The Clown's Forest: Waking Shadows

Main Menu background for Waking Shadows

## Story

18 Year-old Michael Longhurst had survived the horrible ordeal in Hartown Nature Park. Injured and tired, he limped through Hartown until he stumbled upon a man, upon seeing him, the man ran over while very concerned about Michael's state. The man took Michael to his apartment to treat his wounds.

Hours later, Michael wakes up and introduces himself to the man, the man introduces himself as James Barlow, a 25 Year-old Medical Student studying at Hartown Medical School. Michael explains everything that happened to him the previous night, and James was surprised to learn what happened. Michael reveals his plans to return to the park to avenge his friends, but James doesn't allow him to go alone.

What Michael and James will uncover will shake them to the core.

## Development

The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows started Development in January of 2023. Using an old version of The Clown's Forest 2 as a base. It initially was planned as paid DLC for The Clown's Forest, but the scope of the project increased and was too big to be classed as DLC. It moved as a standalone game in late February.

In May 2023, Development was scrapped and completely started from scratch as the dev felt the game was a step backwards from what had been established in the 1st game, and felt bland. The new version of The Clown's Forest 2 has cut out the character of Carla Stevens, and establishes both Michael and James as the main characters.

In July 2023, Viper Interactive confirmed that most of the development has been finished on the game, but are doubtful the game will release in 2023 while they finetune the game, finish up the translations, music, and voice acting.

On September 7th 2023, Viper Interactive officially released The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows on Steam. SilentWraith confirmed on release that Voice Acting is delayed into a content update due to some issues with RPG Maker MZ itself.

## Cast

The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows Cast
 Blitzo the Clown
 ???
 James & Alex Barlow
 Ethan Barlow
 Sarah Benton
 Suzie Peters
 David Brown

## Trivia

* The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows started development as a DLC to the first game.
* Michael & James weren't planned to be a playable characters.
* Michael was initially meant to be a cameo character.
* James, Alex, and Ethan have American Voice Actors.
* Development was scrapped and started from scratch in May 2023
* The Game is to be released on steam in Early 2024
* The Game was built in RPG Maker MZ
* The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows will be the last Clown's Forest game in RPG Maker

## Cut Content

* Carla Stevens was the planned playable character, but due to the refined story of The Clown's Forest 2: Waking Shadows, She was left on the cutting room floor due to not fitting in place. If kept in, she would have been a protagonist turned antagonist, and would have been the main villain of The Clown's Forest 3: Shadows of Blood.
* A direct reference to Resident Evil was planned and written but cut due to worries of copyright issues.
* 4 Maps were cut from the final release of the game. 2 School maps, and the original version of James' nightmare

## Sequels

***The Clown's Forest 3: Shadows of Blood*** was planned in August of 2022 to also be made in RPG Maker MZ. Due to the Assets and scale being an issue for the engine, it was then moved to be developed on Unreal Engine 5. The Project has started development.

***The Clown's Forest: Tokens of Insanity*** is an in-development spin off which started development in mid March 2023. It is the first game in the series to not feature Michael as a Playable Character, it follow's Jonathan Longhurst who is trapped in his own mind, being pursued by threats, while having to collect the Hartown Amusement Park Arcade Tokens. The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 4 and is planned for release sometime in 2024.