Xbox 360

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

Ascendant (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) [X360/PS3/PC – Prototype]

monokoma
20-04-2009
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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a fantasy action-RPG game developed by Big Huge Games and published by 38 Studios and Electronic Arts in 2012, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems. The game is set in the world of Amalur where players follow the story of a resurrected person named The Fateless One, who have to explore the open world of Amalur, fighting enemies in dungeons and completing quests, while trying to stop divine forces wanted to destroy mortal races.

But before being released as such, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was known as Ascendant, and was going to be published by THQ. Development of Ascendant started in February 2007 with Lead Designer Ken Rolston on board, as we can read on TotalGaming:

Big Huge Games has managed to get the lead designer of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to put off retirement and join their company as lead designer of a new RPG title. Ken Rolston, a 25 year game industry veteran has joined the creators of the Rise of Nations RTS with the hopes of putting out another award-winning title.

In May of the same year, a deal with THQ was signed, and the project was, back then, planned for a release in 2009:

THQ and Big Huge Games have announced a new development deal which will see the publisher bringing BHG’s newly announced RPG from Ken Rolston to market for PC, PS3 and Xbox360 in 2009. Rolston whom only joined the company in February will be leading the project and so far has liked what he has seen at BHG.

Rolston said the following about the development team behind Rise of Nations, “I’m flabbergasted by the talent, craft and boundless energy of the Big Huge Games team. In such splendid company, I’m privileged to embark on a bold pilgrimage to create a refreshingly original RPG experience. I know eager game fans will share our excitement as we reveal further details in the coming months.”

COO of Big Huge Games Timothy Train commented that “We’ve wanted to do an RPG for years and I think we have a great direction that will knock everyone’s socks off.”

In January 2008, Big Huge Games was acquired by THQ:

Eight months ago THQ announced a deal with Big Huge Games to work on an unnamed role-playing game. The agreement marked a new direction for the Maryland-based independent developer, which has won numerous awards for series of real-time strategy titles.

But while all Big Huge Games’ past titles were published by Microsoft Game Studios, all its future games will have the THQ stick on the box. Today, the Smackdown! publisher made a Big Huge announcement: It has bought Big Huge Games outright for an undisclosed sum. However, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Shawn Milne estimated “the acquisition was in the $20 million to $40 million range given the size (100 developers) and quality of the studio.”

“The acquisition of Big Huge Games is a big win for THQ as we continue to expand both our internal development capabilities and our portfolio of owned intellectual properties,” said Jack Sorensen, THQ’s executive vice president of worldwide studios.

Though the THQ announcement didn’t reveal any new details about Big Huge Games’ new RPG, it did offer some hints about the studio’s future direction. Nowhere in the release was there any mention of the RTS titles that put Big Huge Games on the map. Instead, Big Huge Games is described as “a leading development studio focused on the role-playing-game (RPG) genre.”

THQ’s release also revealed that BHG is working on “additional console projects based on their proprietary technology” besides its mystery RPG. The unnamed Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC title is the first multiplatform title from the studio, which also developed the Xbox Live Arcade version of the strategy board game Catan.

However, in March 2009, more than 2 years after the beginning of Ascendant’s development and following the 2008 economical crisis and the Great Recession that followed, THQ planned to shutdown Big Huge Games as we can read on Kotaku:

Publisher THQ announced in February that it would be cutting back substantially, axing jobs and shuttering studios after losing $191.8 million last quarter. Today, we learn that developer Big Huge Games is due to close.

Sources close to the studio say that Big Huge Games, developer of the Rise of Nations series and Catan for Xbox Live Arcade, has been given notice by THQ, which has intentions to close the studio within 60 days. Official response from THQ is that the publisher informed the Timonium, Maryland-based Big Huge Games that it plans to close the studio if a buyer is not found “in the near future.”

Big Huge Games was working on an unannounced Wii game and a role-playing game designed by former The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion designer Ken Rolston.

Fortunately, THQ managed to sell Big Huge Games to 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, as Gamesindustry pointed out:

38 Studios has acquired internal THQ outfit Big Huge Games, including all of its intellectual property, tools, technology, assets and work-in-progress.

The company said the acquisition is a “critical step” to creating a broad range of products based on 38 Studios original fantasy project, codenamed Copernicus.

“The acquisition of Big Huge Games will be tremendously beneficial to the growth, market position, financial stability, and long-term success of 38 Studios,” commented Brett Close, CEO and President of 38 Studios.

“BHG’s cross-platform RTS/RPG engine will accelerate the realisation of our online entertainment experience for the Copernicus IP. The acquisition enables us to develop and deliver top-quality games in multiple genres that are based in a shared world, ultimately maximising the value of our Copernicus MMOG and the intellectual property as a whole.”

Big Huge Games was founded in 2000 and developed Rise of Nations. The team is currently developing a role-playing game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Troubled publisher THQ had been seeking a sale of Big Huge Games since March, and in April was forced to lay off a number of staff.

38 Studios’ Copernicus is being created with the help of fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and comic book artist Todd McFarlane, and is intended to span videogame, comic, novel, toy, movie and TV formats.

“The highly regarded developers at BHG, including leading role-playing and real-time strategy design teams led by Ken Rolston, are a perfect complement to 38 Studios’ staggering array of talent. Big Huge Games is a phenomenal team and, culturally, a natural fit,” added Curt Schilling, founder of 38 Studios.

From this point on, the title known as Ascendant was no more. 38 Studios was working since 2006 on Project Copernicus, and buying Big Huge Games alongside Ascendant was for them a way to introduce players to the lore of Copernicus. The game known as Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was born. This information was first shared in August 2011 by Gamasutra with an interview of Lead Designer Ian Frazier:

“It’s a long and crazy tale … Around the time of the sale, THQ was not in a good place financially and they decided, ‘No, we’re not going to keep Big Huge. No, RPGs are expensive.'”

“There’s always a mixture of fear and anger when something like that comes up,” Frazier said candidly. “And certainly we had gotten some messaging from THQ not long before [the sale] about how much they wanted to pour more resources and more energy into their new IPs and triple-A titles.”

“So we obviously felt a little bit less than thrilled that that direction took a sharp turn to, ‘No actually, we’re not going to do that,'” said Frazier. “We were kind of cut off there, so basically [the feelings in the studio at the time were] what you’d expect. People were afraid, people were to some extent angry, but I guess THQ has to do what it has to do.”

But Big Huge, with its technical and creative talent, and well-underway RPG, wasn’t on the market for long.

By the end of May 2009, 38 Studios, the young, startup game development studio founded by former Major League Baseball star pitcher and self-professed World of Warcraft geek Curt Schilling, announced that it would buy Big Huge.

Now called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the single-player RPG formerly called Crucible almost magically fit into the same universe of the in-progress fantasy MMORPG already in development at 38 Studios, codenamed Copernicus.

Still on Gamasutra, it was also mentionned in a postmortem dedicated to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in April 2012:

(…) At first, our RPG project was named “Crucible” and was being published by THQ. We were making great progress on it, and THQ was happy enough with the progress that they purchased us outright; and we became an internal THQ studio. Around that time we switched some of the key features of the game and renamed the project “Ascendant.” We were part of the THQ network of studios for a short period of time right up to the point that THQ started running out of money. Our big, juicy, unproven-in-the-genre studio was a prime target for them to try to sell.

With literally days left on the “close the doors” timer at the studio, THQ sold us to Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios, which has R.A. Salvatore as “creator of worlds.” It became clear pretty quickly that we would need to change the universe and some of the game features yet again to take advantage of Robert’s genius. We changed the project name to “Mercury,” which later was given the final shipping name of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

For those keeping track at home, in five years we were bought and sold twice and changed the name and core features of the project three times. Needless to say, it’s been a long, strange trip.

Comparing Ascendant and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, it is easy to see that the changes only concern the artistic direction of the title: enemies, characters and locations were re-designed, but the core gameplay remained intact from 2009 until the title’s release in February 2012. The game received “favorable” reviews by the press.

38 Studios shutted down in May 2012, after the budget of Copernicus overun, alongside the above average sales of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Copernicus was cancelled and Big Huge Games was temporarily closed before being resurrected in 2013. A remastered version subtitled Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning was released in 2020 by THQ Nordic, which also owns the assets of Project Copernicus.

Article updated by Daniel Nicaise

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Microsoft, Xbox 360

Fable 2 [Beta – Xbox 360]

monokoma
14-04-2009
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Fable 2 is an action RPG developed by Lionhead Studios and directed by Peter Molyneux, published by Microsoft Game Studios. It’s the sequel to Fable  and it was originally announced in 2006 and released in October 2008. [Infos from Wikipedia] In these images we can see a series of early concept arts that were used to create the final game, some of which show armors that were never used in the end.

In some early screenshots there is a beta version of the Bowerstone Market city market, an unused NPC (the little bald man), a different looking hero’s sister, a removed desert area and an unknown forest that looks still incomplete. Attacks that used the world’s scenery were removed. The developer diaries showcase this incomplete versions of Bowerstone market and those attacks that did not make it.

Here are some more removed features:

The dog can be called using the voice communicator, too, although Molyneux told the crowd that feature was still iffy and not ready to be shown.

There’s no HUD and no mini-map on the screen in Fable 2. Instead, you’ll have the dog acting as a scout. He’ll always stay a few steps ahead of you and try to guess where you’re headed.

Sound like a lot for one dog to handle? Well there’s more. The dog also acts as your journal of sorts. He’ll point out what’s new in a region you’ve previously been to and remind you of important things that you may have forgotten about in your questing.

Puzzles will also exist that you’ll need the dog to help solve, he’ll act as your bloodhound to follow scents, and even help you get chicks – just like real life. If that weren’t already enough, the dog will also be playable in a variety of minigames.

He also mentioned that your dog will play with other dogs. In fact, he said it has to happen although he was hesitant to add any details other than saying, “You’ve got to be able to meet my dog.” They’ll all be unique in both mind and appearance and will be customizable to match your desires. The aim is to have no two dogs be alike.

While your melee weapon is linked to the X button, there are dozens of variations you can attempt. Combat is largely rhythm based but, unlike many games with similar systems, the range of the timing seems fairly broad. Pressing X, X, (hold) X and then releasing creates a different result than X, (pause) X, (hold) X and release. To help players feel the rhythm, drums begin to pound when you string combos, signaling times to press the X button. It’s an almost tribal experience. And though the drums are initially jarring, their beat melds into the ambient noise quickly. It wasn’t long before it felt as if the music were in rhythm with my button taps and not the other way around. Blocking is also done with the X, simply by holding. This also powers you up for an attack, but each time you parry that charge is instantly dissipated. So you can’t block and then suddenly released a powerful strike.

In Lionhead Fable II Diaries (that you can download at the official Lionhead website or check below) we can even see some footage from various prototypes of the game, as the Combat Demo, world creation and other interesting development stuff. The earliest  Fable II prototype was created with the Fable I engine, but we still don’t have any screens from that version.

Also, Robert Seddon linked us to an article on Kotaku about pregnancy in games, where we can read about another removed feature from the game:

Technically, your female character in Fable II doesn’t get “pregnant” – you just get a cut scene that explains you gave birth and then the game resumes with a cradle in your house. It’s the same for male characters as it is for female. But that wasn’t the way that Lead Designer Peter Molyneux designed it.

“Originally we did plan to depict pregnancy in game with the female hero’s stomach expanding,” he said. Lionhead Studios decided to opt for a cut scene instead, though, after considering all the moral quandaries that come of having a six-month pregnant mom-to-be wielding a broadsword and getting cut up by bandits.

Thanks to Randy for the contribution!

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Hero (Midway Prototype) [Xbox 360 PS3 – Cancelled]

monokoma
12-04-2009
2 Comments

In 2008 Midway were working on various prototypes for the Xbox 360 and PS3: this one was a proto for a third person shooter / hack ‘n’ slash (that somehow reminds me of Phantom Dust), based on Unreal Engine 3 and inspired by Gears of War style cover system, that at the time was known as “Hero“. With the bankruptcy of the company, this project was cancelled but you can find a lot of info in the video below.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

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Microsoft, Xbox 360

Urchin (Rare Ltd.) [Xbox 360 – Cancelled]

monokoma
04-04-2009
6 Comments

Urchin was an adventure fantasy / horror game that was in development at Rare Ltd. for Xbox 360. A few pieces of concept art were revealed by Rare artist Ryan Firchau at the “Nordic Game Conference”, held in Malmö in Sweden in May 2008.

While details are scarce, it is known that Urchin was in development by the team that was responsible for Conker: Live and Reloaded. After that title, was released, they helped finishing Perfect Dark Zero for Xbox 360 launch before regrouping as the “Conker team” again. In late 2006, Urchin was cancelled after only a few months of work.

As Zenek has wrote on the Rare-Extreme Forum, it appears as if there was a Dumbot from Conker: Live & Reloaded named “Urchin Pig Girl”. From this little easter egg and from one of the concept arts leaked, we can speculate that the protagonist of Urchin was going to be that little girl with her pig, called Lilith. Other game characters were a professor (The Dean?), werewolves and zombies.

Some more info on this cancelled project were shared in an interview with Chris Seavor:

Well, Urchin was the little thing I always wanted to make and who knows may well still make one day (not called Urchin obviously)…… A lovely , creepy , beautiful and tight little fairy tale for those who felt short changed by Fable’s good v bad mechanic.. In Urchin, it was ALL about being bad :)

Urchin had a ton of concepts done, some design, and the whole story arc figured out… I’d planned it as 3 games, each with a cliffhanger ending.

Another interview from Eurogamer:

Chris Seavor: Yeah. I wanted a change and I asked them. They said, okay, we’ll get back to you. That’s when I started Urchin, which was a dark fairytale from the point of view of a character who was the baddie rather than a good character. It was in the mould of Fable. The hook was, it wasn’t about whether you were good or bad. It was about how bad you were. But it was moral in that badness is down to your point of view, which is how I managed to get it to work in terms of problems parents might have with it.

When you killed the princess and ripped open her guts to get her heart, which was one of the quests, on the face of it it looked like you were quite a bad character, but in reality you’d then find out the princess was an evil vampire character who was killing local girls. That was an example quest. That’s how we managed to pitch it so it was all right with all the ratings people. That would have been quite good. It was certainly different.

When were you making Urchin?

Chris Seavor: Straight after Live & Reloaded, for the Xbox 360. We did a load of stuff. We had the graphics looking great on that. We spent a good eight months on that. We had a fighting system I called “Dirty Fighting”. The girl was quite brutal. So when she fights she has to use everything. She’s not very strong so she has to be very clever. So she does things like kick them in the knackers and use traps. She had a pall, this pig, who you also used in quests. He was quite heavy and strong, and she was quite light. It was a kind of a Banjo-Kazooie dynamic in that one was helping the other and one had strengths and one had weaknesses. But it was also about the character.

We did the thing Molyneux said he was going to do with the dog in Fable. We had already done it with the pig in that it was also the thing that was your manual, the in-game help. He would tell you stuff and say, oh, that’s interesting, what’s over there? And off he’d run. It worked really well.

Chris Seavor: It was going along and going along, and Microsoft were quite interested and then they weren’t. Just at that point when we were going shall we do this or not, are we going to pitch this for a greenlight, Chris and Tim said, oh, do you want to do PD? I went, oh, all right then. So we carried on with that.

That was another one of those things where I look back and think, should I have done that? Should I have stuck to my guns? I don’t know. It’s hard to say.

Another interesting description of Urchin was written by Xellos in the Playtonic forum:

It was an game about a roughly 12-year old gothic female child. You would have a wild boar as a companion solving the game’s various obstacles and puzzles. He was quite heavy and strong, and the girl was quite light. It was a kind of a Banjo-Kazooie dynamic in that one was helping the other and one had strengths and one had weaknesses.

There was going to be a fighting system in place called “Dirty Fighting”. The girl was going to be quite brutal. When she fights she has to use everything. Since she’s not very strong, so she has to be very clever to survive. She would do things like kick her opponents in the balls, or use traps to kill them.

It was going be having a dark fairytale like story. For example: One of the quests would involve you killing a princess and ripping open her guts to get her heart, on the face of it it looked like you were quite a bad character, but in reality you’d then find out the princess was an evil vampire who was killing local girls.

Thanks to Oolon for the contribution!

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