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'Night in the Woods' studio cuts ties with co-founder Alec Holowka
The team behind the popular indie adventure game Night in the Woods has cut ties with game developer Alec Holowka following allegations of harassment and abuse from fellow game maker and former romantic partner Zoë Quinn. A planned physical release for the title from Limited Run games has been postponed and an unnamed project being worked on by the team has been cancelled, according to the development team. An iOS port of Night in the Woods remains in progress.
Play through a spoiler-free Night In The Woods ghost story
It will be a while until we can follow a cynical, college-dropout cat's struggle with growing up by playing Night In The Woods, but a taste of the game's universe is available right this moment. Developer Infinite Fall has released a supplemental game on PC, Mac and Linux called Lost Constellation, which plays out as a ghost story told within the Night in the Woods universe. Lost Constellation follows Adina Astra's side-scrolling trek through a mystical stretch of woods, weaving light puzzles between quirky introductions and playful dialog. It's a standalone game rather than a demo or preview for Night In The Woods, and a tweet from the latter game's account states that Lost Constellation is "a lot like Night In The Woods and nothing like Night In The Woods at all." A separate tweet suggests that comparable projects are planned, explaining that "NITW supplementals are weird, off-the-cuff, jammed out little games." Regardless of what's to come, Adina's journey lasts for roughly an hour and is available now at the price of your choosing. And don't worry about dampening Night In The Woods' surprises early – Lost Constellation is spoiler free. [Image: Infinite Fall]
Game development is better with friends at Finji
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman founded Finji, a collaborative development studio, in March. Finji offers publishing and other services to developers, and it runs on revenue share for each project – for Saltsman's new apocalyptic survival game, Overland, this means each of the four development team members will split revenue from the game "basically forever" once it's released. Finji works with other developers on their own games, such as Infinite Fall's Night in the Woods, and Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga's Panoramical, which is also backed by Polytron Partners. So far, the collaboration is going better than he'd hoped, Saltsman says. Developers use a combination of text messages, Skype and Google apps to get their work done, and they're figuring out the kinks among everyone's schedules. Most of the team is local to Austin, Texas, but they do have to deal with some time zone confusion and melding different work habits.
Overland: A lonely game filled with monsters
Overland is not a zombie game. It's a turn-based survival story set in an apocalyptic wasteland filled with monsters, and it plays out as if action figures from Half-Life 2 and Stephen King's The Stand were on a road trip across a chess board, creator Adam Saltsman says. It is a horror game, in a sense. "It is intended to be scary or unsettling or lonely, but I don't think it will be compared to Resident Evil or Amnesia," Saltsman tells Joystiq. "The thing I'm most interested in right now is, what if the people in a roguelike-type scenario weren't heroes and could not become heroes ... how do they manage? I like that feeling of vulnerability more than the feeling of 'horror' exactly. As a team we're definitely investigating things that are lonely and vulnerable and beautiful more than 'scary' so far, I think."
Joystiq Weekly: Battlefield 4's launch, an Entwined review, E3 previews and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Joystiq celebrated its tenth anniversary of existence this week, which means ... we're teetering on that edge of middle school angst? No, no, we're thankfully immune to that. What it does mean is that we're still alive, and we think being alive is pretty okay! While the site has presumably made it this far because of its content, quality isn't sustainable on its own – we've been able to write news, produce videos, record podcasts and talk about video games for years because of all of you. Whether you stop in every day, have only read a single breaking news story from us, or you've just fallen down an impressive wrong turn on the Internet and have no idea why you're here: Thank you. Your patronage is a huge part of why we get to cover this industry, and we look forward to creating compelling content for you for another 10 years. Speaking of content, there's a ton of it this week: EA CEO Andrew Wilson addressed Battlefield 4's launch, we have reviews for Entwined and Pushmo World, and there's an avalanche of written previews and video interviews from E3, all waiting for you in a neat pile of bulletpoints. Dive in after the break, right after you drop off our presents next to the cake.
Night in the Woods' snappy dialogue inspired by Twitter
The protagonist of side-scrolling adventure game Night in the Woods is a cat named Mae. Like the other characters in the game, Mae acts more human than feline, a 20-year-old college dropout that's coping with both her and her friends' gradual transitions to adulthood. After the PC, Mac and Linux game earned $209,375 on Kickstarter in November, developer Infinite Fall announced a PS4 version earlier this month, which was playable at E3. Writer and art director Scott Benson's work to provide ambivalent quips and behaviors for Mae that complimented the cynical cat's inner dialogue was immediately apparent in the game's E3 demo. It started with Mae contemplating what news reports would sound like if she chose to burn her room down with her in it. After bounding down the stairs, Mae's mom called her to the kitchen to see if she would be home in time to watch an awful made-for-TV movie about a man that kidnapped his wife. There's an open chair, but Mae sits on the counter while the mother and daughter discuss the film's premise at length (providing players choose to keep the conversation going). The to-do list in Mae's diary then updates: "Watch misery porn with mom." Benson, a seasoned animator and illustrator from Pittsburgh that is crafting Night in the Woods' story with his wife Bethany, admitted to Joystiq at E3 that drafting lines for a video game is new to him: "I've never written fiction or characters really before," as his previous animated shorts tended to be of the silent type. Benson had an interesting source of inspiration for his witty one-liners, then: Twitter. As he explained, the social media channel "has the same kind of cadence and kind of vague feelings" as Mae and friends display in Night in the Woods.
PS4 residents to have a monster problem in Night in the Woods
Small towns can get pretty boring, but idle youths usually kick up some pretty good urban legends with an abundance of free time. There's a rumor that something mysterious is lurking in the woods near Possum Springs, and Night In the Woods developer Infinite Fall has spread word that PS4 owners will get a chance to investigate whatever's prowling out there. Possum Springs is more than just a fittingly podunk name – the withering mining town is populated by animals, including Mae, a college dropout that serves as Night In the Woods' less-than-bubbly protagonist. Infinite Falls describes Mae's return to Possum Springs as an exploration-oriented tale, one that focuses on how areas change with the flow of time whether one's around to witness it or not. Of course, there's also the question of what's lurking in the woods, a threat that "might mean an end" to Possum Springs if it turns out to be more than a good campfire story. In response to a question left on the PlayStation Blog post, Infinite Fall's Scott Benson said that Infinite Falls would "ideally like to release [Night In The Woods] in the fall," but obviously ideal scenarios don't always become reality. [Image: Infinite Fall]
Canabalt dev forms indie studio Finji, taking semi-publishing role
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman and wife Rebekah Saltsman have created a studio focused on making "new kinds of games with ethical business models" that they call "Finji." Finji will offer both development and publishing services as they collaborate with other game creators. Their first commercial project is Capsule, which is available now from the Humble Store. When the Saltsmans aren't developing, they'll be working with creators like Scott Benson and Alec Holowka on their upcoming game, Night In The Woods. Finji will be there, as Adam Saltsman wrote on the studio's Tumblr page, to "help pick up some of the admin and production work." Finji will also help distribute the game on desktop and mobile platforms. Finji is self-funded; no Kickstarter campaigns or big-name investors. Adam Saltsman wrote that this means the studio can operate as its creators see fit, and judging by some of his statements, the business will run with an air of respect. "People that choose to support our work by purchasing our games are not a resource to be mined," Saltsman wrote. "Our goal is to make the best games we can and price them in such a way that our audience can afford to buy them and we can afford to continue making games." [Image: Finji]
Night in the Woods stretch goals include a roguelike from Canabalt designer
Infinite Fall revealed a suite of stretch goals for its crowdfunded adventure game Night in the Woods, teasing the potential addition of a roguelike minigame designed by Adam Saltsman, creator of the landmark endless runner Canabalt. Developed by Aquaria designer Alec Holowka and animator Scott Benson, Night in the Woods reached its initial funding goal 26 hours after flipping the switch on its Kickstarter project earlier this week. The team has since surpassed its first stretch goal of $70,000, ensuring that the game will ship with additional bonus areas and supplemental background animation by artist Charles Huettner. Night in the Woods currently seeks $80,000 to develop an additional set of "friendship quests" that flesh out the game's cast, while $90,000 will fund Saltsman's proposed minigame. The team additionally revealed that it's exploring the possibility of console ports for Night in the Woods, but notes that it hasn't finalized its porting plans or target platforms.
Go on a 2D adventure with your loser friends in Night in the Woods
Adventure/exploration game Night in the Woods achieved its $50,000 goal on Kickstarter after one day on the funding platform. The indie story-focused game comes from Infinite Fall, a two-person team composed of Aquaria developer Alec Holowka and animator Scott Benson. Night in the Woods has players exploring the town Possum Springs as college dropout Mae, a cat with recently-developed "paranormal abilities." Mae joins a ragtag group of "loser friends," including a bear named Angus, described as "that kid in school who wore ties and fedoras for no good reason." Mae's growing abilities grant her access to new parts of the town as the adventure wears on, including an area near Possum Springs' old mine where "something in the woods" resides. Night in the Woods is planned for PC and Mac, and is currently estimated to launch in January 2015. The Kickstarter project will close on November 22.
