We Have Production Funding!
And our Gamescom 2024 Recap.
First off: hello to all our new blog subscribers from Gamescom! In August, our team flew across the world from Edmonton, Canada to Köln, Germany to present The Rabbit Haul at Gamescom 2024, and WOW - what a success! We also have some massive news about the game, so let’s just get right into it.
Gamescom Recap
A big thank you to everyone who came and visited our booth at Gamescom and tried out The Rabbit Haul in person. We got to chat with thousands of players, give out 1,000 sprout clips, and raffle off a $100USD Steam Gift card and Steam keys for Pekóe through our Cozy Game Scavenger Hunt! We had over 700 people playtest the game in person, and nearly 500 people participated in the scavenger hunt, getting our and our studio partner’s cute stamps! Congratulations to our winners!
In addition to our players, we’d like to thank the other studios that made our Gamescom so memorable:
- Our Scavenger Hunt partners: Kitten Cup Studio (Pekóe), Slime King Games (Under the Island), Pine Creek Games (Winter Burrow), and Yaldi Games (Out and About)
- Edmonton studios & booth partners: Crimson Herring (Sovereign Syndicate), Itzy Interactive (Weird Os, Mad Devils), Frozen Machine (Penguins vs. Pirates), Only by Midnight (ctrl.alt.DEAL), and Occlusional (Catrophy Trail); plus Edmonton Screen Industries Office!
- Additional new friends: Wood Runner Games (Croak), Roofkat Games (Escaping Atlantis), Schleuder Games (Space Sprouts), Winter Crew (Fallen Tear), Fat Alien Cat (Momento), and Whimsical Wolff Games (Kohlrabi Starship)
There were so many other kind and brilliant folks that we met throughout the week, and we are grateful for every person that came and chatted with us. We learned so much throughout our time, and we hope to return for Gamescom 2025!
The Rabbit Haul is Greenlit for Production!
Perhaps our biggest news yet: The Rabbit Haul has received the Canada Media Fund’s Innovation & Experimentation Program funding for the production of the game. We were one of seven studios across Canada who received the funding, being the only studio from Western Canada to receive the recommendation. You can learn more about the program and the funding decision here.
This news means that the game will continue to be developed until release, slated currently for mid-2026. We are currently finishing up the prototype version of The Rabbit Haul, and will begin the full production cycle later in September. This will mean that there will be many more playtests available for the game in our Discord, so we encourage you to join us on this journey!
Blog Post: Getting CMF Production Funding
When Caldera received prototype fundings for Project Ghost and The Rabbit Haul, we created a couple of blog posts talking about our learnings and giving tips for receiving the funding yourselves. You can view them here and here, and here.
Now that we have received our production funding, we have made yet another post to provide information to other Canadian developers looking to receive funding of their own! We talk about what we have done over the past year to prepare for this program application, including pitching to publishers, hosting closed playtests, and creating a marketing study. By clicking on the photo below, you can read the full post with our insights and recommendations.
Our team always tries to share the knowledge we’ve gained through our trials and tribulations with other game developers, so we hope some of this information will be beneficial to both newcomers and veterans in the industry alike.
Looking Ahead
August was less focused on game development, as you can likely tell from this blog post. However, features that were announced in the previous month’s blog post have now been implemented into the game, so those will be available on the next playtest.
Speaking of the next playtest, there is no scheduled playtest for September. This decision was made in part so that the team can finish the prototype build of The Rabbit Haul and prepare properly for the full development cycle. While there is no playtest planned, keep an eye on our social media accounts for any updates or opportunities that arise between newsletters.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our crazy summer adventure, and while the temperature may begin to drop, remember to always drink water and take care of yourself.
Until next month!