Night in the Woods is a 2017 single-player adventure video game created by Infinite Fall and Secret Lab and published by Finji. The game takes place in a world where humans have animal features, and the story follows a young woman named Mae. Mae leaves college and returns to her hometown, where she discovers surprising changes. The game was supported by Kickstarter, a website where people donate money to fund projects. It raised more than four times its original goal of US$50,000.
Before Night in the Woods was released, a related game called Longest Night came out in December 2013. It was made by Holowka and Benson, along with co-writer Bethany Hockenberry. In December 2014, another related game named Lost Constellation was released.
Night in the Woods was first released on February 21, 2017, for computers running Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as PlayStation 4. Its original release date was January 10, but this was delayed. The Xbox One version was released on December 13, 2017. An expanded version called the Weird Autumn edition was released on December 13, 2017, for Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was also released for Nintendo Switch on February 1, 2018. This version includes new content not found in the original game or the supplemental games. A version for iOS devices was released later on September 9, 2021.
The game received praise from critics for its music, story, dialogue, and characters.
Overview and gameplay
The game Night in the Woods is set in Possum Springs, a town where humans have animal features. The player controls Mae, a young cat who returns to Possum Springs after leaving college. She now lives in her parents' attic and notices how the town has changed since the coal mines closed. Mae must uncover a long-hidden secret tied to the mine and the recent disappearance of her friend Casey. Mae's friends include Bea, a crocodile who smokes cigarettes and was her childhood friend; Gregg, a very energetic fox; and Angus, a bear who is Gregg's boyfriend. Paste magazine says the game explores themes such as mental illness, depression, the lack of progress in lower and middle-class communities, and the decline of small towns in America.
Scott Benson said the main actions in the game are "explore, converse, see and touch," while Alec Holowka explained the game focuses more on storytelling than on traditional gameplay. Players make choices that influence the story, though Benson noted that these choices often involve simple decisions, such as spending time with a character. If a player chooses to hang out with one person, that character may develop a closer relationship with the player, while others might not know the player as well by the end of the game.
Plot
Margaret "Mae" Borowski is a 20-year-old college student who left school and returned to her hometown of Possum Springs, a town inspired by the Rust Belt. The town has faced economic problems for years because local coal mines closed long before the events of the story. Mae reunites with her old friends, including Beatrice "Bea" Santello, a thoughtful but often sad girl; Greggory "Gregg" Lee, an energetic but sometimes troublemaking boy; and Angus Delaney, Gregg’s calm and level-headed boyfriend. Mae also learns that her friend Casey Hartley has disappeared without explanation.
Over two weeks, from late October to early November, Mae explores Possum Springs and spends time with her friends. However, she begins having strange and vivid dreams. At the town’s autumn "Harfest" festival, which is similar to Halloween, Mae sees a teenager being taken away by a mysterious figure she believes is a ghost. Her friends do not believe her. The group works together to investigate the strange events, but Mae’s mental health worsens as her dreams continue. After searching for answers, the group encounters people in cloaks in the woods. During the chase, Mae falls off a cliff and falls into a coma, while her friends escape.
Mae is later rescued by members of the local church and wakes up. She explains to her friends that she left college because she felt disconnected from others and saw the world as shapes. A journal, given to her by the town doctor, contains drawings she made for events in the game. The journal was given to her after she hurt a student with a softball bat during a mental health episode six years before the story begins. This event made the townspeople nervous about Mae and caused stress for her family. Her mental health problems worsened in college, so she returned home, hoping that being in a familiar place might help her feel better. Mae also shares a story at a graveyard about a moment she considers her most embarrassing, which shows her feelings of loneliness and anxiety.
Still recovering, Mae goes into the woods to find the cloaked group, but Gregg, Bea, and Angus stop her from going alone. The group enters the old mines and confronts a secret group of people who have been kidnapping individuals they believe "will not be missed." These people are taken to the mines to be sacrificed to a god-like creature called the Black Goat, in the hope that this will improve the town’s economy. The leader of the group lets the friends leave but warns them not to speak of the cult. As the group leaves the mine in an elevator, a member of the cult attacks Mae. Her friends save her, but the elevator falls, collapsing the mine and likely trapping the cult underground.
The next day, depending on who the player interacted with most during the game, Mae sits with either Bea or Gregg to talk about the events of the previous night and what happened in Possum Springs. Her friends join them soon after, and Mae realizes that although life will continue to challenge them, they can still enjoy being together. The story ends with the group deciding to set aside their problems for now and having a band practice.
Development
Before the release of Night in the Woods, a related game called Longest Night was released in December 2013 by Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, and co-writer Bethany Hockenberry. In December 2014, a second related game titled Lost Constellation was released.
Night in the Woods was announced on October 22, 2013, through a crowdfunding campaign called Kickstarter. Holowka and Benson set a funding goal of $50,000, which was met in just 26 hours. The project raised over $200,000 in total. The extra money allowed the game’s developers to hire animator Charles Huettner to create more animations and to work with Infinite Ammo and game developer Adam Saltsman to include a roguelike game mode within Night in the Woods. Benson believed adding more stretch goals might attract more backers, but Infinite Fall limited the number of stretch goals to avoid making the project too large. Benson listed Chris Ware, Mike Mignola, Mary Blair, Flannery O’Connor, and Richard Scarry as influences on his work. He later said the game’s name came from the first song on The World/Inferno Friendship Society’s album The Bridgewater Astral League, which inspired some themes in the game.
In October 2017, it was announced that Night in the Woods would be released on iOS devices by Australian studio Secret Lab, who created the game’s narrative engine. The iOS version was expected to release in 2018 but was released on September 9, 2021. In January 2018, the game was announced for the Nintendo Switch and released the next month, including all content from the Weird Autumn edition. A physical version was planned to be released by Limited Run Games but was delayed indefinitely after the development team ended their relationship with Holowka following accusations of physical and emotional abuse by Holowka’s ex-partner, Zoë Quinn. Five years after the game’s release, Limited Run Games began accepting preorders for the physical version from December 18, 2022, to January 29, 2023. The collector’s edition includes the game, soundtracks for the main game and Demon Tower on CD, acrylic stands, a coin, a physical version of Mae’s journal, a planisphere, glow-in-the-dark cards, and sticker sheets.
Alec Holowka created the soundtrack for Night in the Woods, with Scott Benson contributing to some tracks. Three albums of the game’s music were released on Bandcamp on March 9, 2017. Holowka said the band DIIV had a major influence on the game’s score.
Reception
The game Night in the Woods received very good reviews. On Metacritic, the PS4 version has an average score of 87 out of 100 from 15 critics, and the PC version has an average score of 88 out of 100 from 30 critics. Critics praised the game’s writing and characters. In Japan, where the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions were released by Playism on March 28, 2019, the magazine Famitsu gave each version a total score of 33 out of 40. This score was based on four separate ratings, one of which was a 9 and three were 8s.
Eurogamer ranked the game 13th on its list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017." GamesRadar+ placed it 17th on its list of the 25 best games of 2017, and Polygon ranked it 23rd on its list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game was nominated for "Best Comedy Game" in PC Gamer’s 2017 Game of the Year Awards. It won the award for "Best Adventure Game" in IGN’s Best of 2017 Awards and was also nominated for "Best Art Direction," "Best Story," and "Best Original Music."
In Giant Bomb’s 2017 Game of the Year Awards, the game won the award for "Best Cast of Characters" and was a runner-up for "Best Debut," "Best Story," and "Game of the Year." It also won the awards for "Best Character" (Mae) and "Best Dialogue" in Game Informer’s 2017 Adventure Game of the Year Awards. Earlier, the game won the award for "Best 2D Visuals" and the overall award "Golden Cube" in the Unity Awards 2017. It was also nominated for "Best Desktop/Console Game" in the same event.
Legacy
In 2020, Penelope Scott's song "Rät" mentioned a video game in its lyrics, particularly referencing a character named Selmers who dreamed of leaving Possum Springs and burning down Silicon Valley.
In June 2022, during a Major League Soccer (MLS) game between the Portland Timbers and Houston Dynamo FC, the Portland Timbers' fans showed a tifo with a design from the game Night in the Woods. The tifo pictured Mae holding an axe and included the message: "From Stonewall a brick and Portland an axe, respect our pride or expect our wrath." The game's developers explained that Mae's character is pansexual. In response to the tifo, Scott Benson said he supported the message and was surprised when he saw it.
Related media
In May 2023, a game called Revenant Hill was announced by The Glory Society, a group of people who work together to create games. The group included Benson and Hockenberry. The game had a similar look and style to Night in the Woods, but it was not connected to that game. In November 2023, the group stopped working, and the game was canceled. This happened because Scott Benson, the main developer of the game, developed a serious heart condition. The same condition caused The Glory Society to pause its activities.