StartUp grant success & Montreal International Game Summit 🏴‍☠️

Ahoy crew, welcome below deck!

Forgive me for cutting it very fine getting a newsletter out this month. My son Henry was born three weeks ago, so I've been completely switched off from the game for a while. I am about to return to work though, and for the first time I will be truly full-time! Which leads into the first piece of exciting news to share in this edition of Below Deck...

$250,000 CODE StartUp Grant

We're very pleased to announce that our CODE StartUp grant application has been successful. This is a pivotal moment for the studio, allowing us to operate for the next 14 months with the full team at various capacities. I am especially excited for fresh art assets from our amazing art team, and to begin working in a more official capacity with sound designers, Erin and Sarah, who previously interned with Cass Bay Games as part of their master's studies.

Over the next year we plan to reveal a schedule of playtests in advance, so keep an eye out for an announcement and roadmap in the not-too-distant future. I will also be looking for ways to offer more interaction with the team on Discord. It's going to be a big year!

Read more about the CODE funding decisions in the official press release.

Montreal International Game Summit

One final piece of news for this very brief newsletter: I will be attending MIGS in Canada as part of the CODE NZ cohort. I will have the opportunity to pitch to a room full of publishers at an event run by Representing Games, and to take individual pitch meetings during the two-day conference. Our CODE grant thankfully gets us most of the way through production, but I will still be looking for a publishing partner to invest in our marketing, porting, localization, etc.

Thanks for sticking around through a slow month! I look forward to sharing many more exciting updates soon.

As always, why is the rum gone? (Please respond)
Ben