No Cliche

Gutherman Project: Toy Commander [Beta – Dreamcast]

Gutherman Project was the working title of Toy Commander, a Dreamcast action game developed by No Clichè and published by Sega, released in North America on September 1999.

Several magazines and online publications mentioned Gutherman as one of the launching titles (along with Agartha) for the Dreamcast. According to futuregamez.net:

No Cliché have released some details about 2 Dreamcast projects on their site. Firstly, they have an action game called Gutherman where “aim of the game is to drive vehicles through several breathtaking missions“. The second title is an horror-adventure game called Agartha which apparently will use “a new innovative character control”. Both titles will be launched with the Dreamcast in August.

The magazine Computer And Videogames (issue 212) mentioned (with the title Gutherman: Toy Commander) “some kind of Mario-style kids platforming game“:

gutherman-cvg212

Through the archived version of No Clichè’s website (everything is in the News archive 98/99) we can have a glimpse of the development process of Toy Commander:

Mercredi 30 Septembre 1998:
La photo mystere du projet Gutherman 
Lundi 1 Mars :
Les beta-tests du Projet Gutherman ont commencé
Mardi 27 Avril :
Le “Projet Gutherman” sortira sous le nom de “TOY COMMANDER”
Mercredi 12 Mai :
“TOY COMMANDER” sera présent à l’Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) sur le stand de Sega.

If you know where we can find the mysterious screenshot of Project Gutherman drop us an e-mail!.

Magazine Scans:

Computer_and_Video_Games_Issue_211_1999-06_EMAP_Images_GB_0068 Computer_and_Video_Games_Issue_212_1999-07_EMAP_Images_GB_0075 

Castle! Castle! [GameCube / PC – Cancelled]

Castle! Castle! is a prototype for a cancelled game in development for PC and Gamecube at F4 (formerly known as F4-Toys),  a French video game developer based in Paris composed of former staffers from Adeline Team and No Cliche, including Frederick Raynal. It seems that it was going to be a real-time strategy game / tower defense, where the players would have had to build and protect their castles, but sadly the project was cancelled. This could have been an evolution of another F4 proto, know as Pocket Castle.

Thanks to Jay for the english corrections!

Images: 

Agartha [Dreamcast – Cancelled]

aghartadclogo.jpg

Agartha is a cancelled horror adventure that was planned by the French software house No Cliche (author of titles like Toy Commander) for the Sega Dreamcast. Development began in 2000 and the game promised to have an interesting plot and gameplay:

During the winter of 1929 in a Romanian village that was partially destroyed by a landslide that occurred during a mysterious earthquake, a subterranean city exists called Agartha. This is where evil is being kept prisoner and is desperate to escape. Kirk the human hero will encounter a series of characters from villages, the living dead, fanatics from an evil sect, monsters, demons, solider monks, priests, archangels and the Sentinel who is the ultimate personification of evil. As Kirk you can decide to save as many innocent people as possible or to trigger the arrival of chaos on earth. As Kirk’s morals waver between good and evil, this ambiguity changes the aims of the adventure and the narration of the story.

Agartha’s gameplay was probably going to be similar to Alone in the Dark, D2 and Silent Hill, players had to explore the snowed mountains and villages, resolving puzzles and fighting against monsters / demons that lived in there. The game progress was influenced by the players’ choices, which could have decided whether to help innocent people and seal the evil town, or let them to die and help demons to destroy our planet. An online mode of some sort could have been planned too.

No Cliche’s horror adventure could have been an awesome addition to the Dreamcast’s library, however in 2001, Sega went out of the console business. Sadly No Cliche had to cancel Agartha, close down and laid off most of its staff.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images:

Videos: