Remember Little Devil Inside? It's a survival-y open world action adventure with impeccable black comedy vibes, developed by South Korean studio Neostream. It's also been in development for absolutely ages. The game's Kickstarter campaign took place when Steam Greenlight was still a thing, and there have been no updates about its progress since its last trailer dropped in 2021.
You'd be forgiven for thinking Little Devil Inside was never coming out, but it appears Neostream's game is still on track for release. Or at least, it's trudging wearily toward the end of its journey after the train derailed several miles back.
Earlier today, Neostream posted a new video of the game in action fittingly titled 'Despite all'. The video, which feels more like a gameplay showcase than a trailer, basically spends six solid minutes reminding me why I was excited about this project in the first place. Mechanically it looks like a familiar blend of exploration, combat, questing, and survival. But it’s the style and atmosphere that I find so appealing. The blend of idyllic countryside and quaint townscapes rendered in a crooked, expressionist style. The surgically precise balance between comedy and horror. The way each scene is so cinematically presented, like the one with the player character looking forlornly out of the mouth of a mining tunnel at the thrashing rain.
In short, it's lovely stuff. However, this isn't the first knockout video the developers have released. And it all amounts to nothing if there's no game at the end. So what exactly is going on? Well, the video was accompanied by the game's first Kickstarter update in four years. Sharing the title of the video, the update provides some insight on where Little Devil Inside has been for the last few years, though between the (presumably) translated English and a rather cryptic tone, some reading between the lines is required.
"[It] began with a dream of two brothers," the update starts. "You supported. We became a team, then grew into a company and tried many hands to make light work. Along the way in all efforts to making a great game, many great people have come and gone. People with respectable but different purposes to all." The update then says these "differences" sometimes led to "conflict", and that Neostream is "responsible for not being able to embrace the differences".
In other words, it sounds like the studio grew to a size that its founders struggled to manage, which led to internal conflicts and affected the development of the game. It also appears the project has switched engines again, upgrading from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal 5. This marks the second time the game has changed its core technology, as it was originally developed in Unity.
Neostream offers its "sincere apologies" to fans and backers of the game, adding that "we know this doesn't and shouldn't justify for all the delays and lack of news." The current state of play is that Neostream's founders are still leading the project, but the studio is "back to a smaller, bonded team with a single, common purpose - just to make a great game."
As for when that great game might be coming out, Neostream doesn't specify. But the studio does claim to have "genuinely started discussions regarding publishing and once this clears out, hopefully we'll be able to answer what everyone wants to know." Let's hope it isn't another three years before that happens.
