I messed up and I'm sorry

Sep 16, 2019 at 9:24 PM
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Hello.

These past few days have not been the greatest for me, or for anyone at Nicalis. I figured that I'd come back here where it pretty much all started. I realize now over the course of almost a decade working in the games industry, all of the decisions that have come back to haunt me; and I apologize.

As I stated on Twitter, I am very sorry. My actions have upset, hurt, and offended a number of people including some of my closest friends. I've realized how the things I've said in the past may have negatively affected those I've interacted with. I do want to clarify that my words and insensitive remarks shouldn't reflect on Nicalis as a whole. The bad press you see is wholly a result of my words alone.

You, as fans of Cave Story, have stuck through all these years (decades!) and I appreciate all the support that we've gotten. You really are the best. I know that I did some really dumb things, and I've been trying to make amends. All of my colleagues and I are still good friends and we're all proud to be creating great projects together. I will strive to keep on improving, and maybe one day you can forgive me.

Thank you so much.
-ty
 
Sep 16, 2019 at 9:55 PM
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A lot of people seem to be skeptical about the apologies you have issued, but if you truly mean these things and are willing to change the culture of your company (assuming those claims weren't exaggerated, which I guess they weren't if you are apologizing for them :p) to try and correct these supposed wrongs, I think that is wonderful. I hope that if you make a concerted effort to show the public that you are taking this seriously that your reputation isn't tarnished beyond the point of repair.
 
Sep 16, 2019 at 10:19 PM
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hey tyty. assuming this is a genuine account, i think it's pretty classy of you to come to the forums to apologize personally. in fact, i commend the way you're handing this situation as a whole. i will say that if you insist on saying dumb things in the future, I advise that you don't do it under your own name. why do you think 4chan is such a popular place? anyway, i wish you luck on getting this whole thing behind you.
 
Sep 16, 2019 at 10:25 PM
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Wait a minute....
Is this actually Tyrone Rodriguez?
If so then I'll be willing to forgive you.
I am a huge cave story fan and I hope that you and nicalis can come out with more cave story stuff.
 
Sep 16, 2019 at 10:52 PM
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A lot of people seem to be skeptical about the apologies you have issued, but if you truly mean these things and are willing to change the culture of your company (assuming those claims weren't exaggerated, which I guess they weren't if you are apologizing for them :p) to try and correct these supposed wrongs, I think that is wonderful. I hope that if you make a concerted effort to show the public that you are taking this seriously that your reputation isn't tarnished beyond the point of repair.
I second this, the important part of messing up is the part afterwards where one accepts and learns from their mistakes and works towards fixing the issues to move on again.
Building up trust may not always be easy but if people can't get themselves to forgive others then it's hard to move on anyway.
If this is a genuine apology and moves towards improving things start to happen I'm sure people should be forgiving and everything will be better again.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 12:46 AM
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Ehhh, we all have done shitty things in the past. To be perfectly clear, I honestly don't care what words you've used in private chats with people. That's just how (some) people talk (sometimes, especially back in earlier internet days.) It's just not fair to say that this has been wrapped together so well, and completes your persona in the slightest.

I feel this in particular holds the most weight, at least from what I've seen from the issue

It's honestly so much of a headache to look into it, to really see who's treated who such a way, and there's no real way of discernment even if you were to get to the bottom of it. It's such a, long road to get to there that, well yeah... It's never like you're going to get it *right here*.

Hopefully we see some sort of fruition come from this. Maybe a good place to start would be to be listening to the fans, and build up that infrastructure for the future. It's something I would definitively take into consideration.

I do think you can single-handedly fix this issue if you do this, and get some support along the way.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 12:53 AM
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Blink's bad humor aside, I'm just concerned for the future for Cave Story amongst the many other titles NICALiS is involved in first and foremost.

As a consumer and as someone whose entire game development career was spurred on by Cave Story and this community, I would hate to see it left to rot, and truly want to see further from this game and the characters it has. Sure, not everyone here is entirely pleased of the quality of CS+, but it's honestly better than getting nothing at this point, there has to be some major company keeping it alive.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 1:02 AM
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Honestly was not expecting this. There isn't much for me to say that hasn't already been said, but assuming you're being honest, then most of us should forgive you. even if we make a ton of memes. I (and lots of others) don't personally care what things you've said in a private DM, and while pressuring friends into drinking and forcing people to go on trips (assuming that's true) is absolutely terrible, i dont really think it affects cave story specifically. so i personally dont care as long as y'all at nicalis start making good ports (something i rarely see)

i can definitely see how twitter and cancel culture are making a huge deal out of this though. godspeed, tyrone rodriguez.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 1:41 AM
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I mean if you actually mean what you say, then that's good, but I don't know if I can be sure if you're telling the truth to not. People don't tend to report on twitter positive behavior from people like they do with negative behavior. I do hope things improve because I want to buy every possible port of Cave Story without a guilty conscience.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 3:07 AM
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Thank you everyone for the support. I can't express how much I appreciate the cordial responses from the community. I am working--slowly but surely--to keep on bettering myself, as I'm sure you all are too. Going forward, we're continuing to do what Nicalis does best: providing much-needed exposure to great indie games. I'll always be proud of the role we play in supporting indie developers, and the indie gaming community as a whole.

Hopefully we see some sort of fruition come from this. Maybe a good place to start would be to be listening to the fans, and build up that infrastructure for the future. It's something I would definitively take into consideration.

I've always done my best to engage with our communities. It may not always be through these forums, but rest assured I have been listening. The reality is that I'm much too busy to be actively engaging in all of our communities all the time, but I do keep an eye on them. For example, the idea of adding a 2-player mode to Cave Story+ came directly from the community. We're always open to new suggestions, but keep in mind that we might not have the development time to implement all of the suggestions we receive.

As a consumer and as someone whose entire game development career was spurred on by Cave Story and this community, I would hate to see it left to rot, and truly want to see further from this game and the characters it has.

We know how important Cave Story is to the community and how influential it is to many of you personally, but I can't promise anything entirely concrete regarding Cave Story's future involvement in a major game release.
I know, it's disappointing, but Pixel is hard at work on releasing his next title, so he doesn't have too much time to collaborate with us (our schedule is hectic too! making the last expansion for Binding of Isaac--be on the look out for that).
If we see enough interest in a new installment of Cave Story, we will definitely consider funding development for it. Believe me, I'd hate to see the world and characters go to waste.
Maybe one day you can see Quote and friends blasting critters in their latest adventure, but only time will tell. ;)
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 3:23 AM
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we will definitely consider funding development for it
Makes me wonder what a new version would be like if a massive portion of this community were involved. Today's modding community seems pretty passionate for the game.

Now I wonder what Pixel's working on
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 11:03 AM
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We live in a complicated world. Perhaps you could use an additional PR/secretarial manager that can make sure communication never breaks down like Kotaku claimed, or/and can act as an intermediary to employee concerns, for those who won't tell the boss what they want to say to his face? As long as you have some way of not letting things get out of hand again and you can trust and lean on them to keep you informed but not overwhelmed.

Anyway, if you are trying to better yourself Tyrone, then strive to ask forgiveness not of the community, but for those who were offended enough to bring about an article. Whether they accept your peace offering... all you can do is make an effort, and hope people will be able to move on. (I know you made it public, but it really should be one to one.)

We're just human, and if you really love indie games as much as I would like to believe, then strive to make as many developer's dreams come true as you can.

...But as a fan of Cave Story, I would love to see another Pixel game. (Wait he's working on a new one? Nice!!) Oh and how about a love letter to Cave Story modding? Most people won't go out of their way to search out mods and see what fans have made... With big games like Skyrim, I always thought it was a waste that all the modders work is rarely officially recognized when there are some real gems and plenty of additional fun content; it could be used to create a great compilation collection of fan mods to celebrate years of the game and the community around it.

And with CS - All of the years of modding summed up in a collection of modder approved and credited mods from the English and Japanese Cave Story communities? Or perhaps even just showcasing some mods that you like with safe links to download them, could be an easy win-win, raising awareness of the modding community's achievements in general, solidifying how Cave Story keeps people coming back; and getting people talking about Cave Story even if they have beaten it and moved on.

Hm... Perhaps you could update Cave Story+ PC with help from the fans? Add extra challenges or other mods to a classic game and win points with the community? We already know how to add extra mods to CS+ unofficially for PC, so having someone prepare this wouldn't be much work, besides testing I imagine. Just brainstorming. (PS: Would love to play online co-op on the PC... Great work with the Switch though!)

Well in any case, if you're earnest, then I wish you the best.
 
Sep 17, 2019 at 12:41 PM
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How about we forgive but in exchange you incite(or force if necessary) Pixel to make a Cave Story 2?
In all seriousness though I think this apology is convincing enough and just the fact that you wrote an apology in this forum just to let us know that you're sorry is insane.
 
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