Nicalis, Inc. is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developer and publisher based in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

. The company focuses primarily on

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

s and has developed and published both original games as well as

ports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

of existing games. Nicalis was founded in 2007 by Tyrone Rodriguez, a game designer and former game journalist. In 2017, Nicalis announced that they had acquired

SuperVillain Studios SuperVillain Studios is an American video game development company that develops for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Portable. Company profile SuperVillain Studios (SVS) was fou ...

and Cowboy Color.

Games

Since its founding, the company has developed and published several games, beginning with ''Dance Dance Revolution: Mobius'' in 2008 and ''

Cave Story ''Cave Story'', originally released as is a 2004 Metroidvania platform-adventure game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed over five years by Japanese independent developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in his free time. ''Cave Story'' features 2D ...

'' in 2010. In October 2011, Nicalis announced that it would publish a port of ''

VVVVVV ''VVVVVV'' is a 2010 puzzle-platform game created by Terry Cavanagh. In the game, the player controls Captain Viridian, who must rescue their spacecrew after a teleporter malfunction caused them to be separated in Dimension VVVVVV. The game ...

'' for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

via the

Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...

. In December 2011, Nicalis offered both ''

NightSky Nicklas Nygren (born 6 January 1983), better known by the handle Nifflas, is an independent Swedish video game developer. He is known for his freeware ''Knytt'' series and along with another freeware game, ''Within a Deep Forest''. He has lived i ...

'' and ''Cave Story+'' for sale as part of Humble Indie Bundle 4. In April 2012, Nicalis announced that its plans to publish the WiiWare port of ''

La-Mulana ''La-Mulana'' (stylized as ''La•Mʊlana'') is a platform-adventure video game, designed to imitate the look and feel of MSX games. Released on June 27, 2006, in Japan for Microsoft Windows, the game was only available in Japanese, but an Engli ...

'' in the US and EU had been cancelled, citing a steep decline in the WiiWare userbase. In January 2017, it was silently announced that Nicalis would release several of their games on the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

Games developed and published

Games published

Awards

'' was nominated for Game of the Year at the 2010 ''

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

'' Awards, as well as WiiWare Game of the Year. The 3DS version of ''Cave Story'' was nominated for Best Adventure Game at the 2011 Nintendo Power Awards. At the 2011

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

, ''Cave Story'' was a finalist in the category of "Excellence In Visual Art" and both Cave Story and NightSky received honorable mentions in the category of "Excellence In Audio."

Controversy over management

In September 2019, ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' editor

Jason Schreier Jason Schreier (born May 10, 1987) is a journalist and author who primarily covers the video game industry. He worked as a news reporter for ''Kotaku'' from 2011 to 2020 and was recognized for several investigative stories, particularly on the ...

posted a lengthy article compiled from interviews with anonymous internal employees of Nicalis and external developers that have used the company related to the management of the company, particularly to its CEO Tyrone Rodriguez. The investigation was spurred by observations from players of brief conflicts between Nicalis and their developers across social media in the years prior. The report asserted that Rodriguez was controlling and exploitative of his employees and encouraged a racist atmosphere within the company. External developers also stated that they felt Nicalis engaged in ghosting; they had signed deals for Nicalis to help publish their games, but later could not get any response from Nicalis, causing them to lose time and potential sales, and forcing them to turn to other publishers. In response to the report, Nicalis issued a statement stating "We do not condone abusive workplace environments or discrimination and have people from all walks of life." Rodriguez apologized on Twitter that his comments to his employees reported in the article were "indefensible and unacceptable". On hearing of these accusations,

Edmund McMillen Edmund Charles McMillen (born March 2, 1980) is an American video game designer and artist known for his Flash game visual style. His most notable works include 2010's side-scroller '' Super Meat Boy'' and 2011's roguelike game '' The Binding of ...

, who had developed several games through Nicalis, stated that he would no longer be working with the company on any future games, though '' The Binding of Isaac: Repentance'' would still be releasing as originally planned.

References

External links

Official website
*{{Twitter Companies based in Santa Ana, California American companies established in 2007 Video game companies established in 2007 2007 establishments in California Video game companies of the United States Video game companies based in California Video game development companies Video game publishers Privately held companies based in California