Night in the Woods dev shares hits thoughts on the "evergreen" elements of the game

A portion of a Gamasutra interview with Night in the Woods animator, Scott Benson...

GS: It is a fairly unique setting, this small-town life, the malaise of the underemployed, that a lot of people will recognize. Do you think it speaks to a particular cultural moment?

SB: I think the overall themes -- that life changes, that we have to accept when things are over and deal with moving on, or fight for things that aren't yet over and are worth preserving -- that's something that is evergreen. I'm 32 and I still deal with all that. And moreover I think these coming-of-age stories are something that goes back forever [in our media], at least as far back as the early 20th century with the beatniks. That was a gigantic theme with them.

That said there's also a lot that will probably seem closer to the last few years, particularly the collapse of not only national, but local economies. It's no longer necessarily true that you can stay in your home town and there will be jobs for you. That may not be something this generation alone faces, but it is facing it. We've had a lot of fans come forward really strongly identifying with the small town setting of the game, telling us that they were from that town.