| Goodbye Volcano High | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | KO_OP |
| Publisher(s) | KO_OP |
| Director(s) |
|
| Designer(s) |
|
| Programmer(s) |
|
| Artist(s) |
|
| Writer(s) |
|
| Composer(s) | Omar Dabbous |
| Engine | Unity [1] |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | August 29, 2023 |
| Genre(s) | Narrative adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Goodbye Volcano High is a narrative adventure game by KO_OP. It was announced on June 11, 2020, and was released on August 29, 2023 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows.
The player selects dialogue choices, and controls rhythm minigames during performances by band Worm Drama. [2]
Set in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, the game centers on the members of the band Worm Drama; the non-binary lead vocalist Fang the pterodactyl (Lachlan Watson), [3] guitarist Trish the triceratops (Ozioma Akagha) [4] and drummer Reed the velociraptor (Mark Whitten), [4] alongside the school's student council president Naomi the parasaurolophus (Allegra Clark) [4] and Fang's brother Naser (Abe Bueno-Jallad), [4] - as they venture through the highs and lows of their final year as Volcano High seniors with graduation looming over the horizon while coming to terms with their own impending extinction from an asteroid.
The game was initially announced during PlayStation's "Future of Gaming" online presentation on 11 June 2020, with a release window of 2021. [5] [6] [7] In August 2021, KO_OP announced a delay of Goodbye Volcano High's release until sometime in 2022. The developers wanted to avoid crunch related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had already brought in a new writing team from Sweet Baby Inc. in June 2020 to reboot the game's entire narrative direction. [8] [9] [10] The new narrative direction was largely inspired by the experiences of high school seniors graduating during the pandemic. [11] In November 2022, the game was delayed to 2023. [12] A new gameplay trailer premiered during a PlayStation "State of Play" presentation on 23 February 2023, announcing a release date of 15 June [13] but was delayed to 29 August. [14] Prior to release, demos of the game were showcased at the 2023 Game Developers Conference as part of the "Day of the Devs" selection, [15] PAX East 2023, and at the 2023 Tribeca Festival as part of the "Games & Immersive Experience" selection. [16]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (PC) 82/100 [17] (PS5) 81/100 [18] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Eurogamer | 5/5 [19] |
| GamesRadar+ | 4/5 [20] |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4/5 [21] |
Following the revamped game's showing at PAX East 2023, it was positively received by critics. Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer praised the game, saying its rhythm game elements had the "perfect level of challenge", and that its music was "ear-pleasing". He called the character designs "striking", praising Fang as a "terrific and likeable protagonist" with "great voice acting", and predicting it would be a "deep and unique tale". [11] Rachel Watts of Rock Paper Shotgun wrote that she "had a great time with the demo", comparing it to the adventure game Life Is Strange . [22]
In June 2021, Cavemanon created Snoot Game, an "anti-fangame" intended as a rival version of the game, which was described by a KO_OP developer as "not made in good faith". [23]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Tribeca Festival | Tribeca Games Award | Won | [24] |
| IndieCade | Grand Jury Award | Won | [25] | |
| Performance Spotlight Award | Won | |||
| Narrative Spotlight Award | Nominated | |||
| The Game Awards 2023 | Games for Impact | Nominated | [26] | |
| 2024 | GLAAD Media Awards | Outstanding Video Game | Nominated | [27] |
| Independent Games Festival | Seumas McNally Grand Prize | Honorable mention | [28] | |
| Excellence in Narrative | Honorable mention | |||
| Excellence in Visual Arts | Honorable mention | |||
| British Academy Games Awards | Game Beyond Entertainment | Nominated | [29] | |
| World Soundtrack Awards | Game Music Award | Pending | [30] |
Numerous video games were released in 2016. New hardware came out as well, albeit largely refreshed and updated versions of consoles in the PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Xbox One S. Commercially available virtual reality headsets were released in much greater numbers and at much lower price points than the enthusiast-only virtual reality headsets of earlier generations. Augmented reality also became mainstream with Pokémon Go. Top-rated games originally released in 2016 included Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Inside, Overwatch, Forza Horizon 3, Madden NFL 17, WWE 2K17, NBA 2K17, Dark Souls III, and Battlefield 1 and Doom 2016. The top five highest-grossing video games of 2016 were League of Legends, Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans, and Dungeon Fighter Online.
Playism is a Japanese independent video game publisher operated by Active Gaming Media. Playism started as a digital distribution platform for PC games in May 2011.
Nacon is a French video game publisher, holdings company and gaming peripherals manufacturer based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020, Bigben Group was consolidated to form Nacon.
Deliver Us the Moon is an adventure-puzzle video game developed by Dutch game development studio KeokeN Interactive. It was first self-published as Deliver Us the Moon: Fortuna for Windows on September 28, 2018. The game later saw an expanded release on October 10, 2019, with Wired Productions serving as the publisher for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions on April 24, 2020. The game was released for Google Stadia on June 1, 2022, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on June 23, 2022 and for Nintendo Switch on July 16, 2024.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is an upcoming action role-playing video game published by Paradox Interactive. A sequel to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (2004), the game is part of the World of Darkness series and based on the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. The game was initially developed by Hardsuit Labs, but by 2021 had been moved to The Chinese Room. It is scheduled to release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in the first half of 2025.
In the video game industry, 2021 saw the release of many new titles. The numerous delays in software and hardware releases due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted development schedules, leading to several games being delayed into 2022 or even postponed indefinitely. Additionally, computer and console hardware were impacted by the combined effects of a semiconductor shortage and a rising growth of bitcoin mining that strained the supply of critical components.
Stray is a 2022 adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. The story follows a stray cat who falls into a walled city populated by robots, machines, and mutant bacteria, and sets out to return to the surface with the help of a drone companion, B-12. The game is presented through a third-person perspective. The player traverses the game world by leaping across platforms and climbing up obstacles, and can interact with the environment to open new paths. Using B-12, they can store items found throughout the world and hack into technology to solve puzzles. Throughout the game, the player must evade the antagonistic Zurks and Sentinels, which attempt to kill them.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a first-person action video game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, developed and published by Fatshark. It is a spiritual successor to the Warhammer: Vermintide series. It was released for Microsoft Windows on 30 November 2022. It also was released for Xbox Series X/S on 4 October 2023. It is set to release on PlayStation 5 on 3 December 2024.
Sable is an open world exploration video game developed by Shedworks and published by Raw Fury. It was released on 23 September 2021, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and released on PlayStation 5 on 29 November 2022.
In the video game industry, 2023 saw significant changes within larger publishers and developers. Microsoft, after having satisfied worldwide regulatory bodies, completed its US$69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making them the third largest game publisher in the world. Embracer Group, which had been in an acquisition spree over the previous few years, had an estimated $2 billion deal fall through, causing many of the studios under Embracer to either lay off staff or close entirely. Similar layoffs were seen at Unity, Amazon, ByteDance, Epic Games, Bungie, and Ubisoft, leading to over 9,000 jobs lost in the industry in 2023 and part of a larger trend of layoffs at technology companies in 2023.
Serenity Forge LLC is an American video game developer and publisher based in Boulder, Colorado. The studio was founded in 2014 by Zhenghua "Z" Yang.
Immortality is a 2022 interactive film video game developed by Sam Barlow and published by Half Mermaid Productions. It was released for Windows and Xbox Series X/S in August, while Android and iOS versions were released via Netflix in November 2022. A macOS version was released in April 2023. A port for PlayStation 5 was released in January 2024.
Ozioma Akagha is an American actress. She voices Alyx Vance in the video game Half-Life: Alyx (2020) and Julianna in the video game Deathloop (2021). She also plays the role of Harper Omereoha in the television show Delilah.
Kunai is an action-platform video game developed by TurtleBlaze and published by The Arcade Crew. The game was released on February 6, 2020 for Windows and Nintendo Switch. In the game, the player controls Tabby, a robot tasked with defeating Lemonkus, an AI that nearly causes the extinction of humanity. In July 2020, The Arcade Crew partnered with Limited Run Games to release physical copies of the Nintendo Switch version. The physical copies were released in October 2020. The PC version received generally favorable reviews, while the Nintendo Switch version received mixed reviews.
The Big Con is an adventure game developed by Mighty Yell and published by Skybound Games. It was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on August 31, 2021. A Nintendo Switch version was released on June 1, 2022. Versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released on August 31, 2023. Set in the 1990s, the game follows Ali, a teenager who works at a video rental store owned by Linda, her mother. After learning that her mother owes $97,342.18 to loan sharks, she meets Ted, a con artist. They travel across the United States, earning money to save Linda's store. The Windows version of The Big Con received favorable reviews, while the Xbox Series X/S version received mixed reviews.
The Case of the Golden Idol is a 2022 puzzle video game developed by Color Gray Games and published by Playstack for macOS and Windows. The game depicts a narrative spanning 40 years in the 18th century, in which players collect clues to piece together concepts, characters, and evidence to provide context to the story.
A Space for the Unbound is an adventure video game developed by Mojiken Studio and published by Toge Productions. It was released on January 19, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is set in the late 1990s and follows Atma and his girlfriend Raya, who live in a suburban area in Indonesia, as they explore their newly attained magical abilities and deal with supernatural powers that threaten their existence.
Sweet Baby Inc. is a Canadian narrative development and consultation studio based in Montreal. Founded by former Ubisoft developers, including scriptwriter Kim Belair and product manager David Bédard, the company consults on video game narratives during development to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within game narratives and studios. Sweet Baby has consulted with several developers and games, including Sable, God of War Ragnarök, and Alan Wake 2. In 2023, the studio became the target of online users who claimed it promoted a "woke agenda".