Night in the Woods

Gameplay

As Mae, players run, jump, and learn other mechanics that allow them to explore Possum Springs, a town populated by various anthropomorphic animals. Benson describes the key actions for the player are "explore, converse, see and touch", while Holowka describes their approach as "narrative-focused" rather than "gameplay-first". Players will also make decisions that affect the course of the story, though Benson has said, "it's more like 'do you hang out with this person?' Okay, cool. That person might not know you as well by the end of the game, but this person you hung out with, you're going to get to see their storyline."

Story

Mae, an only child, has returned home to Possum Springs, where times have changed since the closing of its coal mines. Now living in her parents' attic, she uncovers a dark mystery that leads her into the nearby woods, forcing her to confront a horrible secret the town has hidden for decades, involving not only the town's mine, but also the recent disappearance of her longtime friend Casey. Mae's friends also include Bea, a cigarette-smoking crocodile and Mae's childhood friend; Mae's best friend Gregg, a hyperactive fox; and his boyfriend, a bear named Angus. Paste describes the themes covered as "mental illness, depression, the stagnancy of the middle and lower classes, and the slow death of small town America."

Characters

Margaret (Mae) Borowski - The protagonist of Night in the Woods, better known as Mae, is a short 20-year-old, Midnight blue cat with dyed red hair. She has wide red eyes that she refers to as ‘Nightmare Eyes’ and a notched right ear as the result of a dog attack. Mae is bi. Mae wears a brown shirt with a slashed zero in the centre and a red long-sleeved shirt underneath, along with grey jeans and dark green boots. She has a ‘sturdy’ build as said by her grandfather who she was close with before his passing and she is also a talented bass player.

Mae, travels back to her small home town of Possum Springs after she drops out of college, which she had attended for three semesters and not made any friends. Mae suffers from spouts of anger, depression and is not particularly well liked in her community due to a troubling incident when she was younger. Her parents spent a lot of money and time trying to find ways to help treat this problem and send her to college, Mae is currently receiving help from Doctor Hank who has her write journal entries, she claims this keeps her grounded.

Greggory Lee - Mae's best friend, Gregg is a yellow fox with black eyes, he wears a leather jacket, grey T-shirt and jeans with black boots. Gregg is loud, energetic and a delinquent like Mae, the two would cut school and commit 'crimes' around town. When Mae returns he takes her on crimes ditching his work at the Snack Falcon to do so. He is very excitable and will scream and flail his arms when extremely happy. Gregg is also bipolar as he says he has "Really up up days and really down down days." Greggory is in a loving relationship with Angus Delaney, affectionately calling him Cap'n and shares an apartment with him in town, they both work so that they can move away and start a new life together. He also knows how to handle a crossbow as he uses it a few times through out the game. He plays guitar in the band.

Angus Delaney - Greggory's boyfriend, a tall brown bear, he wears glasses, a green sweater and tie, grey pants and black shoes along with a little black hat. He had a very unpleasant childhood due to his abusive parents and tried his hardest to develop psychic powers to try to over come the abuse. He later lovingly says that Gregg was the one that saved him. He affectionately calls Gregg, Bug. He can be stoic and quiet, he is intelligent and talented with electronics (as Gregg believes he is a hacker) and likes to cook, which he does when he is stressed. Him and Gregg share an apartment in town and he works in the video store that Mae remarks is amazing is still open. He is the singer and 'growler' for the band.

Beatrice (Bea) Santello - Mae's friend from the seventh grade and electronic drummer for the band. Bea is a blue crocodile with brown eyes and usually wears eye makeup. She wears a black dress that has an Ankh on it, black tights and black boots. Bea is gloomy, depressing and sarcastic and is usually the one that takes responsibility, Bea is also very bright, graduating high school as Valedictorian. She single handedly runs the Ol' Pickaxe, a hardware store in town after her mother's passing and can usually be seen smoking cigarettes. Mae and Bea drifted apart after the seventh grade and only really reconnect when Mae comes back to town.

Casey Hartley - A friend of Mae's from high school, Casey is a cat with wide eyes like Mae. When Mae arrives back in Possum Springs she finds that he's gone missing with the others believing that he had hopped a train out of town. His parents put up missing posters in hopes of finding him.

Jeremy Warton (Germ) - A fan of the band, Germ is a Navy blue bird with a yellow beak and black eyes, he wears black jeans, black sneakers, black and gold jacket and black cap. He’s a gamer and has played video games since he was young.

Candy Borowski - Mae’s mother, like Mae she has midnight blue fur and red eyes but light blue hair. She wears a green cardigan, pink shirt, turquoise pants and white shoes. Candy works at the Church and is a religious woman, she says Mae is her ‘Miracle Baby’ after multiple miscarriages.

Stan Borowski - Mae’s father, a light navy blue cat with glasses, he wears a light blue shirt, grey-green pants and brown shoes. Stan use to be a miner in Possum Springs before the mines closed, he also worked at the glass factory and during the game works at Ham Panther. He calls Mae, Kitten.

Development

Night in the Woods was announced on October 22, 2013, on Kickstarter. Holowka and Benson set a US$50,000 funding goal, which was reached in only 26 hours. The project eventually earned over US$200,000 in crowdfunding. The additional funding allowed Infinite Fall to hire animator Charles Huettner to create additional animations, and for Infinite Ammo and game developer Adam Saltsman to create a roguelike that is playable within Night in the Woods. While Benson believed adding further stretch goals would result in additional backers, Infinite Fall limited the amount of stretch goals to avoid scope creep. Benson names Chris Ware, Mike Mignola, Mary Blair, Flannery O’Connor, and Richard Scarry as influences on his work on Night in the Woods.

Soundtrack

Developer Alec Holowka created the soundtrack for Night in the Woods. Three albums of the game's music were released via Bandcamp on March 9, 2017. Holowka names DIIV as a large influence on the game's score.

Reception

Night in the Woods has received very favourable reviews. On Metacritic, the PS4 version has an average score of 86 from 11 critics and the PC version has an average score of 87 from 22 critics. Praise is mainly given to the writing and characters.