Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, our wild bike-racing party game, is OUT NOW! Race to victory through a mayhem-filled obstacle course of deadly traps you’ve built while pulling off sick tricks. It's also got 8-player support for local, online, and cross-platform multiplayer.

Looking for friends to play with? Want to ask the devs something? Join us on the Clever Endeavour Discord - this is where we'll run community events, Q&As, share content, and race with you. Come hang out!

If you've found a bug/issue and want to report it, press F1 while in-game. You can also send us a support ticket here, or join us on the Discord for help.

To celebrate release day, we're running some major sales. Get 65% off Ultimate Chicken Horse, and a limited 10% off for Ultimate Sheep Raccoon.

What’s new in Ultimate Sheep Raccoon?

We've come a long way since announcement and our demos. Here are the big things to look for:

• 8 new levels ranging in size and difficulty and full of potential builds.

• 8 playable characters with unique, unlockable cosmetics to collect as you play.

• Custom level editor and challenge mode where you can build your own tracks and compete on the world leaderboards for the best scores.

• New tricks including 360s, backflips, wheelies, and more.

• Improved physics, gameplay feel, and controls for a smoother biking experience as well as keyboard and controller support.

• Full cross-platform multiplayer so everyone can race together across PC and console.

• Exclusive cosmetic reward for our beta testers - thank you so much for supporting us.

Ultimate merch

Want some style for your own bike? Or laptop, or water bottle, or everyday fit? Check out the Ultimate Sheep Raccoon merch over on The Yetee.

WE DID IT!

Thank you for all of your support, the community made Ultimate Sheep Raccoon possible.

We hope our silly biking game brings you many amazing, ridiculous memories with your friends. And keep an eye out for future updates and events, we have so much more on the way!

See you... at the finish line! 🚲💥
- Your friends at Clever Endeavour Games

Our new party game, Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, has a FREE DEMO out now until October 21 for Steam Next Fest! We'll be playing with the community all week, so check out the demo.

P.S. Even if you've already tried out the demo, we'd really love if you played again! We've made ton of improvements and it really helps other players find the game too.

What’s in the Next Fest demo?! 🔥

• 3 wild racetracks, including the new Pasture and Dam, plus an updated Farm. 🚲

• 8-player support for both online and local play (Steam only).

• Original animal characters from the Ultimate Chicken Horse cast - and Gator!

• New “first time playing” tutorial when you load into the demo to help teach you the basics. You can also skip it by opening the menu and going to the main menu.

• New training grounds to practice your cycling skills. You can access it from the main menu screen.

• Alternate control schemes to play on keyboard, controller with the triggers, or controller with the joysticks. You can set these in the main menu options or from the character select screen.

• Better terrain blocks that let you place them close together so there are less awkward gaps in the track.

• Improved rail blocks so that your bike snaps to and grinds along them more easily. You just have to be holding the jump button when you're near a rail.

• Updated scoreboard that shows which place you finished in.

• All kinds of improvements from nearly a year of demos and testing.

Ultimate Chicken Horse Halloween Build Event 🎃

We want YOUR spooky October custom levels for Ultimate Chicken Horse!

So send us your custom levels in Ultimate Chicken Horse before Oct 22! We’ll pick up to 15 community-made levels and feature them in the game for everyone to see and play.

Looking for inspiration for your levels?

(These aren't required - they're just ideas!)

• Halloween classics: Jack-o-lanterns/pumpkins, scarecrows, bones and skulls, night time, magic

• Beasts, monsters, and creatures: Ghosts, zombies, werewolves, vampires, mummies, witches, bats, cats

• Autumn/Fall: Thanksgiving, red leaves, cozy fires, camping, fireflies, warm drinks

• - Delicious snacks: Candy, candy apples, chocolate, other sweets

• Locations: Graveyards, haunted houses, witch huts, dungeons

• Colours: Orange, black, white, purple, green

• Anything else you can come up with!

How do I make and submit a custom level?

• To make a custom level, go to the Treehouse lobby

• Open the pause menu and click the arrows to change your game mode from "Party Mode" to "Free Play Mode"

• Then go to the underground area of the Treehouse and move to the left to the "Blank Level" section. Now you can make a level, Party or Challenge!

• Then submit your levels to us by publishing your level and sharing the level code in the Steam comments by 11 PM Pacific Time on Oct 22!

The Ultimate Sheep Plush

The limited-edition Ultimate Sheep Plush is currently available on Makeship until Oct 21. Flying arrows, spike balls, and rotating saws can’t keep our woolly winner down!

👉 Get yours here: https://www.makeship.com/products/ultimate-sheep-plush

See you in UCH and USR!
- Your friends at Clever Endeavour

We've got baa-rilliant news: we just launched our very woolly Ultimate Sheep Plush on Makeship. Flying arrows, spike balls, and rotating saws can't keep this cuddly champion down! 🐑✨

It’s only available for a limited time, so grab yours on Makeship before they’re gone for good.

👉 https://www.makeship.com/products/ultimate-sheep-plush

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon releases Winter 2025

Our bike-racing party game,Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, is coming out VERY SOON! If you haven't gotten to try one of our demos, worry not - there'll be another FREE demo during Steam's Next Fest (Oct 13-21).

Please wishlist the game as well, it really helps us out!

Steam Autumn Sale

It's getting cold out - which is a great excuse to get cozy and play some games this fall! Ultimate Chicken Horse is 65% off during the Steam Autumn Sale which runs until Oct 6.

That’s all for now!
- Your friends at Clever Endeavour

Now's your chance to check out the first-ever 8-player chaos, plus meet our jawsome new racer, Gator. We’ve also packed in tons of gameplay updates, so grab your friends and get racing.

What's new in the demo?

• 8-player support: For the first time!

• New core gameplay: Start each match in open levels and build the terrain before racing!

• Updated levels: Farm, Scrapyard, and Docks are back with refreshed designs, plus a Test Level we'd love your feedback on.

• 6 playable characters 🐊: Introducing our new competitor, Gator, plus the 5 other animals including Monkey, Chicken, Horse, Sheep, and Raccoon.

• New blocks: Try out the frog hookshot 🐸 and fireworks box 🎆

• Double party box: When there are 2 players, you get 2 sets of blocks to choose from to help fill up the level.

• Alternate control schemes: Swap between two different sets of controls, see which suits you best.

• Improved clarity: Better power-up visuals, clearer tutorials, and a new tutorial system.

And as a thank-you for playing the demo, you'll unlock an exclusive in-game reward when Ultimate Sheep Raccoon officially releases!

A little reminder: This is just a slice of what’s coming – more levels, more characters, and the custom level builder are still on the way. Thanks for racing with us while we keep improving Ultimate Sheep Raccoon together.

Help us make the game better

Found a bug? Have feedback? Press F1 in-game or fill out our feedback form to let us know. We read every single message and your input directly shapes the final game.

Check out our Steam FAQ thread for answers to common questions, or hop into the Clever Endeavour Games Discord to chat with the devs and find other people to play with.

Ultimate Merch

We've also got some Ultimate Sheep Raccoon merch to grab! It includes a colorful sticker sheet and a comic strip t-shirt of your fave animals.

You can grab them both on The Yetee.

That's it from us. See you... at the finish line!

- Your friends at Clever Endeavour Games
Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

Hey there! We've got a new free demo for Ultimate Sheep Raccoon available this weekend, August 15-18! 🚲

This is the first time we're unleashing 8-player support, so enjoy the chaos! We've also added our jaw-some new animal, Gator. 🐊

The demo goes live August 15 at 10AM Eastern.

What's new?

• 8-player support: For the first time!

• New core gameplay: Start each match in open levels and build the terrain before racing!

• Updated levels: Farm, Scrapyard, and Docks are back with refreshed designs, plus a Test Level we'd love your feedback on.

• 6 playable characters 🐊: Introducing our new animal, Gator, plus the other 5 critters including Monkey, Chicken, Horse, Sheep, and Raccoon.

• New blocks: Try out the frog hookshot 🐸 and fireworks box 🎆

• Double party box: When there are 2 players, you get 2 sets of blocks to choose from to help fill up the level.

• Flexible control swapping: Change controls right from the character select lobby.

• Improved clarity: Better power-up visuals, clearer tutorials, and a new tutorial system.

We'd love to get your help with bug reports and feedback on the demo. You can either press "F1" in game, or go to the form here to leave feedback. We read through every single response, so your message actively helps us.

Also, a little reminder: This demo is just a look at the final game. We’re still cooking up more levels, characters, and the custom level builder - so thanks for racing and joining the party with us while we make an awesome game together.

Answering your questions

We know you have a lot of questions, and we'd like to answer them! We've made a Steam discussion here where we cover a lot of the frequently asked questions and concerns the community has shared with us. If you have a question, feel free to post there.

We want to hear from you guys and to let you know we hear you. We're actively incorporating your feedback into Ultimate Sheep Raccoon.

Also, join us on the Clever Endeavour Games Discord for all things Sheep and Raccoon.

See you later, alligator!

- Your friends at Clever Endeavour Games
Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

OO AAHH OOO! The free Ultimate Sheep Raccoon demo is available now through May 11 on Steam!

What’s new in the May demo?

• New character: Monkey

• New race track: Docks

• Improved bike controls and physics

• Improved camera movement - when you go off-screen, you’re now launched back into the action

• Added private lobbies, lobby codes, Steam invites, and custom player counts (up to 4)

• Increased points to win so rounds are longer

• Miscellaneous bug fixes, improvements, and more art

As a thank-you for playing the demo, you'll unlock an exclusive in-game reward when Ultimate Sheep Raccoon officially releases.

Also, a little reminder that this demo is only a look at some of the content that will be in the final game. We're still working on big features like 8-player support, the custom level editor, and more characters - thanks for being so patient with us!

We want to hear from you, so please share your thoughts and feedback with us on the Clever Endeavour Games Discord.

Also, if you're not able to play this time, we’ll send a newsletter to let you know when the next one is.

Ultimate Biking Merch

We just launched our first Ultimate Sheep Raccoon merch collection on The Yetee!

Grab the Ultimate Bike Rider T-shirt and Bike Decals now!

PAX East 2025

The Clever Endeavour team is at PAX East, right now! We’re showing Ultimate Sheep Raccoon at Booth 17093. Drop by to race the devs and get some swag!

See you on the racetrack,

Your friends at Clever Endeavour
Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

OOO EEE AHHH OOH. Get ready to go bananas and play as Monkey in another FREE demo of Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, available from May 8-11 on Steam! 🍌

The demo goes live at 12:30 PM Eastern on May 8 and closes around 11 PM Eastern on May 11.

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a bike-racing party game where you and your friends build a course of ramps, obstacles, and traps! Dodge hazards, do crazy tricks, and use power-ups to get ahead of the competition.

What's in the latest demo?

• New playable character, Monkey

• New race track, Docks (plus the original Farm and Scrapyard levels)

• Local and online multiplayer for up to 4 players on Steam

• A variety of blocks, power-ups, and tricks to experiment with

We've made loads of changes since our last public demo:

• Improved bike physics and controls for smoother rides

• Improved how the camera follows players, and the camera no longer punishes you for going off-screen. Instead, it launches you back into the action

• Introduced private lobbies, lobby codes, Steam invites, and custom player counts (2-4 max).

• Increased points required to win, giving you more rounds to play and experiment with power-ups

• New alternate control scheme: Trials style controls (use RT and LT to move), selectable from the main menu options

• Bunch of new art

• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

Also, a little reminder that this demo is only a look at some of the content that will be in the final game. We're still working on big features like 8-player support, the custom level editor, and more characters - thanks for being so patient with us!

PAX East 2025

At the same time as the demo, the Clever Endeavour team will be at PAX East, May 8-11! We're showing Ultimate Sheep Raccoon and we'd love to say hi.

Drop by Booth 17093 and race the devs in person and grab some swag!

See you at the demo

We want to see your ideas and feedback! So please share them with us on the Clever Endeavour Games Discord.

Stay tuned for the demo launching May 8, and please wishlist Ultimate Sheep Raccoon on Steam! We can't wait to see you on the track soon.

And if you're unable to play this time, join the Discord to hear about future playtests, or sign up for the newsletter!

Happy racing,
The Clever Endeavour Team

Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

Hello, exciting news! Ultimate Chicken Horse, your favourite chaotic party platformer, is coming soon to iOS and Android!

The game is now available for pre-order on the App Store and pre-registration on Google Play. Sign up now to be the first to join the party when Ultimate Chicken Horse launches on mobile!

We have plans to release it later this year, but stay tuned for the exact date.

Mobile version details

🏆 The same game, now on mobile
🔨 Build the level, place traps and hazards, and screw over your friends
🐔 4-player cross-platform support with PC and console
❤️ Free to Try, with a one-time purchase to unlock the full experience
🎉 No ads, just great party vibes

Have questions about the mobile version? Ask us over on the Clever Endeavour Discord.

[Pre-order on the App Store] [Pre-Register on Google Play]

Pax East 2025

The Clever Endeavour team will be at PAX East this year! The event runs from Thu, May 8 - Sun, May 11 in Boston, and we’ll be showing Ultimate Sheep Raccoon all four days.

Drop by the booth to try out the new game ahead of release and pick up some exclusive swag. 🐑🦝

(Here’s a photo from The MIX at GDC where folks got to play!)

See you soon - in-person and on mobile!
- Clever Endeavour

Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

Grab your friends and race together all weekend!

The demo contains:

• Two race courses: Farm and Scrapyard

• Local and online multiplayer for up to 4 players on Steam

• Blocks, power-ups, and tricks to play with

• Four favourite characters to choose from: Sheep, Raccoon, Chicken, and Horse

As a thank-you for playing the demo, you'll unlock an exclusive in-game reward when Ultimate Sheep Raccoon officially releases!

Just a reminder that this is only an early build of Ultimate Sheep Raccoon and we’re actively working on the game, so 8-player support and the custom level builder are not included this time around. You may also encounter bugs or features that are still rough around the edges - if you do, please fill out the in-game bug report to let us know.

Your feedback is super important to us as we work on Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, and we want to hear from you! So if you’d like to share any other ideas or suggestions, please post them in the Ultimate Sheep Raccoon Discord.

And if you won’t have to chance to play the demo this weekend, join the Discord to be notified when future playtests are available. (And there WILL be more!)

Quebec Games Celebration

Want more party game fun? Grab 65% off Ultimate Chicken Horse in the Quebec Games Celebration until Feb 24th!

That's it! See you on the track (at the finish line 😉).
- Clever Endeavour

Hey friends, our very first public demo of Ultimate Sheep Raccoon will be available for FREE from Feb 21 - Feb 23 on Steam!

The demo goes live on Feb 21 at 2 PM UTC / 9 AM Eastern!

Did you know we were making a new game? Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a bike-racing party game where you and your friends build the course together and race to the finish line. It’s like a spiritual successor to Ultimate Chicken Horse, and it absolutely has the same chaotic hilarious party shenanigans.

Just a reminder that the demo is only an early build of Ultimate Sheep Raccoon and we’re actively working on the game, so you might encounter bugs and features that are still rough around the edges.

The demo will have:

• Two race courses: Farm and Scrapyard

• Local and online multiplayer for up to 4 players on Steam

• Blocks, power-ups, and tricks to play with

• Four favourite characters to choose from: Sheep, Raccoon, Chicken, and Horse

While our full release will have even more features - including 8-player support, the custom level editor, and new playable characters - we’ve packed the demo with lots of racing action, and we’re super eager to hear your thoughts.

Player feedback early on is very important for our game development process. So if you’d like to share your ideas or suggestions with us, please join the Ultimate Sheep Raccoon Discord.

Stay tuned for the demo on February 21, and please wishlist Ultimate Sheep Raccoon! We can’t wait for you to join us on the track later this week! (And if you're not able to play the demo this time, join the Discord to be notified of future playtests.)

Sincerely,
Clever Endeavour Games
Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

Hitting the track in 2025!

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a bike-racing party game where you and your friends build a course of ramps, obstacles, and traps! Dodge hazards, do crazy tricks, and use power-ups to get ahead of the competition. You can play with up to 8 players locally, online, and cross-platform.

Wishlist now!

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a spiritual successor to Ultimate Chicken Horse - not a sequel! It's got the same party spirit with a ton of new things to do.

Stay tuned for future playtests where you can play with us ahead of release!

Follow our socials if you're interested:

Discord | X | BlueSky | Instagram | Website (and newsletter!)

A big thank you from us

When Ultimate Chicken Horse first came out (over 8 years ago), we never could have imagined it taking off the way it did. Our silly game jam project grew into a massive party hit that people play across the world and across generations. That's special. And UCH's success has allowed us to keep working in that party game space and create Ultimate Sheep Raccoon - our next step for awesome times together with friends and families!

We seriously can't wait to get it in front of you! 🚲

See you very soon,
Clever Endeavour Games

Join The Race

Keep up to date with all things Ultimate Sheep Raccoon by joining our Discord! We're planning community playtests and we're always looking for more players to help us test and improve the game leading up to its release.

Hello! The FREE Pandamonium Updateis coming to Ultimate Chicken Horse on May 13, 2024 on all supported platforms! Play as the new character, Panda, with your PC and console friends via crossplay!

The Pandamonium Update adds:
- 1 new character: Panda
- 4 new skins: Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Black Bear, and Blue Bear
- 2 new levels: Islands and Toxic Tower
- 2 new outfits: Mail Carrier and Viking
- 3 music tracks: Island Buddies, The Kraken, Toxic Tower
- Improvements and bug fixes

When the update releases, unlock the new content for free by playing levels with a “?” symbol and collecting mystery boxes during the game.

New Character: Panda

Roll out the bamboo carpet - Panda is here! This fuzzy, monochrome teddy is paw-sitively set on victory!

Voiced by Tia, our community and marketing manager, Panda is the 13th addition to the Ultimate Chicken Horse roster!

Alternative Skins: The Four Bears

The four bears are here to play! Please welcome Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Black Bear and Blue Bear. (They give great hugs.)

New Levels: Islands and Toxic Tower

On the Islands, enjoy a tropical island paradise by day… and summon the legendary Kraken by night! Stir up some chaos for your friends by ringing the Kraken’s bell, and dodge its deadly tentacles under the moonlight!

In Toxic Tower, explore the remains of a polluted factory! Platform across vats of purple sludge, and time your jumps to avoid the bubbling overflow of toxic waste!

New Outfits

Check out Panda and the four Bears’ outfits as they suit up for adventure!

- Viking Hat and Viking Suit: Ready to take on the world, and look cute doing it
- Mail Hat and Mail Bag: Special delivery! We come bear-ing gifts.

New Merchandise

We’re releasing new Ultimate Chicken Horse merchandise to celebrate the Bears’ arrival and 8 years of the game!

The new merch releases on May 13 at the same time as the Pandamonium Update!

Beary Build Event

We’re hosting another custom building event for the Pandamonium Update! Send us your bear-themed custom levels and we’ll feature them in Ultimate Chicken Horse!

Submit your levels to us by publishing your level and sharing the level code by emailing contact@joyrider.space by 11 PM Pacific Time on May 16. It can be a Party or Challenge level.

To make a custom level, go to the Treehouse lobby. Open the pause menu and click the arrows to change your game mode from "Party Mode" to "Free Play Mode". Then go to the underground area of the Treehouse and move to the left to the "Blank Level" section. Now you can make a level!

Need some inspiration? (These are only suggestions!)
- Any of the new Bear characters (Panda, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Black Bear, Blue Bear)
- Honey and honeycombs, bees, fish, berries, bamboo, pastries
- Picnics in the park, forests, camp sites, mountain caves, cozy dens
- Colours: Monochrome (black and white), brown, blue
- Anything else you can come up with!

We're super proud to have such a dedicated community 8 years into development! Thank you for playing Ultimate Chicken Horse and sharing our silly animals with your friends. Have a bear-illiant time with this new update!

Join us on Discord to find people to play with, and follow us on X and Instagram to stay up to date!

- Your friends at Clever Endeavour

Changelog

- Added new character: Panda
- Added alternative skins: Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Black Bear and Blue Bear
- Added new outfits: Mail bag, mail hat, viking helmet, viking suit
- Added new levels: Islands and Toxic Tower
- Added new music
- Added word filtering to the PC version
- Fixed controllers on Mac OSX
- Fixed issue where saving a level with the same name as Challenge and Versus level would make one of them disappear
- Fixed online issue for geographically far clients from our server regions
- Fixed Twitch Chat UI when streamer mode is active
- Fixed water splashes not being shown for remote players

We just launched our Ultimate Chicken plush on Makeship! This extremely round plush is the perfect trophy to remind everyone how much better at winning you are. 🐔🏆

It's only available for a limited time, so grab your cuddly champion before it’s gone!

Get your Chicken plush now: https://www.makeship.com/products/ultimate-chicken-plush

Permalink

]]>The Ultimate Chicken Plush is here!Tia YoungMon, 27 Nov 2023 16:33:11 +0000https://www.cleverendeavourgames.com/blog/2023/11/24/dear-santa-i-want-custom-levels-this-year5601be1fe4b0dfb50e050a73:5602f41fe4b08b574e8f4528:656129d90441470d755ce943Hi Ultimate Animals!

The holidays are right around the corner, and boy, do we have a sleigh-full of great stuff for you! Right now, Ultimate Chicken Horse is 55% off on Steam, and you can nominate the game for the Steam Awards 2023.

Read on for details about our in-game event and merchandise giveaway!

❄️ Winter Build Event

We're asking you to send us your festive holiday and/or wintery custom levels in Ultimate Chicken Horse before Dec 8! We’ll pick 15 community-made levels and feature them in the game for everyone to see and play.

Need some inspiration for your level? Try these!
- Winter wonderland: Snow, snowmen, snowflakes, skating, igloos, sleds/toboggans, holiday villages/markets
- Holidays: Santa, presents, outdoor lights, Christmas trees, reindeer, elves, stockings, menorahs, dreidels
- Festive foods: Gingerbread, candy canes, hot chocolate, turkey, plum pudding, fruit cake
- New years: Fireworks, celebrations, sparkles, stars, gold
- Plus anything else that you think fits!

How do I make and submit a level?
- To make a custom level, go to the Treehouse lobby. Open the pause menu and click the arrows to change your game mode from "Party Mode" to "Free Play Mode". Then go to the underground area of the Treehouse and move to the left to the "Blank Level" section. Now you can make a level, Party or Challenge!
- Submit your levels to us by publishing your level and sharing the level code with us on our social pages or email it to us by 11 PM Pacific Time on Oct 7.
- community@joyrider.space
- Steam discussion
- Discord
- Twitter or Instagram

🎁 Merry merch giveaway

Our holiday spirit doesn't stop there - we’re also hosting a merry merch giveaway from now until Dec 8! Simply follow the ClevEndeavGames X account and repost to be entered into the draw!

Here's to a holiday season filled with joy, laughter, and Ultimate Chicken Horse with your friends and family!

Cheers!

- Tia

It’s been about 6 months since the Shellebration Update released in March, and we’ve got a bunch of fun things to share!

Steam Free Weekend + Big Sales

You can play Ultimate Chicken Horse for FREE on Steam from Sept 7-11!

Now’s the time to host a game night or invite friends who’ve been itching to give it a try! (And if they love it, we’re running some hefty discounts until Sept 14!)

Ultimate Chicken Horse fully supports crossplay, so grab your friends who have the game on any platform (PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation)!

We’d love to meet you in the Ultimate Chicken Horse Discord. You’ll find new gaming buddies, bug support, tips and techs to play better, competitive tournaments, engaging discussions, and UCH memes.

You can grab the game on sale here:

• Steam

• Humble / Humble 4-Pack

• PlayStation

• Nintendo Switch

• Xbox

Now let’s get this party started!

Horse around in style with new merchandise

We launched a permanent Ultimate Chicken Horse collection on Fourthwall!

Sport your favourite barnyard pals on snazzy, comfy tees, and relish the moment when someone inevitably asks, "What, exactly, is a Chicken Horse?"

Kittencup releases Pekoe, a cozy tea-making sim with cats

Our friends at Kittencup recently released their cat-filled tea-making sim, Pekoe! You manage a teahouse and serve aesthetic beverages to your purrfect customers. Befriend the local cats, improve your teahouse, and explore the art of tea by mixing and pouring delicious blends (The stirring ASMR is so nice.)

Check out Pekoe now!

How our team has changed

Clever Endeavour has undergone a lot of changes in the last year, and we’ve yet to introduce our newest members!

I’m Tia (the one writing this, hi) - I’m the new marketing and community manager! I took over in January for Syd, our previous CM. A few years ago, I switched careers and found my passion in supporting indie developers with their marketing, PR, and community management. Then I moved across the country to join the wonderful Clever Endeavour squad! I know too much about indie games, I love horror, and I main Sheep in UCH.

Next up: Austin! He’s our programmer/designer who came aboard in January as well. He’s full-time on our new project and is diligently coding away. Austin previously worked at Ludia as a Live Ops expert. He’s also been an in-house Dundgeons & Dragons referee and Twitch streamer!

We also have Shipmate Games helping us out with all things server-y and technical. They’re a duo that go by JS and PAC (these are technically their real names), and they’re based out of Quebec City!

Of course, there’s Fabio… you know Fabio. He’s been with us for six and a half years at this point, and has been a fan favourite since the AskClevEndeav videos of the olden days. (Fabio says hi!)

Plus dear ol’ Rich, who brings the whole crew together and keeps us on track.

What’s next for Clever Endeavour Games?

We’re up to something, we promise you that! And while we’re not quite ready to reveal anything yet, we sincerely appreciate how curious and dedicated our community. We can’t wait to tell everything - when the time is right!

We’re focusing on the new project, but we haven’t forgotten about Ultimate Chicken Horse. The game continues to receive quality-of-life updates, including some serious server overhauls that should help everyone play online.

Thanks for reading! Talk again soon.

Sincerely, all of us at Clever Endeavour Games

Wow, Ultimate Chicken Horse is turning seven years old and we’re celebrating with a FREE content update for you! Play as the new character Turtle in the Shellebration Update on March 7, 2023 on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch! Let’s get this party started.

The Shellebration Update adds:

• 1 new character: Turtle

• 1 alternative skin: Armadillo

• 1 new level: Metro

• 3 new community-designed outfits: Helmet, Pirate Costume, and Ninja Gear

• 1 new music track

• Lots of improvements and bug fixes!

Unlock the new content for free by playing levels with a “?” symbol and collecting mystery boxes during the game.

New Character: Turtle

Meet Turtle, the newest animal on the Ultimate Chicken Horse roster, voiced by our previous community manager, Syd!

Always ready to dive head-first into the next adventure, this plucky reptile never backs down from a challenge. Turtle’s no slowpoke when it comes to winning and won’t hesitate to slide straight into first place!

Alternative Skin: Armadillo

Look out, Turtle’s alternative skin just rolled in - it’s Armadillo! Don’t be intimidated by the tough exterior - Armadillo is a huge softie with a big heart.

New Outfits

Turtle and Armadillo share a wonderful wardrobe designed by our very own Ultimate Chicken Horse community! We asked what outfits our community would want to see in the game, and transformed our favourite ideas into these fashionable ‘fits!

• Helmet: It’s like a shell for your head!

• Pirate Costume: Yer lookin’ as sharp as a cutlass, me hearty!

• Ninja Gear: Only worn by true warriors of the night. (It glows in the dark.)

New Level: Metro

Don’t miss your train! Navigate the underground metro by sprinting across the roofs of train cars as they thunder by. Place building blocks and traps to fill the gaps between the station platforms, or risk falling into the deadly electrified rails! Make it to the opposite platform without being flattened to win!

The Metro level features several historic train stations straight from our studio’s home: Montreal, Canada.

Ultimate Chicken Horse’s 7th Anniversary

Come shellebrate this special time of year with us and Turtle! We’d love to see and feature your anniversary-themed custom levels and fanart for our Shellebration Update. Here are some inspirational ideas: birthday cakes, presents, parties, the UCH animals, and other celebration-y things!

Please share your creations in the Ultimate Chicken Horse Discord or via the contact@joyrider.space email.

Behind-The-Scenes Stuff

Our second project has been keeping us busy, but we haven’t forgotten about our dear Ultimate Chicken Horse community. It’s been over a year since our last update (Hippo) so we wanted to make something extra special for our 7th anniversary. We hope you enjoy!

Our team has grown in the meantime - we now have tech wizard/genius JS on the case. He’s already saved us from a lot of server trouble and is actively working on making the servers even better. We also brought on Tia as our new marketing and community manager just in time for Turtle’s update!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for playing Ultimate Chicken Horse and supporting us over the years. Happy 7th anniversary!

- Your turtley awesome friends at Clever Endeavour

It’s me, Syd the Community Manager, writing my second blog post! If you want to know more about me, peep the previous blog post for an introduction.

Now, I don’t mean to alarm you, but it’s quite literally my favourite month of the year. Why? Because it’s Halloween and I love spooky things, pumpkins (both in lattes and on porches), costumes and of course, candy! However, I will say, the energy over at Clever Endeavour studio isn’t very haunted, it’s quite the opposite. Here's a summary of some not-scary things I’ll be catching you up on:

• Goodbye Gamesparks, hello Xbox!

• Did someone say Steamdeck verified!?

• Trivia Night, babyyyy!

• Mentorships + Charities we’ve been donating to 

• Vibes were had with Vibe Avenue 

• Things we’re looking forward to…

Gute Nacht, Gamesparks!

For those who still don’t know, Gamesparks (our old server) is kaput, so we’ve had to move over to a new one, Braincloud. You may be asking a few questions about this like:

What the heck is a server?

In simple terms, It’s what allows you to play UCH with folks who have different devices than you and live in different locations than yourself.

Is this an update?

Sadly, it is not. It is a patch, which like the name suggests, is fixing holes that may exist in our beautiful game.

So, what does changing the server actually mean then?

It means a lot of things, most quite good! It means the game’s online element isn’t stopping, which means the game has been future-proofed as much as possible. It also means…XBOX CROSSPLAY which I know has been something that’s been asked for for a very long time from our players. Our new server allows you to do this! Wooooooo! Lastly, we added a few small things for our community (updated credits, a “tournament” preset, and a bunch of other tiny little bug fixes that we could fit in).

Thanks, Syd.

No problem.

Full Steam Ahead!

This one is a little less complicated: Valve has given us the good ‘ol Verified/green check mark for Steamdeck! Have fun playing our game on Steamdeck (which you may have already been doing), but uh…VERIFIED this time.

Winner Winner Ultimate Chicken Dinner

One of my favourite things about being a Community Manager is forcing my love of trivia upon my community! Recently, our Discord players embarked on the noble quest of Ultimate Chicken Trivia; which was essentially 25 questions about UCH and Clever Endeavour, ranging in difficulty. The top 3 scores were awarded fancy Discord roles, too. Funny enough, despite me worrying it may be too easy, NO ONE got a perfect score, not even our co-founder Rich. Here are some of the questions (and answers, since I’m feeling nice):

The Code Least Travelled

During the summer, our co-founder Rich participated as a mentor in an accelerator program for game developers run by Code Coven. They're an organization that creates and runs programs for developers coming from underrepresented groups in the industry. Rich acted as a team mentor for Team Gramps, a diverse group spread across the globe, who came together to make a mobile game demo called A Week at Belisamas Lake. The game explores the connection between a grandmother and grandchild who work on fishing objects out of a lake in a post-climate change (in the positive sense, i.e. we didn't destroy the planet) society.

Rich’s mentoring included checking in on development as well as being a sounding board for ideas and problems. Overall, Rich had an amazing experience meeting these talented developers, "it's always so inspiring to see what people can do in such a short period—these people didn't know each other and had never worked together before, and managed to make a super compelling demo while working together for only 8 weeks. Crazy!" You can check out the Code Coven website if you're interested in applying for one of their programs.

Charitable Donations

In the past few months we’ve donated to two local causes that are dear to our company’s heart; The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, which is intended to be a healing space for Indigenous women to rebuild their lives, as well as Women Aware, which provides free services to those who have experienced conjugal violence. Please check out the attached links to look further into these incredible causes.

Just Straight Vibin’

Recently, our team had the pleasure of catching up with the musical geniuses behind the Ultimate Chicken Horse Soundtrack: Vibe Avenue. Their (relatively) new studio blew us away, and look, they even gave us a chance to play their cool instruments. Thanks for having us, VA!

Things We’re Excited About…

Aside from Halloween itself, we’re also super excited about the upcoming Halloween Level Feature event that we’re hosting. We’re currently asking folks to submit their spooky creations! The creativity and challenges that come out of our level events are one of the things our team looks most forward to seeing. So, please, make our October and check out this Steam post for more details on how to submit!

Lastly, we had the pleasure of catching up with our friends over at Weird Ghosts! Weird Ghosts helps support game studios of underrepresented makers through grants, “catalytic investments”, and community. Their day-to-day, as a small team (just two people! That’s one less than we started with when making our game), involves working with the co-op Gamma Space to provide mentorship in areas like studio development, storytelling, documentation, and project management. So far, they’ve assisted 11 studios since 2020!

When I poked co-founder Eileen about what they were most excited about regarding their work so far, she mentioned how she’s currently very proud of this blog, which focuses on funding barriers in Canada. The blog in question gives you a strong sense of what Weird Ghosts stands for–not only does it strip apart Canada’s current funding issues, but it also shows how WG actively challenges these issues when seeking studios to support. “We’re really interested in making our resources accessible”, Eileen shared with me, before noting that the next step for the company will be sharing its values and pitching information. We can’t wait to see what comes next from Weird Ghosts and the studios they’re supporting.

And with that, may your spooky season be ghastly!

- The Clever Endeavour Team

This may come as quite a surprise to you, but it’s the summer right! Let me tell you, here, where our little team is located, it means things are getting warm! It’s hot, it’s sunny, and things are moving over here at Clever Endeavour. We’ve got lots of exciting updates to bring your way. Here’s a quick summary:

• A new community manager appears: Syd! 

• We’re on Tiktok!

• Big ‘ol Summer sales!

• New initiative: Barnyard bMonday

• UCH Summer Feature Levels on LevelNET

• Charity donations

• Things we’re looking forward to

New Community Manager Alert: Say Hello to Syd 

Howdy! It’s me, Syd (they/them), writing my first blog post!

Here’s the scoop on me:

When I’m not community managing the Ultimate Chicken Horse community I’m over at Casa Rara Studio working on our new game Mini Maker: Make A Thing. When I’m not doing either of those, I’m squeezing in time for my Master’s in Creative Writing, because for some reason I love video games AND poetry the same amount. I also clearly love to suffer, because I have so much on my plate!

Some fun facts about me include:

• I have a hairless cat named Ursula

• I have to have three different “kinds” of drinks every morning (i.e: sparkling water, matcha, kombucha, tea, etc). They all have to have different textures and ~purposes~.

• I can play the banjo 

A pleasure to meet you, and a pleasure to be joining such a wonderful team and community. Can’t wait to get to know you all and bring some of my weird little self to the community. Come chat with me on our Discord to get to know me better!

Tiktokkin’ Time

For those of you who are as hooked on this platform as I am, or for those of you who love a good meme, follow our UCH TikTok for bizarrities. Or, check it out to get some wholesome content, like this TikTok on our community member and mod Terry:

Summer Sails Sales

It’s the summertime, which means fun, right? Or, it should, in my belief. Well, let us help you out! Throughout the summer we’ve organized a bunch of 50% off sales for Ultimate Chicken Horse–so keep an eye on our Twitter and on your system of choice to see when we’re on sale. If you already have the game…consider convincing a friend to join in on your obsession by flashing them this absolutely irresistible price!

UCH Lore??? 

If you’ve been on socials, you may have noticed this odd Monday occurrence as of the past few weeks: Barnyard bMonday. It includes a horribly photoshopped UCH animal alongside a very accurate and real piece of information about said animal. The folks on the UCH discord have asked whether it is the true lore of the game, to which I would like to reply the following:

Ultimate Chicken Horse is a fictional video game, whereas the facts I have been posting and inventing on the spot are 100% true and scientifically accurate and thoroughly tested. Be assured, that the money you spend on our game goes directly to the pursuit of this knowledge and of course, the betterment of animal kind. Here is the photo of the top scientists in our field working away at Barnyard bMonday:

If you have any suggestions for upcoming studies, feel free to message us on our Discord, Twitter, or by carrier pigeon.

Summer Feature Levels to Quench Your Thirst

If you’ve gotten this far and are still reading, here is where I admit to you that I loathe summer, the very concept of sweating disturbs me. However, I do like video games. That’s why the idea of interacting with summer from the safety of my computer sounds positively divine. With this in mind, please enjoy these wonderful community-made Summer-themed Levels! 

A massive thank you to everyone who submitted a level, and to the levels council who helped choose which levels should be featured for this!

Charitable Donations

It’s been a while since our last blog post, so let me quickly catch you up to speed with all the different causes we’ve been supporting.

1. For Pride Month, we donated to a campaign run by game devs across the world to raise money for akt–a UK charity that supports lgbtq+ youth ages 16-25 by helping them find safe homes, employment, education and training.

2. We donated to Stop the Red Sea Spill, a UN campaign to remove a FSO Safer from Yemen's Red Sea coast to prevent further disparity or damage to surrounding reefs and sea life.

3. We updated and donated to several causes in support of Ukraine. Check out further information here if you’re looking for some guidance to help Ukrainians who are still in need of our support. 

4. We ran a giveaway of this awesome Queer Games Bundle for our discord community. We figured the best way to support LGBTQ+ Devs was to put the money straight in their hands and to share their work!

Things We’re Looking Forward To…

If there are two things that are beloved to us at Clever Endeavour it is tea and cats. You can imagine how the game Pekoe has affected us once it landed on our radar. In this adorable cat-filled, tea cafe simulator you’re learning new techniques and tea-making styles, building relationships with townsfolk, and purchasing tea supplies and tools at other teahouses. 

Aside from the adorable appearance, in these chaotic times, it’s been illuminating how important and necessary games are to keep us afloat. Pekoe’s focus on self-care and pursuing what makes one happy is a necessary breath of fresh air. Check out the trailer here:

Wishlist Pekoe here!

What else? Well, Community Manager Syd was extremely pumped to attend the online Disco MTL Summit last week. Disco MTL is a Game Discoverability Summit where one gets to attend talks and roundtables all centered around games, gaming communities, marketing, you name it! It was jam-packed with some incredible guests, including our pals at KO_OP Marcela Huerta and Jacob Blommestein, the hilarious and bright Victoria Tran of Innersloth, the exceptional Chris Zukowski, and the talented Philomena Schwab of Stray Fawn Studio. Extremely, extremely exciting! Aside from the huge chunk of knowledge dispersed throughout the week, Syd’s favourite part was attending a cocktail party and realizing these were the cups everyone was drinking from.

A few of us here at the studio are taking little vacations, so that’s pretty fun. It’s important to mix up hard work with some play, brains aren’t meant to always be working. So I hope you get a moment this summer to play a game or two (or two hundred) of UCH and relax–you’ve earned it.

Sorry, no donkey updates in UCH, but one of our co-founders Rich did go on vacation and spotted this cute little guy Morocco, near Moulay Idriss.

Hope you have a splendid Summer!

- The Clever Endeavour Team

It’s important to us here at Clever Endeavour that we keep our community up to speed with any changes or updates that come our way. This year, on good terms, we parted ways with one of our co-founders, Kyler. Below is a message he wished to share with you:

“Hello Everybody

After 7 life-altering years working on Ultimate Chicken Horse, and helping run Clever Endeavour Games, I've decided to leave the company. I wrestled with this decision for a long time, as getting to work with great people, on great games, was definitely a dream job.

There has been a lot of change happening in the last 3 years. I became a father, we started working on new game ideas, COVID hit and we started working from home. My long-term priorities as a person began to change. All of this combined, led to me really thinking about my future.

When I thought about the question "What do I want to do for the next 30 years?" My heart didn't passionately answer "keep making video games". I'm a person who has had many deep and diverse passions over the years. After high school, I thought I'd be studying Physics at University. But 3D graphics and animation became a huge interest for me, and I dramatically changed my plans to go to Art School instead. It feels right for things to change again.

While I can't tell exactly what the next big draw is for me now, I know I want to explore some other paths in life, with a little interlude to be able to focus more on raising my kids. Our 2nd is on its way soon!

There are many people that I would like to send my deepest appreciation and thanks for helping make my experience at Clever Endeavour what it was.

Thanks to the other co-founders, Richard and Alex, for deciding to sign up for this wild endeavour to start with. There are few game jams that go as far as this one did. I greatly appreciate how understanding they were in my decision to leave, and I am happy to continue being friends with them in the future.

Thanks to all the employees who decided to join the team, and help us try to realize all the different projects and creations we came up with. I appreciate all the obvious game work you did, as well as the huge iceberg of behind-the-scenes work that really makes a video game company run.

Thanks to my family, my wife Jackie, and the families of the co-founders, who were an enormous support to getting Clever Endeavour up and running. I am very glad that the company has this idea of support baked into its DNA, and was able to help support another team get off the ground as well.

Thanks to all the players of Ultimate Chicken Horse. The amount of enjoyment that I've seen the world have with the game has been astounding. I appreciate all the feedback we got over the years. I appreciate all the players who devoted a lot of their time to becoming skilled at the game and know many of its intricacies more than I do. Thanks to everyone who ever made fan art, or shared stories about how the game impacted their lives. It really means a lot to the people making games.

Thanks to the Montreal and Global game dev community that helped support our game and team, and who have become lifelong friends.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing next. I need some time to rest, but I see myself working on many creative projects in the future. If the last 7 years are anything to go by, I'll either create or find cool new opportunities to be a part of.

I definitely feel a little disconnected from the world since the pandemic started, if you want to connect, or reconnect with me in the coming months, send me a DM on Twitter at @kylerwk

Clever Endeavour will continue making amazing games, and I wish everybody the best in all their future Endeavours.

Bye for now,

Kyler Kelly-Tan”

We’re so thankful for our time with Kyler and thought we’d share something fun in honour of it–a video from our original Kickstarter:

Time flies!

Enjoy your summer,

The Clever Endeavour Team

If April showers bring May flowers…. What does April snow bring? Well, we certainly hope it brings warmer weather soon.

Here’s what to expect in this month’s newsletter:

• Update on Ultimate Chicken Horse backend work

• Game 2 is still in the works

• Supporting Game Devs of Color Expo and Hand Eye Society

• Our donations for the last couple of months

Ultimate Chicken Horse

Our external partners are still working away at restructuring our online infrastructure, and we’re also chipping away at some bugs that were introduced with the Hippo-Party-Plus update.

We hope to have some more details about these updates soon! Thanks for everyone’s patience with this one, things have taken a lot longer than we expected due to a wide variety of technical and pandemic-related issues.

Game 2

We’re still developing Game 2! We got some really good feedback from early pitches at GDC, so we’re reworking some of the pieces so they make a more complete picture.

We can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with you all, but we still need some time.

Industry Initiatives

We’re extremely proud to be supporting the Game Devs of Color Expo again this year! Submit a game, talk, or check out the details of this summer event here. 

We’re also sponsoring an event by the Hand Eye Society which you can read more about here. Hand Eye Society is a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that showcases and nurtures videogames made primarily for creative expression.

Donation Corner

Our studio has been horrified at Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Back in February we mentioned in a Twitter post that donated about $10,000 CAD to various charities. Since the attacks continue even now, we have pledged an additional $40,000 to various efforts, including the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, and Help Us Help. If you are also in a position to help, here are some resources to get you started.

As for our employee-led donations, our February donation was led by Rich who split his donation between UNHCR and a Reforestation initiative in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Our March donation went to Dans La Rue thanks to Fabio.

 —

That it for the April edition of the Clever Endeavour blog! See you next time.

<3