Jotun: bringing to life hand-drawn giants, from Kickstarter to your screen

Game designer William Dubé shares his journey as an indie game developer, from quitting his job, to releasing the highly anticipated game Jotun after a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Jotun is a beautifully hand-drawn action-exploration game inspired by Norse mythology and created by Montreal-studio Thunder Lotus Games. The game combines elements of the romantic mood of Journey mixed with the gigantic boss fights from Shadow of the Colossus.

The project was brought to Kickstarter in July 2014 where it exceeded expectations and raised over 64,000$ CAD. This successful campaign, backed by 2,299 people, is how game designer William Dubé started as an indie game developer.

“It’s a very powerful thing to have this community of people behind you, but also have this very clear vision of what the game needs to be [the storyline, the combat systems, etc.]. I think Kickstarter is a great way to cement that vision.”

- William Dubé, Game Designer

Watch the full interview:

The game is scheduled for release on Steam (Windows, Mac and Linux) in September 2015 and on consoles in 2016.

A new episode of Indie Games Level Up! will be posted here on Tuesday, September 22. Come back for more behind-the-scenes info on Canadian indie games or subscribe directly to the show’s YouTube channel or iTunes podcast.

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