Maddy Thorson, creator of TowerFall and Celeste, revealed in a statement that last year she and Noel Berry, the other person responsible for Celeste, «made the difficult decision to cancel Earthblade.» Specifically, the resolution was made in December, but they preferred to wait to assimilate it. It is a «huge failure, heartbreaking and at the same time a relief,» adds Maddy. The developer is also sorry to disappoint players who were eagerly awaiting Earthblade after the good taste left by Celeste, one of the best games of 2018.
What has happened? Maddy explains that last year Extremely OK Games began to split into two parts, one formed by her and Noel and the other by Pedro Medeiros, art director and co-founder of the studio as well as one of the artists of Celeste and TowerFall. «The conflict revolved around a disagreement regarding the rights to Celeste's intellectual property, which we are not going to detail publicly,» says Maddy. «It was obviously a very difficult and painful process. In the end we came to a resolution, but both sides also agreed that we had to go our separate ways.» Pedro left Extremely OK Games in November and is now working with another team on a game called Neverway.
Trailer with which Earthblade was presented in 2022.
Maddy goes on to explain that losing Pedro «wasn't the only factor that led us to cancel» Earthblade, «but it made us seriously consider whether continuing to fight to finish it was the right thing to do.» Although the project had good things, Maddy acknowledges that it was not as advanced as expected after a long development process. She also maintains that Earthblade could be a great game if they had kept going, but between her and Noel they came to the conclusion that they would have to invest too much time.
«The success of Celeste pushed us to do something bigger and better with Earthblade, and that pressure is a big part of why working on this project is exhausting,» says Maddy. «Pedro is not to blame for this, in fact, the separation has given us the clarity necessary to see that we have lost our way and given us the opportunity to admit our defeat.» Maddy also wants to clarify that the «decision and responsibility» to cancel Earthblade is «solely mine and Noel's.» «Pedro and the Neverway team are not the enemy,» he adds.
After this setback, the Extremely OK Games team will move forward and with the lessons learned will wipe the slate clean to once again focus on smaller-scale projects. The goal is to go back to the origins and approach the creation of a new game in the same way they did with TowerFall and Celeste.