Did That Indie Game, The Last Night, Get “Replaced” by Xbox?
Yes, pun intended
The Xbox and Bethesda Games E3 Showcase was six days ago. If you’re unfamiliar, E3 is the annual video game press event typically held at the L.A. Convention Center, where developers and mega-publishers go to participate in a monumental game of show-and-tell. But like many other in-person events nowadays, E3 was an online-only offering due to COVID-19 public health restrictions. You can read my post about this year’s event here.
More than 30 games were shown, some highly anticipated, and others were surprises, business as usual for any gaming showcase, really. But one game, in particular, got me thinking about a similar game that was shown at Xbox’s E3 showcase four years ago. The cyberpunk-ey indie game that was recently announced is called Replaced. Here’s the trailer.
Cool, right?
The cyberpunk-ey indie that this game made me think of, announced four years ago, is called The Last Night. Here’s that trailer.
What the hell happened to The Last Night? Where is this game, and when will I get to play this seemingly, forgotten work of pixel art?
Unlike Replaced, The Last Night never got a release date or window. What’s more surprising is that no other trailers have been released since this one at Xbox’s 2017 E3 showcase. No wonder I forgot about this game. It’s probably safe to say that I’m not the only person who forgot either. There have been no previews, no story or gameplay trailers, and no developer interviews.
There have been no signs of life whatsoever, which doesn’t bode well for The Last Night. Silence like this, for this long, could, but not always, indicate that development for the game is not going well. It’s not uncommon for games to go silent for a long period of time and then quietly get shelved. Buried deep into that abyss that is the “video game graveyard.”
Could it be that The Last Night got cancelled?
This happens all the time. Games get cancelled due to loss of funding from publishers and/or project mismanagement. Maybe there’s high turnover with leadership, or the project’s scope keeps changing, thus adding more time to the development cycle. These are just a few examples of what can go wrong, but this is just conjecture. I’m not privy to such information regarding The Last Night or its development.
Here’s what I do know, however. Tim Soret, the game’s creator/director, took to Twitter and finally broke his silence about the game after this year’s Xbox showcase. Either he watched the event, or someone brought to his attention that there’s another developer, with a new pixel art game in town, looking to “eat his lunch!”
On Sunday, at 2:33 pm, which is approximately when the Xbox/Bethesda showcase ended, Tim posted this tweet:
Tim is clearly referring to Replaced, which made its debut at this year’s showcase. He points out that his game is the visual inspiration to the new game and, indirectly, told the developers of Replaced that they should acknowledge their inspirations. It looks like Tim is looking for recognition, perhaps because nobody is talking about his precious little game anymore. Sorry, Tim. It’s not our fault. It’s been four years, man!
Another interesting comparison to add to this comes from another Twitter user named Lyric Hotel. Not only does he believe that Replaced is a knockoff of The Last Night. He believes that the main artwork created for the game’s marketing is plagiarizing Tim Soret’s Twitter profile picture.
Using Google to translate, the tweet reads: “They went so far as to plagiarize the profile picture of @timsoret.”
This could be a coincidence, but the similarity here can’t be overlooked.
It’s possible that Sad Cat Studios, the developers of Replaced, are, in fact, giving a wink and a nod to Tim and his game from yester-year. Developers do pay homage to one another in fun and creative ways, but right now, it’s anybody’s guess as to if this is, in fact, plagiarism or commemoration.
Lastly, if you hop on over to Odd Tale’s official website, Tim’s studio, you’ll see this message:
One can only speculate as to when Odd Tale updated the website with this communication. Was it a recent act of desperation to get back mindshare? Whatever the case may be, it looks like Tim and his team want everyone to know that The Last Night has not been cancelled and is still in development, despite the studio’s silence.
So are fans to surmise that Replaced is Xbox’s pixel art, indie darling of the year? Does it trump Tim Soret’s long-lost game? Are fans supposed to forget about The Last Night or, maybe, is there room for both games? There’s no telling how far from launch The Last Night might be, but it’s possible that it could be ready in 2022, the same year Replaced is expected to launch.
My gut tells me that Replaced will drop first. No disrespect to The Last Night, but the game’s years of silence speaks volumes, and above all else, Odd Tale’s message on their website leads me to think that the game might be in a little bit of trouble.
Replaced has me far more excited anyhow, especially from a gameplay point of view. The combat and platforming sequences, shown in the trailer, look fun and more enjoyable to play. Although I won’t know for sure until I get hands-on with both games, I can at least say that The Last Night and Replaced both look evenly matched when it comes to their amazing pixel art.
Whether you’re an indie or AAA (Triple-A) studio, putting together a game trailer for E3 is no easy task. It can take months of hard work just to scissor and tape a two-minute trailer that will be seen by hundreds of thousands if not, millions of E3 goers and fans. One year after The Last Night’s reveal, the gaming website, IGN, spotlighted the making of the game trailer under their exclusive coverage series called IGN First.
As a creative person myself, this was a cool video to watch and see all of the different stages and layering that goes into making the final product. I truly hope that this game gets finished.
Enjoy.
