Celeste Dev Makes "Difficult Decision" To Cancel New Game Earthblade

Oh this is awful news. I was looking forward to Earthblade. What a shame such a conflict arose. I hope all involved can keep their chins up, move on amicably, and keep on creating.

I was just thinking about this game. Very unfortunate news

I completely understand, but it's still horribly sad news. Creative differences are rough.
Celeste is one of the most influential, affecting, and just plain great games of the Switch generation.

Whatever Maddy, Lena Raine, and the rest of the Extremely OK Games team does next, I'll be there.

yknow maybe 2020 wasn't the worst year after all

I’d forgotten this was being developed, but it’s still sad to hear it’s been cancelled.

I'm glad it has at least come to an amicable end. I look forward to seeing what both parties come up with in the future.

Just to clarify before more comments come in, the other main issue was feeling pressure to make something bigger and better than Celeste given how hugely popular that game was.
Unfortunately though, scaling up the team just didn't work out and the game wasn't far enough into development to be worth continuing once they downsized again.

Also, seriously, NL? You give more article time to Switch 2 leaks than you do explaining why a game from a very prominent indie team was canceled.

Terrible news, let's hope both parties come back stronger than ever.

Still yet to play Celeste, I really should rectify that.

Sad but hey that's one less Metroidvania for me to play so this is actually good news to me. I'm actually on track to getting there now, just had to get through La Mulana and Blasphemous. Darn those games are so hard.

@Serpenterror Especially with Switch 2 coming, my backlog is already so terrible and it'll only get worse as time goes on, so I guess one less game to worry about is good 😅

@squidduforeal maybe this is all the info they have at this time. This is an infotainment website, and they have a link stating that if you want more information the company website has that. I believe the quote speaks for itself and I personally don't need a deep dive into the reasons. I don't know about how this site makes money but the Switch2 leaks seem to have high interaction and comments, they just giving the people what they want (I don't speak for anyone at this site, I'm just a big dumb)

@Serpenterror I spent a week on La Mulana about six years ago, and that game broke me so hard that I'm still suffering PTSD from it to this day. It has permanently scared me away from games that earned their reputation on being ridiculously hard... like Celeste and Blasphemous.

I say all this to ask how you would compare the former to the two latter? I know Celeste is more of a platformer akin to Meat Boy, and Blasphemous is more about action than puzzle solving, but still. I just can't do that to myself again, not with my OCD about finishing games and the guilt I feel abandoning them.

I wish them well with their next project. Truly heartbreaking to read this news.

@Freek it’s an incredible game, from the lush visuals, the sumptuous music to the beautiful story… it’s truly something special and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

@rvcolem1 I only really complain because it's not like the blog post they link is all that long, and I know a lot of users on this site don't really bother to look into sources, so I don't like the subheadline and the tiny article implying the actual reason it's canceled is just because of IP ownership disagreements, when it even says in the quote itself that that whole thing was not the reason why.. and then not elaborating in like two more sentences.

Celeste is amazing and the pressure to top it just can be crushing at the indie level. I dunno how anyone delivers a follow-up project to something like that especially these days when expectations are so high.

@squidduforeal I understand where youre coming from, also I'm not a big Switch 2 leak dude either. When it is out I'll buy it, I'll watch the direct announcement when that comes but im not into maybes and speculation. Maybe I'm jaded from working all those iPhone launches, I just don't care until something is close to being out.

Starting to hear more and more cancellations. Are we entering a gaming "ice age" or was this an untenable bubble that just burst?

I was looking forward to Earthblade, but I wouldn't want to play an indie game the devs weren't happy making. For one, the game probably wouldn't be very good but also it wouldn't sit right.

Really didn't like Celeste... Part of that could be cause I beat it in 1 sitting the day before smash came out, also I played slime-san a while before it which I enjoyed more and paid less for, but I did recently wonder if Celeste's super success was just lucky. I remembered cursing when I got a upgrade in the game because of how precisely they wanted me to do everything, there's 13 kind of spikes but enemies were nothing, I had to go ahead and kill myself after saving myself from dying a few times, I don't think it being cutesy and the main message work with all the death, a crow stops time and tells you you can air dash before you even reach the mountain, game tells you the strawberries are unimportant then ***** on you at the end for not getting enough. Guess the animated character portraits during dialog were cute.

Well that’s a massive bummer all around. Both Celeste and towerfall are so good. I’m sad this one will never be finished.

Or maybe it wasn’t turning out well anyway considering all these challenges we didn’t know about. What a bummer. I was looking forward to it. Looked beautiful.

@ancientlii Celeste and Horace were both disappointing to me, Horace probably more so. Celeste was great but didn’t quite live up to the hype. Hollow Knight on the other hand, I consider a masterpiece, an all time great. Glad I tried them all though, maybe I’ll play Celeste again, it’s been a while. Sometimes coming back to a game gives you a new appreciation for it.

@Serpenterror La Maluna is one of the hardest games I've ever played. I'm not sure I even saw 10% of the game.

Always sad to hear a project is cancelled because of these reasons.

I hope the all the devs that experience this can bounce back and start enjoying making games again. Not every game needs to be bigger and better then the previous one. Somehow that has become the golden standard, but I'm positive that most gamers don't share that believe.

@JohnnyMind
Yeah it sucks to see a game cancelled regardless if it was one i was interested in or not, though like you mentioned at least there doesn't seem to be any really bad blood regarding it.

@AmplifyMJ
I think i understand that feeling (or one similar), sometimes you just aren't feeling a game even when you feel like you should and it can be even more noticeable when there's a lot of hype surrounding it, for me i couldn't really get into Undertale despite enjoying a lot of the games which inspired it.

That is a shame as it looks great

@ancientlii I think the main message is that climbing a mountain (either literally or as a somewhat one-the-nose metaphor for overcoming personal hardship) is really freaking… hard, and that you often need to fail a dozen (or even several hundred) times before you succeed. In that respect, the whole ‘dying a lot’ thing seems pretty on message.

If you collect lots of strawberries you are pictured eating lots of strawberries at the end. If you collect only a few strawberries then you are pictured eating only a few strawberries at the end. I’m sure we all have personal definitions of “being shat on” but this doesn’t come under my mine.

I’m also not sure what the issue is with being taught a core mechanic (air dash) by a crow early in the game. The scene takes about 3 seconds and equips with you a move that is necessary to play the rest of the game.

Everybody socialist until there's a lot of money to share.

I always thought earthblade looks a bit generic. Not bad but also somehow like I have seen this sort of game already 100 times.
I think this split might be a good thing.

The pressure to outperform your previous work is rough. I know that from being a writer. Creative differences is usually a term used to describe that there's been a fight, which is quite unfortunate, if that happened.

Regardless of the outcome, I hope they're all the better for it and can focus on something with renewed hope and energy. All the best!

@jojobar I felt quite similar. I loved Celeste and really enjoyed Towerfall, but seeing the trailer for Earthblade just reminded of all the competently-made-but-somehow-uninspiring Metroidvanias that I’d fallen off before.

This whole thing makes me wonder how many great games really started off with the intention of being ‘epic’. Celeste might well have become worthy of that description, but it began life as a simple prototype made for a Game Jam. Splatoon was refined from a few featureless tofu cubes. Smash (probably the most epic fighting game in terms of sheer scale) had similarly humble beginnings.

It seems to me that many products which became something ‘epic’ grew from a very small seed, which was a nevertheless strong enough as a core idea to sustain the entire project. Aiming for ‘epic’ as a goal in itself probably doesn’t lead to much more stress, frustration and disappointment unless you’re… I dunno, Michelangelo or something (and I’m sure even he suffered setbacks).

I don’t envy the dev team working on the follow up to Celeste, but I’m glad they’ve freed themselves from the shackles of the sunken cost fallacy. Hopefully they can all find something less epic but more inspiring to work on!

2025 really starts like a banger 😔 the states got the worst president ever again and one of my most anticipated games just flat out canceled.
If Silksong and Mina the Hollower will be canceled as well, I'm going to hang myself.
Hyperbole, but not really.

Oh nooooo. I guess it's bad news and good news too. But it means it'll be a long time before we play a new game from them 😔 Towerfall and Celeste are both some of my favorite games.

This is a real shame, but it's better to cancel the game than to carry on without the passion that was so evident in Celeste. Good luck to Maddy and the rest in whatever's next for them.

@AmplifyMJ see, I'm the opposite. I've played through Celeste twice and adore it. Hollow Knight, however, I've tried twice to get into and just can't.

Increasingly seeming like a one hit wonder dev. Interestingly same for Lena Raine who just keeps making the same soundtrack over and over. Celeste and its music was killer, but that might have been it for everyone involved.

Was thinking about it recently. A pity that it went this way. Hopefully they can recover and deliver something great again in the future.

It’s not necessarily the end. Maybe Thorson and the gang will be ready to have a go again after they’ve released a couple of smaller titles. Whatever they decide to do, I’m excited for it.

I’m coping and hoping!

@AmplifyMJ I did enjoy Horace, and appreciate the sheer amount of work that was put into it, but I think it suffered from being a bit too long and overly text/dialogue-heavy. Celeste I felt struck the perfect balance of gameplay and efficiently-told narrative, whereas Horace felt like a visual novel at certain points.

@Andee yeah I REALLY enjoyed Horace… up to a point. Then I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. But I appreciate it is very well thought of!

I was thinking about this game after its absence in the last Indie Direct. I assumed it was just in hiding, which is common these days. I wonder how far along the development was, and if someone could pick it up from salvage and finish it... probably not.

Disheartening to hear this news. Was patiently waiting for Earthblade, as a follow-up to the amazing Celeste, whenever it was ready. I wonder how far away it was from completion.

@AmplifyMJ Yeah it was definitely in the back half where my interest was starting to falter a bit.

I was excited for this and was thinking of it this morning… and then I googled it and saw it was canceled. I am disappointed but excited to play whatever they come up with next! Celeste is one of my all time favorite games!

@squidduforeal You must had a some huge library to handle. The thing is I'm a completionist when it comes to Metroidvania games. I just had to play them and complete em and then return to them for another revisit. Usually on my second playthrough I tend to discover things I miss the first time through but that's just I dedicated I am to those kind of games.

@Serpenterror I don't always feel a need to fully complete games, but even ignoring that I have a sizable amount of games across several systems I need to play..

and then Steam...

ever since the summer sale, I have had somewhere around 15 to 20 games added to my library all at once, many of which I've barely touched. Cassette Beasts, Everhood, Katana Zero, Sanabi, many games I know are quality but I haven't pulled myself away from a small selection of games to start playing.

ZFG. Never dropped game faster than Celeste.

Celeste had unfortunate events that I talked about here earlier. I think the creators changed for worse upon the success.

@Maxz yeah I loved the main theme of the game being overcoming or even coming to terms with anxiety disorder through the alegory of climbing a mountain. And that it's hard. And that you have to get those strawberries or the choice of skipping them will leave you with even more anxiety and self doubt. The game showed me my anxiety as if it holding up a mirror right to my face. It genuinely helped me organize my thoughts and feelings. I loved the message.

Honestly, this sounds like what the Hollow Knight devs have probably been going through. The pressure to one-up themselves after the success of their last game. Which has led to Silk Song having massive scope creep and way too long of a dev process. I do think Silk Song will release eventually though.

@squidduforeal your comment in my opinion is ridiculous, despite me understanding your frustration. This is sad news for sure but it’s beyond unrealistic to assume they wouldn’t cover leaks of the next gen console from Nintendo more than this lol. Like come on. People would be going crazy if they didn’t despite the very small, vocal user base of the commenters that can get mad about the leaks. You need to get a grip dude

@rvcolem1 exactly this. I completely agree. Getting so annoyed at people getting mad when they don’t understand that everyone (even this site… shock horror!) needs to make money and need to gravitate to what will get views and clicks and (shock horror again!) might actually be what the collective care about more on balance than this story, albeit I’m sad that this has happened. I’m not advocating click bait articles but in the same breath to say this should have been covered more than the switch 2 leaks is just plain naive and in many ways neglectful too - classic case of damned if you do or damned if you don’t. I’ve been reading this site for 15 years plus and I’m just so sick of people asking what they think are cutting, clever questions when really they just have no understanding or perspective and are just playing to a very vocal minority, not what’s realistic or fair imho. Minority being the operative word in that sentence. I don’t usually get involved as much as this and lurk normally; happily reading the comments but I just felt so frustrated by this I had to comment. I love this community, despite the frustration I’m feeling this is born from a good place - I just think NL gets way too much heat unfairly for totally logical commercial decisions, with these complaints being a prime example.

@kid_keo yes sir, if some click bait articles are needed to keep a site open that I frequent almost every day that is the price I have to pay. Trust me I'll be ok, if these nice people make a bit of cash off ads cool. This site isn't tailored to Richard and only Richard. I don't care about pokemon but a lot of people do, if this site ignored a pokemon game based on me probably not clicking on the link it would be ignorant. Keep doing your thing sir and have a dang good weekend.

@rvcolem1 and to you!