Our History:
Antler (formerly known as GameHuntGuild) has an interesting history that originally started out as GameHuntReviews, with the sole intent of being a podcast that reviews indie video games. Our story starts here with Shawn and his friend Aaron (previous member), the original founders of GHR. We had the idea of bringing indie video games into the spotlight by meeting with developers, playing their games, and reviewing them in order to help out both the game and the developer themselves. We had an amazing time attending events as press, starting in 2017 with Play NYC located in New York City. At the time, we were also putting our gameplay on YouTube and hosted many fun and successful livestreams. One game in particular named Undertale, led to our original following on YouTube, as in one night we grew from 25 subscribers, to over 1,800 with 300+ people watching live concurrently. Additionally, we also hosted our first ever charity stream in 2017 for Hurricane Harvey Relief playing that game as well.
From that point we went on to make new exciting episodes of the GameHuntReviews podcast, all while streaming games and making fun videos. Shawn's brother Dan joined the crew in 2018 with the intent of expanding our efforts for content creation and the podcast. We started hosting charity streams for Extra Life, which benefitted our local children's hospital (CHOP) as well. As time went on we agreed that the podcast was fun, but our videos and streaming seemed to be more of the focus for GameHuntReviews, and thus the podcast was put on hold indefinitely. This decision allowed us to make more time for livestreams and edited videos. We created a Twitch and started building on that platform as well, but the real concentration on using twitch for streaming started in 2019 as GameHuntReviews rebranded as GameHuntGuild. There was some confusion in our name, since we were no longer reviewing games regularly. We had an idea at the time where we would attempt to open up and allow interested members of our fan base to be somewhat involved with the content we were creating. With this group effort in mind, we changed the last part of our name from "Reviews" to "Guild." We then reorganized the discord to be more guild themed and created the factions idea.
From this point, both veteran fans of GHR/GHG may know the story. We started picking up steam on Twitch, as well as YouTube, and did our best to consistently mold our schedules in order to make time for content creation. However, with busy lives and obligations, it was difficult for us to set a solid schedule for livestreams. This undoubtedly put pressure on all of us, as we enjoyed making content but lacked the free time to do so. Due to lifestyle changes and the previously mentioned circumstances, Aaron (previous member) decided to leave GHR/GHG in order to concentrate on other important matters. With Shawn's work schedule change and longer hours, GHG began wondering where to go next? Our determination and drive still remained, however lack of time was always a factor holding us back. With passion and determination, GHG still continued to persevere and hold events while producing the best possible content we could, whenever and wherever we could.
Our friend Robbie (previous member) had been helping us create music for animations, as well as come up with new ideas for content creation at the time. We decided he would be a great fit and Robbie (previous member) was welcomed into GHG in 2020. Almost immediately, he helped us further the scope of our content creation by utilizing the skills he had acquired for creating indie video games and music. While we may not have as much free time as other streamers and content creators, we put our absolute all into everything we do, with the aim of producing the best possible quality content for everyone to enjoy.
GHG had come so far from where it began. We knew that we weren't just live-streamers anymore, we were up to so much more than that between music, developing video games, producing high quality animations, and so on. We realized that our name didn't quite fit the bill for us anymore once again and we started thinking more about our future and what we could do to show everyone that we were serious, professional, and fun at the same time.
After much thought and consideration, in July of 2021 we decided to rebrand GameHuntGuild under the new name Antler. Honoring our past by keeping our deer theme, as well as simplifying our name, we aimed to spread out and show the world what we could really do! With multiple video game development projects in the works, new songs in production, new charity events to host, and fun livestreams to perform, we aimed to show the world exactly that.
With Antler as our new name, we created many new projects and one in particular went on to become a full game released on steam. SOMNI was our focus, a VR & Desktop Co-Op FPS Paranormal Investigation game where players face off against both Ghosts and Cryptids. SOMNI had been under heavy development since before it's rocky release in October 2021. We learned much along the way and are now applying it to new projects in development, but before that we steadily worked on fixing all of the launch issues with SOMNI and built it up to an excellent game with positive reviews on steam after heavy work. We're proud of SOMNI and still almost can't believe how far it has come as a game.
With schedules tightening and time always being a precious commodity, we frequently faced challenges with linking up our schedules for game development. Due to the differences in time available, in October 2022 Robbie (previous member) decided to leave Antler. After two years of continuous content creation, Robbie (previous member) had been an amazing asset to the team and we thank him sincerely for his contributions to Antler.
With Robbie (previous member) leaving the team, Shawn & Dan knew they had to refocus their roadmap for Antler and new ideas and opportunities were born. Where old projects were forced to be halted, new projects have been immediately created and a new era of game development for Antler is currently in progress. Shawn & Dan are continuously expanding their knowledge of game development as quickly as possible and aim to have new projects announced publicly within the following few months.
Our drive continues to overcome the hurtles we face along the way, and it helps to look back every once in a while to see how far we've come. Who knows what the future holds!? One thing we find funny though:
"We originally started out reviewing indie games.... and now we're making them!"
Thank You!
From that point we went on to make new exciting episodes of the GameHuntReviews podcast, all while streaming games and making fun videos. Shawn's brother Dan joined the crew in 2018 with the intent of expanding our efforts for content creation and the podcast. We started hosting charity streams for Extra Life, which benefitted our local children's hospital (CHOP) as well. As time went on we agreed that the podcast was fun, but our videos and streaming seemed to be more of the focus for GameHuntReviews, and thus the podcast was put on hold indefinitely. This decision allowed us to make more time for livestreams and edited videos. We created a Twitch and started building on that platform as well, but the real concentration on using twitch for streaming started in 2019 as GameHuntReviews rebranded as GameHuntGuild. There was some confusion in our name, since we were no longer reviewing games regularly. We had an idea at the time where we would attempt to open up and allow interested members of our fan base to be somewhat involved with the content we were creating. With this group effort in mind, we changed the last part of our name from "Reviews" to "Guild." We then reorganized the discord to be more guild themed and created the factions idea.
From this point, both veteran fans of GHR/GHG may know the story. We started picking up steam on Twitch, as well as YouTube, and did our best to consistently mold our schedules in order to make time for content creation. However, with busy lives and obligations, it was difficult for us to set a solid schedule for livestreams. This undoubtedly put pressure on all of us, as we enjoyed making content but lacked the free time to do so. Due to lifestyle changes and the previously mentioned circumstances, Aaron (previous member) decided to leave GHR/GHG in order to concentrate on other important matters. With Shawn's work schedule change and longer hours, GHG began wondering where to go next? Our determination and drive still remained, however lack of time was always a factor holding us back. With passion and determination, GHG still continued to persevere and hold events while producing the best possible content we could, whenever and wherever we could.
Our friend Robbie (previous member) had been helping us create music for animations, as well as come up with new ideas for content creation at the time. We decided he would be a great fit and Robbie (previous member) was welcomed into GHG in 2020. Almost immediately, he helped us further the scope of our content creation by utilizing the skills he had acquired for creating indie video games and music. While we may not have as much free time as other streamers and content creators, we put our absolute all into everything we do, with the aim of producing the best possible quality content for everyone to enjoy.
GHG had come so far from where it began. We knew that we weren't just live-streamers anymore, we were up to so much more than that between music, developing video games, producing high quality animations, and so on. We realized that our name didn't quite fit the bill for us anymore once again and we started thinking more about our future and what we could do to show everyone that we were serious, professional, and fun at the same time.
After much thought and consideration, in July of 2021 we decided to rebrand GameHuntGuild under the new name Antler. Honoring our past by keeping our deer theme, as well as simplifying our name, we aimed to spread out and show the world what we could really do! With multiple video game development projects in the works, new songs in production, new charity events to host, and fun livestreams to perform, we aimed to show the world exactly that.
With Antler as our new name, we created many new projects and one in particular went on to become a full game released on steam. SOMNI was our focus, a VR & Desktop Co-Op FPS Paranormal Investigation game where players face off against both Ghosts and Cryptids. SOMNI had been under heavy development since before it's rocky release in October 2021. We learned much along the way and are now applying it to new projects in development, but before that we steadily worked on fixing all of the launch issues with SOMNI and built it up to an excellent game with positive reviews on steam after heavy work. We're proud of SOMNI and still almost can't believe how far it has come as a game.
With schedules tightening and time always being a precious commodity, we frequently faced challenges with linking up our schedules for game development. Due to the differences in time available, in October 2022 Robbie (previous member) decided to leave Antler. After two years of continuous content creation, Robbie (previous member) had been an amazing asset to the team and we thank him sincerely for his contributions to Antler.
With Robbie (previous member) leaving the team, Shawn & Dan knew they had to refocus their roadmap for Antler and new ideas and opportunities were born. Where old projects were forced to be halted, new projects have been immediately created and a new era of game development for Antler is currently in progress. Shawn & Dan are continuously expanding their knowledge of game development as quickly as possible and aim to have new projects announced publicly within the following few months.
Our drive continues to overcome the hurtles we face along the way, and it helps to look back every once in a while to see how far we've come. Who knows what the future holds!? One thing we find funny though:
"We originally started out reviewing indie games.... and now we're making them!"
Thank You!