We Won GDC Pitch 2024!
And other wonderful March updates.
Well, March was a crazy month for us. We hosted our second public playtest, we attended NAIT’s LevelUP event, and we even went to San Francisco for the Game Developer Conference. Read all about our March events below!
March Playtest
Our second playtest happened March 8-10, 2024, and we nearly doubled our playtesters from the first session. We added a bunch of new features to our run for players to interact with, including new enemy types and weapons. Overall, the feedback continues to be really positive, with an over 80% recommendation rating, and we are getting so many great ideas on what to add next to our game. See below for more fun statistics from our March playtest!
With how crazy our month has been, we haven’t been able to implement as many features as we’d like between playtests, so we are skipping our April test and preparing diligently for a May playtest - we will announce official dates soon!
LevelUP
LevelUP was a fantastic kickoff to our 2024 event season! Both Courtney and Isael headed to NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) on March 9th to talk with various local developers and students interested in game development, sharing our journeys and tips for success. We even had a demo of the game available to play, which got many plays and praises.
In addition to the booth, Isael got his first major opportunity at public speaking, running his own panel: “Ghosts & Gardens: An Interview & Q&A with Caldera Interactive”. Speaking on everything from the creation of the studio, to gaining CMF funding, to creating our first prototypes, Isael thoroughly entertained and enlightened a room full of students and industry professionals alike.
GDC 2024
GDC 2024 was a rollercoaster for our team. We were lucky enough to be selected for two unique pitching opportunities: the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco Canada Pitch session, and the official GDC Pitch competition. Mickael did a wonderful job in the first pitch session alongside other incredible studios, such as Only by Midnight and Thousand Stars Studio. Being able to represent Canadian game talent in such a manner on the global stage was an honour, and we loved hearing the positive feedback of our pitch for The Rabbit Haul.
Alongside our meetings and networking, we also had a booth at the Canada Pavillion on the Wednesday, which allowed publishers and other industry professionals to try out The Rabbit Haul and speak directly with our team. It was a wonderful experience to meet with so many talented people from across the world also interested in indie game development and supporting our game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be our recap of GDC without talking about GDC Pitch. We won’t lie: it was incredibly nerve-wracking, and much of our March was spent preparing and finetuning our pitch to be the best possible. The great news is that our hard work paid off, and with Isael at the helm, WE WON GDC PITCH DAY 2! 🥳 We received many compliments and congratulations, and it is largely thanks to our fantastic community that we were able to succeed on the level we did. We not only received a very cool plaque for our efforts, but also 2 all-access passes for next year’s GDC, and it opened up a lot of conversations with various publishers.
Overall, this experience was definitely a highlight for us at Caldera, and we look forward to the rest of our year at events.
April and Beyond
March for us was quiet on the game development side, as we focused on our events and our upcoming CMF application - which, in itself, is incredibly large and challenging, and a topic for a later newsletter.
However, April will see us back on the development cycle, including implementing some new features and fixing some big bugs (we’re looking at you, stickering bug that’s messing with the inventory!). In addition, we will be finishing off our CMF application for production, which will be our biggest priority for the first half of the month. We also have a number of publisher conversations happening, so all-in-all, things are moving forward well for us, even if I don’t have much I can share with you at this time.
We will have another playtest happening in May, and June will mark the return of us heading to a number of local conventions, continuing into the fall. We look forward to updating you all on the progress of the game in future newsletters. Until then, please keep supporting The Rabbit Haul and Caldera Interactive, by wishlisting our game on Steam and joining our Discord!
Stay happy & healthy, enjoy the warming weather!
Courtney