For followers of the 2D platformer Celeste, you will be unhappy to listen to that the builders’ subsequent sport, Earthblade, has been canceled.
In a blot post titled “Remaining Earthblade Replace,” Extraordinarily OK Video games introduced that its follow-up to the award-winning sport Celeste has been canceled. Within the publish, EXOK Director of R&D Maddy Thorson detailed the reasoning behind the choice, and what’s subsequent for the studio.
“Lat final month, Noel [Berry, EXOK Computer Programmer] made the troublesome resolution to cancel Earthblade… We made this resolution in December and felt it greatest to attend till now to announce it.”
Thorson’s publish particulars that in some unspecified time in the future final 12 months a dispute arose between Thorson and Berry and Earthblade artwork director Pedro Medeiros over the IP rights of Celeste. Thorson declined to element the dispute apart from to say that there was a decision reached and Medeiros parted methods with the staff and is now creating a separate sport titled Neverway.
Nonetheless, this dispute gave Thorson and Berry an opportunity to look at the place they have been at with Earthblade and found that the undertaking was not coming alongside the way in which they’d hoped. “Noel and I additionally started to replicate on how the sport has felt for us to work on day-to-day and realized that it has been a strongle for a very long time. Certain, engaged on one undertaking for thus lengthy is certain to change into a slog, however this appears like a deeper downside.”
Thorson says Celeste’s success “utilized strain on us to ship one thing larger and higher with Earthblade, and that strain is a big a part of why engaged on it has change into so exhausting.” Thorson additionally says the dispute with Medeiros “has given us readability to see that we’ve got misplaced our method, and the chance to confess defeat.”
As for what’s subsequent, Thorson says she and Berry are are prototyping new concepts once more and attempting to return to a sport improvement course of much like how they made Celeste and TowerFall.
Celeste was launched in 2018 as a throwback to the pixel 2D platformers of outdated. The sport’s sensible stage design, issue, music, and all the pieces else round it earned it an ideal rating in our Celeste assessment. A trailer for Earthblade was launched in 2022 displaying that it was going to be a brand new 2D platformer.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.