Sally Face was originally a concept for an internet cartoon, back in 2007. The idea was sparked by a nightmare I (Steve Gabry) had and inspired by life events. I wanted to make something like the 1990s Nicktoons I grew up with and loved, but with a darker narrative. I couldn’t get animation friends to commit the time to the project, so the characters and stories sat in my mind for the next few years.

In 2014, after about five years of indie game development with Wither Studios (a company I co-founded after college and still work with), I decided to make Sally Face into an adventure game, as a solo endeavor. I kept the same episodic format of the original concept and fleshed out the narrative arc before delving into pre-production in 2015. I worked on the project in my free time for over a year. Chipping away at the game on my lunch breaks, nights, and weekends.

In 2016, I released Episode One: Strange Neighbors. A small IndieGoGo campaign, that Fall, helped get enough funding to go full time on the project. The campaign also gave Sally Face a huge boost in visibility, once it started spreading like fire across YouTube.

A few setbacks in my personal life delayed Episode Two: The Wretched, which released in July 2017. The episode was bigger and better than the first and had great reception from fans and influencers.

Episode Three: The Bologna Incident released in February 2018 to a passionate Sally Face fanbase and quickly became a fan favorite. 

Episode Four: The Trial released in December 2018 and exploded the popularity of the game. Episode Four was more successful than all previous episodes combine!

Episode Five: Memories and Dreams, the final, mind-bending conclusion came out on December 13, 2020.

After completing development on PC, I began working on the Nintendo Switch port with help from my good friend and programmer, Mike Thomas. This marked the first time anyone else had worked on the game besides myself. Sally Face launched on Nintendo Switch on January 21, 2021.

For the PlayStation and Xbox ports, I hired a team called The Knights of U to primarily handle the technical end of things. After a long road, these ports finally came out on April 15, 2022.