#bethany hockenberry

[excusemeaminute]

Revenant Hill (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺)

The year is 1919. After the barn he was living in burns down, Twigs the cat takes up residence in a wet log near an abandoned graveyard. When the owl from the next hill over starts demanding rent, Twigs must find a way to make ends meet, and things just get more complicated from there.

[thesmumbo]

Smumbo's top 10 games he happened to play in 2022

Not necessarily games that were released in 2022, just my favorites that I played for the first time last year.

10: Night in the Woods (2017)

by Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, and Bethany Hockenberry

Peak fall vibes game. Night in the Woods features a compelling mystery and some great spooky moments. The setting and characters really resonated with me, so I got a lot out of it.

9: The Pedestrian (2020)

by @skookumarts

Pleasant puzzle game inspired by the signage that surrounds us in our day-to-day lives. Some of the puzzles were quite difficult, and I kind of dislike the direction the game took in its last act, but it was still a very fun and unique experience.

8: South of South Mountain (2022)

by @colorbomb

Cute & hilarious visual novel with a fantastic art style. I could not stop laughing throughout the whole experience.

7: Portal Reloaded (2021)

by PORTANIS

From a pure gameplay standpoint, this was a very satisfying sequel to Portal 2, and it's possibly the closest we'll ever get to a Portal 3. Portal Reloaded introduces a third portal which allows you to travel to the same place at a different time, so certain things have been moved/removed. It gets really complicated, and I’m amazed this was able to be created as a free standalone mod for Portal 2.

6: Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (2022)

by Grace Bruxner and Thomas Bowker

Approximately 3-4 hours of pure, unadulterated joy and whimsy. I can’t believe it took me this long to play Frog Detective, but I’m so glad I did. Everything about these games resonated with me strongly.

5: OneShot (2016)

by @girakacheezer, @nightmargin, and Eliza Vasquez

A transcendent experience. Explores the unique ways in which video games can tell stories, and the nature of free will. Features some interesting meta game mechanics which require you to interact with files outside of the game. The visuals and soundtrack are spot-on as well. Weird how there’s so many great RPG Maker games which work so well in spite of the engine.

4: Scorn (2022)

by Ebb Software

An incredible audiovisual experience. I liked the gameplay too, even though it seems like a lot of people were disappointed by it. I'm amazed that a game like this even exists. Absolutely oozing with atmosphere and symbolic meaning. The story spoke to me on an incredibly deep level despite lacking words, or even any semblance of humanity.

3: What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)

by Giant Sparrow

One of the greatest games ever made. All of the vignettes and set-pieces throughout the game are flawlessly paced, with a wide variety of gameplay and visual styles. Packed with detail, made with love, and so emotionally resonant. I loved this game.

2: Bloodborne (2015)

by From Software

For years, I would try to play Bloodborne whenever I had access to a PlayStation 4, but I wasn’t able to do a full playthrough until 2022. It lived up to the hype. This is my favorite From Software game, and it’s already one of my favorite games of all time. I really hope this gets a remaster/PC port some day. It’s a masterpiece.

1: SIGNALIS (2022)

by @rose-engine

One of the greatest horror games I’ve ever played. Amazing visuals and atmosphere, fascinating world and lore, and a captivating, mind-blowing cosmic horror sci-fi story. I especially loved the evocative UI designs throughout. Highly recommended if you like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dead Space, PS1 style games in general, or if you have even a passing interest in survival horror. This is my #1 game of 2022.

[dammitjean]

The first game from the worker owned co-op Glory Society, featuring Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry (“Night in the Woods”), just dropped its first trailer and it looks GORGEOUS

[mlp410nightcore]

Hi Everyone!! Here is another next gen for my Blossom Love AU. Lucas's parents are Gregg and Angus. Lucas is very chilled and doesn't let too many stressful things bother him. He's also very skilled at playing guitar and loves helping others. Lucas has played several gigs in his hometown and has earned quite a lot of money from his talent, which he ends up donating over half of his earnings to charity anyway. Lucas is also quite skilled at resolving conflicts and can help others reach common ground during their heated arguments. Credit goes to Selenaede for the base I used and to Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, Bethany Hockenberry, Infinite Fall, Secret Lab and Finji for creating Night In The Woods as well as the characters, Gregg and Angus as well. I only take credit for my next gens, art, ships, stories and the Blossom Love AU. I hope you guys like him!!!

[hyuccubus]

Happy STS! Today, I'm pulling away from characters (finally 🤭) and asking about influences. Who are your literary influences? Can you see specific influences coming through in some of your specific works?

I'm fashionably late, as usual 🥲

Some influences are the word style of Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, the warm, kind characters of Nancy Farmer, the words unsaid by Joyce Carol Oates, the humor of Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), and furthermore, just about everything to do with Joe R. Lansdale's style. His story "Fish Night", inspired me to try writing again after having given it up more than a decade ago. I'm also inspired by writers for story heavy indie games, especially Bethany Hockenberry, who worked on Night in the Woods, and Toby Fox's work on Undertale and Deltarune Thanks for the ask!

[jcmarchi]

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

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/night-in-the-woods-follow-up-revenant-hill-canceled-due-to-developer-illness/

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

Revenant Hill, the next game by the makers of Night in the Woods, has been canceled. 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. You can read his post below. 

So. Over the past 12 months or so I got very sick and it didn’t go away. Eventually I was diagnosed with severe heart failure, most likely from a virus. It will continue to greatly limit me for the foreseeable future and as such I’ve had to stop working in the manner I once did.

— Down Here For Your Soul (@bombsfall) November 7, 2023

The Glory Society posted a 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, 

Making anything complex poses challenges along the way. Games take a while to make and usually require a good team working together. We’ve been lucky to have one such good team. Unfortunately, recent serious health issues have necessitated two key members stepping away from the project indefinitely. We are a small team and we each wear multiple hats. This is a loss of several hard to replace hats in an environment where all hats are needed. Given the realities of schedules, budgets, and the fraught task of reworking the whole project within those parameters, the team has amicably decided to suspend operations. For all intents and purposes, this is the end of the development of Revenant Hill.

[embedded content]

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. Following the game’s success, he and Hockenberry formed The Glory Society in 2019 alongside musician/artist 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. Unfortunately, an owl begins demanding that Twigs pay rent and the game focuses on the cat performing odd jobs to make ends meet. You can read a section of the game’s PlayStation Blog synopsis below. 

Grow crops to sell at the secret market or use for your own purposes. Put down roots. Run through the fields and the trees. Watch the seasons pass. Make friends who become neighbors who become family. Also make enemies. That’s unavoidable sometimes. Figure out what the ghosts want. Host increasingly ambitious parties for witches and demons and other things that don’t have proper names. Get tangled up in a world in the midst of violent change. Build a community by accident. Square dance with a possum. Eat mice.

Revenant Hill was slated for PlayStation consoles and PC and had no release window. While it’s unfortuatnte that Twigs’ adventure may never see the light of day, Benson’s health is infinitely more important and we at Game Informer wish him a speedy road to recovery. 

[endearmint-moved]

i had to do a lot more digging than i expected to find out what game this was. IF members bethany hockenberry and scott benson founded a coop called the glory society that is currently developing a game called 'revenant hill'

Have you seen the new game the creators of night in the woods are making?

i saw some pics it looks neat! kind of sad to see the loss of the animal guys though the art style does look nice as always.

[thebaroness-art]

Inktober2021 || Day 13: Roof

When I thought I wanted to draw a cat on a roof for today, I almost forgot there are two pretty famous cats in the world of indie videogames I could bring! So here they are, Mae Borowski and the Roof Cat of Possum Springs! 

I shall play Night in the Woods again soon~

Find me on other pages: Linktree click!

[probably-a-va]

Day 50:

August 19th, 2021

An excerpt from “Night in the Woods” written by Bethany Hockenberry and Scott Benson

[evilelitest2]

Heads up, Bethany Hockenberry also privatized her Twitter account as well, possibly do to harassment from Gamergators.

Remember when people were like “OMG Zoe Quinn is ruining NIght in the Woods” and now it is Gamergate driving them away

FUnny thing is, I got Night in the Woods as an anniversary present, I and I still haven’t started, feels kinda topical now.  

[tinysamm]

The dream sequences in Night in the Woods are often simple collection puzzles, requiring the player to perform a specific action across the area a certain number of times in order to cause an ethereal effect on the world at large. These sequences are where the vast majority of platforming challenges occur, with the rest of the game often not requiring it beyond some simple traversal, and thus allowing these sections to feel more directly important by including those challenges. 

Special thanks to @raytyger​ for the request!

[kitschfork]

Night in the Woods 

[twspots]

PLAY NIGHT IN THE WOODS. JUST GO. PLAY. NOW. NOW. NOW

This game needs all the upboost it can get. I’m so incredibly impressed by the sheer writing prowess of this game. How it chooses to reveal information is masterful and much better than most videogames have EVER. DONE. 

So, please, I’ll be writing a much more indepth review in the near future. 

But I urge all the people that will never follow me.

PLAY. BUY. SUPPORT THESE WONDERFUL CREATORS AND DISTRIBUTORS

[chorbysp]

Night In The Woods! 

Let’s talk about this game!

Night In The Woods is this really adorable game about a cat named Mae going back home to a post-Industrial Americana city from college. It FEELS GOOD. It LOOKS STUNNING. And it BREATHES LIKE IT’S ALIVE! Ok maybe it’s not a living breathing thing but you get the picture. This is a really really good game. The creators, Alec Holowka, Scott Bensen, and Bethany Hockenberry, have been working very hard for the past four years to bring the project to life and it is HERE! It came out earlier this week and can be downloaded on PC, Mac, Linux and PS4.

These people have a lot of passion for their work and presented it VERY well to a wide audience. Everyone that knows about this project has been super pumped since the day they heard about it and saw it.

Numbers do not lie about how excited everyone got for this game. I unfortunately did not catch this game from the kickstarter. This game is great. I agree with everyone. I first saw this game at Seattle’s (then-) EMP museum. There was an indie showcase and I was there for its opening night and I sat down to interact with the game and it was so much fun. I cannot get over or stress enough how much I love this game.

So where does that leave me? As a content creator I want to show as many people I can how much I love this game and why I do. I want to play this game with everyone so we can all enjoy it together. I normally post videos from a series once or twice a week to give an even, digestible spacing. I feel like Night In The Woods is too good, too pure to give this treatment to and I want to share it on a daily basis with everyone.

Am I having fun with this series? YOU BET I AM! This is one of the most fun series I’ve had! Interacting with the characters and the story has been such an amazing experience and I have so many great things to show you from this game!

I’ve found a friend that backed the kickstarter hidden in the textures,

my friends have been enjoying this game JUST AS MUCH AS I HAVE, I met the coolest maintenance worker, described Scott as the John Wick of games, freaked out at my roommate over my love for this game, went really deep and personal on why this resonates with me, and ABOVE ALL ELSE give fun voices to each individual character with life and emotion and vigor! And this is all only in the first 15 minutes!

This is SUCH a good game and a new episode of it will be coming out every day on my youtube channel. I hope everyone that sees this series and finds this game discovers as much love in it as I am finding right now.

[uselessmuseum]

Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, Bethany Hockenberry , Night in the Woods, 2017

http://www.nightinthewoods.com/

[historicallyinaccuratejomarch]

Everything Everywhere All At Once, dir. Daniel Kwan // Bethany Hockenberry, Night In The Woods // Greg Lobanov, Wandersong // Alice Oseman, I Was Born For This