New Server, Who Dis?

Howdy stranger!

It’s me, Syd the Community Manager, writing my second blog post! If you want to know more about me, peep the previous blog post for an introduction.

Now, I don’t mean to alarm you, but it’s quite literally my favourite month of the year. Why? Because it’s Halloween and I love spooky things, pumpkins (both in lattes and on porches), costumes and of course, candy! However, I will say, the energy over at Clever Endeavour studio isn’t very haunted, it’s quite the opposite. Here's a summary of some not-scary things I’ll be catching you up on:

• Goodbye Gamesparks, hello Xbox!

• Did someone say Steamdeck verified!?

• Trivia Night, babyyyy!

• Mentorships + Charities we’ve been donating to 

• Vibes were had with Vibe Avenue 

• Things we’re looking forward to…

Gute Nacht, Gamesparks!

For those who still don’t know, Gamesparks (our old server) is kaput, so we’ve had to move over to a new one, Braincloud. You may be asking a few questions about this like:

What the heck is a server?

In simple terms, It’s what allows you to play UCH with folks who have different devices than you and live in different locations than yourself.

Is this an update?

Sadly, it is not. It is a patch, which like the name suggests, is fixing holes that may exist in our beautiful game.

So, what does changing the server actually mean then?

It means a lot of things, most quite good! It means the game’s online element isn’t stopping, which means the game has been future-proofed as much as possible. It also means…XBOX CROSSPLAY which I know has been something that’s been asked for for a very long time from our players. Our new server allows you to do this! Wooooooo! Lastly, we added a few small things for our community (updated credits, a “tournament” preset, and a bunch of other tiny little bug fixes that we could fit in).

Thanks, Syd.

No problem.

Full Steam Ahead!

This one is a little less complicated: Valve has given us the good ‘ol Verified/green check mark for Steamdeck! Have fun playing our game on Steamdeck (which you may have already been doing), but uh…VERIFIED this time.

Winner Winner Ultimate Chicken Dinner

One of my favourite things about being a Community Manager is forcing my love of trivia upon my community! Recently, our Discord players embarked on the noble quest of Ultimate Chicken Trivia; which was essentially 25 questions about UCH and Clever Endeavour, ranging in difficulty. The top 3 scores were awarded fancy Discord roles, too. Funny enough, despite me worrying it may be too easy, NO ONE got a perfect score, not even our co-founder Rich. Here are some of the questions (and answers, since I’m feeling nice):

The Code Least Travelled

During the summer, our co-founder Rich participated as a mentor in an accelerator program for game developers run by Code Coven. They're an organization that creates and runs programs for developers coming from underrepresented groups in the industry. Rich acted as a team mentor for Team Gramps, a diverse group spread across the globe, who came together to make a mobile game demo called A Week at Belisamas Lake. The game explores the connection between a grandmother and grandchild who work on fishing objects out of a lake in a post-climate change (in the positive sense, i.e. we didn't destroy the planet) society.

Rich’s mentoring included checking in on development as well as being a sounding board for ideas and problems. Overall, Rich had an amazing experience meeting these talented developers, "it's always so inspiring to see what people can do in such a short period—these people didn't know each other and had never worked together before, and managed to make a super compelling demo while working together for only 8 weeks. Crazy!" You can check out the Code Coven website if you're interested in applying for one of their programs.

Charitable Donations

In the past few months we’ve donated to two local causes that are dear to our company’s heart; The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, which is intended to be a healing space for Indigenous women to rebuild their lives, as well as Women Aware, which provides free services to those who have experienced conjugal violence. Please check out the attached links to look further into these incredible causes.

Just Straight Vibin’

Recently, our team had the pleasure of catching up with the musical geniuses behind the Ultimate Chicken Horse Soundtrack: Vibe Avenue. Their (relatively) new studio blew us away, and look, they even gave us a chance to play their cool instruments. Thanks for having us, VA!

Things We’re Excited About…

Aside from Halloween itself, we’re also super excited about the upcoming Halloween Level Feature event that we’re hosting. We’re currently asking folks to submit their spooky creations! The creativity and challenges that come out of our level events are one of the things our team looks most forward to seeing. So, please, make our October and check out this Steam post for more details on how to submit!

Lastly, we had the pleasure of catching up with our friends over at Weird Ghosts! Weird Ghosts helps support game studios of underrepresented makers through grants, “catalytic investments”, and community. Their day-to-day, as a small team (just two people! That’s one less than we started with when making our game), involves working with the co-op Gamma Space to provide mentorship in areas like studio development, storytelling, documentation, and project management. So far, they’ve assisted 11 studios since 2020!

When I poked co-founder Eileen about what they were most excited about regarding their work so far, she mentioned how she’s currently very proud of this blog, which focuses on funding barriers in Canada. The blog in question gives you a strong sense of what Weird Ghosts stands for–not only does it strip apart Canada’s current funding issues, but it also shows how WG actively challenges these issues when seeking studios to support. “We’re really interested in making our resources accessible”, Eileen shared with me, before noting that the next step for the company will be sharing its values and pitching information. We can’t wait to see what comes next from Weird Ghosts and the studios they’re supporting.

And with that, may your spooky season be ghastly!

- The Clever Endeavour Team

Introducing Syd, Tiktok, and UCH Lore!?

Heyoooooo~

This may come as quite a surprise to you, but it’s the summer right! Let me tell you, here, where our little team is located, it means things are getting warm! It’s hot, it’s sunny, and things are moving over here at Clever Endeavour. We’ve got lots of exciting updates to bring your way. Here’s a quick summary:

• A new community manager appears: Syd! 

• We’re on Tiktok!

• Big ‘ol Summer sales!

• New initiative: Barnyard bMonday

• UCH Summer Feature Levels on LevelNET

• Charity donations

• Things we’re looking forward to

New Community Manager Alert: Say Hello to Syd 

Howdy! It’s me, Syd (they/them), writing my first blog post!

Here’s the scoop on me:

When I’m not community managing the Ultimate Chicken Horse community I’m over at Casa Rara Studio working on our new game Mini Maker: Make A Thing. When I’m not doing either of those, I’m squeezing in time for my Master’s in Creative Writing, because for some reason I love video games AND poetry the same amount. I also clearly love to suffer, because I have so much on my plate!

Some fun facts about me include:

• I have a hairless cat named Ursula

• I have to have three different “kinds” of drinks every morning (i.e: sparkling water, matcha, kombucha, tea, etc). They all have to have different textures and ~purposes~.

• I can play the banjo 

A pleasure to meet you, and a pleasure to be joining such a wonderful team and community. Can’t wait to get to know you all and bring some of my weird little self to the community. Come chat with me on our Discord to get to know me better!

Tiktokkin’ Time

For those of you who are as hooked on this platform as I am, or for those of you who love a good meme, follow our UCH TikTok for bizarrities. Or, check it out to get some wholesome content, like this TikTok on our community member and mod Terry:

Summer Sails Sales

It’s the summertime, which means fun, right? Or, it should, in my belief. Well, let us help you out! Throughout the summer we’ve organized a bunch of 50% off sales for Ultimate Chicken Horse–so keep an eye on our Twitter and on your system of choice to see when we’re on sale. If you already have the game…consider convincing a friend to join in on your obsession by flashing them this absolutely irresistible price!

UCH Lore??? 

If you’ve been on socials, you may have noticed this odd Monday occurrence as of the past few weeks: Barnyard bMonday. It includes a horribly photoshopped UCH animal alongside a very accurate and real piece of information about said animal. The folks on the UCH discord have asked whether it is the true lore of the game, to which I would like to reply the following:

Ultimate Chicken Horse is a fictional video game, whereas the facts I have been posting and inventing on the spot are 100% true and scientifically accurate and thoroughly tested. Be assured, that the money you spend on our game goes directly to the pursuit of this knowledge and of course, the betterment of animal kind. Here is the photo of the top scientists in our field working away at Barnyard bMonday:

If you have any suggestions for upcoming studies, feel free to message us on our Discord, Twitter, or by carrier pigeon.

Summer Feature Levels to Quench Your Thirst

If you’ve gotten this far and are still reading, here is where I admit to you that I loathe summer, the very concept of sweating disturbs me. However, I do like video games. That’s why the idea of interacting with summer from the safety of my computer sounds positively divine. With this in mind, please enjoy these wonderful community-made Summer-themed Levels! 

A massive thank you to everyone who submitted a level, and to the levels council who helped choose which levels should be featured for this!

Charitable Donations

It’s been a while since our last blog post, so let me quickly catch you up to speed with all the different causes we’ve been supporting.

1. For Pride Month, we donated to a campaign run by game devs across the world to raise money for akt–a UK charity that supports lgbtq+ youth ages 16-25 by helping them find safe homes, employment, education and training.

2. We donated to Stop the Red Sea Spill, a UN campaign to remove a FSO Safer from Yemen's Red Sea coast to prevent further disparity or damage to surrounding reefs and sea life.

3. We updated and donated to several causes in support of Ukraine. Check out further information here if you’re looking for some guidance to help Ukrainians who are still in need of our support. 

4. We ran a giveaway of this awesome Queer Games Bundle for our discord community. We figured the best way to support LGBTQ+ Devs was to put the money straight in their hands and to share their work!

Things We’re Looking Forward To…

If there are two things that are beloved to us at Clever Endeavour it is tea and cats. You can imagine how the game Pekoe has affected us once it landed on our radar. In this adorable cat-filled, tea cafe simulator you’re learning new techniques and tea-making styles, building relationships with townsfolk, and purchasing tea supplies and tools at other teahouses. 

Aside from the adorable appearance, in these chaotic times, it’s been illuminating how important and necessary games are to keep us afloat. Pekoe’s focus on self-care and pursuing what makes one happy is a necessary breath of fresh air. Check out the trailer here:

Wishlist Pekoe here!

What else? Well, Community Manager Syd was extremely pumped to attend the online Disco MTL Summit last week. Disco MTL is a Game Discoverability Summit where one gets to attend talks and roundtables all centered around games, gaming communities, marketing, you name it! It was jam-packed with some incredible guests, including our pals at KO_OP Marcela Huerta and Jacob Blommestein, the hilarious and bright Victoria Tran of Innersloth, the exceptional Chris Zukowski, and the talented Philomena Schwab of Stray Fawn Studio. Extremely, extremely exciting! Aside from the huge chunk of knowledge dispersed throughout the week, Syd’s favourite part was attending a cocktail party and realizing these were the cups everyone was drinking from.

A few of us here at the studio are taking little vacations, so that’s pretty fun. It’s important to mix up hard work with some play, brains aren’t meant to always be working. So I hope you get a moment this summer to play a game or two (or two hundred) of UCH and relax–you’ve earned it.

Sorry, no donkey updates in UCH, but one of our co-founders Rich did go on vacation and spotted this cute little guy Morocco, near Moulay Idriss.

Hope you have a splendid Summer!

- The Clever Endeavour Team

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