While 3D platformers featuring a colorful cartoon mascot on the PlayStation 2 were practically a dime a dozen back in the early 2000s, Ty The Tasmanian Tiger was always something of a cult classic. Not only did the popular 2002 title managed to spawn three sequels - with the most recent of which launching back in 2015 on the PC - it also managed to garner a fairly strong community following, which has persisted to this day, allowing the game to re-release on the Nintendo Switch.
However, it seems as though the developers behind the cult series, Krome Studios, still have more ideas for the platformer franchise that they'd love to execute somewhere down the line. Speaking to Nintendo Everything, the creator of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Steve Stamatiadis, not only claimed that he would definitely be interested in porting Ty 2, 3, and 4 to the Switch in the coming months, but also hinted that his team would jump at the chance to develop a fully-fledged sequel under the right circumstances.
"Yes, of course we have, we’ve had several discussions," Stamatiadis responded when asked whether the team had discussed developing a potential fifth game in the franchise, even going as far as to detail that "if we did a TY 5, we would do it as a 3D platformer." However, the developer does begin to detail why, as it currently stands, the team is unable to proceed with a sequel to the series.
"It’s also a resource issue. For that type of game, we’d need a much bigger team size, budget, everything is so much bigger," Stamatiadis states, clarifying "What we would want to achieve isn’t something that could be done on a shoestring budget. With today’s expectations of what the graphics and everything should look like now, it’s such a much bigger budget. The scale is pretty huge. Back in the day, the core TY1 team was around 20-25. We’re about 12 people now." It's definitely a tantalizing idea, and with the return of the likes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro finding significant success with players, there's no denying that a souped-up, modernized take on Ty the Tasmanian Tiger could be a smash hit with current audiences as well.
Naturally, however, it's commendable to hear that the team doesn't want to commence work on the project unless the correct resources are in place. In the meantime, it seems the company is interested in porting the original entries in the series to the Nintendo Switch, with Stamatiadis stating "we’d absolutely love to bring the other games to the Switch (and other consoles)," going as far as to confirm that "TY2 and TY3 are ready to go, from an art asset perspective."
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HDÂ is out now for PC and Nintendo Switch, with PS4 and Xbox One versions also in development.
Source: Nintendo Everything