Action Adventure

Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony

Jak & Daxter 4 [PS3 – Cancelled / Concept]

monokoma
16-10-2014
1 Comment

Before to fully work on  The Last of Us, Naughty Dog was planning to create a new, even more grittier Jak and Daxter game for the Playstation 3, but after the concept art team drawn some Jak and Daxter artworks to use in this “reboot” of the series, they thought that they would have more freedom to just create a new IP for the mature audience, and thus the project evolved to became The Last of Us. After Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2 and Jak 3, this project could have been the 4° title in the main Jak series (or even the 5th one if you consider Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier). In the end, Naughty Dog never released any new Jak & Daxter game for the PS3, only an HD collection with their first 3 PS2 games.

At the IGDA Toronto 2013 Keynote, Neil Druckmann (Creative Director & Writer from Naughty Dog) talked about this cancelled Jak & Daxter concept:

Our task was to reboot Jak & Daxter. We spent a lot of time exploring the world of Jak and Daxter and how we would reboot it; how we would bring these characters back, some story ideas that we were getting excited about.

As much as we like these concepts and exploring these fantastical worlds, we found the ideas that we were getting passionate about were getting away from Jak & Daxter. We were questioning ourselves, were we doing this for marketing reasons and naming something Jak & Daxter when it really isn’t Jak & Daxter, or were we really passionate about it?

As we can read at GameInformer:

Shelving the Jak and Daxter ideas meant the team could begin work on a fresh idea. Shedding the restrictions of an existing IP allowed directors Druckmann and Straley to let their creative juices flow and explore whatever they wished.

Some concept arts from this cancelled “Jak & Daxter 4” project were shown by Neil Druckmann at the IGDA Toronto, in the “A Tribute to Naughty Dog: 30th Anniversary” exhibition in september / october 2014 and in the “Naughty Dog’s 30th Anniversary” art book (you can buy it on Amazon UK for 20.39£, Amazon USA for 25$ or Amazon IT for 32 euro), as posted by Junkie Monkeys!

Thanks to Loïc Caria for the contribution!

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Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Seisho 1999 (Bible 1999) [NES – Cancelled]

monokoma
07-10-2013
No Comments

Seisho 1999 (Bible 1999) is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by Imagineer / Wavejack for the Famicom / NES. There are not many info about this game, but a scan and a couple of screens uploaded in a japanese website. The characters and the scenario seem inspired by the Fist of the North Star manga / anime series, with a post-apocalyptic world and powerful fighters. Something went wrong during the development and Seisho 1999 / Bible 1999 was never released.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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32X / Mega CD, Saturn, Sega

Duel [Sega – Tech Demo]

yota
07-06-2013
6 Comments

Duel is a CG tech demo created by Acclaim in 1994. According to Mean Machines Sega, the British magazine where the first images of the “game” were published, Duel was planned for the 32x, but it’s unlikely that any real development was even started. 32X’s 3D capabilities were, in fact, very poor, and many titles conceived for the ill-fated add-on were later released for Saturn. However, as long as we know, Duel was not one of them.

Update:
In the video added below we can see how Duel was actually a CGI tech demo aimed to show Acclaim realistic character animation system using Acclaim’s Optical Motion Capture System.
It’s unclear if a game was ever planned out of it, however the technology was later used in some next-gen games (for example Acclaim’s Advance Technology Group is credited for Alien Trilogy’s full motion videos).
It seems the tech demo was the fruit of a deal between Acclaim and Sega (based on what is written on a italian mag scan).

Here is the original article that appeared on Mega machines Sega 20:

Duel 32x unreleased

If you have more info on this tech demo, please let us know!

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Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Dreamers [Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
26-03-2013
No Comments

Dreamers is a action adventure game that was in development by Dreamgazers Interactive, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The project was announced as in development for “next gen consoles” in 2004, but as of today (2010), Dreamers remains unreleased and probably it will never be published. In 2008 PSU had an interview with Dreamgazers President and Creative Director George Georgeadis, asking for more info about their game:

“Haha, yes we are still alive,” said Georgeadis. “However many changes have occurred regarding the company and project, changes that I am unfortunately not in a position to disclose.”

Sadly the latest entry in Dreamgazers’ Blog is from 2007 and even if their website and Dreamers’ official website are still online, the lack of news make us to assume that the team was disbanded and their game cancelled, probably because they never found a publisher.

Some more info on Dreamer’s story can be read in the official website:

Dreamers is a game about a young man in his 20’s, Jorge, who suffers from a bizarre form of narcolepsy. Characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, narcolepsy is a disorder that is also sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations

Players would had to explore Jorge’s dreams and nightmares to heal him from his problems and find more about his past. It’s currently unknown how much of the game was completed before the development was stopped.

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