Night in the Woods developer Alec Holowka has passed away
Alec Holowka, who acted as a designer, programmer, and composer on Night in the Woods, has passed away. His sister made the news known on Twitter
“Alec Holowka, my brother and best friend, passed away this morning.
Those who know me will know that I believe survivors and I have always done everything I can to support survivors, those suffering from mental illnesses, and those with chronic illnesses. Alec was a victim of abuse and he also spent a lifetime battling mood and personality disorders. I will not pretend that he was not also responsible for causing harm, but deep down he was a person who wanted only to offer people care and kindness. It took him a while to figure out how.
Over the last few years, with therapy and medication, Alec became a new person – the same person he had always been but without any of the darkness. He was calm and happy, positive and loving. Obviously, change is a slow process and it wasn’t perfect but he was working towards rehabilitation and a better life.
In the last few days, he was supported by many Manitoba crisis services, and I want to thank everyone there for their support. I want to thank Adam Saltsman for staying up late talking with us and reminding Alec that there was a future.
My family has and always will be the most important thing to me. Please give us time to heal. We tried our best to support Alec, but in the end he had felt he had lost too much.”
We won’t get into the specifics too deeply here, but Holowka had been accused this past week of sexual assault by another game developer. Night in the Woods developer Infinite Fall then cut ties with Holowka, postponed the game’s physical release, and cancelled a current project. We covered this previously and our original post can be found here.
