Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and After Party – Pictures: Night School Studios
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is now available on Netflix Games. Alongside the buildup to its release last week, it’s been revealed that early development work is happening on bringing two of Night School Studios’ games to life in series or movie formats.
Netflix first acquired Night School Studio in September 2021, when Netflix Gaming was still in its infancy. While the initial press release didn’t mention adapting its already-released games into Netflix movies or series, it’s been speculated that it would potentially be down the road from the beginning.
The two games in question are:
- Oxenfree – First released in 2016, Oxenfree is a supernatural adventure title that’s about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift.
- Afterparty – First released in 2019, this adventure game has you playing as deceased friends Milo and Lola, who find themselves in a drinking match against Satan himself.
The news of the two titles being in the early stages of development for adaptations at Netflix comes via Shack News which interviewed the studio director of Night School Games, Sean Krankel, ahead of the release of the second game at the Summer Games Fest.
Much of the interview is spent talking about the second game and why they sold themselves to Netflix, saying that “the Venn diagram of how they approach storytelling and where they see the platform going and the types of things that we build and where we go was kind of like a circle. Very good overlap.”
When specifically asked about whether an animated series or series, in general, is in the works, Krankel said (we’ve edited and condensed for clarity):
“For both Oxenfree and Afterparty we’re in the early phases of trying to develop those.
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That’s one of the most exciting things although one of the earliest things but we inside of Netflix one of the things that’s been so thrilling is to see how much they promote these different divisions working together.
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I’ve already been working with a couple of different teams there to start to develop what that could look like. So nothing to actually announce yet but it feels real not like Hollywood BS that gets stuck in limbo forever.”
Video game adaptations are nothing new at Netflix.
The streamer has partnered with all manner of publishers over the years, adapting some of the biggest gaming IPs. Video games already adapted on Netflix include League of Legends, Sonic, DOTA, Cyberpunk 2077, and Castlevania.
Upcoming titles include Assassins Creed, Tomb Raider, Gears of War, Bioshock, Splinter Cell, and Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Which of the two Night School Studios games would you most like to see adapted at Netflix and in what format? Let us know in the comments.