Edmund McMillen isn't a stranger to controversy, given the development of Super Meat Boy and certain public responses to The Binding of Isaac. McMillen's latest game release, The Legend of Bum-bo, has not been any different. The Legend of Bum-bo's 2019 launch came with some severe technical issues including crashes, or just not running at all. Then, McMillen and crew went radio silent, leaving buyers to ponder the state of the game. McMillen, to his credit, has now provided an update.
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that The Legend of Bum-bo's launch led to a bad situation for both Edmund McMillen and The Legend of Bum-bo's lead developer, James Interactive. McMillen explains that following Bum-bo's launch and post-launch crunch, Interactive was overtaken by depression. This was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation that coincided with it. In better news, McMillen says that Interactive is now doing "much better."
McMillen was hit with troubling times as well. Alongside the birth of McMillen's second daughter, his home was caught up in the California fire evacuations. He and his family ultimately decided to move away from their Santa Cruz home as a result, but McMillen now says that his family is safe and in a much more stable situation. He asks his fans and followers to take care of themselves during the holidays and to reach out to someone if they find themselves in a dark place.
After providing some insight into how he and James Interactive are doing, McMillen goes on to discuss the current state of The Legend of Bum-bo's development, too. While he and Interactive were struggling earlier this year, McMillen brought on some more team members from The Binding of Isaac's ports. These developers have been working on both a mini-DLC for The Legend of Bum-bo, as well as console versions of the game. Progress on both is supposedly going well.
The DLC for The Legend of Bum-bo isn't as significant as some of what The Binding of Isaac received, but fans of the game should still be pleasantly surprised. It includes new items, new alternate bosses, a few features, and a new playable character. Bum-bo the Lost will soon be a choice to play as. McMillen says that he'll provide more information about Bum-bo the lost closer to the DLC being finished.
It just goes to show that having patience for developers is always important, especially for small teams like that for The Legend of Bum-bo. It's impossible to tell what developers are having to go through to finish and support a game. This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been a worse year for developers than most, too. Hopefully, McMillen, Interactive, and fans of The Legend of Bum-bo all come out of 2020 for the better.
The Legend of Bum-bo is available now on PC, with plans for iOS and Switch in the future.