Powerhoof! Crawl Launch Delayed...


NOOOOOOOO!

We’ve had to make the decision to delay Crawl; we won’t be releasing on July 17th unfortunately – We’re really sorry! I hope this doesn’t mess you guys around too much!

Here is my simplified rendition of how things went down, in GIF format:

image(All news should be delivered in GIFs!)

What happened?

There were some tax issues with us being a partnership based in Australia, so we changed Powerhoof into a Company at the start of the month.

Everything was on track until pretty much the last step, where we got hit with an unexpected bit of red tape that we were told “may take up to 30 days” to resolve. We tried to find a way around it, but there’s nothing we can do.

When is Crawl coming out then?

We don’t know how long we’ll be delayed. It could be a couple of days, it could be a couple of weeks (we REALLY hope not!). As soon as we can we’ll let you all know.

What will we do with the extra time?

We don’t know how much extra time we’ll have, but since we already have the build ready to go we can start adding some of our cool wishlist ideas!

-Barney

  1. I already said it on twitter but… Nooooo ! I’m more excited now !

    Reply
    • hehe thanks!

      Reply
    • Terry Watercress

      My excitement levels are swinging wildly between being robbed at gunpoint by a mother who’s just trying to take care of her two large children. I would have given her the money if she’d asked, but I guess she probably lost her faith in humanity long ago.

      Reply
    • Benjamin

      I know right im SOooooooOOOOoooOOoooOOO excited for this game to be released I hope this game will be released soon its such a great game

      Reply
  2. Alchais

    So… Red Tape Lawyer Boss Secret Level?

    Reply
  3. Connorses

    You’re trying to become a company? Doesn’t that just make it, like, that much less indie? haha

    Reply
    • haha yeah i’m pretty sure now we’re just like EA now… quarterly profits! daily active users! must have origin!

      Reply
      • Strazyplus

        Indie is where the heart is at, Those companies like EA, activision and Ubisoft and their triple A games lack much of the heart and care that you get from Indie. and AAA was created by gaming companies to create a standard term in order to help the audience distinguishing good titles from the poorly developed ones.

        Today AAA means crap to me and most for most Indie means sweat and love was thrown into this game. AAA sort of lost its term for “quality” but for how much money was used, and it seems to me most of the budget for AAA is used for advertising than creating the darn game…

        Reply
        • i definitely enjoy it so much more being able to chat directly with everyone, instead of being cut off behind a layer of very careful corporate marketing messages… you just don’t get the opportunity to share and chat to people about your work and what’s going on when you work at a big company, and that’s half the fun!

          Reply
  4. SupMike

    Hey guys,don’t you worry about that, I guess me and my pals will have to reschedule the release party we wanted to throw, but that just means there’s more time to stack up on supplies. You got the game done pretty quick anyway, so just keep up the good work!!

    Reply
    • cheers, good to hear you haven’t spent all your money on a giant July 17th banner 🙂

      Reply
      • Barney, I’ve got this wicked-cool Crawl tattoo with the release date on it. I could probably change the “17” into a “27”, but any later than that and we’re going to have a problem.

        Reply
        • hahahaha oh shit! we’ll see what we can do, I’d hate to leave you with an inaccurate tattoo 🙂

          Reply
  5. The struggle is real. Can i just time travel already?

    Reply
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  11. Well good luck! I can’t wait! (Looks like the oil rig didn’t stop you, it took an IRS man and red tape instead! :P)

    Reply
    • hehe yeah, after all our planning and stressing about getting the art done on time and fixing all the bugs it was the silliest unexpected thing that held us up!

      Reply
  12. Strazyplus

    Gotta hate those government stupid forms, so…. Australia calls their own Department of the Treasury/tax man = IRS too?

    Reply
    • nah, it’s complicated because the online stores are American, so we have to go though IRS to make sure we pay the right tax to the right people, so it’s not simple!

      Reply
  13. Strazyplus

    Take the time R&R and bug test or fine tune for a day one patch. doubt the game will need it 😛

    Reply
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  15. I’m on board with the Red Tape secret level boss. Make it so.

    Reply
    • i’m pretty sure dave has already implemented some special code so he can knock your gold out of you 🙂 can’t wait to implement him

      Reply
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  20. I’m super excited for Crawl, and can’t wait to see the bonuses you add with this waiting period.

    But this gif alone is amazing and I would play a game based on this.

    Reply
    • 😀 cheers! i’m hoping to add a few unique legendary magic weapons- we’ll see if i get time!

      Reply
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  22. LOL. I’m a US tax lawyer. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I’m putting this on my blog.

    Reply
  23. Lim Yee Heng

    Nice game ya.

    Reply
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  26. Gustavo F.

    “sorry we are IDIOTS” ooooh man, this is the best delay announcment EVER!!!!
    Thanks for being able to make me laugh with bad news. You guys are great!

    Reply
  27. Darren K

    I learned about Crawl through this delay announcement. The gorgeous pixel art in your news-gif made me check out the wonderful Crawl trailer, and I now await the launch with glee!

    Reply
    • Tiresome Smartass

      I learned about crawl by searching for this post. I was doing my normal every day google search for “darren delay announcement gorgeous pixel” and it brought me here. I’m not sure if I’ll await the launch with glee though. I was thinking something more along the lines of ‘thwap’, ‘blernst’ or ‘frenstowbal’.

      Reply
  28. Anon E. Mouse

    All news SHOULD be delivered in gif form.

    How long did the delay announcement animation take to make, anyway? I can’t get enough of this art and animation style.

    Reply
    • haha definitely put way too much time into it- it was supposed to be a simple few frames but i kept thinking “oh i could animate this element, then i could animate that…” and it blew out to about a day and a half animating it on and off with other tasks-

      i think it had been a long time since i animated anything in the game (doing boring admin tasks around launch) so as soon as i was doing real animation again i was thinking “oh man this is awesome i wanna keep doing this” hehe 🙂

      Reply
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  30. Oy! Shout out from your opposite-side-of-the-planet Commonwealth neighbour, Canadaland. Heard about the game (and the sadness that is the Taxman) via Reddit, and am searching for it on Steam now. (No luck so far. Boo.) When I find it, I’ll either pre-order it or add it to the wishlist for when you release it. Cheers, b’ys!

    Reply
    • hey thanks! awesome to get support from canada! our paperwork and stuff has finally gone though, so our page should be up on steam for real now 🙂

      Reply
  31. The IRS tax man should be the peak evolution for the rat! It just makes so much sense!

    Reply
    • hehe 🙂 i just finished implementing him into the game just now, so be prepared to kill him in-game!

      Reply
  32. Friggin awesome GIF! How long did it take you to animate that after you heard the news? Definitely the best way to soften the blow.

    Reply
    • hehe cheers! probably worked on it on and off over about a day and a half- way too long in short 🙂

      Reply
  33. Emodular

    I’m totally more excited now! I watched the GIF over and over (I think I enjoyed it a bit more than i was supposed to) and honestly you are not an idiot. Becoming a company is a great milestone to remember, plus it gives you whatever remaining time to think up whatever you want and cram it in the game! (Really, the lawyer boss was hilarious).

    Reply
    • hey thanks for the encouragement! yeah it was all a bit complicated just trying to do a lot of things all at once- looks like we’re back on track now though, and the extra time did give us a chance to add some polish and balancing work that has seriously improved the experience for new players, so it’s all good!

      Reply
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  38. Chuckledarkly

    God i hate red tape. You might be surprised/ worried how much i hate it….

    Anyway chins up I’m sure you’ll be up soon! Btw have any dlc plans for the game down the road? Just curious.

    Reply
    • we’re definitely going to be adding a crapload of extra content over the course of early access- if the community is still interested after full release i’d love to keep adding content for a long time to come… all the systems in crawl (monsters, weapons, items, bossed, environment) are designed to be modular so we can easily add content 🙂

      Reply
  39. Ravenborn

    Wishlist ideas…maybe like network multiplayer? One can dream. 😀 Eagerly awaiting the launch regardless.

    Reply
    • I didn’t realize it was local mp only until now. My heart just broke. : (

      Reply
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  42. Conrado

    Has been a long time since I am excited about a game as I am about Crawl. This animations so fluid… and the pallet is perfect as well =D The contrast is real.

    Hey Barney, can you check it out a e-mail I sent you with some tips? =D thanks dude!

    Reply
    • hey thanks dude! i’ve got those mails in a folder in my inbox to reply to when i get a chance 🙂 hopefully i can get to them soon!

      Reply
      • Conrado

        With “some tips” I mean by asking for some haha!

        And if you got any online course or something like it =D

        I´ve been in some Jams and I am learning a lot of stuff already.. but your stuff is just another level of stuff.

        And I sent you some of my work in my last jam if you want to check it out! Thanks dude!

        Reply
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  44. When the game finally comes out im gonna kill that damn tax man so hard for making wait longer *>:( stupid*…any dudes good luck

    Reply
    • hehe 🙂 just finished implementing him a few minutes ago! now i’m dying to get dave over to try fighting him against a real person!

      Reply
  45. Emodular

    Hey Barney,
    I have been playing minecraft since it was in alpha, and I have found myself creating characters from other games in my minecraft world. Because my new favorite game is coming out (hint hint it’s crawl) I’ve badly wanted to create one of the monsters, or even the hero in minecraft pixel art. If you are ok with it, can u send me a pic of whatever item, mob, etc. you want me to create, and Ill show you the finished work. If you don’t want to send pictures of specific characters (idk how copyright works) then that’s ok. Powerhoof, the whole COMPANY (congrats on that) you are my hero(s)

    Reply
  46. Wow, that gif was a nice way to soothen up the hit of the launch delay, good thinking, people will probably become even more eager because of how quickly you made it, and speaking of how quickly, Barney, how long did it take to create that gif?!

    Reply
    • i worked on the gif for most of one day and a chunk of the next- defintiely a lot longer than i intended, i just kept enjoying workinf on it so i kept animating more elements and it kinda grew out of control 😀

      Reply
  47. Damn and blast. Original release window was going to be perfect timing for me and friends to play while road tripping to Seattle for the big DotA nonsense this weekend. Good luck!

    Reply
    • ah damn that would have been perfect 🙂

      sometimes i think of crawl like the minigolf version of dota- it’s a silly crazy casual version of the real experience, full of silly little windmills!

      (except with no windmills…)

      Reply
  48. Shit happens! Hopefully there isn’t too much stress after this, we’re all looking forward to this game!
    Good luck! 🙂

    Reply
  49. Are you powerhoofians coming to PAX AUS? If so, I’ll have to cosplay as the tax man, and beat you at your own game.

    Reply
  50. Emodular

    Happy original launch date day! I’m going to marathon the yogscast’s series of the game! SO MUCH HYPE!

    Reply
  51. dauuuuus

    Still waiting steam-page…

    Reply
  52. william

    my heart shed a tear when I saw that the game wasn’t launched yet :’c

    I’m so pumped for this game tho!!

    and by the way, your guys’s pixel art is just top notch!! you’ve inspired me to start creating some pixel art of my own!!

    what program do you use for all your pixel art??

    Reply
    • thanks! i do all the art in photoshop 🙂 if you search back a few pages there are some tutorials i did about setting up photoshop tools to make pixel art easier

      Reply
  53. this is sad i want to give you money 🙁

    Reply
  54. It will be such a pleasure to kick his ass in the game for the delay he caused, haha! No offense to the person though; that’s why we do this virtually, right? 😀

    Can’t wait, guys, this game will be some really fast-paced combat refreshing blast for all the latest rogues. I mean, well, the only thing gets me bored a little playing those RPG things is the combat process, I’m a person who needs tons of action in games, so yours game is the absolute saviour for me 🙂

    Oh, by the way, awesome gif you’ve made to announce the delay 😀

    Good luck with the launch!

    Reply
    • yeah, that is kind of the inspiration for crawl- taking the things i like in rpgs, but getting to the action and upgrading and fighting so much quicker instead of playing for hours to level up my guy!

      Reply
  55. Benjamin

    But can you awesome guys tell us the estimate of the release date please? i really really want this game to be released now

    Reply
    • They have no idea themselves, but us soon as they’ll have any, they’ll let us know 🙂

      Reply
  56. Ohthehugemanatee

    Is there any sort of newsletter sign up, so we can be alerted the moment we get to release?

    I’m dyin’ over here!

    Reply
    • there is an email subscription you can sign up to on the front page at the top right- currently we’re probably looking at about 2 weeks til we launch! (unofficial tho- shhh) 🙂

      Reply
  57. plexust

    Really looking forward to playing this. Hopefully we get a chance soon!

    Reply
  58. Striker

    Damn the IRS… or wait, is it you guys? Anyway, well done on being greenlit and I await anxiously for the release! Best wishes to you guys! I look forward to playing, I mean crawling, through your awesome game!

    Reply
    • haha thanks 🙂 well the irs did shaft us, but now we have a fun new IRS GUY monster in the game, so i think it worked out for the best! 🙂

      Reply
      • u really implemented that fella into the game??? amazing… can’t wait to check him out…

        Reply
  59. Benjamin

    please please release the game soon can you please estimate the date of the release? thanks for making this game i zoo wish i can play it today. 🙂

    Reply
  60. any news? we are dying here 😉

    Reply
    • not quite ready for an official announcement, but our paperwork has gone though so we’re probably looking at around two weeks!!!!

      Reply
      • thx for the quick answer barney… all the best for the rest of the way towards releasing this awesome game to the masses….

        Reply
  61. Benjamin

    You guys are awesome this game is crazy looks like its gonna be the best game i ever played

    Reply
  62. Benjamin

    Good job guys 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Reply
  63. Striker

    Cool, you guys have a Steam store page now. I’ve put Crawl on my wishlist! 🙂

    Reply
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