Beta + Cancelled Action Adventure Video Games

A World in My Attic, sometimes referred as The World in My Attic, and formerly known as Incarnate, is a cancelled Third Person action Roguelike hybrid game developed by Defiant Development around 2018-2019. The game was scheduled for Q1 2021 for “all platforms” which means PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One but also could be Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5.

The game was revealed during its cancellation back in July 2019 when Defiant Development announced it was ceasing development of brand new titles to focus on updates of their already shipped games: Hand of Fate and Hand of Fate 2:

The maker of the Hand of Fate deck-building/action series is “ceasing development of new titles,” saying that its approach to making games, which sustained a nine-year run, hasn’t been adaptable to a fast and ever-changing industry.
Defiant Development began in 2010 as an effort to make “a studio model in Australia that would thrive without being dependent on international ownership,” studio founder Morgan Jaffit wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “We set out without knowing where the journey will take us, and we do so knowing that the unknown is not always safe. That is a risky way to make games, and we knew that.”
(…)
“The games market has changed in ways both big and small in the nine years we’ve been in business,” Jaffitt wrote. “We have not been able to change quickly enough to continue with them.”
Jaffitt closed his remarks by linking to a video of A World in My Attic, the incomplete game the studio had been working on at the time of yesterday’s announcement.

Regarding A World in My Attic and its concept, Kotaku wrote:

The World In My Attic would supposedly follow a family as they started “a new life in a new home,” only to discover “a strange board game” there known as Hexes & Heroes. This board game would act as “a bridge to a fantastic world,” complete with the requisite fantasy tropes one might expect from a riff on the iconic Dungeons & Dragons alliteration.
Much like Defiant’s previous work on the Hand of Fate series, The World In My Attic appears to blend both tabletop strategy with action-adventure set pieces. Where the former focused on deck-building, however, the latter would presumably have featured a world created with the distinct hex pieces seen in tabletop games like Settlers of Catan. In the short preview above, a warrior-type character can be seen traversing a landscape made up of these six-sided segments and, at one point, a large orc or troll is shown being placed on the “real world” game board before it appears in the fantasy setting.

After the shutdown of Defiant Development, numerous ex-developers, including Morgan Jaffit, will found Spitfire Interactive, currently developping Hand of Fate: Hordes, planned to release this month.

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Unseen News

Austin Powers [PS2] – Cancelled

Yassine Bakrim

11-05-2025

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Austin Powers was an action-adventure game in development by n-Space and was intended to be published by Rockstar Games exclusively for the PS2. Development started around the late days of 1999, and was silently cancelled sometime in 2003. Take-Two officially announced on February 27, 2001, that they were delaying the game to 2002. And since then, nobody has heard anything from the game.

From IGN’s write-up, we get to have a glimpse at what the game was going to be all about:

“Being developed by n-Space, the team responsible for Danger Girl and both third-person Duke Nukem adventures on the PlayStation, the as-yet-unnamed Austin Powers adventure was to feature dancing, photography, and mini-games in addition to a multi-character third-person action core — in theory, you’d be able to play as Powers, Felicity Shagwell, Fat Bastard, and all the rest of the movie’s cast. It’s likely that the game will see some reworking, though, in order to sync better with the theme of the next movie. The delay should also give n-Space a little more breathing room in its crowded development schedule, which includes the first PS2 Duke Nukem game, also to be published by Take-Two.”

Bear in mind, this game had no link to Mojo Rally whatsoever. This was to be a separate game in the Austin Powers franchise.

Unseen News

Alter Echo [PS2/Xbox] – Beta

Yassine Bakrim

11-05-2025

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Alter Echo was a strange, ambitious beast—an action-adventure title that dared to fuse multiple gameplay systems into something boldly experimental. It had style, ideas, and a confident strut all its own. But despite all this, the game didn’t walk away with awards. THQ’s gamble didn’t pay off commercially, and Alter Echo quietly faded into obscurity—at least for a while. Years later, it would resurface as a cult favourite, remembered by those who stumbled onto it as something genuinely ahead of its time.

But before Alter Echo became the shape-shifting, time-bending spectacle it’s now remembered as, it went through some major changes in its earliest form.

Back in its early development days, the game looked—and played—differently. The camera system mirrored that of Devil May Cry, relying on fixed cinematic angles to introduce players to action. Nevin, the game’s protagonist, was also nearly unrecognisable: a different face, a different suit, and different visual effects altogether. It was only after internal feedback from a THQ producer, who pointed out the visibility issues caused by the original camera, that Outrage made a drastic shift. The decision not only overhauled the game’s visual design but also impacted its performance, cutting the framerate from the intended slick 60 frames per second down to 30.

With the new direction in place, Alter Echo moved to a fully controllable 3D camera, and Nevin received his final redesign. His allies, Arana and Stom, still wore the original red/orange suits late into development—until the team finally settled on their now-iconic bluish armour for the retail release.

Apart from the visual differences, in the early E3 trailers shown, the time dilation for Nevin was much slower than the final release. There were different gunshot and slashing effects as well as different icons for the Time Dilation. The HUD colour was different. The running and jumping animations for Nevin were also different. Below, you’ll find a comprehensive gallery of the early changes, and more!

Early Footage of Alter Echo Build:

Later Build:

Concept Sketches

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This video contains info on the early look at Nevin and some different environments. Here they are:

The walls Nevin uses to climb are green. In the final release, they’re blue.
The legs of the agile form are green. They’re black in the final release
Gun form has a sort of projectile that Nevin throws around, and it ricochets. In the final release, it is like a plasma orb.

Fan-documentary containing insights from Lead Designer Andy Crosby

Unseen News

Sphinx and The Cursed Mummy 2 [PS2] — Shelved

Yassine Bakrim

25-11-2024

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Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is a fun 3D action-adventure developed by Eurocom and released by THQ back in 2003 for Xbox, GameCube and PS2. The game was a critical success with many praising its art style, gameplay, music and story. However, the game didn’t do well sales-wise. Eventually, the game’s sequel was never greenlit by THQ. There were several attempts to make the sequel happen by making a J2ME mobile game, and work on an Xbox 360 port was in development back in 2006-2007 before it was cancelled altogether. Eight Pixels Square, which is comprised of ex-Eurocom employees, tried to make an infinite runner-type game for iPhones, but that one was also cancelled.

Sphinx 2 never got past the concept phase as THQ was not interested in greenlighting the sequel after the game’s disappointing sales. A few sketches were made, and that was it.

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Fan-documentary detailing the inception of Sphinx & the Cursed Mummy and details on the sequel

Credit: the Sphinx Community

Unseen News

Brave 2 (PS2) — Cancelled Sequel

Yassine Bakrim

01-09-2024

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Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer is a relatively unknown 3D action-adventure developed by Vis Entertainment and released by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in 2005. The game was released late into the PS2’s lifespan and couldn’t compete with the many blockbuster hits of yore. Consequently, the game fell into obscurity due to poor marketing, critical acclaim, and sales. Eventually, Vis Entertainment shut down in 2005, laying off all of its employees in the process.

However, before Vis Entertainment’s demise, the company was actually working on a sequel that was 25% complete according to producer Robbie Graham. Not only this but according to assistant director Pete Shea, the sequel was going to be an open-world action adventure with a sophisticated AI wild-life experience akin to what Far Cry 2 managed to achieve. All in all, it was envisioned as a step above its predecessor. Unfortunately, the sequel was never finished and neither any images of it were preserved online. All that remains is a mention of Brave 2 in the archived portfolio blog of artist Mathew Cooling.

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Not only this, but after reaching out to the main writer Brian Gomez, he said Brave was, at one point, planned to receive a TV Series adaptation. Unfortunately, that idea never came to fruition. It seems that Vis Entertainment had good plans for Brave, but they never materialized.

A video exists documenting the history of Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer in full detail, covering how it all began, the main inspiration and other misc tidbits you might find interesting.

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Credit goes to Evan Hanley for finding the archived portfolio blog of Mathew Cooling.