The Hippo-Party-Plus Update, Physical Edition Launch and Much More!

After a fairly slow August, September has been a big month for our studio! We finally announced and officially launched the Ultimate Chicken Horse update that we’ve been working on! And that’s far from the only cool thing happening! 

Here’s what’s included in this month’s newsletter:

• The Hippo-Party-Plus Update for Ultimate Chicken Horse launch

• The A-Neigh-Versary Physical Edition is launching soon

• The Game Devs of Color Expo (Sep 23 - 27th)

• Studio plans for Truth and Reconciliation Day

• Our monthly donations

Hippo-Party-Plus Update

Earlier this month we announced the Hippo-Party-Plus update for Ultimate Chicken Horse! It introduces our new character, Hippo, an alternate skin, Triceratops, a new level, rollercoaster, and much more.

The Hippo-Party-Plus update launched on all platforms this week, so check it out!

For more details on what is in the update and a note about the future of Ultimate Chicken Horse, mosey on over to our update page here.

We’d also like to thank the streamers who participated in our second ever sponsored tournament! Check them out and catch the VODs on their channels: HCJustin, MathasGames, McLaffyTaffy, itsonlyJill, citRa, Empyre, JOJOsaysbreee, Octopimp, Strippin, TieTuesday, Lythero, The_Meez, GoonGalaxie, TiffanyWitcher, JustWulfGaming...

And our tournament winner, Coestar!

A-Neigh-Versary Edition 

The physical edition of Ultimate Chicken Horse, the A-Neigh-Versary Edition, is launching on September 28. We’re also excited to announce that the Hippo-Party-Plus update is pre-loaded onto the cartridges!

This Switch exclusive is available directly through Merge Games or at multiple retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. 

GDoC Expo

The wonderful Game Devs of Color Expo started on Thursday, the 23rd and goes through until Monday, September 27.

It started off strong with an indie games showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3ehCSmbfRE

They’re keeping the ball rolling with plenty of talks and panels throughout the next couple of days, including ones on entering the gaming industry. Check out the schedule and grab a ticket here.

Truth and Reconciliation Day

On September 30, 2021 our studio will be recognizing the first national Truth and Reconciliation Day by dedicating our workday to learning. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report highlights the actions recommended to address the immeasurable harm caused by the colonization of Canada and the Residential School Systems.

We highly recommend that others, especially our fellow Canadians, also spend some time to learn and reflect on this day! Here’s a place to get started: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html 

We’ll also be reflecting on actions that we can take as both individuals and as a studio on how we can contribute to these causes. As part of this learning, we’ll be choosing a related charity to donate to - more on that soon.

Charity Corner

For August’s employee-led donation, Rich chose to split the donation between the SPCA and P10, a charity that helps support the LGBTQ+ community here in Montreal. 

Studio Investment, UCH Sales, INDIE Live Expo, and more!

Whew! What a month it has been for video games.

If you were hoping for news on the Ultimate Chicken Horse update or about our next title, sorry!! We’re still working on both, video games just take a long time to make.

With that said, here’s a summary of this month’s updates:

• Investing in Kitten Cup Studio

• Nintendo Switch and PlayStation sales

• Musical performance during INDIE Expo 2021

• Our donations for the month

Introducing: Kitten Cup Studio!

One of the things that helped get Clever Endeavour Games get off the ground was the incredibly generous investments from our friends and family.

And now that we’re in the privileged place to do so, and as we promised last year, we’re paying it forward by investing in the wonderful new game from fellow Canadian Kitten Cup Studio!

Kitten Cup Studio is working on their first studio title, Pekoe. Check out this trailer from the Wholesome Games Direct that happened over E3 weekend:

Game Description: Pekoe is a cute cat-filled tea-making simulation game about taking the time for self-care and connecting with the things that make you happy. As the newest resident and teahouse owner in town, you’ll learn over 12 unique rituals and tea-making styles to make an endless combination of recipes. Meet and build relationships with 16 unique characters in town, and visit the many teahouses to purchase exclusive teaware and ingredients.

Wishlist and follow the game on Steam: https://s.team/a/1626350

Here’s how you can learn more about Kitten Cup Studio and their upcoming came, Pekoe:

• Website

• Discord

• Twitter

With all of this in mind, we’re not becoming publishers just yet! Kitten Cup Studio gets to choose how they spend the money, keep their creative control, keep their IP, and we’re around if they have any questions about game development or need industry advice.

And before we get hundreds of pitches and inquiries, we’re not actively looking to invest in additional studios at the moment, but we plan to use any profits made from this investment to help other game studios get off the ground sometime in the future.

Ultimate Chicken Horse Sales

Looking for games to tide you over until the next big Nintendo release? Or maybe you’ve been trying to get your friend to join your farm hijinks?

Whatever the case, Ultimate Chicken Horse is 50% off in the following regions:

Americas: Until June 21

Europe: Until June 27

Head on over to the Nintendo eShop to grab the discount while you can!

For PlayStation users in Asia, Ultimate Chicken Horse is 50% off until June 23!

INDIE Live Expo 2021

Here’s something quite fun! The folks over at INDIE Expo asked us if their musical guests could perform the Ultimate Chicken Horse theme on the show this year.

Obviously, we said yes!

Check it out at 1:14:30 here:

Donation Corner

The employee initiative for May was led by Kyler who decided to split the donation between Palestine Children's Relief Fund and the International Red Cross.

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And that’s about it! Oh, and we can’t take off without wishing our LGBTQ+ community members a very happy pride month!!

<3

The Clever Endeavour Team

Looking for Our Next Team Member, Industry Event Sponsorships and More!

While we don’t have any exciting updates on the Ultimate Chicken Horse update or for our new working title, here are some things that we want to highlight for the month:

• We’re hiring!

• Industry Activities (Game Devs of Color, GameLoop)

• Donation Corner

Looking for the next ClevEnDev!

We’re looking for someone to join our small team!

This person will help us out around the studio with various tasks which will range from business administration to testing out our games.

The role is perfect for people who are looking to break into the gaming industry but maybe don’t have the education or experience to know what they want to specialize in.

If you’re interested, or know someone who would be, check out all the details and apply here:

https://www.workwithindies.com/careers/clever-endeavour-games-studio-assistant-qa

Industry Events and Sponsorships

 Game Devs of Color

Amplifying diverse voices is so incredibly important, so we’re so happy to be sponsors of this year’s Game Devs of Color Expo!

This fantastic event is open to everyone, so whether you’re a game developer or interested in game development, you can grab a ticket here and attend virtually September 23-27!

GameLoop

Speaking of event sponsorships, we’re also sponsoring GameLoop 2021!

We’ve participated in and sponsored GameLoop before, and it’s one of our favourite game developer events every year. While it looks a little different this year since it’s virtual, we’re excited to see what GameLoop Boston and Montreal have in store.

Grab a ticket here and attend the fun on July 17th. 

Donation Corner

Back in April we donated $30,000 to various charities for the critical COVID-19 situation in India. We wrote a bit about it here, and encourage you to donate too if you can as they continue to battle record high casualties.

On behalf of Asian Heritage Month and the rising number of hate crimes against Asians (you can read more about this here and here for Canada), we are donating $5,000 each to the Asian Canadian Benevolent Association, the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and Elimin8Hate.

As for our monthly employee-led charity of the month, in April Steph chose for us to donate to Food Banks Canada, which helps provide food to those in need and has been facing more demand than ever due to various COVID-19 factors.