News on Cancelled Video Games & Lost Media

The Insider: Back in Black is a cancelled adventure game that was in development for PC between 1998 and 2001 by french company Dramaera (AKA In-Visio or Dæsign). The game’s protagonist was Simon Blurr, an international thief in search of new pieces for his private art collection. Set in 1920s Paris, The Insider was conceived as an ambitious exploration – simulation game, where each character had its own live and emotions, artificial intelligence and daily routine, probably following an internal clock.

Players could move around different buildings of Paris to plan their next robbery, by observing streets, houses, museums and people who live in them. French publisher Canal+Multimédia was initially supporting the team, but in March 2000 they closed their relationship with Dramaera because their project was not proceeding as expected. As we can read on Mobygames:

“The company then signed a contract with index+ in June 2000 with an investment for the game and an additional financial promise to cover the costs to port the game to the PlayStation 2. The companies knew each other well, as Réunion des Musées Nationaux had tasked Dramæra to create the game Paris 1313: The Mystery of Notre-Dame Cathedral, published by index+.
A few weeks after the contract however, index+ was sold to Wanadoo Edition. The relationship quickly deteriorated when Wanadoo decided to focus on more mainstream products. The Insider, the project Dramæra had been working since 1998 with an investment of € 900,000, was to be turned into a classic adventure game with a new team. Jean-Noël Portugal refused and because of this the studio ran into financial troubles at the end of 2001.”

We don’t know how much of the game was dove before its cancellation, but it would be interesting to see a prototype leaked one day, to understand what the team was able to achieve.

Images:

Videos:

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Others, PC / MAC

Western Lords [GBA, Nintendo DS, PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

24-05-2020

5 Comments

Western Lords is a cancelled Old-West RPG in development around 2004 by Blossomsoft for GBA, Nintendo DS and PC. In its initial version it looked like a classic 16-bit 2D RPG, but it seems it was later rebooted in 3D for Nintendo DS before being finally canned.

As we can read in some old messages in their (now closed) forum, the game was related to another unreleased game titled “Sagrada Guardians”:

“We’re currently working on a new game project titled Western Lords. Note, however: even though Sagrada Guardians was once titled Western Lords in the past (and then changed due to the theme issue), these games are not the same.
While Sagrada Guardians focus on ‘the cities made of gold’ theme, Western Lords will focus more on outlaws and cowboys in a merciless environment similar to Mexico. However, some story elements of Sagrada Guardians will be introduced via Western Lords.
Even if Sagrada Guardians and Western Lords shouldn’t be considered as the same series, they will be running in parallel to one another. Western Lords will have an entire new cast of characters, and should take place approximately one century before Sagrada Guardians on the same world. Take note that the environment will be darker unlike the fantastic ambiance of Sagrada Guardians. This will remind everyone how harsh the western era looked like (well, at least in literature!).
We hope to complete the game during this coming winter, exactly as we did with Oracle Adventure with the creative side. The game will possibly be sold for around $25 on PC. We’re also planning multi-languages, English and French as initial languages.
Also key members of Sagrada Guardians will be working on Western Lords. For instance, Xavier Dang will be the main composer and William Knight will be in charge of the dialogues. Min ‘keiii’ Kwon will possibly stay on as the artwork designer, though this is unconfirmed as of yet. “

The game was cancelled when the team was disbanded, as confirmed by the team leader on their old website:

“It was the very first project I created back around 2004. The Game Boy Advance and later the Nintendo DS were the main targeted platforms. Sadly, the team disbanded because of my inexperience and since then I’ve been honing my skills to become a one-man team. Fact is, the release of Eternal Eden in 2008 was some sort of Plan B to get Western Lords back on track. But then things escalated to Plan C, etc. I still intend to revive this project with a different style after 2016, if things go well.”

Blossomsoft also worked on other interesting cancelled games such as Mimic Book and GUNNARr (both for Nintendo DS). In 2016 an early prototype version of Western Lord GBA was found and preserved: you can download it from here.

In 2008 Blossomsoft released a different RPG titled “Eternal Eden” on PC as their first commercial project. As of 2020 it seems Western Lords was resurrected and it’s now planned to be released on Nintendo Switch in the future.

Images:

Videos:

Others, PC / MAC

Rampage X (2014) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

22-05-2020

3 Comments

Rampage X is a cancelled action game in the cult-classic Rampage series, which was in development by Appy Entertainment around 2014, planned to be published on PC by Warner Bros Games. It was meant to be a new reboot of the classic series while keeping its main mechanics, after the release of Rampage: Total Destruction by Midway Games in 2006. The team conceived some new fun mechanics (such as mutation-customizations for your monster), classic power-ups, huge bosses and naturally a multiplayer mode in VS and coop:

8 playable giant monsters
8 international cities
34 custom mutations
online and local multiplayer

Farzad Varahramyan was Rampage X’s Creative Visual Director and from his website (also on ArtStation) we can read some more details on this lost project:

“Warner Bros. had asked Appy to reinvent for them RAMPAGE, from their 80’s treasure chest of arcade hits. Our team of 12 developed the fully realized and functioning playable prototype in 6 months.
Rampage X is a fun fueled mayhem and destruction filled romp through a fully destructible and interactive environment. If you could touch it you could destroy it or use it to destroy!
The visual DNA we developed for it was hyper-real, based on stop motion animated movies, with characters, environments and props with exaggerated proportions and real-ish textures and material qualities.”

Huge thanks to Farzad for his help in preserving these screenshots, footage and info on the game!

Images:

Videos:

Others, PC / MAC

Future Killer (Futrix Studios) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

14-05-2020

6 Comments

Future Killer is a cancelled sci-fi FPS that was in development around 2004 – 2006 by Futrix Studios, a team funded by former Ritual Entertainment level designer Thearrel McKinney. It would have probably been similar to other sci-fi horror titles such as Doom 3 and Resistance: Fall of Man, plus light “metroidvania” mechanics and featuring creepy alien enemies and teammates who could help or betray you. As we can read from the old Futrix Studios website:

“The first is an FPS game for the PC titled, “Future Killer”. Set in a futuristic earth setting, you are the only survivor of a failed genetic experiment. The experiments were developed by the government to produce work clones in an attempt to build a New Earth as their means of escaping a dying world from an alien invasion. The engine being used for the game is being kept under wraps until further development.”

In 2005 Gamecloud published an interview with McKinney where he shared some more details on Future Killer:

“Future Killer is a sci-fi FPS game based on a dying earth set in the future. The main character Yuen is the only survivor of the N.B.H. (New Breed Human) experiments conducted by the government. Playing the role of Yuen, you find yourself waking up in the middle of an alien invasion. Not knowing what has happened, you become informed by the people who find you, then set out to accomplish your different missions, find out why you were created and stop further invasion of the unknown alien race. Throughout the game, you team up with groups of human survivors, some of which can aid or betray you. Overall, there’s a number of plot twists in it that should catch the player by surprise. You have a pretty unique arsenal at your disposal, some of which can be upgraded by finding various items and modifying your weapons. That’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Yuen also has special abilities that the player must use in order to progress through the game. We don’t want to give too much away right now, but we’re hoping that once players play through it, they’ll walk away feeling good from a unique gaming experience and not let down.”

At the same time Futrix Studios were also working on a fantasy first-person adventure for cellphones titled, “Deadly Gates”. In the end it seems they were not able to find a publisher interested in funding their projects: the team disbanded and all of their games got canned.

Thanks to Dan, Grzegzolka and LiqMat for the contributions!

Images:

Others, PC / MAC

Ascension (Volitant Assault) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

13-05-2020

6 Comments

Ascension (AKA Volitant Assault) is a cancelled community-based online FPS that was in development around 2006 – 2007 by RenWerX, a team previously known for a few popular Tribes mods. By looking at footage and screenshots available it seems the game would have indeed been inspired by Tribes, with huge maps, jetpacks and vehicles in team VS team online matches.

Essentially RenWerx conceived an open, crowd-developer online multiplayer FPS, to create a better Tribes experience for hardcore players. As we can read in their old website:

“Renwerx has revealed that the final release title for its upcoming game will be ‘Ascension’, replacing the previous working title ‘Volitant Assault’. The name Ascension alludes to the freedom of movement afforded by the universal jetpack featured in the game, and also indicates a tangible evolution from past games of the genre.
Ascension is being described as an online ‘FPS+Z’ (First Person Shooter with advanced character movement on the Z axis). FPS+Z games typically use jetpacks to propel players through the air and across extreme terrain in a variety of game-types such as CTF, Rabbit, and Siege. The Renwerx game combines exhilarating freedom of movement with team-oriented gameplay to immerse its players in fantastic new worlds without limits.
Renwerx Project Lead, Nick “Novanix” Daum explains, “Some folks have played games like this in the past, but the vast majority of online gamers are still out there slogging it for miles across boring terrain. These gamers are going to find a liberating new experience thanks to the FPS+Z gameplay in Ascension.”

As you can imagine in the early ‘00s it was not as easy to develop such a game and in the end Renwerx had to give up their dreams and hopes.

A playable beta was shared by fans, and you can download it from here.

Thanks to Dan for the contribution!

Images: