RTS

Good & Evil [PC – Cancelled]

Good & Evil is a cancelled Action RPG / RTS that was in development by Cavedog Entertainment / Humongous Entertainment by a team leaded by Ron Gilbert, a game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. The project was cancelled when Cavedog’s main company, GT Interactive, fell into debt.

As Good & Evil was still in early development, GT saw Cavedog’s game as another economic risk and decided to stop the project in fall of 1999. GT Interactive was then purchased by Infogrames and the Cavedog label was discarded by Humongous Entertainment in 2000. Cavedog officially declared bankruptcy in 2000.

Using Ron Gilbert’s own style and humor, Good & Evil was meant to be a funny take on the classic RPG formula, as we can read in an old Gamespot article:

The warrior arrives in town, trips over a drainage ditch, impales himself on his own sword, and dies. Now they need a new hero. […]

As you’d expect from the Monkey Island creator, Good and Evil is going to use lots of humor; – much of it directed at role-playing conventions. Characters will talk amongst themselves about “leveling up,” for example, while the plentiful dialogue and ridiculous characters, like an evil crow, will retain Gilbert’s absurdist bent. […]

Largely inspired by Legend of Zelda, Gilbert is designing a large, fully 3D world to be played in a third-person perspective; it will be open enough for gamers to explore on their own, in a nonlinear fashion, while simultaneously keeping things story based. […]

Even if Good & Evil was never finished, it seems that after 10 years it’s main concept was reused in DeathSpank, an action RPG designed by the same Ron Gilbert and developed by Hothead Games, released in 2010 for Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. As we can read in a couple of interviews with RPG Codex and 1UP:

RPG Codex: Given your and Clayton Kauzlaric’s connection to Total Annihilation, was there any consideration of going with an RTS? Any other genres you’d like to give a try? Any genre you’d never try?

Ron Gilbert: Funny you should mention that. Back when I was running Cavedog Entertainment, I was designing a game called “Good & Evil” that was a melding of adventure and RTS. DeathSpank shares a lot in common with that game. As far as other genres I’d like to try? Just about anything except FPS. I’m not a huge fan of them and I’d probably make a really bad one.

 

1UP: Before DeathSpank, you were working on a game called Good & Evil [which got cancelled partway through development]. Have any of those ideas directly influenced what you’re working on now?

RG: Actually, quite a bit. Good & Evil was back when I was at Cavedog [Entertainment — the hardcore-leaning division of Gilbert’s company Humongous Entertainment]. That was a little bit of a blending of an adventure game and a real-time strategy game. I think the thing about adventure that really interests me a lot now isn’t so much the weird, complex puzzles, but it’s just the way adventure games tell stories, and the way that they tell them through those puzzles, and, for me at least, the humor that adventure games have. That’s one of those things that was a little bit lost when the classic adventures went away. It’s like this whole thing was lost and I really wanted to bring that back. But there’s actually quite a bit from Good & Evil and it just made its way into DeathSpank — the weird, bizarre feel that I had for that world is definitely something that is in DeathSpank.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Assault Korps [PSX PC – Cancelled?]

Assault Korps is a RTS that was in development in 1997 / 1998 by Corrosive for the Playstation and PC, but it seems that the game was cancelled as we cannot find any info about its existence, apart from an early preview that was published in Edge magazine issue #53. Assault Korps was going to play as a tradional real time strategy game, but it was inspired by TV-series like the A-Team and ’50 war films.

Players were able to control a squad of commandos drafted in to counter the activities of a coalition of evil dictators, known as “the Kern”. At least 18 single player missions and a multiplayer mode were planned. As in GTA, it was possible to get into any vehicle found in the levels, as cop cars, tanks and many more.

If you have some more info on this project or its development team, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution

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Aspect Warriors [GEN MD SNES – Cancelled?]

Aspect Warriors is a cancelled action game / RTS based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Genesis / Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. The game was previewed in some european magazines, but in the end it seems that it was never released (or was it published under a different name?). Only few screens remain to preserve the existence of Aspect Warriors.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scans!

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Monster Island [XBOX PS2 GC – Cancelled]

Monster Island is a game project that was pitched in 2001 by Irrational Games for the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube, described as “Rampage meets Black and White Creatures in a Fully Destructible Environment”. Monster Island was meant to be a fast paced action / strategy game in which the player would had assumed the role of either a giant monster out to eat a city for dinner or the authorities pledged to protect the innocent citizenry.

In october 2010, the studio revealed this cancelled project from their official blog and shared some concept arts and a short document that explains the main features of the game. The pitch promised some 20 monsters, a living city, heavily destructible environments, and a dynamic civil defense network.

The monster’s goal is to cause as much destruction as possible while simultaneously quelling its own hideous appetite with tasty, human morsels. The monster might also receive unique goals in a particular mission, such as climbing a skyscraper, locating an enemy hidden in the city and destroying him, or defeating a rival monster! […]

Monster Island will also let the player take on the role of the good guys, protecting the city from the horrible creature. The player will have control of five key units: the Scientist (who gathers information on the monster to help defeat the behemoth), the Girl (who can lure the monster away from its intended target), the Engineer (who can direct rebuilding of the city), the General (who can direct the forces of the army fighting the monster), and the Hero (who can personally fight the monster when the going gets desperate).

The description sounds interesting, but sadly the game was never green-lighted.

Thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!

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