Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods

PC cover
Developer(s) Infinite Fall
Publisher(s) Finji
Designer(s) Alec Holowka
Scott Benson
Bethany Hockenberry
Programmer(s) Alec Holowka
Artist(s) Scott Benson
Writer(s) Bethany Hockenberry
Scott Benson
Composer(s) Alec Holowka
Engine Unity
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
macOS
Linux
PlayStation 4
Release
  • NA: February 21, 2017
  • EU: February 28, 2017
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Night in the Woods is a single-player adventure game for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and PlayStation 4. It is developed by Infinite Fall, a studio founded by game designer Alec Holowka, and animator/illustrator Scott Benson. It is an exploration game focused primarily on story in which players control a cat named Mae, who recently dropped out of college and has returned to her hometown to find unexpected change. It was funded via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where it eventually earned over 400% of its US$50,000 funding goal.[1]

In December 2013, Holowka and Benson, along with co-writer Bethany Hockenberry, released a companion game titled Longest Night.[2] In December 2014, a second supplemental game was released, titled Lost Constellation.[3]

Overview

Mae, an only child, has returned home to Possum Springs, where times have changed since the closing of its coal mines. Now living in her parents' attic, she uncovers a dark mystery that leads her into the nearby woods, forcing her to confront a horrible secret the town has hidden for decades, involving not only the town's mine, but also the recent disappearance of her longtime friend Casey. Mae's friends also include Bea, a cigarette-smoking alligator and Mae's childhood friend; Gregg, a hyperactive fox; and his boyfriend, a bear named Angus. Paste describes the themes covered as "mental illness, depression, the stagnancy of the middle and lower classes, and the slow death of small town America."[4]

As Mae, players run, jump, and learn other mechanics that allow them to explore Possum Springs, a town populated by various anthropomorphic animals. Benson describes the key actions for the player are "explore, converse, see and touch", while Holowka describes their approach as "narrative-focused" rather than "gameplay-first".[5] Players will also make decisions that affect the course of the story, though Benson has said, "it's more like 'do you hang out with this person?' Okay, cool. That person might not know you as well by the end of the game, but this person you hung out with, you're going to get to see their storyline."[6]

Story

Margaret "Mae" Borowski is a 20-year-old college dropout, who relocates back to her hometown of Possum Springs, which has been struck by the closure of the coal mines and the stagnating economy. She meets up with her old friends, including gloomy but intelligent Beatrice "Bea" Santello, hyperactive anarchist troublemaker Greggory "Gregg" Lee, and Gregg's quiet but modest boyfriend Angus Delaney. Mae also learns that another one of her old friends, Casey Hartley, has mysteriously disappeared.

Mae spends several days exploring Possum Springs and spending time with her friends, but she also begins to have strange and vivid dreams. At the town's Halloween festival, Mae witnesses a teenager being kidnapped by a mysterious figure. The four friends begin working together to figure out what is going on, with Mae's mental health slowly deteriorating with every one of her dreams. After intensive searching, the four stumble across a strange group of cloaked figures in the woods, who chase after them; Mae ends up falling and lapses into a coma.

Mae eventually wakes up and returns to her friends, and she reveals that the reason she dropped out was due to her increasing dissociation from people and the world (it is implied that Mae suffers from some sort of dissociative disorder), seeing everything as merely shapes. Mae's journal, in which she draws pictures for each major event in the game, was given to her by a doctor to write down her emotions after she bludgeoned a student with a baseball bat six years ago as a result of a dissociative episode. Due to this incident, the townsfolk became wary of Mae and caused a financial and emotional strain in her family. As her dissociation worsened at college, Mae mustered up the strength to leave and return home, hoping that being back in Possum Springs would help her return to normal.

Still wounded, Mae decides to venture out into the woods alone to find the group who chased her and the others, only for Gregg, Bea, and Angus to refuse to let her go by herself. The group enter the old mines and meet the mysterious group, who are revealed to be a cult. The cult turns out to be behind the kidnappings of several residents, including Casey, taking those whom they deem useless to society and will "not be missed" into the mines to sacrifice them to a god-like entity called the Black Goat in exchange for keeping the economy of Possum Springs afloat. The cult's leader allows the group to leave, threatening them to never tell anyone about the cult - however while riding up the mine's elevator, a member of the group attempts to kill Mae. The others manage to save her and the elevator falls, collapsing the mine and presumably trapping the cult underground.

Depending on who the player interacted with the most throughout the course of the game, Mae will sit down with either Bea or Gregg and talk about the events of the previous night, and all the things that have happened in Possum Springs. The others join them shortly after, and Mae tells them that although they will all be forced to grow and adapt to life as it goes on for better and for worse, they can still enjoy their time together now. The game ends as the four decide to forget about their problems for the time being and have band practice.

Development

Night in the Woods was announced on October 22, 2013, on Kickstarter. Holowka and Benson set a US$50,000 funding goal, which was reached in only 26 hours.[7] The project eventually earned over US$200,000 in crowdfunding. The additional funding allowed Infinite Fall to hire animator Charles Huettner to create additional animations, and for Infinite Ammo and game developer Adam Saltsman to create a roguelike that is playable within Night in the Woods. While Benson believed adding further stretch goals would result in additional backers, Infinite Fall limited the amount of stretch goals to avoid scope creep.[8] Benson names Chris Ware, Mike Mignola, Mary Blair, Flannery O’Connor, and Richard Scarry as influences on his work on Night in the Woods.[9][10]

Soundtrack

Developer Alec Holowka created the soundtrack for Night in the Woods. Three albums of the game's music were released via Bandcamp on March 9, 2017.[11] Holowka names DIIV as a large influence on the game's score.[9]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
MetacriticPC: 87
Review scores
PublicationScore
Game Informer8.8/10 [12]
GameSpot9/10 [13]
IGN8.7/10 [14]
PC Gamer (US)8.2/10 [15]
Polygon7.5/10 [16]

Night in the Woods has received very favourable reviews. On Metacritic, the PS4 version has an average score of 86 from 11 critics[17] and the PC version has an average score of 87 from 22 critics.[18] Praise is mainly given to the writing and characters.

References

  1. ↑ "Kickstarter, Night in the Woods project page". Kickstarter. November 22, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Longest Night". itch.io. December 21, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Lost Constellation". itch.io. December 31, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  4. ↑ Martin, Garrett; Irwin, Jon (June 22, 2015). "The 10 Best Videogames We Played at E3 2015". Paste. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  5. ↑ Cos, Davis (May 1, 2014). "The charming, melancholy Night in the Woods picks up where Gone Home left off". Kill Screen. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (June 25, 2014). "Night in the Woods is like Gone Home, in third-person, with talking animals". Eurogamer. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  7. ↑ "FULLY FUNDED! Also, stretch goals? Consoles? Linux?". Kickstarter. October 24, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  8. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (November 12, 2013). "The goals that refused to stretch: Why Night in the Woods said no to Kickstarter tradition". The Penny Arcade Report. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Ligman, Kris (December 2, 2013). "Q&A: How Night in the Woods taps into a real sense of community". Gamasutra. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  10. ↑ Ewert-Krocker, Nate (March 9, 2017). "'Rust Belt Gothic': lead writer Scott Benson unpacks the art that inspired Night in the Woods". ZAM Network. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Night in the Woods Vol. 1: At The End Of Everything". Bandcamp. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  12. ↑ "GameInformer". Game Informer.
  13. ↑ "Night In The Woods review". GameSpot.
  14. ↑ "Night In The Woods Review". IGN.
  15. ↑ "Night in the Woods review". PC Gamer.
  16. ↑ "Night in the Woods review". Polygon.
  17. ↑ "Night in the Woods for PlayStation 4 Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Night in the Woods for PC Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
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