It was one of E3 2017’s most popular announcements, but since then it’s been left in the dark…

At E3 2017 there was one trailer that caught everyone’s attention. With distinctively moody neon visuals and an intriguing cyber-punk premise, The Last Night overshadowed far larger games at that year’s Microsoft press conference with a pixel-art style inspired by classics like Flashback and Another World. Hundreds of thousands of people may have watched it (the trailer has, at the time of writing, 988,306 views), but that trailer is now a year old; why has news on The Last Night gone dark?

We got in touch with Tim Soret, Director on The Last Night, to chat about the highly anticipated game’s progress and he confirmed the game is still very much in production. Casting us back to when it was first announced, Soret explained that, “The game was in a very early stage back at E3 [2017], and while there was a 20 min demo existing, the code architecture wasn’t flexible enough for a fully reactive open world.”

The open world structure intended for The Last Night means that in itself the team “can’t really produce the first level and show it.” In order to produce a fully formed demo of the game, Soret stated they would “need more systems and storytelling tools to mature before [they] can be fully confident.”

As well as development of the game itself, Soret also has the development of the studio, Odd Tales to think about: “It took time to grow the studio from 4 to 12, train new talents to the specifics of The Last Night, learn how to work together [and] develop collaborative tools.” The team aren’t “just making The Last Night, [they’re] also building a studio, a technology, and a team that can create world-class quality experiences for the next decade to come.”

With the legacy of the studio to think about, as well as an ambitious open world cyberpunk undertaking on their hands, the team have prioritised developing the game as a whole, over creating more trailers or a demo for its eager audience – explaining why we’ve heard so little about the game since its announcement.

“We had several times this year the opportunity to show the game, but ultimately we chose to continue progress,” added Soret. “I think next time you’ll see the game, you’ll be blown away by the scope & quality of what we’re doing.”

We can safely say that no news is good news in this situation, as it sounds like the team is working hard to create something that can live up to the hype generated by the E3 trailer. Take Cuphead for instance, which released four long years after its E3 2013 reveal. These kinds of projects take time but are usually worth the wait.

You can find out more about The Last Night on Steam.