Halfmast Games
Four people, one game, no publisher. Working since 2022 out of a converted ground floor near Bolhão.
Four people and a bad idea that stuck
Halfmast started as three of us leaving the same mid sized studio in the same month in 2022, which was less a plan than a coincidence with good timing. Aurelia had been carrying the salvage idea around for years and nobody at the old place would touch it, because a game with no combat, no progression and no win state is not a pitch, it is a resignation letter. We built the prototype in eleven weeks to prove it to ourselves. The cargo bay held eight objects because that was what fitted on screen at the resolution we were testing at. We have never changed it.
Team
4 full time, 2 contract
In development
Since March 2022
Engine
Godot 4, open source top to bottom
Funding
Self funded plus a Portuguese arts grant
Publisher
None, and none wanted
"Godot has cost us maybe three weeks total across four years. The tooling argument is over and most people have not noticed.
"Tomás Vieira
Why there is no publisher
We got offers. Two of them were good, in the sense that the money was real. Both wanted the same three things: a threat in the water, a slot upgrade, and an ending you could fail. That is a reasonable set of asks, and it is also the exact list of things that would turn Saltbound into something else. So we said no, kept the grant, and stayed four people. It means the game is smaller than it could be. It also means it is the game.
4years, 4 people, 0 publishers, 1 game
31voices, mostly first timers, all from around Porto
Everyone here is invented. Halfmast Games does not exist and neither do Aurelia, Tomás or the other two.
The studio photograph is procedurally generated abstract art, not a real place and not real people.