Now that the initial release window for The Haunting of Joni Evers is behind us, we're finally a little more equipped to celebrate it and solidify our plans for what comes next.

"An Indie Gem Brimming With Mystery and Emotion"

As I'm sure you can imagine, it's very anxiety-inducing to release something creative you've poured your heart, soul, and painstaking work into and to know that complete strangers are playing and judging it, and those first few hours-days after pressing the big green button were some of the longest of our lives. But before long, those hours were punctuated by reviews coming in. Some folks had started the game but had to leave for work (ahh, the joys of releasing on a Monday), and yet took the time to leave a review of what they'd seen so far. Others played the game through almost immediately and left a full review before going right back in to play again (possibly the greatest compliment we got was the person who immediately played through twice in a row).

Some of those reviewers we recognized (thank you for answering our call for aid) and others were complete strangers, which gave us even more confidence that we'd made something that would resonate with people. Before long, we saw our game appear in the New & Trending list on the Steam homepage!

Within days, we even started to see some media review the game, like Anna Hubbard's wonderful review over at 2Game: https://2game.com/community/the-haunting-of-joni-evers-an-indie-gem-brimming-with-mystery-and-emotion/

The first two weeks were filled with tracking player feedback, fixing key bugs (though fortunately not very many), and addressing some core quality of life improvements. We managed to put out 2 patches and 1 hotfix in that period, and at this point the game is running very well on Windows, Mac, and the Steam Deck.

We're absolutely thrilled with the critical response! It feels like we've truly found our audience and the people who have found the game have loved it (seriously, some of the reviews on Steam are beautiful). While sales haven't quite been what we hoped for just yet, we're incredibly proud of what we've put out into the world (and who knows, we believe a game like this can catch fire based on word of mouth).

"I would love to see what they come up with next. No pressure."

We'll continue tracking the conversation around Joni and working to add localization and bring it to consoles, but now that the game is in a stable state we're feeling a little more free to look ahead. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be finishing up the pitch for the next game and getting properly into preproduction.

This next one is about to get weird. We're not ready to reveal even the codename yet, but maybe you should have a listen to the new Lord Huron single, Who Laughs Last...

You'll be hearing from us a little more consistently this year (our goal is monthly). Sometimes we'll have a lot to say and other times they'll be small updates, but our hope is to give a little more insight into our plans and how we're operating, while also keeping space for our bigger announcements.

Night Shoot: A vignette from the Worlds Across the Causeway

A mangy, black dog rummages through the dumpsters behind Oz’s Diner. The moon’s light is obscured by dark clouds. The dog knows he doesn’t belong here, but he can’t help falling into mischief with ample mischief to be found. He doesn’t like hurting people, but he also isn’t afraid to bite — in fact, he thinks of himself as all bite no bark. Efficient.

A flash of light! Too caught up in his own thoughts, as usual. Let someone get the jump on him. No time to bite, time to run. He catches a glimpse of a lanky, young girl holding a camera. She didn’t see much, the dog knows, but that was too close. He’d be ready to bite next time.

Releasing The Haunting of Joni Evers has been a key milestone for us finding our footing as a studio. We've finally shipped our first title, we've given you a true taste of what you can expect from us, and, most importantly, we've found our people.

We couldn't do this without you, and hearing how Joni's tale impacted you has been fuel for us working on the next story. If you've enjoyed The Haunting of Joni Evers or any other tale from the Worlds Across the Causeway, please consider sharing it with a friend; the more we can grow this community the more stories we can tell.

Make sure to pick up The Haunting of Joni Evers on Steam if you haven't, and remember that you can also find us on Discord!

Until we meet again along the Causeway,

Kjartan Kennedy, Studio Director