New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Highlander [PC / PS3 / Xbox 360 – Cancelled]

Highlander is a canceled action-adventure game published by Eidos Interactive and developed by Widescreen Games, for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, from 2006 to 2008, based on the eponymous film franchise.

Initially, the attempt to develop a new Highlander game dated back well before this one. In September 2004, the company SCi Games managed to conclude an agreement with Davis-Panzer Productions, holder of the rights of the franchise. It was then Climax Studios which was responsible for developing a prototype for the Playstation 2. However, after the takeover of SCi by Eidos Interactive in May 2005, the project was, according to former Senior Programmer Marc Fascia, given to Widescreen Games before being put on-hold in August of the same year. The development was relaunched around the end of 2006, aiming for next generation’s hardwares, and officially announced in August 2007 during the Game Convention, although already in February of the same year, the preparation of a new Highlander game was leaked. During its official revelation, several details were disclosed:

“It will be a third-person action adventure that spans over 2000 years, giving you a chance to explore feudal Japan, medieval Scotland, a futuristic vision of New York and Pompeii before the historical volcanic eruption.

Similarly to the film, the aim will be to journey around the world and meet other immortal warriors in battle, lopping off their heads to win. You’ll have the choice of Katana, Claymore or Double to use, and be able to use various techniques to overpower your foe – like Resurrection, Chi Balance, Fireblade, Wind Fury, Stone Armour and other powered-up special attacks.

You’ll be the newcommer Owen Macleod, but come face to face with 77 other characters along the way – some familiar from the television series or films.

Widescreen is promising around 18 missions to tackle in general, and lots of ways to get around your environment: zip wires, dagger and traverse climbing, swan dives, free falls, cannonballs and beams.”

More information were shared in January 2008 alongside what was, for a long time, the only official video of the game:

“Publisher Eidos has officially announced that it will be bringing an Unreal Engine 3 game based on the popular movie and TV series Highlander to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC later this year. Eidos notes that the title, to be developed by Widescreen Games, will be written by TV series writer David Abramowitz, and will take series star Owen MacLeod “on a journey across multiple lands from first century fiery Pompeii, to futuristic New York to discover his destiny and explore the powers of immortality.” By nature of that immortality, Eidos says players will be able to exploit the unique powers it brings and “manipulate situations that death would normally prevent” such as channeling electricity and fire, impaling himself on enemy weapons to disarm them and falling from buildings to escape. The game will also feature “an advanced combat system, gamers will master a variety of Highlander swords including the Claymore, Katana, and Twin Gladius” which will “combine exciting swordplay with the Quickening powers of an Immortal.” MacLeod’s knowledge and strength will be enhanced with each other Immortal he beheads throughout the game.”

In March of the same year, it was an interview with Producer Gilles Baril, which explained in detail new points about the game, including its story, that appeared online:

Could you please reveal the beginning of the game’s plot, just a glimpse of the story?

G.B.: “The game starts in New York – large parts of the city are being evacuated but nobody knows why. The hero, Owen McLeod, is about to leave the city when several heavily armed men burst into his loft apartment. As the story unfolds, Owen finds out that a powerful immortal is the leader behind the attacks, searching for a mysterious artefact which was broken many years before into three fragments. Owen sets off after the fragments, sensing that his destiny is closely linked to this ancient artefact, he racks his memories for clues, memories which will plunge him into three different key periods of his past.”

Can you describe the different environments on the game and where it all takes place historically?

G.B.: “The game takes place in modern day New York where Owen must sift through his memories in order to unfold the story. These memory flashbacks take place in: Pompeii in the 1st Century AD, where, as a young gladiator, Owen meets his mentor who teaches him of his true nature and of the rules to the Game; The Highlands in the 9th Century where, in search of his origins, he befriends a fellow Immortal named Ryan, with whom he fights side by side against the Viking ravagers allied to the powerful Pict sorcerer Barak; and finally, Japan in the 14th Century, where, with his ally Methos, he protects the sanctuary of Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, a legendary blade, and fights Shinu, Lord of the Tengus, who seeks to make off with this sacred artefact.”

In the game will you leap between different time periods in history? Will the game also include an RPG element as you progress?

G.B.: “The game moves between New York to Owen’s memories in past time periods so you’ll be moving between different time periods as Owen tries to discover the key to what is happening to him in New York. We’ve kept to a good balance of navigation, combat and story. Each environment varies in terms of balance of these three elements. This is a tricky balance to get right but we’re happy with the outcome. There will also be an element of RPG to the game as you will be able to upgrade Owen’s combat and Quickening techniques as you play through the game, depending on the choices you make as you play.”

Can you explain how you will be able to upgrade your character?

G.B.: “The player can upgrade their player character, weapons and immortal Quickening techniques in two ways – by spending experience points earned in the game and by finding secret bonuses hidden in the levels. The player can earn extra experience points by using more skilled combat moves to finish off their opponents and by completing secondary objectives in the levels (for example, saving all the innocent Scottish villagers from being slaughtered by the Vikings in the Highlands). Upgrades enhance the strength of the weapons, the power and scope of the Quickening effects and increase the abilities of the player character.”

We understand that you can move both on rooftops and on the ground in the New York part of the game. Can you explain how this happens?

G.B.: “The game features levels where navigating deadly heights is crucial. One of these levels features a wind effect which will blow the character off unless the player is careful. The New York levels are pretty vast and do feature gameplay on the ground and higher levels/roofs, however we also have to take care to ensure the player doesn’t get lost, so there are some limits.”

How does the combat system work?

G.B.: “Each weapon has its own set of attacks and the player can create their own combos. This evolves further when Owen is in Fury mode which gives him much stronger attacks. Using the Weapon Mastery Quickening technique each weapon can also become even more destructive. We’re very confident that the combat experience will be easy for players to pick up and play and will also provide a real unique Highlander flavor.”

Will you fight other Immortals?

G.B.: “There are boss fights with other Immortals but we wanted to keep the Immortal fights special so in many parts of the game Owen will be fighting mortals. Some of the mortals are aware that Owen is an Immortal and have been hired to kill him, like the men invading his apartment in New York at the start of the game, whereas others are just generally up to no good like the Vikings invading the Scottish highlands in later levels.”

However, the game, initially planned for the summer of 2008, disappeared again from the radar and was no longer mentioned. We can see that several Widescreen employees stopped working on it around the time when it was supposed to be released. In February 2009, following the economic crisis, Eidos was bought by Square Enix to become Square Enix Europe. In April of the same year, some sources declared that David Abramowitz, during a convention dedicated to Highlander told that the game was postponed indefinitely following disagreements between Eidos and Davis-Panzer. In parallel, Widescreen was already working on a new project, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, before filing for bankruptcy in July 2009. Oddly enough, it was not until December 2010 that Square Enix confirmed the cancellation of the game, which could imply that after the shutdown of Widescreen, the publisher planned to relaunch the development of the game with a new developer.

It was never officially revealed why Highlander was canceled. In this comment section, an anonymous source claiming to have worked on the game indicate that it was finished but was of poor quality and would justify the delay announced by Abramowitz in April 2009, but this remains to this day only pure speculation. On the other hand, Alexis Madinier, one of the former developer on the game wrote on his LinkedIn profile that it was:

“canceled due to clash between publisher and IP Owner. At 2 months of the release…

Which could confirm the words of David Abramowitz during the convention. No further attempts to develop a new game based on the Highlander franchise have materialized after that one for now.

Special thanks to Wavy Mavis for providing all soundtracks initially composed by Richard Jacques for the game!

Article by Gil B.

Images:

Videos:

Official Highlander’ soundtrack by Richard Jacques. Thanks to Wavy Mavis and the timestamps, we can learn a bit more about the game.

Blood Will Tell (Dororo) — Beta [PS2]

Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu’s Dororo (known in Japan as Dororo) is a fantastic hack-and-slash game based on the timeless Dororo manga by renowned author Tezuka Osamu. The game was released exclusively on the PS2, and it sold very well compared to North America and Europe.

The game was originally titled Dororo before being released as Blood Will Tell in America and Europe, as shown in footage from E3 2003. Below are videos that show some differences between the 2003 build and the final release.

The first trailer with the working title Dororo:

The second intended logo and title for the game:

TGS 2003 Gameplay:

Key Differences:

  • Different attack animation for Hyakkimaru
  • Different HP HUD
  • Different attack animation for Dororo

F.E.A.R. 2 (Day 1 Studios) [PC / PS3 / Xbox 360 – Cancelled Pitch]

F.E.A.R. is a Horror First-Person Shooter developed by Monolith Productions for Vivendi Universal Games, under its Sierra Entertainment brand, and released in 2005. Considered by many to be the crown jewel on the games list of Monolith, the first F.E.A.R. was critically acclaimed upon its release thanks in particular to the quality of its Artificial Intelligence, to its graphics engine which featured a highly detailed particle system and complex lighting effects, to its visceral gameplay whose fights were inspired by scenes from Hard Boiled and The Matrix and highlighted by a feature inspired by Bullet Time, and finally, its horrific atmosphere inspired by Asian Horror such as Ring, Ju-On: The Grudge, The Eye or even Akira.

Unsurprisingly, with so much quality for its time, beside being a critical success and earning numerous awards, F.E.A.R. was also a commercial success selling over two million units worldwide, across the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It should therefore come as no surprise that a sequel was quickly put into development. This is where things get complicated. Officially revealed in May 2004 by Monolith, the first F.E.A.R., as mentioned above, was published by Vivendi whose contracts had already been signed. But in August of the same year, it was another publisher, Warner Bros. Games, which acquired Monolith. This will create for a few years a split regarding the ownership of the rights of the F.E.A.R. franchise. In broad terms, and as explained by 1UP back in 2007, Monolith and Warner owned the rights to the F.E.A.R. intellectual property and characters, and Vivendi owned the name “F.E.A.R.” As a result, any non-Vivendi game set in the F.E.A.R. universe could use the characters and events from the original game, but could not be called F.E.A.R. At the same time, any non-Warner game set in the F.E.A.R. universe could not use the characters and events from the original game, but could be called F.E.A.R.

In February 2006, Monolith began to work on a sequel of F.E.A.R. simply named Project Origin, in reference to a key plot element from the first game. It was not until September 2008, after 2 and a half years of development, that Vivendi made the decision to give back the F.E.A.R. brand to Warner. Subsequently, Project Origin was renamed F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, as stated by IGN:

It’s a bit funny how the corporate world works. In 2005, Sierra and Monolith put out an acclaimed first-person shooter called F.E.A.R. that blended elements of Japanese-style horror with kinetic gunplay. But prior to that, in 2004, Monolith was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which meant that things would get complicated for any follow-up. Sierra owned the name F.E.A.R., but Monolith was the company responsible for actually making it. So what happened next was a bit comical. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced Project Origin, a game that would effectively be the spiritual successor to F.E.A.R., while Sierra would make F.E.A.R. 2 with another developer.

And then came 2008. Vivendi Universal Games, the parent organization of Sierra, merged with Activision to become the largest third-party publisher in the world. VUG’s crown jewel, of course, is Blizzard, the studio responsible for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo. Sierra’s lineup was examined, and most of its games were recently dropped. Indeed, Sierra’s future is in doubt.

Senseing an opportunity, Warner Bros. and Monolith struck, and they are announcing today that they have acquired the F.E.A.R. name, meaning that the creator of F.E.A.R. once again has access to the name. To that effect, Project Origin is being renamed to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

While a F.E.A.R. 2 was officially in development for Vivendi, it was, for many years, totally unknown what could it be and which company had the task to make the game.

It wasn’t until October 7th, 2021 that YouTuber Dead Domain uncovered and shared information about that F.E.A.R. 2. Through investigative work regarding initially a documentary about the troubled development of F.3.A.R., they were able to get in touch with Art Director Heinz Schuller and Narrative Designer Cory Lanham, both working at Day 1 Studios, the company chosen by Warner for the making of F.3.A.R., the final official game in the main series. Today, thanks to them, Unseen64 has the authorization to share the information collected by them regarding this F.E.A.R. 2 by Day 1, revealed in the documentary F.E.A.R. 3: Aftermath. We thank them very much and, mainly, keep in mind that all the credit goes to them.

The Day 1 game began its development somewhere between the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring 2007, was loosely inspired by the Philadelphia Experiment, and was to depict a new phasing technology falling into the wrong hands and being used to open up a passage to and from a supernatural parallel universe called the World Behind the Walls. To close it, a F.E.A.R. squad is deployed. The concept arts showing characters, enemies and environments that you could see in the video, alongside our gallery below were mainly the work of Character & Concept Artist Grant Hillier. As Dead Domain pointed out on the environments of the World Behind the Walls:

The concepts for the World Behind the Walls show skeletal otherwordly structures and unreal geometry. There are even some that feature what appear to be ambient wildlife.

Another interesting piece of trivia about this F.E.A.R. 2 concerns the Phase Soldier, an enemy that would be able to shift between realities. The original concepts depict them as members of the US Navy, we could make an assumption that it was to emphasize the inspiration taken from the Philadelphia Experiment.

When the F.E.A.R. name was re-acquired by Monolith and Warner back in September 2008, the work done by Day 1 for F.E.A.R. 2 was cancelled by Warner as, mentionned above, Project Origin became the official sequel to the first F.E.A.R. They decided nevertheless to give the development of a third F.E.A.R. game to Day 1. Heinz Schuller explained:

(…) because of that, they decided ‘okay, we’re going to make Project Origin F.E.A.R. 2, and we’re going to make the game that you guys working on will become F.E.A.R. 3’. What our F.E.A.R. 3 started out as evolved quite a bit from when we started it until we ended it. Suddenly we had all the F.E.A.R. universe back: we could use all the characters from F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2.: Project Origin. So that was pretty much a total reboot of the narrative of our game. All of our sort of Phase Soldiers and sort of parallel universe stuff went away.

Still according to Heinz Schuller, the Phase Soldier is the only surviving element of their F.E.A.R. 2 that was transferred to the final version of F.3.A.R., although totally redesigned:

We did take along this idea of phasing and technology that would allow soldiers to essentially beam in and out of our world. So one of the enemies in F.3.A.R. is this heavy Phase Soldier. He can zap into a scene and create an energy field and spawn soldiers around him. I think that was the only element that really survived from our F.E.A.R. 2.

The rest of this documentary focuses on the entire development of F.3.A.R., based on various testimonials from former Day 1 developers. It is worth mentioning that the game still had some changes. Thus, we can learn that some levels never got past the concept art stage such as an underground level with the streets above viewable through holes in the ceilings, with hallways showing the Old City set up with mannequins for tourist attraction, or a ferry ride serving as the penultimate level of the campaign where the two protagonists were transported to the island where the Project Origin’s laboratory is located. According to the art style guide, this level should have been more oriented towards exploration and horror than action, with Point Man who would have been in spectral form just like Paxton Fettel. We can also add that the latter went through various design for his appearance, which was, in the beginning, more focused on a ghoulish aspect:

The narration was also modified on certain points, such as for example the opening sequence which, according to Cory Lanham, was to take place in the middle of the game, in what is the equivalent of Interval 05 – Tower in the final title, before returning the player back during subsequent missions to explain why we find ourselves in this situation. A narrative process called In Media Res, notably used in God of War: Ascension:

(…) I had written and pitched a whole idea for the opening of the game, I think it was originally supposed to open like somewhere towards the latter part of the game, it’s like a preview of what’s coming and then we take you and put you back 12 hours earlier or whatever. So I had written this whole sequence that bounced back and forth between that sort of high action huge moment like the one around the space needle, where it was supposed to open originally, and then it sort of goes back to the Favela at the beginning. It would go back and forth between a cinematic of Alma giving birth to the two brothers, and then cut, and then just keep coming back to the gameplay of lots of high action. And then, the whole idea was to carry the sound effect of the EKG through the transition between the cinematic with the giving birth stuff and the high action stuff, there would be always that sound effect in the background that sort of would be tied in. But it was too expensive basically. That was what it boiled down to, and I think also the guys from Monolith really had a vision that they wanted to execute on, so it really didn’t fit in what they were thinking about doing so.

Another idea that didn’t make the final cut was also to base the entire campaign in South America, especially in the favelas, but as Warner became more and more implicated in the development of F.3.A.R., that idea was dropped in favor of locations inspired by cities from the Washington state, such as Seattle. Heinz Schuller recollected:

Originally, we wanted to base the whole narrative in South America. At the end of F.E.A.R. the idea was Point Man went and holed up in South America for the entire duration of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. (…) We thought we were all really smart by coming up with this really cool original premise, and then Modern Warfare 2 came out and was based in favelas and then the Hulk movie came out which was also based there. But then, Warner had started to get, with T.J. Wagner, working out the locations and they wanted to move the game narrative up to Pacific Northwest, in a post-apocalyptic version of Seattle, where the original nuke went off at the end of F.E.A.R. We fought a lot of battles to try to keep as much of the favelas stuff in, but it ended up just being the first level of the game, so if you remember, you spawn in a prison in South America and you have to break your way out. Even though a lot of that was reworked, that was kind of still the anchor to our first draft of F.3.A.R.

As we can read on the old blog of Art Manager Stephen Langmead, it seems the art direction made by Day 1 was also reworked, this time by Exis Interactive:

(…) We weren’t happy with the quality so we were having them redone by our outsourcer Exis Interactive, who we incredible to work with.

In the screenshots in the last gallery below, we can see some redesigns here and there such as the HUD, the weapons or the airport level which would have made us move in a plane full of dead bodies and potentially what could be appears as an NPC.

F.3.A.R. was finally released in June 2011 after being delayed numerous times and received “mixed or average” reviews from the press. It seems the game’s sales were disappointing, and the F.E.A.R. franchise has been on hiatus since then.

Although considered as the black sheep of the franchise today, it is difficult not to feel a certain sympathy for the developers at Day 1 Studios who had to endure years of reboots in addition to crunches and burnouts. We may not like F.3.A.R. for what it is, but we can’t really blame the members of Day 1 who tried their best despite numerous setbacks hence the final result.

From then on, Unseen64 would like to thank through this article Heinz Schuller, Cory Lanham, Stephen Dinehart, Matt Mason, Chris Julian, Greg Ruddick, Matthew Singer as well as all the other members of Day 1 who were directly or indirectly involved in the development of F.3.A.R., and above all, a very special thanks to Dead Domain for having kindly accepted that we could transcribe certain parts of their documentary for this article.

Day 1’s F.E.A.R. 2 images:

F.3.A.R. Concept arts from cut levels:

F.3.A.R. screenshots’ version by Day 1 Studios showing cut or modified levels:

Videos:

Gameplay prototype before the art reboot made by Exis Interactive. Both videos provided by Art Director Heinz Schuller.

Dead to Rights [PS2] — Beta

Dead to Rights was a fantastic third-person shooter inspired by many Hong Kong and action noir thrillers. The game sold more than 500k copies in its prime and was well-received by critics and players alike. This article takes a trek back to the past, covering some of the changes as seen in the E3 2001 footage.

Some of the changes are the following:

  • Different running animation
  • Different combat moves
  • Different clothes
  • Different environment
  • Special finishing moves are absent from the final game
  • Different HUD for both your HP and weapons
  • Different aim pointer

Images:

Video

Dead Unity [PC / PSX – Cancelled]

Dead Unity is a cancelled futuristic Sci-Fi Action/Survival Horror game that was in development from 1996 to 1998 by Aramat Productions and would have been published by THQ for the PC and the Playstation. According to former developers, the gameplay was somewhat of a “sci-fi Resident Evil clone“.

The game placed the player as an enhanced human, named Works, in the city of Unity who has to survive from deadly cyborgs and robots from a computer generated Artificial Intelligence called Global Mediation Machine who went berserk.

Dead Unity was officially announced in February 1997 by THQ, following a deal with Aramat Productions, as we can read on IGN:

T*HQ announced Friday that it has signed an agreement with entertainment software developer, Aramat Productions Inc., to develop and publish Dead Unity, a 3-D science-fiction adventure game.

The game is promised to be an immersive, real-time 3D adventure game, set in alternate universe.

Dead Unity should be released in first quarter, 1998.

Further details were shared, again by THQ, at E3 of the same year during the publisher’s line-up announcement:

Dead Unity – For the Sony PlayStation, PC CD-ROM, scheduled to be launched 1998 – A 3-D rendered graphic adventure that submerges players in an alternate reality where they assume the identity of the artificially enhanced human, Works, as he attempts to power down the massive computer core of the global mediation machine.

In October 1997, an issue from Computer Games Strategy Plus detailed features and background about the project:

(…) You play Works, an “artificially enhanced human” who must power down the immense computer core of an unfathomable global mediation machine. In an alternate reality, you will face 9-foot tall metal giants called Fleshies, as well as the masterful and diabolical core of the computer itself, in a blowout showdown shoot-em up. Works may choose from over 100 weapons and enhancements that he may interchange at the touch of an ARM (Automatic Reconfigurable Munitions). That’s over 100 ways to slice, dice, maim, mutilate, impale, mangle and cripple over 30 original enemy characters. Based upon the player’s choices, there are multiple story outcomes. The game utilizes a “unity-engine” for 3-D movement through over 400 rendered scenes including environments such as an underground dam, a robot assembly plant carved out of a mountain and a 250 story skyscraper. It also features dynamically changing environments, such as breaking windows, bullet holes in walls and day to night lighting shifts.

After that, Dead Unity didn’t reappear until May 1998 for another THQ’s line-up announcement:

“Dead UnityÔ “ The new standard in real-time, 3D rendered graphic adventures, “Dead Unity” immerses players in a futuristic world of fast-paced action and hair-raising suspense with its extremely detailed story, enthralling characters, riveting game play and unsurpassed graphic quality. (Scheduled for launch in October 1998.)

The issue from August 1998 of Playstation Magazine was the last one in which the game was mentioned before totally disappearing from the surface for years.

In August 2010, the blog of CanOfTheRelics, shared two videos of the game alongside development stories from an Aramat’s anonymous ex-developer: 

There are no Playable demos floating around. All the screenshots you seen in magazine ads, THQ promos…they were all mock ups. I designed the story for the project which was very complex, I was also Art Director and eventually producer on it before THQ pulled the plug with it. Long story short, Aramat was a new company and we had some really green programmers. It took over a year just to get a simple animation exporter out of them let alone AI, physics, game logic, etc…

The first E3 we put together that Video Demo that ran on monitors. The second year we “almost” had something remotely playable…but the owner of the company derailed my efforts to get actual game play in place in favor of having animated texture overlays to make spinning fans on screen and pretty much single handedly destroyed our chances with salvaging our relationship with THQ. The demo was full of bugs and you couldn’t even play it.

After I got back from E3 that year, I washed my hands of the project and started working on Arch Gothic. I put together a technology demo for it to show the rest of the company how it was done. With that technology they did manage to finish a working build for Dead Unity with a character traversing through a few rooms with weapons and some rudimentary AI…but it was too little too late. THQ pulled funding for the project and the company went under. Myself and 2 others primary to the company at that time have what was that playable build, but there is nothing floating around. You need special hardware just to play these builds and there isn’t much there. A hall and a couple connecting rooms with some robots in them.

There was a ton of art made…that’s really all that was done on it the whole time it was in development. The engineering staff just spun their wheels through most of production.

So that’s basically the story…

Very few information seems to be available about Dead Unity’s development company. Aramat Productions was established in Wilsonville, Oregon, in June 1996 by Dane Emerson, who previously worked at Nintendo of America and Lobotomy Software. According to his LinkedIn profile, the company counted 29 people in total and worked on PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn projects for THQ, but also Playmates Interactive. By searching for other LinkedIn profiles, we can learn that Aramat had numerous cancelled projects, most of them still totally unknown to this day. Alongside the mysterious Arch Gothic mentionned above, we could add, for instance, that Jon Ediger, who was Software Engineer for 7 months within the company, indicates having worked on a “Sony PlayStation RPG video game” until February 1999, while 3D Artist Mark Thurow and Level Artist Brian Pape indicates having worked on Decopolis, a project “essentially similar to ‘Dead Unity’” according to Thurow. Jesse Perrin who was Game & Tools Programmer during his time at Aramat worked on “Femme Fatale: a Tekken clone“. Finally, John Stenersen, who was Technical Director from 1996 to 1998 for Aramat, depicted this period as a less than complimentary memory:

Unwittingly, I was hired to manage a group of under-educated, non-professional, inexperienced programmers and high school dropouts in an attempt to create an all-female character fighting game for the Playstation (Femme Fatale). The publisher collapsed and the game was cancelled. We then focused on a DirectX 5 horror game similar to Alone in the Dark (Dead Unity) but only managed the first design milestone when it became clear the company would shutter soon.

Still according to Dane Emerson’s LinkedIn profile, it seems Aramat Productions ceased operations in December 1999. In the end, the company never produced any games.

Dead Unity images:

Decopolis images:

Video: