An update on Kibu

This message is long overdue, and I want to explain why I haven’t reached out throughout January. It hasn’t been easy for me to put these words together, but I owe it to you to share what’s been going on.

As many of you know, I’ve been open about the creative struggles I faced with Kibu, esp. in the last quarter of last year. I’ve been working my butt off on that game for years, pushing day and night. Despite my best efforts, the harder I pushed, the more elusive progress became - which showed a few months ago over the playtests. Over the Christmas break, I realized I was experiencing a creative burnout from this and it even began to affect my family life.

With a gentle nudge from my wife and kids, I decided it was time to step back and take a break from Kibu over the Christmas period. During this break, I explored some smaller prototype ideas. No pressure, no goal, just as a creative side activity for myself. But those have truly reignited my creative energy again. For the first time after all those months/years, I’ve come to understand just how much pressure I was under and how necessary this distance from Kibu was. For now, I’m continuing my break from Kibu and focusing on these new endeavors. I’m happy to share what I’m working on and keep you all in the loop about my little stupid ideas I play around with.

To summarize what this means for Kibu

I'm putting Kibu on a (for now indefinite) pause and focusing on other small projects to reconnect with myself, spark my creative processes, and rediscover the fun in making games, and I'm excited to share these smaller projects with you later.

Kibu is definitely not dead

I think about Kibu every day, but I need to find a way back to it that feels right and sustainable, without the pressure and the bitter feeling that it hasn't worked out as planned so far. I hope you can understand. I completely appreciate this will be disappointing to some of you, but I hope you can understand my reasoning and why this is a necessary step.

Your support has meant the world to me, and I can’t thank you enough. I am incredibly grateful for such an amazing community. I appreciate each and every one of you more than words can express.

Many thanks for your understanding and support.

-Jonas