Hey everyone, I've got some sad news today to ring in 2025. Late last month, Noel and I made the difficult decision to cancel Earthblade. Yes, we are opening the year with a huge, heartbreaking, and yet relieving failure. I want to outline in this post what lead to this decision, and what it means for the future of EXOK.
Before I get into it however, I want to acknowledge that this news will likely come as a shock to fans who have been eagerly anticipating the game. We made this decision in December and felt it best to wait until now to announce it. For us on the inside we've had some time to process, grieve, and work toward accepting this, although that process is nonlinear and still ongoing. For those only reading this now who might be emotionally invested in this project, we're sorry to disappoint you.
Caption: The earliest piece of concept art for Earthblade, by Amora. I drew a simple map, and then Amora redid it with much more detail and style. As much as Earthblade changed throughout development, the vibe of this image remained one of the game's anchors.
What Happened
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. We eventually reached a resolution, but both parties also agreed in the end that we should go our separate ways. Pedro is now working on his game Neverway, which you should check out - we've played it and it's very promising.
Losing Pedro wasn't the only factor in cancelling the game, but it did prompt us to take a serious look at whether fighting through to finish Earthblade was the right path forward. The project had a lot going for it but, frustratingly, it was also not as far along as one would expect after such a protracted development process. I do believe that if we soldiered on despite it all, that Earthblade could still be a great game.
But would it be worth the pain? 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. Sure, working on one project for so long is bound to become a slog, but this feels like a deeper problem. Celeste's success applied pressure on us to deliver something bigger and better with Earthblade, and that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting. Pedro isn't to blame for this- in fact the split with him has given us the clarity to see that we have lost our way, and the opportunity to admit defeat. I feel many ways about it, but one big feeling is undoubtedly relief.
Because this is the internet, I want to be unequivocal here that the decision and responsibility for cancelling Earthblade rests entirely with me and Noel. If you were excited about Earthblade and angry about its cancelling, Pedro and the Neverway team aren't the enemy and anyone who treats them as such isn't welcome in any EXOK community.
What Next
While this has shaken out other members of the team have moved on as well. Noel & I now want to take all of the (many!) lessons we've learned from Earthblade, wipe the slate clean, and refocus ourselves back to smaller-scale projects. We're 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. We still, of course, hope to collaborate with Amora, Kyle, Chevy, Lena, and Power-Up Audio again in the future. Scaling the core team up post-Celeste has ultimately been a failure, and that's okay. We gave it all we've got, and life goes on. We are happy to return to our roots and reclaim some joy in our creative process, and see where that takes us.
