Almost four years ago adventure game fans were treated to a unique looking game as it launched on Kickstarter in mid 2012. Jack Houston and the Necronauts is a stop motion capture game in the same vein as classic movies like Jason and the Argonauts (not, according to Stacy Davidson, to be confused with claymation which is quite different) and when I saw it go live I had to check it out. Since then development has continued, albeit at a much slower pace than anyone had hoped for. That said, I’ve gotten to know Stacy pretty well over the years and I can definitely tell you that he’s not a quitter.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

For those of us who have been following development of Jack Houston and the Necronauts closely we know that certain setbacks have caused Stacy to slow down his handcrafted work considerably. The most notable one being his need to move to a different studio to work. For various reasons, and he’s mentioned this both in updates as well as confided in myself when I reached out to him about the move, little in the way of actual sculpting has been worked on in over a year.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

“When it became apparent that my living situation was totally unworkable, for personal reasons not related to the project, I opted to move in with relatives in Oklahoma who offered up their garage as a new workshop. As it turned out, there was actually quite a lot in storage there that had no other place to go. After spending a great deal of effort trying to setup a workspace in what turned out to be a much smaller area than I had thought…the weather began to turn and before I knew it, the entire garage was essentially frozen to a point that my portable space heater was useless.”

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

Stacy had spent a year in Oklahoma before he finally landed an apartment in Texas, which is where he originally was looking to stay. That said, an update in the beginning of February gave us good news in that he finally got an apartment to use as a studio. Since then he has been unpacking and rebuilding his new workspace and in a backer-only update last week we got to see how it’s looking. With Stacy’s permission I’ve included a few images here to show off what he’s been up to these past couple months.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

During his year-long stay in Oklahoma, Stacy didn’t stop working on Jack Houston and the Necronauts but most of this was paperwork and trying to find a publisher. Due, I would suspect, to said freezing conditions. However, after dropping down a new layer of carpet to keep from damaging the one he’s renting and putting up one of the tables he’s ready to go back to work on sculpting the creatures and backgrounds he’s using in the game.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

Stacy is also finally going back to streaming video on his Twitch channel and putting them up on YouTube. Which I’m looking forward to as the few videos that I have seen back when he was still putting them up were very informative to someone who’s interested in how working on a game of this scope is put together. With him back to work I asked if he has any dates planned for release and, understandably, he refused to give any set date. But, he’s hoping for sometime in 2017. Of course, those of us who’ve been around long enough know that delays and pushbacks can still happen. Either way, I look forward to seeing more on Jack Houston and the Necronauts in future updates and videos.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

Author’s Note: I received a rather lengthy explanation on how stop motion works and how Stacy is using it in the game, certainly a lot longer than this article can contain. If you’re interested in knowing about the process drop me a line or ask for it in the comments below and I’d be happy to share his wisdom with you.

Jack Houston and the Necronauts

About the Author

Serena Nelson

Serena has been a gamer since an early age and was brought up with the classic adventure games by Sierra On-Line, LucasArts, and Infocom. She's been an active member on Kickstarter since early 2012 and has backed a large number of crowdfunded games, mostly adventures. You can also find her writing for Kickstart Ventures and evn.moe.

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