29, 2016). "Feature: The Reasons for Renegade Kid's Closure and What's Next For Its Co-Founders". Nintendo Life.
  9. ^ Wawro, Alex (August 29, 2016). "One studio becomes two as Xeodrifter dev Renegade Kid shuts down". Gamasutra.
  10. ^ Craddock, Ryan (June 11, 2019). "Atooi Collection Keeps The 3DS Alive By Throwing Five Games On One Physical Cart". Nintendo Life. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  11. ^ "Official website". Atooi. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  12. ^ Watsham, Jools. "It saddens me to share the news that we have lost a great friend. Gregg Hargrove passed away yesterday after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. The world is a better place because Gregg was in it. I will miss him dearly and cherish our friendship". Twitter. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
  13. ^ McFerran, Damien (March 14, 2016). "Renegade Kid Once Pitched A GBA Port Of Demon's Crest To Capcom, But Was Rebuffed". Nintendo Life.
  14. ^ Caoili, Eric (February 13, 2009). "Renegade Kid Cancels Son of the Dragon". Gamasutra.
  15. ^ Fletcher, JC (January 11, 2013). "Renegade Kid's lost Crash Bandicoot DS prototype revealed". Engadget.
  16. ^ Newton, James (January 12, 2011). "MUDDS Won't Be Making a Splash on DSiWare After All". Nintendo Life.
  17. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (February 26, 2014). "Razor Global Domination Pro Tour headed to consoles in 2015". Polygon.
  18. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (April 16, 2014). "Cult County to launch on Nintendo 3DS if minimum crowdfunding goal is met". Polygon.
  19. ^ Whitehead, Thomas (May 3, 2014). "Cult County Kickstarter Ends Without Success, Developer "Discussing Other Options"". Nintendo Life.
  20. ^ Whitehead, Thomas (January 22, 2016). "Dementium Remastered Targets a February Release in Europe and Australia, Dementium II Remastered Nears Completion". Nintendo Life.
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