NIGHT IN THE WOODS is an adventure game focused on exploration, story, and character, featuring dozens of characters to meet and lots to do across a lush, vibrant world. Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (149) - 97% of the 149 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive. Night In the Woods (2017) Infinite Ammo/Finji Alec Holowka, the composer, developer, and co-creator of Night in the Woods and co-founder of game studio Infinite Ammo, died this weekend. NIGHT IN THE WOODS is an adventure game focused on exploration, story, and character, featuring dozens of characters to meet and lots to do across a lush, vibrant world. After a successful Kickstarter it's being made by Infinite Fall, a teamup of Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Scott Benson (Late Night Work Club), and Bethany Hockenberry. Night In The Woods is a 2D story-focused adventure/exploration game with many extracurricular activities to enjoy, characters to meet, and secrets to discover. One Of 2017's Best Games Comes.
In our review of the quirky indie from Infinite Fall, we look at how Night in the Woods mixes smalltown charm and quirkiness with 2D platforming.
Night in the Woodsis the type of game that will resonate on vastly different levels depending on who is playing it. It’s a game that tugs heavily on small town nostalgia, and explores personal topics such as depression and personal stagnation. It will either tug on your memories and emotions, or will simply not be relatable. However, this doesn’t mean your time with the game will be a bad experience if you land in the latter, as the narrative, characters, art design, and atmosphere are all brilliantly crafted, and unlike many games these days: fully-realized.
Night in the Woods tells a specific story, explores specific themes, and conveys a specific and indelible experience. Whether all of it hits home or not will alter how it resonates, but it doesn’t change the fact that developer Infinite Fall has created something wonderfully unique and exceptional.
In Night in the Woods you play as Mae, an obstreperous, selfish, melancholy, anthropomorphic cat who, in many ways, is deleterious to those around her. She would be pretty unlikable (purposefully), if she wasn’t redeemed by her drollery and occasional childlike pep.
Mae is 20, and she has dropped out of college to return to her rust-belt hometown Possum Springs, a former mining town, nostalgic for its glory years and that perfectly captures and embodies the rural small-town feel. As suggested above, Mae is a troublemaker, with the type of attitude and rap sheet that makes you stick out in a small town where no one forgets who you are.
The game takes place in days, meaning each day begins with you waking up and ends with you going to sleep. There is no timer on days: rather, they progress by completing certain story beats that push the narrative along. With this structure, the game is pretty open-ended on the pace you set. Personally, it took me, the type of gamer who wants to meticulously absorb every piece of content and leave no stone unturned, 20 hours to complete.
Regardless of how many hours you squeeze out of it, what the game’s progression structure does is create a routine for the player. Every morning I would hop on Mae’s computer to read the AIM-like messages that her friends had left that morning, and which usually referenced something from the previous day, as well as told me where I could find them and what might be on the day’s agenda.
One chat 4 1 – all in one messenger free. After chatting up Mae’s mom at her usual kitchen table spot, I would explore Possum Springs via the ground, powerlines, or rooftops. While exploring, there was always a slab of distinct locals to talk to, friends to hit up at their shitty service jobs, and things to interact with. And like small-town living, all of these days felt borderline indistinguishable, but always had fresh content and provided me with more information on the town and its inhabitants, as well as provided good transitional periods between narrative progression points. Almost all of it is optional, as well: however, who you decide to interact with, and which friendships you decide to focus on, considerably influence scenes later in the game and strongly encourages multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything on offer.
![Outside in 2017 Outside in 2017](https://img.ibxk.com.br/2017/10/23/23184718544415.jpg?w=704&h=264&mode=crop&scale=both)
The first few hours of the game can feel uneventful as you reacclimatize to life in Possum Springs, inject yourself back into social circles, and edge out a routine.However, in these hours there are numerous vague references to the terrible things that Mae did in the past, probing questions about why she has dropped out of college, and talk about how one of her old friends has been missing. All of these subtly woven bits of interaction nicely (and mysteriously) set the stage for what is to come.
If any or all of this sounds boring, I understand, but trust me, it isn’t. It’s simply that Night in the Woods doesn’t shine in monumental moments, but in the small stuff: like shoplifting pretzels to feed to some baby rats, climbing to a rooftop to stargaze with a former teacher, or participating in Guitar Hero-like band practices. It’s all of these moments, and many, many more, that build out the game’s unique world and flesh out its various characters.
Speaking of characters: they might be the strongest part of Night in the Woods, especially the main foursome. There’s Gregg, your best friend and up-for-anything “crimes” partner; Bea, your childhood friend who’s equally sardonic and caring; and Angus, Gregg’s boyfriend who beautifully clashes with him as his more rational, and stoic counterpart. I hardly could relate to any of these characters, or what they were going through. However, very quickly I realized none of that mattered, because if there is one thing that Night in the Woods has, it’s well-realized characters with exceptional depth, that I’m likely never to forget.
This applies to the ancillary characters as well. There was never anyone I encountered that I didn’t want to exhaustively chat up and interact with. And again, most of this is because of the stellar writing on display, which despite a few try-hardey moments that resulted in nothing but cringe, was excellent from start to finish.
Where Night in the Woods stumbles is perhaps its more gamey parts, specifically in its moments of platforming. For the most part, Night in the Woods never asks very much from its player: however, its finicky platforming can make even the most simple of requests a tad tedious.
Cruising around Possum Springs was always a joy, whether that meant balancing on power lines, or jumping from one rooftop to another. However, at times it could be bogged down a bit by the platforming, which proved to be unreliable for more accurate, though still pretty simple, platforming parts. At times, Mae handled rather on the airy side, when it would have been nice to have a bit more control of her movement.
While the platforming wasn’t quite up to snuff, the game’s dream-like sequences – which there are quite a few – are just mundane and simply, and not even slightly, fun. After the first one, which was bearable by account of being the first one, I found myself desperately trying to complete them as fast as possible. At least like the rest of the game, they are nice to look at accompanied by some atmosphere music, which more than once kept me from just turning off the game for something less dull, something like doing the dishes or watching my dog Tiny drink water.
Luckily the other “gamier” parts, the mini-games, didn’t suffer the same woes. Whether it was playing Night in the Woods’ game within a game, a dungeon crawler called Demontower (which you play on Mae’s computer), knife fights, various red-light/green-light games, or throwing food into Gregg’s mouth, it all felt good, though sometimes a bit throw away. More importantly, the minigames serve as a great tool to break up the game’s narrative, which definitely has a slow-burning nature that will likely be a little too slow for the more impatient.
If you can look pass a few gameplay fumbles, what you will find is a game full of characters that are incredibly hard to not become attached to, a beautifully imagined and stylistic setting, and an overload of charm, personality, and varied emotions.
Appgenome create desktop app from any website 1 4 1. How Night in the Woods manages to capture the anxieties of being stuck in the gap between adult and childhood, how it tackles serious topics like depression, and how it brilliantly understands and recreates the hardships of rural America, is worthy of admiration. Put more simply, Night in the Woods is a unique breath of fresh air, and an experience I’m likely to not forget for a long time.
Holowka at the 2019 Independent Games Festival | |
Born | 30 October 1983 |
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Died | 31 August 2019 (aged 35) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
Cause of death | Suicide[1] |
Occupation | Game programmer, designer, musician |
I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator Night in the Woods Aquaria |
Alec Holowka (30 October 1983 – 31 August 2019)[2] was a Canadian indie game developer and co-founder of independent game companies Infinite Ammo, Infinite Fall, and Bit Blot.[3] He was known for collaborating with Derek Yu to create Aquaria and freeware game I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator and with Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry to create Night in the Woods. Ondesoft screencapture v1 16 4 – screen capture utility.
Life and career[edit]
Holowka was introduced to programming at the age of eight when his father bought him the book Basic Fun. Eventually he began working with a freeware group called Zaphire Productions. He then worked for a number of failed startups, including one in Winnipeg working on a PC multiplayer fantasy action title and a combat racer in Vancouver for the Xbox 360.[4]
![(2017) (2017)](https://miro.medium.com/max/960/1*UnZ7umlHR97ES-SyDKgC-w.jpeg)
Jenna Sharpe, Holowka and Derek Yu accepting the grand prize at the 2007 Independent Games Festival.
Holowka acted as sound engineer on the 2006 freeware title I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator as a response to American lawyer Jack Thompson's 'A Modest Video Game Proposal'. Holowka met Derek Yu in the comments section of popular technology website Slashdot in a post regarding Jack Thompson's proposal and along with Chris Hanson and Phil Jones formed satire company Thompsonsoft for the once-off release.[5]
After its release Holowka introduced Yu to a project he had been working on independently, Yu was interested in the project and the two officially formed developer Bit Blot the week before the Independent Games Festival deadline.[3] The project was released on 7 December 2007 under the title Aquaria,[6] and was the recipient of the Independent Games Festival Seumas McNally Grand Prize for 2007.[7]
In October 2013, Holowka and independent animator Scott Benson successfully crowdfunded the game Night in the Woods under the studio name 'Infinite Fall'.[8]
In August 2019, Holowka was accused of physical and emotional abuse by Zoë Quinn.[9][10] The day following the accusation, the Night in the Woods development team cut ties with Holowka, with Scott Benson writing 'We take such allegations seriously as a team';[11] the team stated that other corroborating evidence related to the accusations had been presented to them.[10][12] Their publisher, Finji, backed the team's decision, and also postponed plans to publish physical copies of the game in wake of the allegations.[11][13]
Holowka died by suicide on 31 August 2019.[14] According to his sister, who posted to Twitter about his death, Holowka had been 'battling mood and personality disorders' through his life and 'was a victim of abuse'.[15] She explained he had been trying to correct his own disorders in recent years through therapy and medication. She also stated that Holowka 'said he wished the best for Zoë and everyone else'.[15][16]
Games[edit]
I'm O.K. (2006)[edit]
I'm O.K. is a side-scrolling satirical platform shoot-em-up created as a response to Jack Thompson's open letter 'A Modest Video Game Proposal'. It was made by three collaborators working under the parody studio name Thompsonsoft: Holowka on the game's audio, Derek Yu doing artwork, and Chris Hanson on coding. It is a 'retro'-style arcade game which parodies various famous games, game companies and game developers, and features its lead character, Osaki Kim (or abbreviated 'O.K.'), going on a murderous rampage against the video game industry.[17]
Aquaria (2007)[edit]
Alec composed the score for Aquaria. | |
Problems playing this file? See media help. |
Aquaria is an action adventure game, based heavily on exploration. It is an epic story about adventures of Naija, an amnesiac underwater creature, who is in search of information about her family and her past. She explores many ancient ruins of Aquaria, an underwater world created by a mysterious creator. Created by Derek Yu and Alec Holowka, Aquaria is their first commercial game and the winner of the Independent Games Festival's 2007 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.[18]
Owl Country (2008)[edit]
In early 2008, Holowka along with a group of other independent developers during the Game Developers Conference 2008 in San Francisco, California created a project with most of the work being done at their hotel, the Holiday Inn. Holowka acted as musician and programmer. The project was created as a response to an incident occurring following Kokoromi's Gamma 256 party following the Montreal International Game Summit in Montreal, Canada.[19]
Paper Moon (2008)[edit]
Holowka, along with newly formed developer Infinite Ammo, created Paper Moon, a game that was picked along with another five games to be showcased at the 2008 GAMMA event. It was released on 15 August 2008.[20]
Everyone Loves Active 2 (2008)[edit]
Holowka wrote the music for Kyle Pulver's freeware game, Everyone Loves Active 2.[21]
Verge (2008)[edit]
Holowka teamed up with Pulver again for Verge, providing the game's music. Verge is a short side scrolling platformer focused on life and death. It was created for and won The Independent Gaming Source's Commonplace Book Competition. An extended version of the game is currently in development.[22]
Crayon Physics Deluxe (2009)[edit]
Holowka provided some of the soundtrack for Crayon Physics Deluxe, which was developed by Petri Purho under the developer name Kloonigames, and which received the 2008 Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2008 Independent Games Festival.[15][23][24]
Offspring Fling (2012)[edit]
Holowka wrote the music for Kyle Pulver's game Offspring Fling.[25]
TowerFall Ascension (2013)[edit]
Holowka wrote the music for the indie game TowerFall Ascension, initially released in 2013 for the Ouya, but re-released with the Ascension subtitle and an expanded soundtrack in 2014 for the PS4 and PC markets.[15][26]
Night in the Woods (2017)[edit]
Night in the Woods was created by Infinite Fall, with development led by Holowka, Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry. Holowka also provided the soundtrack for the game.[27] The title won numerous awards including the 2018 Seamus McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival.[28]
Oceanheart[edit]
Holowka had been working with Karen Teixeira on Oceanheart, a game that blended elements of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Animal Crossing, which had been announced in 2016. In late 2018, Holowka stated that he and Teixeira had 'given up' on the game for the time being.[29][30]
References[edit]
Murder In The Woods 2017
- ^Penny, Laurie (6 September 2019). 'Gaming's #MeToo Moment and the Tyranny of Male Fragility | WIRED'. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
- ^Alec Holowka (20 November 2013). Alec Holowka - Indie House / Night In The Woods [October 2013]. FullIndie. Event occurs at 0:39. Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via YouTube.
And I'm about to turn 30 tomorrow [..] on October 30th.
- ^ ab'Bitblot - company'. Bit Blot. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^Wallis, Alistair (23 October 2006). 'Road To The IGF: Bit Blot's Aquaria'. Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^Tucker, Michael (16 February 2006). '4cr Interview - Thompsonsoft'. 4 Color Rebellion. Archived from the original on 5 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^'Aquaria - IGN'. IGN. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ^'2007 Independent Games Festival Winners'. Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ^'Kickstarter page for Night in the Woods'.
- ^Graft, Kris (28 August 2019). 'New allegations of sexual assault surface against established game devs'. Gamasutra. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
- ^ abCarpenter, Nicole (29 August 2019). 'Night in the Woods studio cuts ties with designer after abuse allegations'. Polygon. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ^ abMcAloon, Alissa (28 August 2019). 'Night in the Woods devs cut ties with Alec Holowka after abuse allegations'. Gamasutra. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
- ^Schreier, Jason (1 September 2019). 'Night In The Woods Designer Alec Holowka Dies'. Kotaku. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
- ^Night In The Woods [@NightInTheWoods] (28 August 2019). 'We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development' (Tweet). Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via Twitter.
- ^Penny, Laurie (6 September 2019). 'Gaming's #MeToo Moment and the Tyranny of Male Fragility | WIRED'. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
- ^ abcdWoods, Andy (31 August 2019). 'Night in the Woods developer Alec Holowka has died'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^'Night in the Woods Developer Accused of Sexual Assault Dies'. IGN Nordic. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^Remo, Chris (7 February 2006). 'I'm O.K.: A Murder Simulator'. Shacknews. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^'2007 Independent Games Festival Winners'. IGF. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^'TIG Forum Post'. TIG. 18 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^'Kokoromi - Gamma 3D Featured Games Announced'. Kokoromi. Archived from the original on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^'Everyone Loves Active 2 Profile'. Kyle Pulver. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^'Verge Profile'. Kyle Pulver. 29 November 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
- ^Benedetti, Winda (13 January 2009). 'Indulge your inner child with 'Crayon Physics''. NBC News. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^'Day 2: Music of Crayon Physics Deluxe'. Kloonigames. 2 January 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^Mallory, Jordan (31 March 2012). 'Behold the unrelenting cuteness of 'Offspring Fling!''. Engadget. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^Plante, Chris (2 July 2014). 'What It Feels Like To Launch An Indie Hit'. Polygon. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^Byrd, Christopher (2 March 2017). ''Night in the Woods' is great, and a lesson for all game creators in how to develop characters'. The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^Whitney, Kayla (22 March 2018). 'Complete list of 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards Winners'. AXS. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^Serrels, Mark (2 June 2016). 'Oceanheart Is Like Wind Waker Crossed With Animal Crossing'. Kotaku. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^@InfiniteAmmoDev (12 December 2018). 'Yeah! #Oceanheart with the amazing @bitmOO! We kinda gave up on it for now tho. It had a few Unity prototypes and one Unreal prototype' (Tweet). Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via Twitter.
Night In The Woods 2017 Gameplay
External links[edit]
- Alec Holowka at MobyGames
Best Fairway Woods 2017 Reviews
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