Developer Headcannon, which perhaps most notably developed Sonic Mania alongside Christian Whitehead and PagodaWest Games, has announced the release date for its new game, Rubato. The experimental 2D title will hit the Switch eShop on 20th March 2026, and there's a free demo you can check out right now.
It's not been smooth sailing for Headcannon, however, as the developer recently released a blog post detailing "a rough few years", stating that all it wants to do is "make some damn games". It cites "corporate bureaucracy" as one of its headaches, along with personal difficulties and the cost of living.
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Here's the post in full:
"It's been a rough few months.
"Hell.. it's been a rough few years. That's got a lot to do with our new slogan, which you may have noticed at the top of this page. Software Development is a complex process in the first place and doesn't need other forces to come along and make it even more challenging. Corporate bureaucracy certainly doesn't help whether you work from within or without "the industry", you have to be really careful about who you choose to work with and what you prioritize, the cost of living makes it less and less possible for an independent to spend time actually developing anything, I could go on listing issues we face that I'm sure other devs can sympathize with. Let's not even get into all the personal stuff that's befallen each of us lately. I don't want to spend a whole bunch of time complaining about it, but none of us want to pretend It's not extremely frustrating. I've personally always wanted to be as clear and straightforward as possible, and as independents, I'm hoping we can bring more of that to Headcannon. Given that, there seems to be only one thing left to say on the matter - "We just wanna make some damn games."
"We're still doing what we can. More (very) soon."
It's worth noting that Headcannon was also open regarding issues surrounding Sonic Origins, which it too contributed towards. According to Stealth via social media, the final release contained bugs and glitches that weren't present in the build that Headcannon submitted to Sega. The thread notes that the team "were outsiders creating a separate project that was then wrangled into something entirely different". It's unclear whether these issues are being indirectly referenced in the above statement.
Rubato, meanwhile, is described as a Metroidvania of sorts, but judging from the trailer above, it's also loaded with awesome minigames and a sense of humour that we suspect might resonate quite well with us.
The game will also launch on Steam and PS5, though an Xbox release is currently TBA thanks to some complications with the Microsoft Partner Program backend.