Thanks to the Canada Media Fund¹ (CMF) we're pleased to announced that Penguin vs. Pirates' prototype is in FULL development.

Backstory

Back in the fall of 2021 Frozen Machine submitted an application to the CMF's Conceptualization Program² in an attempt to get some seed money to work on the Game Design Document (GDD) for what we think will be our breakout game - Penguin vs. Pirates! This was a turning point for the studio where after almost 6 years of bootstrapping the company and every project the team was able to issue their first paychecks. 

After a really fun, creative-filled, summer the next logical step was to make use of another one of CMF's incentives - the Prototyping Program³! The application for this program was more involved so we reached out to other local studios⁴ who have successfully gotten funding from this program before. It took a few tries but in 2024 CMF got back to us with the positive news that Penguin vs. Pirates was fully funded under the Prototyping Program. 

What's next?

Now that we have room to breathe again the first milestone is to have a playable demo for Game Con Canada⁵ (GCC) in June, and bring it back to the Game Discovery Exhibition⁶ (GDX) in July. The remainder of the time after that we will be hard at work completing a full gameplay loop demo which we'll share more information about in the future.

Do you want to be part of the penguin colony? Or perhaps join the pirate crew? Sign up to our mailing list⁷ to get the exclusive scoop on all the future announcements for the game, or join our Discord⁸ to talk with fellow penguins and pirates.

More information will be shared in the future, until then watch our promo trailer⁹ and please remember - have fun creating!

Author: Adrian
Published: 2024-03-25

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1. Canada Media Fund: https://cmf-fmc.ca/
2. Conceptualization Program: https://cmf-fmc.ca/program/conceptualization-program/
3. Prototyping Program: https://cmf-fmc.ca/program/prototyping-program/
4. Local Studios: 
   1. Only By Midnight: https://www.onlybymidnight.com/
   2. Itzy Interactive: http://itzyinteractive.com/
   3. Caldera Interactive: https://calderainteractive.com/
   4. Crimson Herring: https://www.crimsonherring.com/
5. Game Con Canada: https://gameconcanada.com/
6. Game Discovery Exhibition: https://www.interactiveartsalberta.org/gdx
7. Mailing List: https://thefrozenmachine.com/contact/frozen-machine-links
8. Discord: https://discord.com/invite/XXHGEe3Vqn 
9. Promo trailer: https://vimeo.com/828014522