The game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter from September 2013 to October 2013, but donations were still possible via PayPal on WayForward's official website, and closed on December 16, 2014. The game is the fourth entry in the Shantae series, after Shantae, Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. A Nintendo Switch port was also released in 2017. It was released on Wii U, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One and Steam (Windows PC) on December 20, 2016. Jake Kaufman Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a Kickstarter-funded multiplatform console game.
