Unreleased titles
 

The game(s) that never was!

Cancelled games, unreleased sequels, shattered dreams... Or when even a game can leave us broken-hearted... I've been looking into list of such titles, and here're the ones i've found. Please help with those i've missed!


- Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix

Adventure games might exist only in our dreams and in Germany, but it was "German market" that was in a way "responsible" for cancelled sequel to Fate of Atlantis :) - since the story in "Iron Phoenix" was "Nazi heavy", where Indy is tracking down Nazis hiding in Bolivia, the developers found that such game would be inappropriate for German market.

In truth, there were some design issues and one of the main programmers left the project, which contributed to the cancellation. Something good came out of it though - 4-issue comic book based on the game, and parts of the story were also used for The Infernal Machine.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg195...ix.jpg&res=gal


- Full Throttle: Payback & Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels

Full Throttle might be the only game with TWO cancelled sequels. Payback was the first one, and when the production started in 2000. Schafer had already left the company. But, it's not the game wasn't in secure hands - Larry Ahern, designer of Monkey Island 3 was to be the project leader, along with Bill Tiller on board. However, in 2001. after some disagreements, both Ahern and Tiller had left LucasArts. There were no official statements on Payback.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg401...13.jpg&res=gal http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg403...5.jpg&res=crop

Hell on Wheels is a controversy in itself, since there were different opinions even during the production - because of Schafer's absence, and use of 3D graphics with action sequences.

This time, it was another veteran Sean Clark as the project leader. At the end of 2003. it was announced that the game was cancelled along with the explanation - "We don't want to disappoint many fans of the original." More info.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg204...03.jpg&res=gal


- Sam & Max: Freelance Police

Next to Clark's office, Michael Stemmle was working on the sequel to 1993. classic. There probably isn't a single cancelled game more full of symbolism than this one, which was the "last" in LucasArts "adventure era", but which in turn spawned its "spiritual successors" - when LucasArts cancelled it in 2004., several programmers who were working on it had left the company and founded - Telltale Games. They failed to acquire the license from LucasArts, but when it expired in 2005. they manage to get it from Steve Purcell and started the reboot in 2006.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg341...13.jpg&res=gal


- Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies

Larry 3 was released in 1989. and two years after it, Sierra released Larry 5! Conspiracy theorist said that it was Al Lowe's dog who ate the discs.

However, Al said on his blog that LSL was originally imagined as a trilogy, and that he was having hard time on continuing the story after Larry 3. One day, a Sierra employee asks Al: "So what are you working on these days, Al? Larry 4?", to which he sarcastically replies: "No, Larry 5! Of course I'm working on Larry 4!"


- Leisure Suit Larry 8: Lust in Space

aka "Explores Uranus" was to be 3D adventure similar to Gabriel Knight 3, but Sierra cancelled it at the end of the 90s.


- Space Quest VII

Space Quest 6 was the only one in the series with Arabic numerals in the title, so Space Quest VII had a working subtitle - Return to Roman Numerals.

Brief trailer was also released, but later, in Vivendi era, the project was abandoned. It was restarted in 1999. but still lacked enough support.


- Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

One of the most intriguing stories comes from Blizzard and its Lord of the Clans, which was to be point & click set in Warcraft universe. Blizzard started production in 1997. joining force with Russian studio Animation Magic. After more than a year of development, and when almost all of the game was done, Blizzard announced that the game would be cancelled. Although they reassured it has nothing to do with genre's "decline", but rather with the quality of the game, there were speculations that Blizzard concluded the game couldn't compete with The Curse of Monkey Island, along with the announcement of Grim Fandango which would use 3D.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg38/...w.jpg&res=crop

Star Trek author Christie Golden was hired, and she wrote the book - Warcraft: Lord of the Clans. Thrall, the main character, appeared in Warcraft 3 as the Orc leader.

Years later, gameplay video leaked on Youtube, which assumes that someone outside of Blizzard has an unreleased "Beta" version.


- Toonstruck 2

No less of a mystery, Toonstruck sequel is a hot-topic, especially after the recent rumors of a possible completion after all these years. The mystery also lies in with the fact that it's not really clear what, and how much of Toonstruck 2 had really been done, as the original was cut in half before it was released, with extra material planned to be used for a sequel.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg853...sf.png&res=gal


- Sukiya

Maupiti Island is notorious for being one of the hardest games, so true maschocists :) indeed have the reason to wonder what would the planned sequel - Sukiya look like.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg543...ya.jpg&res=gal


- Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury

I'm not much of a Trekkie, but this would most probably be a nice follow-up to Judgment Rites. Interplay released a trailer to it.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg198...e.jpg&res=crop


- 20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Speaking of sci-fi, promising pre-Frogwares Jules Verne's adaption was in work from the authors of The Riddle of Master Lu, Temüjin... It would be another fine addition to a FMV catalogue, and here's the making of video.


- The City of Metronome

Once in a while, i go to the main site if only to look at nice artwork. Judging by the style of it - maybe developers sold their idea to the makers of Hugo ;), but the word is not quite clear whether the game is cancelled or just on hold. Preview


- Theseis

It was one of the more impressive Official sites (still available), and the Gabriel Knight-ish mystery was to be set in modern Greece. Preview

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg534...9m.jpg&res=gal


- Aquarica & Sinking Island sequels

It seemed like another adventurous-melancholy tale with Aquarica - story of gigantic whales camouflaged as an archipelago, planned both as a film and a game.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg215...a.jpg&res=crop

Jack Norm from Sinking Island was also to return in the coming episodes. With disbandment of White Birds, it looks like there won't be more of the planned games from Sokal, although he was recently seen in Microids offices:

"Benoît Sokal has just come in our studio to work on various projects."

- Juniper Crescent - The Sapphire Claw

It was to be Steve Ince's debut in his new studio after Revolution, and sure it looked sweet. Luckily, the cancellation didn't keep Steve out of game business. Preview

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg440...2e.jpg&res=gal


- Destinies

Interesting looking title from the authors that would later come up with Ghost in the Sheet and J.U.L.I.A. Preview

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg688...7n.jpg&res=gal


- Project Joe

Charming looking indie-game, which also had the demo.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg823...22.jpg&res=gal


- Culpa Innata 2

Not sure if it's officially cancelled, but no words of it for a while. Haven't played the original yet although it seems to be one of the better sci-fis in last few years.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg703...56.jpg&res=gal


- Tales of Bingwood, Chapter 2

A real blast from the past! Great little game. Go play it! Ooops... well, now stand in line and wait for the second episode. :D


-Vimana Shankara

Behind the mystic name was to be Runaway-esque indie title based on the Hindu mythology.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg9/s...sl.jpg&res=gal http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg17/...a1.jpg&res=gal


- Sehv Tsahno

Another cryptic name for another Myst-clone. Author's own words from the main site may perfectly round off the list: I've yet to give up hope.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg707...o8.jpg&res=gal


Sources:

Adventure Gamers database

Adventurearchiv

Slightly Deranged

maybe bit far off topic diego but as you mentioned
"Space Quest 6 was the only one in the series with Arabic numerals in the title, so Space Quest VII had a working subtitle - Return to Roman Numerals."
i dont understand what is you mean or even significant about using what so called Arabic Numerals (which are we arabs never even refer to as we just using the old Indian's ) ok...maybe only in history books)

anyways surely Sierra always used the Roman Numerals for all their Adventure sequels maybe not for PQ's only as i can remember .....
also however its a great survey about all those canceled projects i m still not sure if you are claiming at something significant with all the Sierra rebirths news that are running everyday now , or may you just listing them with as much details and news you gotten your hands on:D



give me any updates you gathered(if there are) 'bout the projects mentioned at this
thread too
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forum...ad.php?t=30720

Well they're called both Arabic and Hindu numerals :D

Oops, i forgot about your thread, i could had squeeze it in there as well. But yours can also serve for the games still in production. Yes, I've been aiming to compile this list for a while, and the Kickstarter madness probably boosted it up.

Are they ever going to finish the sequel to a vampire story? I haven't heard if it was cancelled but considering it's been so long I'm assuming it has been
.

I had totally forgotten about this game! That gameplay video looks awesome, some very nice animation and puzzles. I remember seeing screenshots in a local magazine and being disappointed when it was cancelled. I think I skipped WoW because of that, which might be a good thing in retrospect. :P

Interesting. I knew so very little of most of these titles...

For me, Project Joe and Warcraft cancellations are most painful (there are other promising titles too of course). Joe's demo was cool and actually just days ago I changed emails with dev Jerome about it. Result is that i keep my hope. :)

Oh yes, The City of Metronome :frown: I had high hopes for it. Talking of which, Brian Moriarty stated there were also supposed to be two Loom sequels - Forge and The Fold.

yea and The Arabic's Used by the westerns and the western's used By the Arabs ...:crazy:

- Agartha

The creator of Little Big Adventure, Frederick Raynal, was working on this horror adventure game for the Dreamcast that would have been in a similar style to Alone in the Dark (Which Raynal created) or Silent Hill. It was forced into cancellation in 2001 when Sega closed down production on the Dreamcast and now only exists as screenshots:

http://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/10/a...-dc-cancelled/

- Restless: http://www.adventuregamers.com/gameinfo.php?id=883

http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/5758.jpg

This is one of the coolest looking scenes i've ever come by. I just love everything involving abandoned buildings and urban exploring!

This thread is so sad. All that potential...

Return to Planetfall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qb87RPVRU

Star Trek : DS9 - The Hunt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LjGPpZWjz4

20,000 leagues under the sea fmv game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbUSe4Q79gw

FMV game from Microforum "High Expectations"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRMZw6njRZI

- The 7th Guest Part III: The Collector

This was going to be the third instalment in the The 7th Guest series made by the original designers, Rob Landeros and Graeme Devine, at their new company, Lunny Interactive.

The plotline from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7t..._The_Collector):
The Collector takes place after The 11th Hour. Henry Stauf has moved from his mansion in upstate New York to a lonely and odd European village where he has opened a museum filled with various artifacts that tell the evil history of human kind. The player is the "visitor" in Stauf's museum and his/her goal is to explore its contents and learn some interesting and entertaining facts about infamous events.

Much like the series itself, the details of why this title stopped production is mysterious.

Here's a teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8TZAorixKk

Sad that Destinies never got released; it looked interesting. Maybe the developers will go back to the concept sometime?
I was also looking forward to Project Joe.

Here are a few more:
- Curly's Adventure - A cartoon 3rd person game. The demo had you trying to escape an asylum.

- Bad Timing -
http://www.emptyhouse.net/games.php
I hope this one is actually still in production, but the last update on the site is from 2009.

- Briefcase Romanin - Surreal XBOX game about a guy with a briefcase shaped like a man. I can't find anything about it after 2009.
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ps5aSXravg

- Boyz Don't Cry -
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,421


Also, I remember a French game with cartoon graphics about a purple alien with long arms. Anyone remember it?

You're thinking of Cassius Pearl.

It was really never formally announced, just kind of quietly leaked and then never appeared or updated in any way.

Actually it was released, at least in Poland and Russia. The game itself is nothing special.

There are a few games that I'd like to see a sequel materialise for including Culpa Innata & Gray Matter but both games were complete in themselves. The infuriating ones are Vampyre Story which stopped half-way through the story & Dreamfall which although it had a complete story contained within it contained a lot more loose ends. :frown:

There have been some other older adventure games that were conceived or in production, but that were never finished (from memory, there are more of course): Willy Beamish 2, 4th Journeyman Project, Master Lu: The Siberian Cipher. The lack of funding for Juniper Crescent was indeed sad, as it looked so great. There used to be a site with games that were never made. There is still one for various platforms.

Evil Junior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_e05wwlPno

http://www.eviljunior.com/

Two years since last update. Most likely cancelled :(

-scratch that, I was mistaken.

Obsidian and Timelapse had sequels in the works; neither materialized. And though there were some action games released based on The Neverhood, I believe there were some plans for more Neverhood adventure games at one time.

Was there plans for another neverhood adventure game on the PC ?

They did came out a sequel of sorts (but not an adventure game) on the PSX game console though - "Skullmonkeys".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9AXoFAFh44

It was a direct sequel, starting where The Neverhood left off. While the gameplay lacked ag elements and was a bit repetitive, it had everything that made the original game: cool claymation, hilarious cutscenes and Terry Taylor's crazy score (you may find them on Youtube, highly recommended!). It also continued (and finished) the story nicely. Great game overall, but hard as hell.

There were also plans for The Neverhood movie, but sadly it was delayed.