Earthblade

[drahkon]

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NEW game by EXOK Games, the creators of Celeste!
You are Névoa, an enigmatic child of Fate returning at long last to Earth, in this explor-action platformer. Earthblade's lush pixel art world offers seamless exploration, challenging combat, and countless mysteries to pick apart. Travel the remnants of a ruined world, encounter denizens both friend and foe, and piece together the Earth's fractured history.

Gimme now  

[Julius]

Cancelled. Holy smokes. (Source)

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Earlier this year, a fracture began forming in the team. Specifically, this was between us (Noel & I) and Pedro, 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. We eventually reached a resolution, but both parties also agreed in the end that we should go our separate ways. Pedro is now working on his game Neverway, which you should check out - we've played it and it's very promising.

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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. 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.

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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.

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Because this is the internet, I want to be unequivocal here that the decision and responsibility for cancelling Earthblade rests entirely with me and Noel. If you were excited about Earthblade and angry about its cancelling, Pedro and the Neverway team aren't the enemy and anyone who treats them as such isn't welcome in any EXOK community.

Massive respect to them for communicating this as clearly as they have, unfortunately we've seen other successful indie studios have similar splits go down in a much messier and much more public way. Gutting to read, and a sudden reminder I still need to make time for Celeste, but damn, that wasn't at all the next update I was expecting for this game. 

Kudos to them for trusting their guts and stepping out when they have, because this could've easily gone on another 2 years before they stepped away; we've all seen it before. Like they said, could've just kept grinding it out but they've lost a sense of direction, and, I imagine, passion for the project, and so it sounds like the right move.

Wishing them luck on their next project, in any case 

Edited 3 hours ago by Julius