How Super Meat Boy Almost Killed Team Meat

The development process for Super Meat Boy has gone down as one of the most chaotic and infamous dev cycles in modern gaming. The tight platformer took two years to reach players’ hands, and in the process Team Meat duo Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes had to fight against all odds to make the indie game a success. Today at GDC during their “Team Meat Presents: Super Meat Boy, a Team Meat Meatmortem” event, with Refenes on stage and McMillen skyping in, the duo talked in-depth regarding the chaotic process to develop Super Meat Boy. Between Refenes’ diabetes and McMillen’s gallbladder surgery, physical problems complicated development. Dealing with Microsoft’s chaotic advertising and support for the game amidst the “Game Feast” fall gaming event did not go quite as planned, and the team was left with more than a little bit of bitterness toward the company. For all intents and purposes, Microsoft screwed them over.

Steam has been much more successful for Team Meat, and combined sales between the two services have accounted for more than 400,000 sales. Super Meat Boy on the PC has been much more successful overall, with McMillen announcing a North American retail release. He quickly flashed the Wal-Mart box release, prompting cheers from the audience.

This success has also been positive for the duo’s future. Unfortunately, the Wiiware version of the game is not coming out. Refenes stated that they “would never go episodic,” thus effectively killing the Wii version of the game, as no publishers are interested in retail for the white box. However, don’t be too sad for Nintendo, as Team Meat has a 3DS and has not ruled out the possibility for a 3DS port of Super Meat Boy. They mentioned that money is no longer an issue for Team Meat, and they have some good plans in store.

What do you guys think? Should they make an entirely new game for the 3DS? Or should we see a Super Meat Boy 3DS?