It wasn’t too long ago, during a SEGA Nerdcast episode, that I said how kind and endearing it’d be if SEGA were to release a free Dreamcast development kit to the system’s indie development community. Ya know, it’d be the least they could do after prematurely killing off the Dreamcast.
Well, never fucking mind, SEGA, because just like all the fan translations and that sweet Shenmue HD video, someone plans to do this shit for you. The Elysian Shadows Team has just announced their plans to publicly release the ESTk development kit, which they’ve been using to develop their next-gen 2D RPG.
“Aside from small miscellaneous tools around the net, up until now, developing for the Dreamcast has only been possible by investing hundreds of hours into building your own toolkit,” they wrote in their Kickstarter update. “The ESTk is a complete toolkit, with everything you need to start developing your own Dreamcast game immediately — no programming knowledge is necessary to dive in.”
The ESTk devkit isn’t just for Dreamcast games, though. It will be cross-platform, where users can create and deploy their games to PC, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and OUYA. “In the future, depending on our stretch goals we would like to expand upon this by adding the next generation consoles like Playstation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 2DS/3DS and Playstation Vita,” they added.
The Elysian Shadows’ Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $106,000 of its $150,000 goal and has 12 days to go before it ends.
