by theygamesIt doesn’t feel like it’s been almost seven years since Celeste blew us all away with its gorgeous, memorable platforming. It’s still talked about as one of the best indies ever. With that kind of reputation, there’s naturally been a lot of buzz around the next project from developer EXOK (previously Maddy Makes Games), Earthblade. However, in a surprise announcement from studio head Maddy Thorson, the promising Metroidvania platformer has been canceled due to a “fracture” in the studio and a general lack of passion for the project.
Even though Earthblade has been in development for well over five years, there’s been signs that things haven’t been going too smoothly for the game. Initially set to launch in 2023, it was then bumped to 2024, only for EXOK to come out in May last year and say it wouldn’t be releasing in 2024 after all. Now, after all this time, the stunning-looking Metroidvania will sadly never see the light of day.
In a new blog post from Thorson, she announces Earthblade’s cancellation and calls it a “huge, heartbreaking, and yet relieving failure.” Usually when upcoming PC games are scrapped before launch, it’s due to financial issues – a lack of investor funding, a struggle to find a publisher, the need to make redundancies, you’re (depressingly) all too familiar with these reasons by now. But that’s not the case with Earthblade.
“Earlier this year, a fracture began forming in the team,” Thorson says. “Specifically, this was between us (Noel [Berry, Celeste’s co-creator] & I) and Pedro [Medeiros], a founding member of EXOK, longtime friend & collaborator, and art director of Earthblade and pixel/ui artist on Celeste and TowerFall. The conflict centered around a disagreement about the IP rights of Celeste, which we won’t be detailing publicly – this was obviously a very difficult and heartbreaking process.”
She explains that this dispute has now been resolved, and Medeiros has since moved on to work on a new project at another studio. However, Thorson also says that this situation opened EXOK’s eyes to how Earthblade was progressing and how little passion and energy was left to get the platformer game over the line.
“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. I do believe that if we soldiered on despite it all, that Earthblade could still be a great game.
“But would it be worth the pain? 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.”
Thorsen’s transparency is commendable here, but the saga has, as you’d expect, had a big impact on EXOK as a studio. She reveals that “other members of the team have moved on” and that she will “wipe the slate clean” with co-founder Berry as the pair embarks on new, 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,” she says.
Even though Earthblade is sadly no more, take a look at our best indie games list which features loads of incredible hidden gems, including the beautiful Celeste. Alternatively, check out some of the new PC games that have dropped recently.
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