Hey.
Sad news about HELLPUNK. The game is currently in an indefinite hiatus, due to several different circumstances.
This has been extremely painful for me personally, as it has been my passion project for years, but also since it represented my hopes to professionally run my own game studio.
I really should have made this announcement six months ago, but I’ve had a hard time processing it, and especially writing about it. Sorry for having kept you waiting for so long.
However, in the final months of last year my publisher decided to drop the project due to creative differences. My vision was a more brutal horror focused project, and less of a boomer shooter. This happened very suddenly, and the lack of funding forced me to quickly find a new job to provide for me and my family.
Essentially this forced me to exit the game industry and get a “normal” job, working in app development. The dream for me would be to keep working on HELLPUNK as a personal project, even though the scope would have to be narrowed due to a lack of funding and time.
The problem is that I can’t. It has just been too painful to look at the game, since it represents years of struggle and doubt, and I haven’t been able to work on it since. I want to finish the game, and I know it has a lot of potential. I just can’t find the enthusiasm or motivation anymore. Though it’s not like I’m formally canceling the game; it’s rather put in cryostasis in my metaphorical basement, hoping that I can go down there and face it again some day.
I won’t stop making games however, I don’t even think that I can. I just need to focus on something else, make something that I enjoy, and hopefully find that motivation some day.
Thanks for all the support over the years, it has meant the world to me.
Philip