Developer Maddy Thorson acknowledged that it's time to "face the music" in a weblog posted on Thursday, asserting that Earthblade — the subsequent game from the crew behind the acclaimed platformer Celeste — gained't be making its 2024 release date.
In her detailed update, Thorson acknowledged some of the hurdles that the mission has confronted, at one level admitting that she apologized to the crew as she handled challenges in her private life. She additionally recevealed that her studio, Extremely OK Games, has employed veteran indie developer Kyle Pulver, who amongst different issues is the "world champion of Towerfall."
"Kyle quickly approached us with big ideas, which can be scary for everyone involved. But it was clear that he's not here to derail the project. He's identifying our vision and the problems preventing the game from living up to it, and working with us to pinpoint solutions. Plus his fresh eyes have inspired all of us to see things anew," Thorson wrote.
First introduced back in 2021, Earthblade is a "2D explor-action" game with a pixel artwork type and a soundtrack from Celeste composer Lena Raine. It was subsequently revealed in a trailer at the 2022 Game Awards, although not a lot else has been seen of it since. It was initially anticipated to be out in 2024 earlier than the introduced delay.
Thorson, who’s a transgender girl, wrote that her 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 [developer Pedro Medeiros] 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," Thorson wrote.
Thorson didn’t reveal a new release date, however did say that she seems like she's on the "start of a new era." It is definitely slated to release on PC. For more, try our Celeste retrospective published last year, which incorporates interviews with Thorson, Raine, and more.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.