If You Thought Silksong’s Wait Was Long, This Indie Game Has Kept Fans Waiting for 11 Years

Now that Hollow Knight: Silksong has finally released, it’s easy to forget the legendary amount of time players waited for Team Cherry’s sequel to come out. Seven years of “Silksong posting” begging for any news about the game revealed far little about it until a launch date was shared only a few months before the Metroidvania got into people’s hands. While that may seem agonizing, some indie games are still in development limbo, with one keeping fans waiting for over a decade.

Independent game studios have put out some amazing games within the last year, with Blue Prince, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and the multi-award winning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being only a few examples of stellar indie hits from 2025 alone. Yet, these development teams are usually only a small group, meaning that any project they start can take a lot of time to complete. Beyond just the workload it takes to release a full game, outside factors make it a miracle that some indie games even reach a state of launch at all.

Little Devil Inside Was First Announced In 2015 Through A Kickstarter

Spring 2015 saw the announcement of Little Devil Inside, a small-scale indie project created by Neostream Interactive that showed a lot of promise. The game took place in a 19th century Victorian-inspired setting, where players would explore a surreal, Steampunk-themed world. An action-adventure RPG, Little Devil Inside had pre-alpha footage that showed off a variety of exciting features, from memorable NPCs to co-op multiplayer within its gameplay loop.

This indie game would gain lots of support through its Kickstarter, which went live around the same time it was announced. Originally planned to release sometime in Fall 2016, the game’s scope quickly grew after nearly 5,000+ backers smashed through the starting Kickstarter goals. Raising over $300,000 in only a month, Little Devil Inside pushed back its release window to add more content, but went dark for some time as development continued.

One would think that this indie game’s support would be a great boost to its content, allowing developers to make everything inside their initial scope and then some. However, this would simply be the beginning of a long and arduous series of push and pull, as only crumbs of information were given about Little Devil Inside for years.

Multiple Missed Release Windows And Delays Placed This Little Devil Inside In Development Hell

Fans wouldn’t hear about Little Devil Inside again until December 2017, where a new trailer placed a release date close to “late 2018,” but that time came and went as well. From that point onward, there was little to no news for years. The only information players got was a CES trade show in 2021, where Sony told viewers in a presentation that the game had a July 2021 release timeframe. Once again, that date arrived, and there was no game launch of any kind.

Another Sony event, this time a State of Play showcase in 2022, would show off a more in-depth look at Little Devil Inside, showing off new elements of the game. A Winter 2022 time was offered, yet this also gave way to another delay. No more information would be presented about the game until a cryptic trailer appeared on YouTube in February 2024, titled “Despite all.” This seemed to show off more gameplay, but no new release window of any form.

As of this time of writing, there is no more news regarding Little Devil Inside, every since that upload last year. The first news about the game had it only releasing on Steam platforms, but each time there was an update, new systems were added. This included the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and even the Wii U back when its Kickstarter went live. Over time though, the 2024 gameplay update suggested that the game’s development had shifted to Unreal Engine 5, suggesting the project may be slated for newer devices like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S.

Multiple Team Changes And COVID Woes May Have Contributed To Little Devil Inside’s Current State

There have been many theories about why Little Devil Inside‘s development has been so tumultuous, including some based on statements from the developers themselves. According to some information, Neostream Interactive suffered from multiple source of “internal conflict,” something shared during an apology post on the original Kickstarter shared during the same mysterious February 2024 update.

Downsizing to the Neostream Interactive team was likely due to struggles during the COVID era, which would have afflicted the development team’s coordination for several years. The reconstruction of the indie game in Unreal Engine 5 seems to be a step back in the right direction though, at least to deliver upon the promise given to Kickstarter backers nearly a decade ago.

Further comments from developers say that the dev team is “stronger than ever,” marking another period of time where the game may or may not release. Thankfully, no false hopes are placed on a release window this time, and the gameplay shown in 2024 look refined in its new engine. Even so, it’s been another year of little news surrounding Little Devil Inside, marking 11 years of back and forth, something that Hollow Knight: Silksong fans have only escaped recently.

How much longer do you think it will take for Little Devil Inside to finally come out? Leave a comment below or join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!