The authors of the successful platformer Celeste cancelled Earthblade, which was announced in 2021
Indie studio Extremely OK Games has made a painful decision to close its ambitious Earthblade project, which has been in development for almost four years. The team called it "a huge pain, but also a relief."
Here's What We Know
Earthblade was announced in 2021 as the spiritual successor to the cult platformer Celeste. The game was supposed to be a 2D action game with elements of world exploration, where the main character named Névoa travels through the destroyed Earth.
The unexpected turn came about due to an internal conflict between the studio's founders. A serious dispute arose between Muddy Thorson, Noel Berry and art director Pedro Medeiros over the intellectual property rights to Celeste.
Add to this the enormous psychological pressure after Celeste's success, the slow pace of development and team burnout.
Pedro Medeiros left the studio and started working on his own project, Neverway. Thorson and Berry decided to go back to basics and focus on smaller games.
"We're happy to be back to our roots and to restore the joy in the creative process," said Maddie Thorson.
Source: Exok
