We first featured Backbone, a pixel art Noir Adventure set in Vancouver and starring a private investigator who happens to be a raccoon, almost exactly two years ago. The project has undergone a number of changes since then which speak to the tumult of a new studio making its first game.

"We went through two instances of severe crunch and burnout: in preparation for the Kickstarter campaign in 2018, and then before and after the Prologue was released in 2019," studio co-founder Aleksandra Korabelnikova laments. "It's extremely important to us that this will not happen again. Almost all the challenges we faced could have been alleviated with proper planning."

Korabelnikova is narrative designer and marketing director, but also wore admin and project management hats. "It was really too much to handle. There were instances when the team was lost in the sea of tasks, there was no proper communication between 'departments', and constant shifting of deadlines really sunk our morale at times."