''Goodbye Volcano High'' is an upcoming narrative adventure game developed and published by

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

-based studio

KO_OP KO_OP is a Canadian game studio cooperative based in Montreal. It was founded in 2012. History Studio director Saleem Dabbous and programmer Bronson Zgeb founded KO_OP in 2012 to make "visually arresting avant-garde games". The studio is run ...

. The game is scheduled for release on 15 June 2023, for the

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and

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Gameplay

The game features narrative segments, and

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed ...

minigames during performances by VVorm Drama.

Synopsis

Set in a world of

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

characters, the game centers on the members of the band VVorm Drama; the

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...

lead vocalist Fang ( Lachlan Watson), guitarist Trish ( Ozioma Akagha) and drummer Reed (Mark Whitten), alongside the school's

student council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

president Naomi (Allegra Clark) and Fang's brother Naser (Abe Bueno-Jallad), - as they venture through the highs and lows of their final year as Volcano High seniors with

graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...

looming over the horizon while coming to terms with their own impending

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed ...

from an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

Development

The game was initially announced during

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's "Future of Gaming" online presentation on 11 June 2020, with a release window of 2021. In August 2021, KO_OP announced a delay of ''Goodbye Volcano High'' release until sometime in 2022. The developers wanted to avoid crunch related to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, and had already brought in a new writing team from Sweet Baby Inc. in June 2020 to reboot the game's entire narrative direction. The new narrative direction was largely inspired by the experiences of high school seniors graduating during the pandemic. In November 2022, the game was delayed to 2023. A new gameplay trailer premiered during a Sony "State of Play" presentation on 23 February 2023, announcing a release date of 15 June.

Reception

Following the revamped game's showing at

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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". Rachel Watts of ''

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'' wrote that she "had a great time with the demo", comparing it to the adventure game ''

Life is Strange ''Life Is Strange'' (abbreviated ''LIS'') is a series of primarily episodic graphic adventure games published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with the eponymous first installment, ...

''. The game's use of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

characters and themes resulted in harassment campaigns by

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users, including Discord raids that forced the development team to lock their server. One anonymous group of developers, under the name of ''Cavemanon'', created ''Snoot Game'', an "anti-

fangame A fangame is a video game that is created by fans. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fangames attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but it ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...

intended as a rival version of the game with

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

themes, which was described by the developers as "not made in good faith". The game formed its own community with "nearly indistinguishable"

fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...

, complicating efforts to stop trolling. A representative of the studio told ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' that developers of games featuring queer characters "will face harassment no matter where you go", stating, "we care deeply about the work we are doing and are excited to share it with the world."

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://goodbyevolcanohigh.com/ Upcoming video games scheduled for 2023 Adventure games Dinosaurs in video games Fictional musical groups High school-themed video games Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry Indie games LGBT-related video games Music video games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Rhythm games Single-player video games Video games developed in Canada Video games postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Visual novels Windows games KO OP games