Squid Shock Studios, the creative force behind the recently launched game Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, has turned to its community for support following an unexpected upheaval with its publisher, Humble Games. The studio took to Twitter to express the challenges faced since their debut, stating, “It has been a hectic two weeks since we launched our first game. Our launch was not without its challenges. Our publisher shutting down has meant we have missed out on critical post-launch support, which may put our studio’s future at risk.”
Publisher Restructuring and Its Impact
In a surprising turn of events, Chris Radley, a former employee of Humble, revealed that the team was replaced by a third-party consultancy, leaving developers like Squid Shock in a precarious position. Humble’s official statement emphasized their commitment to supporting development partners during this transition, asserting, “Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved.” However, for Squid Shock, the reality appears to be quite different.
“On July 25th, we lost access to the pipeline of critical systems without warning,” the studio explained. “We can currently only manage the game on Steam, and we were able to push an update this week. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for consoles. Porting and QA support was tied into our deal with our publisher, and at the time of writing we still do not have that pipeline restored. However, steps are finally being taken to restore access.”
Returning to Crowdfunding
Initially funded through Kickstarter, Squid Shock has now turned to Patreon to seek additional support during these uncertain times. The studio has launched a membership program with six tiers, starting with the Seedling option at just £1 per month. This tier offers backers a digital thank-you card featuring exclusive art, along with access to updates and a dedicated Discord channel. At the other end of the spectrum, the Kami tier, priced at £85 per month, provides patrons with a unique in-game collaboration named after them, invitations to virtual launch parties, personalized thank-you messages, and more.
“We have so much planned for our studio beyond small updates for our game,” Squid Shock stated. “Bo began as a community endeavor where backers believed in us and supported us with initial funding on Kickstarter.”
As of now, the studio has garnered 22 paid members on its Patreon, marking a hopeful beginning for their fundraising efforts. Their latest post on the platform shared patch notes for an early preview of version 1.1 and announced that a new patch had been submitted to the QA team, a positive development considering the recent difficulties in securing QA testers.