Celeste follow-up canceled as devs ‘refocus’ to smaller projects

Earthblade, the follow-up to 2018 2D platformer Celeste, has been canceled, developer Extremely OK Games announced successful a blog post connected Wednesday.

“We made this determination successful December and felt it champion to hold until present to denote it,” the developer wrote. “For america connected the wrong we’ve had immoderate clip to process, grieve, and enactment toward accepting this, though that process is nonlinear and inactive ongoing.”

The station details a “disagreement astir the IP rights of Celeste” past twelvemonth betwixt erstwhile creation manager Pedro Medeiros and existent Extremely OK Games members Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry. The 3 of them “eventually reached a resolution, but some parties besides agreed successful the extremity that we should spell our abstracted ways.” Medeiros near the team successful November and is presently moving connected their ain game, Neverway.

Extremely OK Games says the disagreement wasn’t the sole crushed for the game’s cancellation, but that it prompted the institution to “take a superior look astatine whether warring done to decorativeness Earthblade was the close way forward.” Even though it was announced successful 2019, the squad said it was “not arsenic acold on arsenic 1 would expect aft specified a protracted improvement process.”

Earthblade was meant to beryllium different 2D platformer successful the benignant of Celeste, borrowing its pastel pixel creation benignant and Metroidvania exploration elements. The crippled would’ve followed main quality Névoa arsenic they explored a ruined Earth with a soundtrack composed by Lena Raine, who antecedently did the euphony for Celeste. The archetypal footage of the crippled was shown astatine the 2024 Game Awards and showcased its intricate 2D levels and gloomy tone.

“Celeste’s occurrence applied unit connected america to present thing bigger and amended with Earthblade, and that unit is simply a ample portion of wherefore moving connected it has go truthful exhausting,” it wrote. “Pedro isn’t to blasted for this — successful information the divided with him has fixed america the clarity to spot that we person mislaid our way, and the accidental to admit defeat. I consciousness galore ways astir it, but 1 large feeling is undoubtedly relief.”

Other members of the squad decided to permission past twelvemonth arsenic well, leaving Thorson and Berry arsenic the remaining employees of Extremely OK Games. The developer said it wants to “wipe the slate clean” and refocus connected “smaller-scale projects.” “We’re prototyping again and exploring astatine our ain pace, and trying to rediscover crippled improvement successful a mode person to however we approached it astatine Celeste’s oregon TowerFall’s inception.”