His latest project, Night in the Woods<\/em>, which he worked on with Pittsburgh, Pa.-based artist Scott Benson, has been a big hit among indie gamers worldwide after raising over $200,000 on Kickstarter.<\/p>\n “It took us about three and a half years,” Holowka said. “It was kind of an unwieldy beast.” “There’s a lot of inspiration from Winnipeg, too,” Holowka said. “The sense of being stuck here.” In the game, the main characters have a band, which Holowka composed original songs for. Unexpectedly, a number of those songs, especially a track called Die Anywhere Else<\/em>, have been performed by real bands and uploaded to YouTube.<\/p>\n “I always wanted to be in a rock or indie band,” admitted Holowka, who played in River East’s band program in high school. “This is kind of like the next best thing. I never expected something like that would happen.”<\/p>\n When writing the music for Night in the Woods, Holowka said that Benson pushed him to branch out and try new approaches to his songwriting.<\/p>\n “He was great to work with for the music, because he had these super specific references,” Holowka explained. “Which was great because it gave me a chance to grow and try new stuff.”<\/p>\n Next month will see the launch of Night in the Woods: Weird Autumn<\/em>. The new edition includes expanded and improved game-play and a number of added features, and brings the game to the XBox as well.<\/p>\n On Nov. 30, New Media Manitoba is hosting Holowka and Benson for a conversation about the process involved in bringing Night in the Woods<\/em> to life. The event takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. at Red River College’s Great West Life Theatre (160 Princess St.). <\/p>\n “It’ll probably be pretty personal,” Holowka said. “The game was successful, it came out, people liked it, but there was a lot of crap that happened along the way that was unexpected and hard to deal with.”<\/p>\n Holowka added that having Benson come up from Pittsburgh for the event is exciting.<\/p>\n “He’s a super talented, funny person who’s very politically engaged, with a lot of empathy as well. He’s a great story teller. The main draw will be seeing him speak about his experiences.” Facebook.com\/TheHeraldWPG<\/a>
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Published by Finji and currently available on the PS4 and Steam platforms, Night in the Woods<\/em> features a cast of animal misfits trapped in a dead-end, Rust Belt town.<\/p>\n
Along with the programming, Holowka wrote and performed the music for Night in the Woods<\/em>.
“Typically I have a MIDI keyboard hooked up to my computer,” Holowka explained. “I just kind of play stuff, riff on it.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Tickets for the Nov. 30 event are $10, and are available from newmediamanitoba.com<\/a><\/p>\n
Twitter: @heraldWPG<\/a><\/em><\/p>