Earthblade, the long-awaited title from the creators of indie hit Celeste, has been axed following the team’s internal issues. Read on to find out exactly what happened.
Earthblade Is Officially Cancelled
Developers Cite Internal "Fracture"
Earthblade, the supposed next big title from the developer studio behind the hit indie darling Celeste, has now officially been cancelled following internal issues between the team members.
Developer Extremely OK Games (abbreviated as EXOK) took to their official website to share the heartbreaking news, simply titled as the Final Earthblade Update. In the announcement, EXOK Director Maddy Thorson detailed the reasons for its cancellation, and their plans going forward.
"Late last month, Noel and I made the difficult decision to cancel Earthblade. Yes, we are opening the year with a huge, heartbreaking, and yet relieving failure," Thorson began, apologizing to fans who have been eagerly anticipating its release, and that they themselves are still processing and grieving over the events that transpired.
She then went on to explain that one of the major reasons for its cancellation was the "fracture [that] began forming in the team," specifically between her, EXOK Computer Programmer Noel Berry, and former Art Director Pedro Medeiros. In the center of its conflict was a "disagreement about the IP rights of Celeste," which Thorson did not further elaborate on as it’s "obviously a very difficult and heartbreaking process."
The three eventually reached a resolution, but that led to Medeiros going his own separate way—at present, he is now working on his own game named Neverway, under a new studio. However, they appear to be in good terms with each other still, and Thorson emphasized that despite what happened, "Pedro and the Neverway team aren't the enemy and anyone who treats them as such isn't welcome in any EXOK community."
"Losing Pedro wasn't the only factor in cancelling the game, but it did prompt us to take a serious look at whether fighting through to finish Earthblade was the right path forward." She continued. "The project had a lot going for it but, frustratingly, it was also not as far along as one would expect after such a protracted development process." She also shared that Celeste’s overwhelming success put pressure on the team to deliver something bigger and better than their last, "that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting." The team has lost its way, and Thorson believes it’s now time to concede and admit defeat.
EXOK’s Future Plans
With a huge chunk of their workforce now moved on, Thorson and Berry now want to learn from this experience and start over, refocusing onto smaller-scale projects. They’re currently prototyping and experimenting at their own pace, "trying to rediscover game development in a manner closer to how we approached it at Celeste's or TowerFall's inception." She also added that they at EXOK hope to collaborate with all of their former team members in the future, before concluding with a positive note. "We gave it all we've got, and life goes on. We are happy to return to our roots and reclaim some joy in our creative process, and see where that takes us."
Earthblade was set to be an "explor-action platformer" following the story of the enigmatic child of Fate named Névoa who returns to a ruined Earth, in an attempt to piece together what is left of the desolate planet.
Source:
Final Earthblade Update
