It’s been a year of ups and downs and almost nothing went as planned. Though, there were still plenty of bright moments.
In January, Sally Face launched on the Nintendo Switch! If you read the last blog post you know that the Switch port was originally planned for Halloween 2020 but we kept running into various issues and the pandemic slowed it down too. There’s a lot involved with a new launch. It’s a bittersweet experience because it’s exciting to be on a new platform but also a lot of work to promote, cut trailers, sending out endless emails, etc. Also the stress of bugs popping up on new platforms. Dealing with launches is one of my least favorite parts of game development because of these things and also one of my favorite parts because that’s when the game connects to new people.
TIKTOK BUMP
Around April, I started noticing a lot more activity from the fandom and a bump in sales on all platforms. After some investigating and comments from fans, I discovered that the hashtag #SallyFace had gone viral on TikTok, with over 2.2 Billion views! (now over 2.6B) That’s an absolutely insane number that I never imagined to see in relation to Sally Face. Because of this and the launch on Nintendo Switch, 2021 saw the largest increase in fan size, more than any other year. In case you’re wondering, no, I’m not on TikTok. I thought about joining but someone else is using my name and pretending to be me and TikTok refuses to remove them. So that kinda soured my desire to join. #salty
SPOTIFY
By fan request, mid-year, I added the Sally Face soundtrack to Spotify, which has over 12.3M streams so far! The soundtrack was also added to other platforms as well, like Amazon and Apple Music.
MONSTER PARTY!
My other team, Wither Studios, began the process of choosing our next game. We decided to go with one of the ideas I pitched, called Monster Party. It’s a horror party game with tactical elements and minigames. You may have seen me sharing some of the concept art I’ve done for it so far and you can follow the progress by following @WitherStudios on social media. I’m pretty excited for this one, it’s gonna be a lot of fun!
TRANSLATIONS AND PORTING
French and Spanish translations for Sally Face were completed but they took more time than planned for. So because of this, they ended up running into the porting process. Which means, those changes are now tied up in the ports. So the new translations will launch when the new platforms do.
The PlayStation and Xbox porting is also taking much longer than expected. I hired a team called Knights of Unity to handle the technical end of porting and they are doing a great job but we keep running into frustrating issue after issue with the certification process. I can’t say which platform or share many details because of NDA stuff but it’s been a nightmare to deal with. The original goal was to launch in September/October but now I’m hoping for Q1 of 2022. I don’t have any solid date yet but will hopefully have more to share within the next month or two.
ART BOOK UPDATE
The Sally Face Art Book was finished earlier this year and we were working with a potential publisher but unfortunately that publisher backed out. Brand Central is in the process of helping me find a new publisher now. With this setback, I’m not sure when the book will come out but I’ll share any big news as it happens. Fingers crossed for a 2022 release.
I had hoped to start production on Sally Face 2 this year, but with everything else getting delayed, I haven’t been able to start on it yet. I need to wrap up the ports for the first game before diving into production on the second one. However, I did work a lot on the script this year and have the first draft for the full game written out. I’m excited for the direction it goes in and to be able to explore more of the ideas I had for this world. My goal with this game will be to contract out some of the work so that SF2 doesn’t take me as long to develop as the first one did (5 years on my own). If you’re interested in working with me, feel free to send your portfolio to contact@portablemoose.com. It’s still a bit early, so I may not send replies yet, but I will be on the lookout, especially for artists who can match the Sally Face style.
OTHER FUN STUFF!
I’m also working on a new solo / Portable Moose game! This one is smaller and more horror leaning than Sally Face but that’s all I’ll say for now. I like the idea of having multiple projects going, so that I can bounce around and keep the motivation and creativity flowing. I wanna try to follow the ideas that really grab my attention and work on those projects because that’s where the best work will come from. My priority is still finishing up the stuff with Sally Face and then developing Sally Face 2. But having this small project and also working on Monster Party on the side will give me needed breaks from the larger projects.
Additionally, I have a couple other secret things I’ve been working on, related to Sally Face. Some of which will be revealed soon! So keep those eyes peeled!
NEW VIDEOS
I created a few new videos this year, as a way to have some fun with fans. Sally Face fans are the best and it’s always a pleasure to interact with this community.
Thanks for the love and support and I hope everyone has a great holiday!
💙 Steve
The Steve Behind The Moose 