Extremely OK Games founder and R&D director Maddy Thorson and programmer Noel Berry decided on the same late last month. It all started when Thorson and Berry disputed with art director and co-founder Pedro Medeiros regarding Celeste’s IP rights.

“We eventually reached a resolution, but both parties also agreed in the end that we should go our separate ways,” Thorson wrote. Medeiros has since co-founded Coldblood Inc. and is now working on a new title, Neverway.

While it wasn’t the sole factor for cancellation, Thorson said it prompted the duo to “take a serious look at whether fighting through to finish Earthblade was the right path forward. 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.”

Though she believes Earthblade could have been great if they soldiered through, Thorson and Berry were conflicted, and the pressure from Celeste’s success didn’t help. “Noel and I also began to reflect on how the game has felt for us to work on day-to-day and realized that it has been a struggle for a long time. Sure, working on one project for so long is bound to become a slog, but this feels like a deeper problem.

“Celeste‘s success applied pressure on us to deliver something bigger and better with Earthblade, and that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting.

“Pedro isn’t to blame for this – in fact, the split with him has given us the clarity to see that we have lost our way, and the opportunity to admit defeat. I feel many ways about it, but one big feeling is undoubtedly relief.” Thorson also said that the decision and responsibility for the cancellation rested with her and Berry and that Pedro and his team “aren’t the enemy.”

As for what’s next, the duo wants to take the lessons learned, “wipe the slate clean,” and “refocus ourselves back to smaller-scale projects.” “We’re prototyping again and exploring at our own pace, and trying to rediscover game development in a manner closer to how we approached it at Celeste‘s or TowerFall’s inception.” Of course, the team still hopes to collaborate with composer Lena Raine, Power-Up Audio, artist Amora Betanny, and others.

“Scaling the core team up post-Celeste has ultimately been a failure, and that’s okay. We gave it all we’ve got, and life goes on. We are happy to return to our roots, reclaim some joy in our creative process, and see where that takes us.” Stay tuned for updates on the team’s next projects.

“We appreciate your patience as we try our best to make this video game that appears to be stubbornly determined to not get made,” Thorson wrote. “More on the process in the following paragraphs, but first we need to face the music: this game ain’t coming out in 2024. We had hoped to be announcing a firm release date around now, but it just isn’t in the cards. We know that this will be disappointing for a lot of you and we’re sorry for that. Maybe this was predictable, but still it always sucks when the haters are right.”

At the same time, Extremely OK Games has also added veteran indie game developer Kyle Pulver to the team. Thorson says she has “struggled to keep up with my workload and provide a strong direction for the team” as she navigates “all of the challenges of my personal life, including my gender transition”. That, she says, is something that Pulver is helping out immensely, injecting new energy into Earthblade’s development process.

“What pushed us to recruit Kyle was the realization that I had become the bottleneck,” Thorson explained. “I’ve struggled to keep up with my workload and provide a strong direction for the team, while navigating all of the challenges of my personal life, including my gender transition. Transition involves a lot of change, uncertainty and doubt, and it’s easy to see how that has bled into Earthblade.

“I was despairing about this and apologizing to the team recently, but Pedro [Medeiros, pixel art director] said something that helped me shift my thinking. He told me that this uncertainty was always going to be part of the process and that it wasn’t solely coming from me- we’ve all had to fight through uncertainty together to make Earthblade. Even if we could go back and do everything ‘perfectly’ from the start the result would be a different game. Despite the setbacks, we all still believe in this project, and more importantly in each other.”

Earthblade is in development for PC.

Earthblade is a 2D sidescrolling action platformer with an emphasis on exploration gameplay. The game promises seamless exploration in what’s looking like a sizeable and varied world, while there are also promises of a mysterios world and story, challenging combat, and much more. Of course, it’s also looking absolutely gorgeous with its pixel-art visuals, which are more than just a little reminiscent of Celeste’s art style. Check out its debut trailer below.

Earthblade is due out in 2024. No launch platforms have been mentioned yet.

Celeste and TowerFall developer Extremely OK Games has announced its next title – Earthblade, a 2D “explor-action” title that’s set in a “seamless pixel art world.” It’s currently slated to release in 20XX, which means it could be a while. The official poster and logo by Pedro and Medeiros and music by Lena Raine (who also composed Celeste’s soundtrack) were revealed in a new tweet clip, providing a general “vibe” of sorts.

On the studio’s official website, founder Maddy Thorson said that it will “probably be a while” before more information is shared. It reportedly took four prototypes to reach Earthblade’s current design and Thorson believes it could be released “within five short years of Celeste.” However, it’s already been three years. “The truth is that we don’t know how long it will take, just that it will take as long as it takes (and that it will take a long time),” they said.

Thorson notes that the first three prototypes for the title taught the developer a lot but “ultimately we ventured way too far from our comfort zone for them to realistically ever get finished. It took a while, but we feel like we’ve settled on the right compromise between the two with Earthblade.” As of now, the general shape is in place though a lot could change along the way. Thorson says that they feel “really good about where it’s going. Now it’s our job to turn this ephemeral, pristine mind-object into a real, imperfect & human actual-object. We’ll be here, slowly grinding away at that task every day. We really hope that at the end of this, some of you will enjoy what we make.”

Earthblade hasn’t been confirmed for any platforms but a PC release seems a given. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

https://twitter.com/exok_games/status/1384182598507778052

Extremely OK Games, formerly known as Matt Make Games of Celeste and Towerfall fame, is teasing some kind of reveal for tomorrow. On its official Twitter, the developer simply said “Vibe reveal tomorrow” along with a tulip emoji. With how much emphasis Celeste placed on its collectible strawberries, perhaps the tulip is some kind of clue.

Regardless, we’ll have to wait tomorrow for more details. Extremely OK Games’ last release was Celeste in 2018, telling the story of Madeline as she scaled Mount Celeste while simultaneously dealing with her own issues. The 2D platformer was heavily praised and managed to sell 500,000 copies in its year of release.

Chapter 9: Farewell was added as free DLC, providing over 100 levels, new story content and music. The developer stated in 2019 that a sequel wasn’t being planned but perhaps plans could have changed. Celeste is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia along with Xbox Game Pass. Check out our review here for more details.

https://twitter.com/exok_games/status/1383928170005422092

Matt Makes Games’ Celeste will be receiving its long-awaited Chapter 9: Farewell DLC today. It’s a free update which adds over 100 new levels and an entirely new story that takes place after the base game. Now that the update is more or less done, are there any plans for a sequel in the future?

Speaking to IGN via email, director/designer Matt Thorson said that the team isn’t really looking to make a sequel right now. “Maybe in the future we’ll change our minds, but right now we don’t know how we’d do a sequel justice. And besides, we’re way more interested in making something new for our next full release.”

Thorson noted that the game is close to hitting one million units sold since releasing in January 2018. The success has “really given us space to create on our own terms for the near future” like releasing Chapter 9 for free. Otherwise, it’s “crazy” think that such a thing should be happening.

As Thorson explains, “First of all, we really should be charging for it” and he added that they “don’t like setting expectations that expansions of this size should be free.” He then stated that, “We want to be clear to our audience that we’re only able to release this for free because we’re in a very fortunate position right now, and that this really isn’t a reasonable thing to expect from any developer, including us, in the future.”

So essentially, don’t expect major expansion-like content from the team to be free in the future. Why is Chapter 9 free at all? Thorson noted that charging players would “force us to approach it as a new ‘product’, which would constrain us in some ways that didn’t feel right.” Still, even if Celeste isn’t seeing tons of free updates like many other games today, it’s good to see such substantial content added at this stage.

Celeste is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. What’s next for Thorson and Extremely OK Games? The developer’s next game is “not ready to be revealed yet so for now we want to ask everyone to be patient” but we can’t wait to see what they have in store. Stay tuned in the meantime for more information on Celeste Chapter 9: Farewell.

Celeste was quite the darling last year. The game garnered a large degree of acclaim and financial success as both a strong platformer as well as a deep dive into the psychological pitfalls of depression. It has seen several updates since its initial release, and now it’s time to say farewell, as the final update is upon us.

The game’s developers have renamed themselves Extremely OK Games (changed from Matt Makes Game), and they announced that Chapter 9: Farewell will release at the beginning of next week. It will add 100 levels, 40 minutes of new music, and new items and mechanics that we have yet to see. As of now, this is slated to be the final update to the game, with the team now moving on to their next project.

Celeste is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Chapter 9 will launch September 9th on all platforms, though the team does note there could be a slight delay for the Xbox One version.