Kyler's Departure from Clever Endeavour
/Happy June!
It’s important to us here at Clever Endeavour that we keep our community up to speed with any changes or updates that come our way. This year, on good terms, we parted ways with one of our co-founders, Kyler. Below is a message he wished to share with you:
“Hello Everybody
After 7 life-altering years working on Ultimate Chicken Horse, and helping run Clever Endeavour Games, I've decided to leave the company. I wrestled with this decision for a long time, as getting to work with great people, on great games, was definitely a dream job.
There has been a lot of change happening in the last 3 years. I became a father, we started working on new game ideas, COVID hit and we started working from home. My long-term priorities as a person began to change. All of this combined, led to me really thinking about my future.
When I thought about the question "What do I want to do for the next 30 years?" My heart didn't passionately answer "keep making video games". I'm a person who has had many deep and diverse passions over the years. After high school, I thought I'd be studying Physics at University. But 3D graphics and animation became a huge interest for me, and I dramatically changed my plans to go to Art School instead. It feels right for things to change again.
While I can't tell exactly what the next big draw is for me now, I know I want to explore some other paths in life, with a little interlude to be able to focus more on raising my kids. Our 2nd is on its way soon!
There are many people that I would like to send my deepest appreciation and thanks for helping make my experience at Clever Endeavour what it was.
Thanks to the other co-founders, Richard and Alex, for deciding to sign up for this wild endeavour to start with. There are few game jams that go as far as this one did. I greatly appreciate how understanding they were in my decision to leave, and I am happy to continue being friends with them in the future.
Thanks to all the employees who decided to join the team, and help us try to realize all the different projects and creations we came up with. I appreciate all the obvious game work you did, as well as the huge iceberg of behind-the-scenes work that really makes a video game company run.
Thanks to my family, my wife Jackie, and the families of the co-founders, who were an enormous support to getting Clever Endeavour up and running. I am very glad that the company has this idea of support baked into its DNA, and was able to help support another team get off the ground as well.
Thanks to all the players of Ultimate Chicken Horse. The amount of enjoyment that I've seen the world have with the game has been astounding. I appreciate all the feedback we got over the years. I appreciate all the players who devoted a lot of their time to becoming skilled at the game and know many of its intricacies more than I do. Thanks to everyone who ever made fan art, or shared stories about how the game impacted their lives. It really means a lot to the people making games.
Thanks to the Montreal and Global game dev community that helped support our game and team, and who have become lifelong friends.
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing next. I need some time to rest, but I see myself working on many creative projects in the future. If the last 7 years are anything to go by, I'll either create or find cool new opportunities to be a part of.
I definitely feel a little disconnected from the world since the pandemic started, if you want to connect, or reconnect with me in the coming months, send me a DM on Twitter at @kylerwk
Clever Endeavour will continue making amazing games, and I wish everybody the best in all their future Endeavours.
Bye for now,
Kyler Kelly-Tan”
We’re so thankful for our time with Kyler and thought we’d share something fun in honour of it–a video from our original Kickstarter:
Time flies!
Enjoy your summer,
The Clever Endeavour Team
