Gone Home and Tacoma devs’ mother-daughter road trip game Open Roads misses its exit, gets a one-month delay

Open Roads, the story-driven game about a mother and daughter embarking on a road trip to learn about their family’s past, has seen its release date delayed by a month.

Open Roads was announced at the end of 2020 with Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever and The Americans’ Keri Russell revealed as voicing teenager Tess and her mother Opal. The two will travel between their family's abandoned homes and other meaningful places in search of understanding, with the journeys between seeing the pair chat in the car and listen to the radio. The game makes use of a combination of first-person environments and hand animation, combined with the interactive dialogue between the two characters.

At the time it was revealed, the game was in the works at Fullbright, the studio known for the similarly narrative-driven Gone Home and Tacoma.

Following allegations of “toxic” behaviour against Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor the following year, Gaynor stepped back from development on Open Roads - while still continuing to write for the game. Last year, Gaynor indicated that he was developing under the name of Fullbright as a one-person studio, with Open Roads instead credited to "The Open Roads Team". That team comprises developers who worked on Gone Home and Tacoma under what was Fullbright, though it’s unclear how they may be credited on future games.

Having originally been planned for release on February 22nd, publishers Annapurna Interactive told Engadget that Open Roads will see a delay of just over a month to a new release date on March 28th. The publishers said that the push was necessary to “ensure the most polished experience for players”.