Extremely OK Games, the studio behind indie hit Celeste, has announced the cancellation of its next game, Earthblade. Initially revealed way back in April 2021, the project will now never see the light of day due to internal disagreements over the IP rights for Celeste. While an agreement was reached, the fracture was enough to cause Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry to consider whether finishing the project "was the right path forward". They decided last month it was not.

In a blog post on the developer's website, the situation was explained: "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."

It's then stated that while the project "had a lot going for it", the team wasn't far enough along in development as it should be, considering the amount of time that has passed. "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," said Thorson. "Sure, working on one project for so long is bound to become a slog, but this feels like a deeper problem." Due to the expectations placed on the developer's shoulders as a result of Celeste, the project became "exhausting" to work on.

As for what's next from Extremely Ok Games, the team is focusing on smaller-scale projects, currently "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". You can read more in the blog post via the link.

[source exok.com]