Night In The Woods Follow-Up Revenant Hill Canceled Due To Developer Illness

Revenant Hill is the new game from the creators of Night in the Woods. It has now been cancelled. The reason is that the game’s narrative designer and writer Scott Benson is battling a severe illness that has forced him to step away from the project.

Benson reveals on his personal X account that he’s been battling severe heart failure over the past 12 months, which has greatly limited his ability to work. Below you can find his blog post. 

Posts by The Glory Society statement on Twitter (which is now the sole image on the studio’s website) explaining that Benson’s absence requires the team to not only end the development of Revenant Hill but for the studio to suspend operations. The indie studio was founded by Benson and his wife Bethany Hockenberry, who has also stepped away to support him. The statement explains that with such a small team of employees, losing two key staff members was too much of a blow for work to continue as planned. The Glory Society’s statement reads in part, 

Complexity is not easy to achieve. Making games takes time and requires good teams to work together. We’ve been lucky to have one such good team. Recent serious health concerns have forced two of our key project members to leave the team indefinitely. Each member of our small team wears multiple hats. It is difficult to replace several hats when all are required. The team decided amicably to suspend its operations due to the reality of budgets and schedules. It would be difficult for the entire project to be reworked within these parameters. This is, in all but name, the end of Revenant Hill’s development.

Benson is known as one of the writers and artist/animator of 2017’s critically acclaimed Night in the Woods, which he made alongside co-writer Hockenberry and late designer Alec Holowka. After the game was a success, Benson and Hockenberry founded The Glory Society alongside Wren Farren. Revenant Hill, the studio’s first project, was revealed in May during a PlayStation Showcase. Set in 1919, it starred a cat named Twigs who, after its barn home burns down, is forced to take residence in a log near a graveyard. Twigs is forced to do odd jobs in order to survive after an owl demands rent. You can read a section of the game’s PlayStation Blog synopsis below. 

You can grow crops that you will sell on the underground market or for yourself. Set roots down. You can run through fields or trees. Watch how the seasons change. Befriend people who will become your neighbors and family. You can also make enemies. That’s unavoidable sometimes. Find out what ghosts are after. Host increasingly ambitious parties for witches and demons and other things that don’t have proper names. Entangle yourself in an unstable world. By accident, you can build a whole community. You can square dance with the possum. Eat mice.

Revenant Hill had been planned for PlayStation consoles as well as PC, but there was no specific release date. Benson’s health was more important to us than Twigs’ adventure. Play InformerWish him speedy recovery.