40 Fun Facts About Oxenfree

The cry 'olly olly oxen free', echoed in Oxenfree's title, belongs to which playground game?

Hide-and-seek players shout it to tell anyone still hiding that they can come out without losing, and nobody knows for certain where the phrase came from.

What color is the dyed hair of Alex, the radio-carrying teenage heroine of Oxenfree?

Teal is dyed over natural auburn, the shade her hair still has in the game's memory sequences.

In Oxenfree, how is Jonas related to Alex, who first meets him on the day of the island trip?

Her stepbrother joined the family when Alex's mother remarried a widower she had met at a resort in Orlando.

How do Alex, Ren and Jonas reach Edwards Island for the overnight party that opens Oxenfree?

By ferry: the friends catch the last one of the day, and the story closes with the group riding it home.

In Oxenfree, what actually sank the USS Kanaloa, the submarine whose crew haunt Edwards Island?

Friendly fire sank the Kanaloa after its scrambled message was mistaken for an enemy transmission, leaving the crew trapped rather than dead.

What experimental technology aboard Oxenfree's USS Kanaloa sent its crew to another dimension?

A nuclear reactor imploded when the submarine was hit, and Maggie Adler worked out that all aboard were trapped outside time and space.

The glowing rifts that Alex opens with her radio in Oxenfree take which geometric shape?

A triangle forms every rift, and Alex opens one by tuning her radio to the corners of the shape.

Which Glendale, California developer, founded in 2014, released Oxenfree as its debut game?

Night School Studio began with such a tight budget that it could only afford to make a single game.

Which streaming giant bought Oxenfree's developer in 2021, its first purchase of a game studio?

Netflix made the studio its first game acquisition and went on to publish Oxenfree II two years later.

How did Michael, the brother whose red jacket Alex wears in Oxenfree, die before the story begins?

Drowning at Horn Lake killed Michael on a last swimming trip with Alex, who could not swim well enough to help him.

In Oxenfree, what do the ghosts offer Alex through a possessed Jonas if she leaves Clarissa behind?

To spare everyone else is the bargain, and in the final cave scene Alex can walk out and let Clarissa be erased from existence.

In Oxenfree, who is the reflection that gives Alex advice from mirrors and pools of water?

Her future self is the adviser in the glass, a product of the same looping time that lets Alex revisit old talks with her brother.

During Oxenfree's time loops, what device must Alex wind to the right speed to set time straight?

A tape recorder appears whenever time snags, and the game's own audio was run through old cassette decks and reel-to-reel machines.

Oxenfree's creators set out to tell a branching story without which staple of narrative games?

Cutscenes were ruled out so players could keep moving and exploring during every conversation, a design known as walk and talk.

In Oxenfree, Alex's possible replies appear on screen in what form while she keeps walking?

Speech bubbles can be left unanswered, so staying silent is always a choice, and one achievement rewards finishing the game without a word.

Which 1986 coming-of-age film did Oxenfree's creators cite as an influence on its story?

Stand by Me influenced the characters and story, and the team wanted meeting the ghosts to carry a Spielberg-style sense of wonder before things get crazy.

Lindsay Weir, the biggest outside influence on Oxenfree's Alex, comes from which TV series?

Freaks and Geeks supplied the model for Alex, while her outfit came from the game's artist, who dressed her in clothes from her own youth.

Which voice actor plays Oxenfree's lead Alex, in a cast whose lines were all recorded separately?

Erin Yvette recorded alone, like the whole cast: the actors voiced their lines separately and out of order, and conversations were stitched together afterwards.

What instrument does Ren, Alex's excitable best friend in Oxenfree, play in his garage band?

Bass guitar is his instrument, and the game's collector's edition came with a cassette demo by his band.

Nona, the friend Ren has a crush on in Oxenfree, often skips class to practice what?

Ballet matters more to her than lessons, and in endings where she and Ren do not become a couple she goes on to a ballet academy.

In Oxenfree, where was Jonas sent after beating up a boy who threw a baseball at his head?

Juvenile detention followed an outburst while his mother was terminally ill, though he first claims he has never been locked up.

In Oxenfree, Maggie Adler decided the trapped Kanaloa crew's minds had regressed to those of what?

Children was her verdict, after hearing confused wording and a reliance on game logic in the broadcasts she decoded.

The submarine USS Kanaloa in Oxenfree takes its name from a sea god of which culture's mythology?

Hawaiian tradition makes Kanaloa a god of the ocean, symbolized by the squid or the octopus.

Which abandoned Army base on Oxenfree's Edwards Island once trained troops in broadcasting?

Fort Milner was a military base from 1941 to 1974, and its ruins are now a regular hangout for local kids.

Where do Alex and her friends gather before exploring the cave that starts Oxenfree's haunting?

Beacon Beach hosts the junior class's yearly overnight stay, a custom that grew out of bored army recruits bringing dates to the island.

Oxenfree's hidden radio anomalies are found beside what small markers left by earlier students?

Stacks of rocks, or cairns, mark the twelve anomalies, and finding every one earns the Ghost Stories achievement.

In Oxenfree, radio messages from Anna Shea, Maggie Adler's vanished friend, arrive in what form?

Morse code carries her messages, which start out clear and grow harder to read as she loses her identity inside the rift.

In Oxenfree, what post did Maggie Adler hold on Edwards Island when the Kanaloa went down?

Communications officer was her post, taken straight out of college, and she stayed for life as the island's only permanent resident.

In Oxenfree, what do the stranded teens hope to find at Maggie Adler's estate to escape?

A boat was kept at the estate, the only private home on the island, so the group hunts for the key after their call for help fails.

In Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, Riley returns to which coastal hometown to plant radio transmitters?

Camena is also where Alex and her friends grew up, and the sequel lets players explore a town the first game only talked about.

Sean Krankel and Adam Hines, co-founders of the studio behind Oxenfree, share what family tie?

Cousins who had long wanted to make a game together, the pair went on to direct and design Oxenfree side by side.

Before writing Oxenfree, Adam Hines worked on The Wolf Among Us at which story-driven game studio?

Telltale Games was known for story-focused titles, and Hines went on to direct Oxenfree's voice sessions himself, rewriting lines on the spot.

Which Seattle composer, who releases music as scntfc, created the soundtrack of Oxenfree?

Andrew Rohrmann estimated that about 90% of the music in the finished game was identical to his original demo recordings.

Oxenfree's developers asked for music like John Carpenter meeting which Scottish electronic duo?

Boards of Canada was one of several loose suggestions from a team still unsure how the game should sound, and the results impressed them.

The crackle of Alex's radio in Oxenfree was recorded through a real radio set from which conflict?

World War II is also when the game's submarine went down, so a genuine period set gives Alex's shortwave the right crackle.

Which mode was added to Oxenfree with its PlayStation 4 release in 2016?

New Game Plus adds fresh dialogue and endings, including one where the friends decide never to visit the island at all.

Oxenfree won the Independent Games Festival's 2016 award for excellence in which field?

Visual Art was its one festival win, a credit to artist Heather Gross's painterly backdrops, while its many story nominations elsewhere went unrewarded.

Which comics writer was reported in 2016 to be helping adapt Oxenfree into a film via Skybound?

Robert Kirkman's film plan fell through, and by 2021 the adaptation was reported to be moving ahead as a television series instead.

In Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, the teenager Olivia and her friends are tied to which cult?

Parentage raised Olivia in its beliefs, and the ghosts win her help by promising she can see her dead parents again.

What job brings Riley, the adult lead of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, back to her hometown?

Environmental researcher is an entry-level post for Riley, a woman in her thirties, as the makers wanted to revisit the setting through adult eyes.