A lot of rumors surrounding Konami have cropped up recently regarding its possible grand return into the games industry. These include possible revivals for Castlevania or Silent Hill, some of the company's lauded properties. Some other retro games that are a part of the company's roster include classic action space shooters like Gradius and Ganbare Goemon. As a new initiative from the company, Konami announced an indie game contest that asks developers to participate and create games based on some of these classic series.
This contest is in cooperation with leading manga company Shueisha Inc. as a part of its Shueisha Game Creators Camp. This is a project that aims to support indie game developers to discover and support their newfound talents, where they could team up with other creators to produce innovative games. This includes Shueisha giving these developers access to other independent talent, such as programmers, voice actors, game designers, and artists. With Konami's sponsorship, the two companies are hosting a contest known as the "Action & Shooting Game Contest."
This contest asks for indie developers to create games based on any of Konami's past titles from the action or shooter genre. The rules outlined by Konami allow for any of these games to create a remake or sequel, or even a completely different game based on a single character or mechanic, as long as it's from one of the company's classic franchises. The rules even allow for a possible tweak or blend of genres that weren't present in the original games.
There are 80 different titles to choose from the company's library that indie devs could use, with classic Konami's series like Gradius, Knightmare, Goemon, and Star Soldier. A full list of games can be used as a base is listed at the bottom of the entry page. The prizes for this contest include a cash prize, trophies, as well as an offer for these games to become official and sold by Konami. The company will also be providing support for this winning indie game, such as investment, supervision and production advice, as well as promotion and localization support.
This is a rather bold and fitting time for Konami due to recent rumors of the company looking to refocus its efforts and develop new games for franchises like Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid. This contest allows for some of its more dormant franchises to return, by allowing creators to help them re-emerge in smaller scale games.
Konami's Action & Shooting Game Contest will be running until January 6, 2022.
Source: Shueisha Game Creator's Camp