After Humble Games' collapse, studios are left without support. 'We lost the pipeline of critical system without warning.'

Squid Shock Studios (the developer behind Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus) has reached out to Patreon fans to ask for their support after the "restructuring" of Humble Games left them without post-launch support.

Squid Shock tweets: "It's been a busy two weeks since the launch of our first game Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus." "Our launch wasn't without its challenges. We have lost out on crucial post-launch support due to our publisher closing down. This could put the future of our studio at risk."

According to a former Humble employee Chris Radley (a former employee), 36 people were laid off from Humble Games. The team was replaced with a third-party consulting firm. Humble's statement sounded like it would take the utmost care to help the studios that it had partnered up with despite all of this uncertainty: "Supporting development partners and assisting previous team members remains our highest priority." We are committed in making this transition as easy as possible for all involved. It's not clear how true this statement would be for other developers. However, it seems that Squid Shock has gotten the worst of it.

Squid Shock reports that "on July 25th we lost access to critical systems without warning." "We are currently only able to manage the game through Steam. We were able push an update last week. Unfortunately, consoles are not included in this. Our publisher agreed to provide porting and QA assistance, but at the time we wrote this article, that pipeline was still not restored. "However, steps are being taken to restore the access."

The initial funding of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus started on Kickstarter. Unfortunately, Squid Shock had to return to the crowdfunding model, setting up a Patreon account to ask for help "in these uncertain days."

There are currently six options for membership. The Seedling option is the cheapest at $1 (PS1) per month. It gives players access to Patreon updates, posts, and a Discord account. The most expensive option is Kami, which costs $100 (PS85). According to the description, you get access to a "unique in-game collaboration designed or named in collaboration with the patron." You will also receive an invitation to the virtual launch party and a thank you note from the team.

Squid Shock explains, "We have a lot planned for our studio, beyond small updates to our game." "Bo started as a community project where backers believed and supported us initially on Kickstarter.

Squid Shock currently has 22 members who have paid for their Patreon. This is a great start and hopefully the beginning of something more concrete. Its last post shared patch notes for a preview of version 1.1 and announced that a patch had been sent to the QA team. This is great news as the studio was having trouble acquiring QA test testers just a few days earlier.