Hey everyone! I’ve put together a status update for you all covering the current state of Folklore Hunter, our financial results so far, and my plans for the future.
As many of you know, I'm not a great writer so this will be a bit word vomit-y, but F it, embrace your flaws.
Spring Sale + IGDA Charity Sale
Folklore Hunter is currently 20% off on Steam for the Spring Sale! We are also proud to participate in the IGDA Download for Charity event from March 27th to April 6th. During this event, a percentage of all sales revenue will be donated to charity.
If you don’t already own the game, this is the perfect time to grab it. Your purchase will go toward helping talented individuals from underrepresented communities get their start in the game development industry.
Folklore Hunter
Folklore Hunter has been a great success for Liquid Donkey games. While there have been some decisions I would make differently given the chance, I'm incredibly proud of what we've created, and the community surrounding it.
As the game is now at version 1.0, future updates will primarily focus on support and maintenance.
Financial Results & Transparency
While I'm still not sure if I want to reveal exact sales numbers, Folklore Hunter has been a success overall for sure. The difficulty is that I spread that success over such a long amount of development time, causing the financial impact to be dulled. The 1.0 release brought new income and potential to the company, which I'm super thankful for, and hope to turn that success into more success in the future.
Currently, all going well, there is enough runway for me to continue running Liquid Donkey and making games for about two years as a solo dev. This includes small marking budgets, dev costs, salary, and other expenses. This window is slightly shorter than I was hoping, but still I think that if I take the lessons I have learned, the community we have built, and an inextinguishable work ethic, I can keep making games in perpetuity.
I'll probably share more details in the future or in live streams as I feel comfortable, but this period is about me transitioning from letting other people tell me what I can/can't/should/shouldn't do and getting back to the scrappy, exciting, passion filled roots that created this company, game, and community in the first place. I want to do things differently, and learn through the ups and downs of the last five years to follow my own gut for better or worse.
Liquid Donkey Games
As many of you know, Liquid Donkey Games was started by me in 2020 after a short career at a AA company called Rocketwerkz. Following that, I started my own indie studio to create my own games and get my own ideas out there. This has been a learning journey for me, and I'm sure ill continue to learn and develop in the future.
My goal of Liquid Donkey Games is to be an open and transparent indie game studio, where you get a glimpse behind the development and business curtain (that many people have advised me not to do). Still, I have to follow my gut in situations like this, and remember back to when I was a young inspired developer watching videos of notch programming Minecraft, and remember to just be myself: A normal guy, in front of a normal screen, making sh*t he thinks is cool, and hopefully other people do too.
Folklore Hunter's Delay
After the initial success of Folklore Hunter, I got excited at the potential, I let my ambition get the better of me and helpe start another company -- Usual Suspects Studios. I will not discuss too many details publicly, out of respect for my fellow developers on that team.
The result was that Folklore Hunter’s development slowed down, and I was less active here in the Discord.
If you're interested in checking 'It's Only Money', heres the trailer.
The New Game
We’ve poured every ounce of creativity into Folklore Hunter over the last five years, and it’s finally time for something new.
The new game, code-named 'Project Deep', will be smaller and tighter in scope, which will allow us to get inspired and get our creative juices flowing again.
We're still developing the core identity for Project Deep but here is a rough idea of what were thinking so far:
- Round based extraction roguelike where the players operate deep sea submarines attempting to collect salvage to meet a quota without being lost to the deep.
- Water-based cryptids that would have been extremely challenging to showcase through Folklore Hunter.
- Totally new mechanics and gameplay that we've already been enjoying and having fun with, even in pre-pre alpha.
- Online coop multiplayer.
I’ll be streaming the development of this game off and on over at the Liquid Donkey Games Twitch channel, so come hang out!
The Long-Term Plan
2026
- Console ports of Folklore Hunter.
- Maintenance patches for Folklore Hunter.
- Active development & streaming of 'Project Deep'.
2027
- 'Project Deep' release.
- 'Project Deep' console ports.
- (Hopefully) not running out of money.
- Evaluating the next move (maybe a return to the Folklore Hunter IP, or something entirely new).
2028 and Beyond
- Option A: Continue making games, streaming, and sharing weird ideas with the world.
- Option B: Work at a gas station, continue making games, streaming, and sharing weird ideas with the world.
Thank you all for being part of this journey. It means the world to me.
❤️ Smirk
