“Cave Story,” an old-school 2D platformer created and produced by Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, is one of gaming’s biggest indie success stories.

But Amaya hasn’t seen a dime from his work on “Cave Story.” He released the game as freeware on the PC. Once people fell in love, they started porting “Cave Story” to others platforms — PSP, Mac, everything.

There had been no movement on producing a proper port of “Cave Story” until Nicalis Inc. head honcho Tyrone Rodriguez decided to make Pixel a pitch.

His pitch started simple enough.

He simply sent Pixel a note to the e-mail listed on his website: “I drafted an e-mail to Amaya introducing myself,” said Rodriguez, “telling him about my industry experience, my interest in the game and, with his permission, what I’d like to do with ‘Cave Story.’ Mainly I e-mailed him to gauge his interest in doing something commercially. I figured, if he said no, that’d be okay, but I wanted to give the game a chance. After a few months of e-mails, we managed to agree on everything.”

“Amaya really appreciated his fans and their continued support. He understands that ‘Cave Story’ wouldn’t be what it is today if not for them.”

GoNintendo’s Kevin Cassidy told me “Cave Story” is the only game that’s ever made him cry. I’ve never shed a tear while playing a game before. Though Cassidy’s story is a tad more extreme than what I’ve heard from others, the feedback has been nothing but praise.

“I’m going to sound biased because of involvement with the game,” cautioned Rodriguez, “but ‘Cave Story’ was different to me. The graphics, the sound, the control, story–everything about the game felt like it could have very well been a commercially-released game, but probably back in the late ’80s or early ’90s. The only way I can describe ‘Cave Story’ [is that it] probably should have been on the NES (technically impossible) or maybe SNES, but somehow was locked away or forgotten about. It still reminds me why I loved playing games as a kid and how much I enjoyed the 8- and 16-bit eras.”

At first, there was some discussion between Rodriguez and Amaya over which platform to bring “Cave Story” to. Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare were all on the table. WiiWare became their top choice.

“We needed the approval to release it on WiiWare and run it by them [Nintendo] since it was already a PC game,” continued Rodriguez. “However, we let them know that it wouldn’t just be a port, but a new version with some exclusive content. They agreed and it’s been great since. Nintendo’s WiiWare group has been extremely supportive and helpful throughout the process.”

Rodriguez said it was even Nintendo’s idea for “Cave Story” to make its WiiWare debut at their fall media event a few weeks ago. The “exclusive content,” by the way, is new music and revamped art, in addition to extra gameplay that’s so far been kept a secret. “Cave Story” fans, is there something you’d like to see?

Having only spent 15 minutes or so with “Cave Story,” I can hardly have much of an opinion about it. But it only takes 15 minutes for the passion of the game’s creator, Amaya, to shine through.

“I know he’s [Amaya] looking forward to finally playing ‘Cave Story’ alongside a worldwide audience,” said Rodriguez. “Amaya really appreciated his fans and their continued support. He understands that ‘Cave Story’ wouldn’t be what it is today if not for them.”

“Cave Story” will arrive on WiiWare before the end of the year.

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