We are still in the thick of the COVID era, and that means delays are just inevitable. People are still struggling as the pandemic enters its fourth wave thanks to the delta variant, and because games are made by people, that means games are struggling to get made.
On top of that, Goodbye Volcano High developer KO_OP performed a narrative reboot on their game last year, with both factors contributing to today's announcement.
"Kinda goes without saying but making games during a pandemic is hard?" KO_OP said on Twitter. "So we are making what we're sure is by now an expected announcement: Goodbye Volcano High will be a 2022 title, not a 2021 one. It's been a really hard year for many reasons, and the mental and physical health of the team has to come first."
KO_OP vowed to avoid crunching while also thanking fans for their patience.
Goodbye Volcano High was announced last summer at Sony's Future of Gaming online event. A narrative adventure set in the world of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, Goodbye Volcano High follows the non-binary Fang and their best friend Trish as they navigate their final year at Volcano High School.
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Other announced characters include student council president Naomi and Fang's brother, Naser.
The game promised a branding narrative and fully-voiced lines from all characters alongside hand-drawn character art. It seems that branching narrative might have proven to be a bit of a problem as KO_OP brought on additional writers to reboot the story earlier in 2020.
"I think when you join a game already in motion, the first couple weeks are a bit like putting together a puzzle," said writer Kim Belair in an interview. "It’s about the fact you have all of these assets already developed, bits of animation already done, gameplay sequences mapped… so you really are doing the work of making connections and building narrative between them, rather than coming in and making something from the ground up."
Goodbye Volcano High will release on PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam in 2022.
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