Holy cat, Night In the Woods is finally going to be released
A long awaited indie can be yours at long last.
Do you remember Night in the Woods? It's okay if you do not, because we generally forget to cover it on account of too many Call of Dooties, or whatever. There are only so many hours in the day and we have to use some of them for sleeping, eating and contemplation of the destruction of our foes.
In any case, Steph and I have been quietly anticipating it behind the scenes since it was confirmed for PS4 in mid 2014, having been successfully Kickstarted in late 2013. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, with a couple of delays to disappoint, but now it's locked in for February 21 on Linux, Mac, PC and PS4.
This is a really big deal for the development team, which is composed of just three core members and maybe six other people including publisher, as outlined in a series of tweets following the announcement of Night in the Woods' release date.
Realtalk: we're not a big company. The core team is 3 people working out of our small apartments. I'm one of them. Hello.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
We've only been in the same room irl like 4 or 5 times for a few days over the past 3 years. No offices, no payroll. US and Canada.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
People have a tendency to see all games as coming from companies with big PR teams and producers and fancy workplaces and so forth.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
Even our amazing publisher @FinjiCo is a literal mom and pop operation run (very ably) out of their house in Michigan.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
Additional animation is done by my friend @charleshuettner. Shirts are printed by my friend @cwpress.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
Alec's friend @bitmOO has been our tireless lead tester.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
YES!!! Can't forget Em! She's put an unbelievable amount of work into the game and left a huge stamp on it.https://t.co/oMXBQ9ucFk
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
So bringing a game like this in with this small and scattered a team? Kind of a miracle. Thanks for being into it. Thanks for supporting.
— Night In The Woods (@NightInTheWoods) January 11, 2017
If you missed the whole thing, Night in the Woods is a sidescrolling adventure with an emphasis on exploration. It stars Mae, a college dropout who has returned to her dead-end home town and is reconnecting with the friends she left behind. It has a gorgeous aesthetic, as you'd expect given the talent behind it: Acquaria creator Alec Holowka and animator Scott Benson of Late Night Work Club fame, for starters.
Steph left a note about this for me today with the exclamation “holy cat”, which must be one of those charming Southern expressions. Isn't it delightful? And also very appropriate, because the main character in Night in the Woods is of the feline persuasion. I stole it, shamelessly.
