It was all about amplifying these interpersonal relationships and using the supernatural to do that, as opposed to it just being a game about kids getting possessed. We looked at Poltergeist a lot for the kind of playful interaction, too, with these these ghostly characters. Sean Krankel: We thought that if the scenes that we did early in the game could feel weighty even in their utterly benign way, by the time the supernatural elements show up and really rear their head, we are attached to these characters in a way that it only amplifies the supernatural stuff to make it feel bigger. They mostly are there to give the player some urgency and some level of metaphysical importance to what could just be teens complaining about very common everyday stuff. We wanted the time portals and loops really to be there mostly to accentuate and emphasize the interpersonal relationships and problems that these kids have. How did your team work out the delicate balance it nails between these two ideas?Īdam Hines: How we always described it is it’s a coming-of-age drama where you get to choose how you come of age, which doesn’t mention at all the actual supernatural creepiness stuff that’s always there.

Digital Trends: Oxenfree is a teen drama wrapped up with a supernatural thriller. The game was so popular that it was tapped for a film in a major franchise agreement with Walking Dead studio Skybound Entertainment - a deal that never quite materialized.ĭigital Trends sat down with the co-founders of Night School, Sean Krankel and Adam Hines, to talk about its legacy so far, how the indie landscape has changed in the five years since its release, and how plans to adapt the teen drama into a movie have now turned into developing a TV show.

Oxenfree came at the beginning of a wave of popular, highly visible indie games.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Oxenfree, the inaugural game from developer Night School Studio, which would go onto develop another indie title, Afterparty.

Oxenfree game movie rights