Four years ago on this month, Tristan, Marnel and I became officially registered as Squeaky Wheel Studio Inc.We’ll be taking a break today and having dinner with some of our gamedev friends to celebrate, but in the meantime let me take a walk down memory lane.
September 2015
I am at EGX 2015 for the launch of Prison Architect. The IVSoftware team have kindly flown me and my wife over to celebrate the launch, so I use this as a way to pitch our game Political Animals to publishers. I meet Cliffski for the first time and pitch the game to him.
Within a couple of days he offers me a publishing deal. Anyone who has done a publishing deal before will know that this is an extraordinarily short amount of time to get a deal done. It helps that we got along and Cliffski is a one-man show studio that answers to no one, but still.
October 2015
After landing back in Manila I immediately set about establishing a company, which is not a trivial process in the Philippines. I end up paying more than I probably needed to in order to have another company help me set up my company, such is life here. We are officially registered with the SEC by October 28, 2015
Funny aside, I had thought that we had incorporated on October the 15, which is why we are celebrating our anniversary today. :P
November 2016
After almost a year of working nonstop on Political Animals and taking it to conventions like BICfest, TGS, and PAX, we release the game. Even with all the advantages that we had, it is a flop.
September 2017
A mere 10 months later, we launch Academia : School Simulator in Early Access. It succeeds well enough to save the company and we continue development of the game.
October 2019
It has been a little over 2 years since Early Access launch, and 3 years since initial development of Academia. We have hit many highs and lows, but the game continues to make enough income to support our team.
This brings me to an announcement from the future. At some point before October 2020, we want to launch version 1 of Academia : School Simulator. The game has made major strides since it first came out. While there is still more work to be done, we can finally see the finish line.
Games like Academia : School Simulator are tricky things. While there is the potential to build on it infinitely, we believe we’re coming close to a point that we are personally satisfied with it. Version 1 doesn’t necessarily mean the end of development, but it does mean a change of focus for the team. It’s been a long road, and we’re excited to slowly inch our way to something new, whatever that may be.
Spoiler Alert, we have some exciting news coming up soon, so stay tuned!
Thanks to Everyone
We want to thank everyone that has supported us throughout this journey. Thanks to everyone who has played the game (if you enjoyed your experience please write us a review because it really matters!). Thanks to our partners, our parents and families for supporting us. Thanks to our fellow devs, streamers, and publishers for supporting us, spreading the word, and putting your faith in us.
We hope that you’ll stick around for the years to come!
