Hey folks!
It’s been a while since our last update and a lot of you probably think the game is dead. This is not the case.
Short version: we're developing Handmancers and will keep at it until it's done. We just had to take an "involuntary vacation" that ended last week.
But if you want the long story, grab some popcorn because boy, do we have a tale to tell - and I'll start from the somewhat-beginning.
What Happened
In March 2024, we found a publisher willing to fund the game. We started working together and showcased at Steam Next Fest in June 2024. The demo absolutely crushed it - we landed in the top 50 (still feels surreal), with YouTubers playing our game and thousands of concurrent players (thank you guys). It was the dream: people loved the game, the demo was killing it, and we had publisher resources to keep developing for a September 2024 release.
Then our luck ran out. After many delays, the collaboration with our publisher broke down, and we were left broke with the game's IP stuck in publisher limbo.
We had to stop working on the game. Lawyers advised us that continuing development could be seen as implicit acceptance of not getting paid (legal logic is fun, right?). Then came emails, meetings, paperwork, and finally in January 2025, we got our IP back. Even with all the mentioned complications we are still grateful to our ex-publisher the situation was resolved and hold no grudge. Life is life.
Back on track
In May, we learned the game would receive additional public support for our game and convinced our company (now a 20-person cooperative that's become fans of the game) to invest in the project so we could continue production. We searched for another publishing partner (we still believe in working with experts) and are now involved with Human Qube in an arrangement where we keep the IP.
Early September we restarted work, and as of this week, we're back at full speed!
Why didn't we write sooner?
We made the classic mistake of caring too much and wanted to come back with good news. Here's the slightly mushy part you can skip: from the play tests by you, we collected hundreds (~450) pieces of feedback, watched every possible YouTube and Twitch video. We believe that the beauty of an indie gamedev (not just ours) is being able to develop outside the box and getting support from the community. Personally (and I think the whole team feels this), we felt responsible for stalling a project that people had chosen to help us with. And for this we are truly sorry.
We deeply thank you for your patience, and honestly can’t wait to finally see you play Handmancers.
Our roots and our commitment
Handmancers is a passion project by a team of non-professionals (read: naive dreamers) who had this wild idea of making video games. Back in early 2023, our team was a startup developing educational games with little money in the bank and way too many ideas. Through a call for proposals, we pitched a proof of concept and won a small grant that let us create a Handmancers demo, attend industry events (we're based in Italy), and fly to Gamescom hunting for a publisher.
Being resource-challenged (fancy way of saying broke), we needed a publisher to keep developing the game and, more importantly, to handle all that scary publishing and marketing stuff.
That said, we gained a lot of experience that will help us to move forward and stay committed to the release of Handmancers and build up the game we’ve envisioned without any restrictions. From now on, we will keep you posted on upcoming updates and would appreciate you joining us on our development journey.
What’s next
The Demo will be taken down (we’ll announce when).
There are a lot of changes to be made and we want to reintroduce it once it’s properly updated with new content and game mechanics that we had in mind for the finished product. In the meantime, we’ll run at least one open playtest.
For those who want to go deeper, we’re setting up a Playtest Hub in our Discord. This will be the place for closed playtests - with a private channel, a dedicated role, and access to the Steam playtest branch through a code we’ll share there. It’s a space for players who want to actively help shape Handmancers, not just try out a demo.
After all, it’s your support that proved to us the game was worth fighting for and we care deeply about your feedback.
Join our Discord if you want to participate in a closed playtest and we'll let you know about next steps.
TL;DR: The game is in development, updates coming soon, planned to be released in 2026, come hell or high water.
58BLADES
