Development stops on 20,000 Leagues Above the Clouds

The last time we reported on 20,000 Leagues Above the Clouds was back in 2016, and now developer That Brain has emerged again with some sad news about the project, as development has been canceled, something that the studio says is actually in some ways a relief.

"Sadness, of course, because it was our baby for many years and could have grown into something truly wonderful. Relief, because the last few of those years had not seen any significant progress despite our best efforts, and letting go means we can finally move on to other dreams," That Brain's statement reads.

Starting life in 2011, the project has been through a rocky road, although the creators say that it let them learn how to program games and allowed them set "humble goals" which they consistently hit. That said, the project grew in ambition to the point that it needed significant funding, and when pitching it to publishers in 2016 and 2018, "from a financing standpoint the game was just too big to be small, and too small to be big."

This was the point at which That Brain decided to stop development and look ahead to the future, with some developers working at Really Interactive and others working in educational materials and at other studios.

As one last hurrah That Brain links to the demo at the end of this post, so that you can see what was being worked on before development stopped.

Did you have your eye on this?