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[VideoMan]

In short the two main partners are splitting up and starting their own studios.

Press release:

Renegade Kid has announced that its co-founders, Jools Watsham and Gregg Hargrove, have made the difficult decision to bring their 10-year partnership of developing games together as Renegade Kid LLC to an end.
With their friendship and respect for each other still very much intact, Watsham and Hargrove will continue developing videogames under the names of their new companies: Atooi and Infitizmo.
The award-winning library of Intellectual Properties that Renegade Kid has created over the past decade will be finding new homes. All of Renegade Kid's "2D" games, including the Mutant Mudds series and Treasurenauts, will become the property of Atooi. All of Renegade Kid's "3D" games, including the Dementium series and Moon Chronicles, will become the property of Infitizmo.
We hope you will share in the excitement that both Jools and Gregg feel for their new journeys. You can follow their progress on twitter: @AtooiLLC and @InfitizmoLLC.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Um....wat

 

[dancrane212]

As far as companies shutting down this doesn't seem that bad. Good luck to both of them!

 

[Buttonbasher]

That sucks. Hope both of their two new studios do well though!

 

[Dystify]

Doesn't sound like they parted ways as friends? I don't know their history, but this sounds like a relationship break-up kind of situation. Good thing they're still gonna create games though.

 

[Tambini]

Damn I enjoyed a lot of their games

 

[timmyp53]

Mutant Mudds is really fun on Vita hope these guys go on to do more good stuff.

 

[jennetics]

I haven't heard of any of these games...

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Sad. Really dug their DS stuff and bought the 3DS remakes.

You always saw Jools a lot over the years. And he seemed like such a passionate guy making games with a small studio.

I'm much more interested in the 3D properties though.

Also both those names are much worse than Renegade Kid.

 

[……forgetit]

So basically they split the company up just to work apart? Not too bad honestly.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Sucks. Moon was one of my favorite DS games.

 

[Oregano]

Doesn't sound like they parted ways as friends? I don't know their history, but this sounds like a relationship break-up kind of situation. Good thing they're still gonna create games though.

Really? judging by the way they've split it seems they just disagreed on the creative direction. RK was known for making technically ambitious games before prioritising cheap downloadables to keep afloat.

 

[Hanmik]

sounds more like the partnership is ending..

 

[Trago]

Aw man, Moon was an excellent DS game. Good luck to them.

 

[Chuckpebble]

Saw the thread title and gasped, read the OP and feel better now. Only ever knew about Jools, but this seems OK. Wish y'all luck.

 

[timmyp53]

I haven't heard of any of these games...

Bad use of this gif. It's not like we are talking about EDM artist or alternative rock bands or something.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I haven't heard of any of these games...

Don't own any Nintendo systems? Or if you do, don't pay attention to indie stuff?

 

[Aostia]

Best of luck to both of them
I used to like their efforts on the DS, but I really disliked their mismanagement on the Wii U/3DS eShop releases.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Okay, so, this is a personal and somewhat complex web of nonsense involving a highly unstable individual I was friends and briefly FWBs with, but I can only assume there will be a never-ending clusterfuck on gaf now until the end of time, which inevitably involves you guys and gals on the mod team in some way, so I'm an open book here. The woman in question ended up being completely psychotic and held a grudge against me after a bizarre love triangle situation developed a few years ago between me, her, and another girl (the other girl I ended up in a long-term relationship with shortly thereafter). This NOLA story she apparently just put up on social media is a delusion of a deeply disturbed person who had a total psychological breakdown as a result of me and the other girl getting together, because she (phew, yeah...) became obsessively infatuated with the other girl (she's bi) on sight when the three of us met up. I wanted to just stay friends with the girl making the accusation and made it super super clear ahead of time that me and the other girl were interested in each other romantically and that could play out as such when we met up. Supposedly this was not a problem for her from accusation, but in reality she uhhh wanted me to die painfully after seeing me and the other girl interact. Plus she became infatuated with the other girl simultaneously to this (she's bi), which created the aforementioned bizarre love triangle that ended up causing her to implode and have an apparently very intense and long-lasting grudge. The whole story about how that love triangle thing played out is, frankly, nuts and scary, and involves this girl bringing us to a compound of dangerous scientology spinoff cultists on that same trip, who roofied us, attempted to recruit/scam me and attempted to abduct/rape the girl I ended up dating, in what was a fucking scary situation that resulted in me and the other girl and the rest of my friend circle never speaking to this girl from the accusation again.

 

[DNAbro]

Title scared me. Still sad but not as bad as I thought.

 

[Luigi87]

While I haven't played any of their games myself, my friend loved their 3D games. It is good to see that they each are taking ownership of either their 2D or 3D titles for their new companies.
Best of luck to them.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Ha, literally splitting into a 2D and 3D studio. I fear Jools is going to do much better for himself out this, but either way I hope they both find success.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Okay, so, this is a personal and somewhat complex web of nonsense involving a highly unstable individual I was friends and briefly FWBs with, but I can only assume there will be a never-ending clusterfuck on gaf now until the end of time, which inevitably involves you guys and gals on the mod team in some way, so I'm an open book here. The woman in question ended up being completely psychotic and held a grudge against me after a bizarre love triangle situation developed a few years ago between me, her, and another girl (the other girl I ended up in a long-term relationship with shortly thereafter). This NOLA story she apparently just put up on social media is a delusion of a deeply disturbed person who had a total psychological breakdown as a result of me and the other girl getting together, because she (phew, yeah...) became obsessively infatuated with the other girl (she's bi) on sight when the three of us met up. I wanted to just stay friends with the girl making the accusation and made it super super clear ahead of time that me and the other girl were interested in each other romantically and that could play out as such when we met up. Supposedly this was not a problem for her from accusation, but in reality she uhhh wanted me to die painfully after seeing me and the other girl interact. Plus she became infatuated with the other girl simultaneously to this (she's bi), which created the aforementioned bizarre love triangle that ended up causing her to implode and have an apparently very intense and long-lasting grudge. The whole story about how that love triangle thing played out is, frankly, nuts and scary, and involves this girl bringing us to a compound of dangerous scientology spinoff cultists on that same trip, who roofied us, attempted to recruit/scam me and attempted to abduct/rape the girl I ended up dating, in what was a fucking scary situation that resulted in me and the other girl and the rest of my friend circle never speaking to this girl from the accusation again.

 

[Dystify]

Really? judging by the way they've split it seems they just disagreed on the creative direction. RK was known for making technically ambitious games before prioritising cheap downloadables to keep afloat.

Maybe I made it sound like they don't like each other anymore personally, that wasn't my intention. What I meant is more like what you said, it sounds like they disagreed on something and decided to "break up" the studio because of that reason.

 

[Baloonatic]

I'm still really sad that the 3DS remake of Moon never came out over here. I guess it never will

 

[novabolt]

I wish both of them good luck. I was just looking at the list of their created games and it seems like none of them made their way to XBLA when it was popular. I couldn't imagine that was a smart move at the time.

 

[Ridley327]

Not nearly as bad an outcome as these announcements tend to be, but it is still the end of an era. Hope things go well for their new studios.

I wish both of them good luck. I was just looking at the list of their created games and it seems like none of them made their way to XBLA when it was popular. I couldn't imagine that was a smart move at the time.

They had quite a bit of success on the DS for them to not have needed other platforms at the time. It really wasn't until the beginning of the generation transition that they ventured outward, though that was not coincidentally around the time that western publishers gave up on handheld games en masse.

 

[OnPoint]

Mutant Mudds was OK but I liked Xeodrifter more.

Glad this isn't a shuttering and quitting, just a splitting up.

 

[ArtHands]

Damn that sucks

I am a fan of jools and have purchased many renegade kid games. Atv wild ride, mutant mudds, dementium the ward series, moon, xeodrifter

Looking forward to purchase his future titles

 

[CTLance]

Seems like an okay way to break up. Best of luck to the both of them, and thanks for the games so far. Looking forward to what the future brings.

 

[Vanillalite]

Doesn't sound like they parted ways as friends? I don't know their history, but this sounds like a relationship break-up kind of situation. Good thing they're still gonna create games though.

This.

Sounds like their partnership soured so they decided to split.

 

[Oregano]

It's a lot easier to make technically ambitious games when other people are paying for them.

Yeah, the 3D studio will have a more difficult time. Maybe retry Kickstarter?

Maybe I made it sound like they don't like each other anymore personally, that wasn't my intention. What I meant is more like what you said, it sounds like they disagreed on something and decided to "break up" the studio because of that reason.

Maybe but it seems like a reasonable reason to split.

 

[Hero of Legend]

At least Jools is already cooking up something, he's got a new 3DS and iOS game underway to be unveiled at PAX West:

https://twitter.com/AtooiLLC

Being "new" I assume it's not Treasurenauts. Whatever is up with that anyway (likely just being finished at Atooi as the PR implies with it being with it now).

 

[@MUWANdo]

Okay, so, this is a personal and somewhat complex web of nonsense involving a highly unstable individual I was friends and briefly FWBs with, but I can only assume there will be a never-ending clusterfuck on gaf now until the end of time, which inevitably involves you guys and gals on the mod team in some way, so I'm an open book here. The woman in question ended up being completely psychotic and held a grudge against me after a bizarre love triangle situation developed a few years ago between me, her, and another girl (the other girl I ended up in a long-term relationship with shortly thereafter). This NOLA story she apparently just put up on social media is a delusion of a deeply disturbed person who had a total psychological breakdown as a result of me and the other girl getting together, because she (phew, yeah...) became obsessively infatuated with the other girl (she's bi) on sight when the three of us met up. I wanted to just stay friends with the girl making the accusation and made it super super clear ahead of time that me and the other girl were interested in each other romantically and that could play out as such when we met up. Supposedly this was not a problem for her from accusation, but in reality she uhhh wanted me to die painfully after seeing me and the other girl interact. Plus she became infatuated with the other girl simultaneously to this (she's bi), which created the aforementioned bizarre love triangle that ended up causing her to implode and have an apparently very intense and long-lasting grudge. The whole story about how that love triangle thing played out is, frankly, nuts and scary, and involves this girl bringing us to a compound of dangerous scientology spinoff cultists on that same trip, who roofied us, attempted to recruit/scam me and attempted to abduct/rape the girl I ended up dating, in what was a fucking scary situation that resulted in me and the other girl and the rest of my friend circle never speaking to this girl from the accusation again.

 

[JMTHEFOX]

Shame, their DS and 3DS games were impressive for their time.

Glad that they are still making more games though.

 

[soultron]

Aww, man. This is sad to hear but I didn't really think things were easy for them as of late. There are so many other developers doing great 2D and smaller 3D games that I think they got lost in the crush of the last 5+ years when development really opened up for anyone with the perseverance to make and ship a game. I'd imagine they probably eyed mobile as well.

Best of luck to both of them with their new endeavours though.

 

[Vanillalite]

Jools is a cool dude, and he got all of the 2d stuff which is what I enjoyed more from them.

So hope he continues the trend!

 

[sixteen-bit]

Sad to see them go

 

[Baloonatic]

Where's "here"? Japan?.

EU, it was only released in the US afaik.

 

[Camjo-Z]

Not a huge fan of Renegade Kid's games but it would have been sad to see them close down, nice to see they're just splitting in two.

IIRC, Mutant Mudds was conceived as an XBLA game but then MS decided indies couldn't self-publish on XBLA, so they switched to 3DS eShop.

Concieved as a DS game even before that!

 

[Steejee]

Well, that's certainly one of the more unique ways for a studio to shutter.

Best of luck on their future works.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I wish both of them good luck. I was just looking at the list of their created games and it seems like none of them made their way to XBLA when it was popular. I couldn't imagine that was a smart move at the time.

They tried putting their stuff on other platforms than Nintendo, but it never really panned out sales-wise except for iOS.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

That's a shame. I liked Xeodrifter a lot.

 

[Absoludacrous]

I really liked Mutant Mudds on the Vita, hopefully Atooi is able to put out similar stuff.

 

[Clefargle]

Should have made cult county

 

[jackal27]

Well this is the worst news I've heard in a while... I really loved these guys' games....

My favorites were Xeodrifter, Mutant Mudds, and Bomb Monkey, but I had a soft spot for Dementium and Moon as well.

Xeodrifter in particular is a really great little Metroid game if you're feeling the need for one of those. It's available on practically everything.

I'm sure you're reading this Jools. <3 u

 

[Hero of Legend]

Atooi's site:

http://www.atooi.com/

Love the logo!

The company already existed as a mobile arm of Jools'. He made Totes the Goat in it.

 

[ramoisdead]

That's a shame and best of luck to both. I really liked Mutant Mudds and Moon.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Atooi's site:

http://www.atooi.com/

Love the logo!

The company already existed as a mobile arm of Jools'. He made Totes the Goat in it.

Looks like a logo for one of those Discovery Zone kind of places where you'd have a kids birthday party.

 

[jennetics]

Bad use of this gif. It's not like we are talking about EDM artist or alternative rock bands or something.

Womp...I apologize for my misuse