Night in the Woods is an adventure game set in a fictional town called Possum Springs. For a fictional town, it feels especially real for a native Vermonter. It’s your average small town, populated with neighborhoods, a couple convenience stores, and a few family run businesses.
But it is not without its secrets. In fact, in Possum Springs, their secrets are heavier and darker than most small towns.
We follow Mae Borowski as she comes home after dropping out of college, for reasons that are revealed later in the game. She reunites with her friends, catches up with them, and plays a little bit of bass too. Unfortunately, everything starts to change when they find a severed arm on the street.
The questions of Mae’s past and the happenings in the town are further explored, until it culminates in Mae witnessing a kidnapping on Halloween, done by what she thinks is a ghost. Everything is not what it seems in Possum Springs, but you’ll have to play it yourself to find out why.
Although I would highly recommend this game for its incredible plot, I want to focus on the characters. There are a total of eight confirmed LGBTQ+ characters in the main game, including three out of four of the main characters that the game revolves around. There are other LGBTQ+ characters, but as they are in the downloadable content (DLC), they will not be included.
We start off with the main character: Mae is a feline character who has been confirmed in game to be pansexual. Mae is the character you play as, and so we get to see the story mainly through her eyes. We don’t really get to see her sexuality focused on, but I honestly enjoy that fact, as it doesn’t drive the plot as other aspects of her life do. We find out over the course of the game that she has anxiety, depression, and a derealization disorder which is the most important, although none of these diagnoses are official. Her derealization plays heavily into the story, as does her own past within the town.
The other previously mentioned two main characters are Gregg Lee and Angus Delaney. These characters are almost immediately established to be a couple, and are an incredibly cute one at that. The two of them live together, and Mae eventually finds out that they have been saving up to move out of Possum Springs to a nearby (and more populated) town. The two of them, during the game, both state that they didn’t believe they had a future until they met each other. When discovering their histories, it becomes unbelievably meaningful and cute. Gregg repeatedly tells Angus that he loves him, and mentions once or twice that he has, and I quote, “that ass.” Angus and Gregg both come from not-so-happy childhoods. There’s a scene where Mae and Angus are hanging out, revealing that Angus comes from an incredibly abusive household. This makes their relationship all the more poignant, as they both come from darkness and found light within each other.
The four other characters in the main game are Jackie, Bombshell, CJ, and Michelle Czajkowski. Jackie is a friend of Bea Santello, the only straight character in the main group. Jackie is a transgender woman. She shows up mainly during the party scene on day three, and then again during a college party she hosts, which is also where Michelle and Bombshell appear. Michelle is non-binary, and Bombshell is lesbian. CJ is homosexual and also has an unnamed husband but, since his husband does not show up in game, we will not be counting him. It is also important to note that CJ and Michelle are characters that were created because of Kickstarter backers that supported the game, and in turn were added to it. Since the actual Michelle Czajkowski is non-binary, the character in the game is non-binary as well.
Unfortunately, we cannot cover the game without also recognizing the controversy surrounding one of the two main creators. In 2019, Alec Holowka was accused of emotional and physical abuse of his then partner, Zoe Quinn, which took place during 2012. With that being said, the game is a masterpiece that does not deserve to be sullied based on the actions of the creator. The game has taken on a life of its own, and has a fanbase who are so deeply connected to the game that it would be a crime to damn it based off of Holowka’s actions. On top of that, Holowka was not the only person working on the game, and the rest of the game developers working on Night in the Woods cut ties with him the day after the allegations. It should also be mentioned that Holowka took his own life a few days after the allegations, so “death of the author” applies here.
Regarding my personal love of this game, I have come to do my best to separate the art from the artist, knowing that as much as Holowka worked on the game, the result was a labor of love from everyone else working on it too. The development team that worked on the game goes by the name of Infinite Fall, a team comprised of Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, and Bethany Hockenberry. To write off the game entirely would be a disservice to said creators and the effort they put in as well.
Now, onto the most important part: does Night in the Woods have good LGBTQ+ representation?
For a game that came out in 2017, in my (not so) professional opinion, Night in the Woods has some of the best LGBTQ+ representation. The sexualities of the characters are not shoved down the players’ throats and are just another part of who they are. The fact that there is such a variety of gender identities and sexualities makes me incredibly happy, even if some of those characters only show up once or twice in the game. Some of the biggest problems I’ve seen with LGBTQ+ representation in media everywhere is a lack of dimension within the characters, the unfortunate “token gays,” and the characters being no more than just a source of sadness.
Even though the story really only expands on Angus and Gregg’s lives, it makes sense within the story. Since you are seeing the world through Mae, of course you would know a lot about your close friends and subsequently very little about the people you met once at a party. On top of that, none of the characters are there to be “the gay one.” When we learn more about Angus and Gregg, their sadness comes from more than them dealing with hate for being gay. Instead, they deal with things that are relevant to the plot, or things from their past. That makes them more real and well-rounded characters.
Night in the Woods is an incredible game that I would recommend to any and everyone. It is so touching and emotionally moving, and the characters are so well written all around. If you can’t play it, do yourself a favor and watch a play-through of it. It is one of those games where I wish I could forget my first time playing it, so I could experience it for the first time all over again. There are so many choices within the game that you really should play it multiple times to get the full experience, although you can absolutely have a similar emotional experience playing it once. Regardless of what you do, play this game.