As 2024 comes to an end, we'd like to wish you all happy holidays and reflect on an incredible year. We'll be taking the next couple of weeks off to make sure everyone on the team has a chance to rest and enjoy time with their families before we come back to release The Haunting of Joni Evers and start working on what comes next.
Project: Aftermath and The Haunting of Joni Evers
We started the year saying "2024 is finally the year of our first release" [From the Causeway (Jan '24)]. Despite the release date ending up in 2025 (January 13th, make sure your calendar is marked!), we finished the game in November and just needed to find the right release date for the greatest chance of success.
(By the way, did you see the release date announcement trailer?!)
We're incredibly proud of Joni's tale and all of the love and hard work that went into it. As Kelly recorded Joni's final lines for the game we were all in tears, and the final confrontation with [REDACTED] ended up being everything we hoped it would be.
In the middle of all of this, we were fortunate to sign with indie.io (formerly Freedom Games) as a publisher, and I can confidently say that The Haunting of Joni Evers would not have the visibility it has without them. We also had opportunities to showcase the game at the Game Con Canada, PAX West, and as part of the Indie Horror Showcase in October. It's been an incredible ride.
Target: Commercial Success and Sustainability
As we get closer to the release date, our focus is on getting Joni in front of as many people as possible so you can experience firsthand the stories and emotions we've been so excited to share.
To that end, this is the second of many times I will say this, there are two things we need from as many of you as possible in order to help us continue to follow our dreams (this is a little inside knowledge on how Steam works):
- Before release: ask your friends to wishlist the game. This is the same thing we've been asking for, and we need a little bit more to ensure we get some front-page featuring for "popular upcoming" games leading into the release.
- Upon release: at 10am central time on Monday, January 13th, we need to get as many people as possible, as quickly as possible (ideally within a few hours), to start playing the game and to leave an honest review on Steam (you can start the game, review it, finish the game, and come back to edit your review). This will help us get another front page featuring for "new and trending" games.
Those two featurings will massively boost our chances to continue this dream and share more stories.
In Store for 2025 (and Beyond): The Next Chapter(s)
All along, the Worlds Across the Causeway has been conceived as a connected anthology universe of deeply human stories where the strange meets the mundane, and as we release Joni's story to the world, we've been figuring out what stories we would like to tell next and how we make them happen.
We've already been hard at work on what we're internally referring to as our "matrilineal cornetto trilogy" (fans of Edgar Wright will understand this clue) along with how we get it funded. As we move into the new year, we are assembling all of the materials we need to pitch our next two games to publishers and investors for the additional funding that will make developing them much easier.
Thank you again for your support and interest as we chase this dream! From our tiny team here at Causeway, we hope you have a wonderful winter holiday season and look forward to seeing you again in the new year when we resume our vignettes, choose your own adventure, and release planning.
If you haven't already, make sure you wishlist The Haunting of Joni Evers on Steam, join our Discord community, and follow us on BlueSky, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
'Til we meet again along the Causeway,
Kjartan Kennedy, Studio Director