Into the woods

A new indie video game with a Canadian gay connection


UPDATE: Night in the Woods reached their full funding goal in little more than 24 hours, with 28 days to go in the fundraising campaign! Very exciting, and the developers have promised to stretch goals to come.

Speaking of amazing, nerdy combinations, how about: melancholy animals + gay couples + video games

Night in the Woods is a new video game being developed by Winnipeg-born, Vancouver-based developer Alec Holowka and Pittsburgh-based illustrator and animator Scott Benson. The project is currently fundraising on Kickstarter, and there are oh so many reasons why I’m going to be donating.

For starters, Night in the Woods is the story of feline college-dropout Mae, who has returned to her hometown of Possum Springs. She finds that her hometown is crumbling, her friends have grown apart, and her supernatural powers are allowing her to access a mysterious part of the town she wasn’t able to before.

Hello, Millennials. That’s basically my life every time I visit my hometown. (Sadness, supernatural powers and all.)

The concept, design art and trailer are all beyond gorgeous, and then there’s Gregg and Angus (pictured above), described on the Kickstarter page:

“Gregg and Angus have been together since junior year of high school and they are both working full time jobs to get out of this crappy town, thank you very much. Gregg is Mae’s best friend, talkative, exuberant and lovably gruff. Angus was that kid in school who wore ties and fedoras for no good reason. You either knew or were that kid.”

Words cannot describe.

The game has received support from hundreds of backers, including Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency, and is very close to reaching its goal but needs one last push.

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

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Culture, Toronto, Canada, Vancouver, Media, Ottawa

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