Alec Holowka

Alec Holowka (30 October 1983 – 31 August 2019)[2] was a Canadian indie game developer and co-founder of independent game companies Infinite Ammo, Infinite Fall, and Bit Blot.[3] He was mainly known for the award-winning titles Night in the Woods and Aquaria.

Alec Holowka
Holowka at the 2019 Independent Games Festival
Born(1983-10-30)30 October 1983
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died31 August 2019(2019-08-31) (aged 35)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Cause of deathSuicide[1]
Occupation(s)Game programmer, designer, musician
Notable workNight in the Woods
Aquaria

Life and career

Holowka was introduced to programming at the age of eight when his father bought him the book Basic Fun. Eventually he began working with a freeware group called Zaphire Productions. He then worked for a number of failed startups, including one in Winnipeg, working on a PC multiplayer fantasy action title and a combat racer in Vancouver for the Xbox 360.[4]

Two men stand behind a podium marked Independent Games Festival, while a woman in a blue dress stands to the left.
Jenna Sharpe, Holowka and Derek Yu accepting the grand prize at the 2007 Independent Games Festival.

Holowka acted as sound engineer on the 2006 freeware title I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator as a response to American lawyer Jack Thompson's "A Modest Video Game Proposal". Holowka met Derek Yu in the comments section of popular technology website Slashdot in a post regarding Jack Thompson's proposal and along with Chris Hanson and Phil Jones formed the group "Thompsonsoft" for the one-off release.[5]

After its release Holowka introduced Yu to a project he had been working on independently, Yu was interested in the project and the two officially formed developer Bit Blot the week before the Independent Games Festival deadline.[3] The project was released on 7 December 2007 under the title Aquaria,[6] and was the recipient of the Independent Games Festival Seumas McNally Grand Prize for 2007.[7]

In 2013, Holowka and independent animator Scott Benson successfully crowdfunded the game Night in the Woods.[8] The game was released in 2017 to critical acclaim and won the BAFTA in "Narrative" and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the IGF.[9][10]

In August 2019, Holowka was accused of physical and emotional abuse by Zoë Quinn, whom he had briefly cohabited with in Winnipeg in 2012.[11][12] The day following the accusation, the Night in the Woods development team cut ties with Holowka, with Scott Benson writing "We take such allegations seriously as a team".[13] The team stated that other corroborating evidence related to the accusations had been presented to them.[12][14] The publisher of Night in the Woods, Finji, backed the team's decision, and also postponed plans to publish physical copies of the game in wake of the allegations.[13][15]

Four days after allegations of abuse were leveled against him, Holowka committed suicide.[16][17][14][1] According to his sister, who posted to Twitter about his death, Holowka had been "battling mood and personality disorders" through his life and "was a victim of abuse".[18] She explained he had been trying to correct his own disorders in recent years through therapy and medication. She also stated that Holowka "said he wished the best for Zoë and everyone else".[18][19]

Games
Date Title Role Notes Ref(s)
2006 I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator Audio [20]
2007 Aquaria Designer, audio, programmer Winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2007 Independent Games Festival [21]
2008 Owl Country Audio, programmer [22]
2008 Paper Moon Co-creator [22]
2008 Everyone Loves Active 2 Musician [23]
2009 Crayon Physics Deluxe Musician Winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2008 Independent Games Festival [18][24][25]
2012 Offspring Fling Musician [26]
2013 TowerFall Ascension Musician [27]
2017 Night in the Woods Designer, programmer, musician Winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, etc. at the 2018 Independent Games Festival [28][29]
2018 Oceanheart Co-creator Abandoned [30][31]

References
  1. Penny, Laurie (6 September 2019). "Gaming's #MeToo Moment and the Tyranny of Male Fragility | WIRED". Wired. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  2. Alec Holowka (20 November 2013). Alec Holowka - Indie House / Night In The Woods [October 2013]. FullIndie. Event occurs at 0:39. Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via YouTube. And I'm about to turn 30 tomorrow [...] on October 30th.
  3. "Bitblot - company". Bit Blot. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  4. Wallis, Alistair (23 October 2006). "Road To The IGF: Bit Blot's Aquaria". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  5. Tucker, Michael (16 February 2006). "4cr Interview - Thompsonsoft". 4 Color Rebellion. Archived from the original on 5 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  6. "Aquaria - IGN". IGN. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  7. "2007 Independent Games Festival Winners". Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  8. Moore, D. M. (18 February 2018). "Night in the Woods isn't about growing up, but becoming an adult". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  9. "Narrative - Night in the Woods". www.bafta.org. 13 March 2018. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  10. Hudson, Laura (15 February 2017). "Coming to Video Games Near You: Depressed Towns, Dead-End Characters". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  11. Graft, Kris (28 August 2019). "New allegations of sexual assault surface against established game devs". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  12. Carpenter, Nicole (29 August 2019). "Night in the Woods studio cuts ties with designer after abuse allegations". Polygon. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  13. McAloon, Alissa (28 August 2019). "Night in the Woods devs cut ties with Alec Holowka after abuse allegations". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  14. Schreier, Jason (1 September 2019). "Night In The Woods Designer Alec Holowka Dies". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  15. Night In The Woods [@NightInTheWoods] (28 August 2019). "We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via Twitter.
  16. Orland, Kyle (30 August 2019). "Night in the Woods developer dies after assault accusations [Updated]". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  17. "Night in the Woods video game creator Alec Holowka dies". BBC News. 2 September 2019. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  18. Woods, Andy (31 August 2019). "Night in the Woods developer Alec Holowka has died". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  19. "Night in the Woods Developer Accused of Sexual Assault Dies". IGN Nordic. 31 August 2019. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  20. Remo, Chris (7 February 2006). "I'm O.K.: A Murder Simulator". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  21. "2007 Independent Games Festival Winners". IGF. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  22. "TIG Forum Post". TIG. 18 November 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  23. "Everyone Loves Active 2 Profile". Kyle Pulver. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  24. Benedetti, Winda (13 January 2009). "Indulge your inner child with 'Crayon Physics'". NBC News. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  25. "Day 2: Music of Crayon Physics Deluxe". Kloonigames. 2 January 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  26. Mallory, Jordan (31 March 2012). "Behold the unrelenting cuteness of 'Offspring Fling!'". Engadget. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  27. Plante, Chris (2 July 2014). "What It Feels Like To Launch An Indie Hit". Polygon. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  28. Whitney, Kayla (22 March 2018). "Complete list of 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards Winners". AXS. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  29. Byrd, Christopher (2 March 2017). "'Night in the Woods' is great, and a lesson for all game creators in how to develop characters". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  30. Serrels, Mark (2 June 2016). "Oceanheart Is Like Wind Waker Crossed With Animal Crossing". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  31. @InfiniteAmmoDev (12 December 2018). "Yeah! #Oceanheart with the amazing @bitmOO! We kinda gave up on it for now tho. It had a few Unity prototypes and one Unreal prototype" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 November 2019 – via Twitter.
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