Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy, who created Kentucky Route Zero, began making the game in 2010 when the country was still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of the housing bubble. In the games, players explore what it means to be in those situations through role-playing and storytelling, in contrast to the shoot-’em-up and sports titles that dominate the games industry. Night in the Woods is one of several video games in recent years that tapped into themes that came to the fore during last year’s presidential election campaign: the decline of working-class towns and what it feels like to be crushed by debt or left behind by the economy. Hockenberry drew on her hometown experience to create a game with an aesthetic that the developers describe as “Rust Belt Gothic.” Alongside Scott Benson and Alec Holowka, Ms. “I grew up in central Pennsylvania, and my town was a steel town,” said Bethany Hockenberry, one of the three independent game developers behind Night in the Woods, which is being released for personal computers and PlayStation 4 on Feb. As she meanders through the fictional town of Possum Springs, players of the game are confronted not only with her memories but also the sense of a place whose better times are behind it. Mae, who is an anthropomorphic cat, drinks too much, shoplifts and likes to break things in parking lots with baseball bats.
It’s a place where there is little opportunity and most people are struggling to make ends meet. In the coming video game Night in the Woods, a young woman named Mae decides to drop out of college and return to the former mining town where she grew up.
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