More secret games!

Free Radical Design’s Game For LucasArts

What We Know: UK based Free Radical, formed by former members of Rare who worked on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, has been a successful game developer for several years with three games in the Timesplitters console shooter series along with the action-adventure Second Sight and the upcoming UbiSoft first person shooter Haze. However in 2006 the developer signed with publisher LucasArts to work on an unnamed game. That’s about all we know at this point.

What Free Radical Says: A message from their screenwriter Rob Yescombe told us, “There may be clues buried in our website. On the other hand, there might not.” Hmmmmm…..

What We Think: Free Radical’s history of first person shooters would make speculating on a LucasArts published FPS an easy one. But will it be a new game in the best selling Battlefront or Jedi Knight series or an all new franchise? We think we will find out more about the game later this year.

Airtight Games’ Unnamed Game

What We Know: Airtight Games was formed a couple of years ago in the Seattle area from former members of Microsoft Games Studios who worked on games like the Xbox action title Crimson Skies. Their first project was a series of spectacular demos for AGEIA’s PhysX hardware cards that showed a plane crashing into a warehouse and watching tons of objects scatter. Airtight is currently working with an unnamed publisher on what their web site is calling a “major unannounced title”.

What Airtight Says: The company’s president Jim Deal told us, “As much as I would like to, I cannot yet divulge any part of the publisher relationship or the details of the game. With such long production cycles I can see how this happens.”

What We Think: The members of Airtight Games created a memorable title in the Crimson Skies title and their AGEIA demos are truly something to behold (Check out their web site to see some in-game movies). While info about their current game is hard to come by we have to hope that combining the great game design of Crimson Skies with the interactivity of the AGEIA demo would be pretty cool indeed.

Novalogic’s Game

What We Know: The folks behind the Delta Force and Joint Operations games have been very silent about their upcoming projects, so much so that some have wondered if the company is still making games. However, the company is still hiring people to work on upcoming titles and recently a company called PhaseSpace announced that Novalogic has bought a new motion capture unit from the company for use in their game development.

What Novalogic Says: A Novalogic rep told us,” Any announcement about what future Novalogic projects will be posted at our website, www.novalogic.com in either the Announcements or Press Release sections. If what you seek is not listed there we are not authorized to release any information.”

What We Think: Getting a motion capture set-up would seem to indicate that Novalogic is working on some kind of action game. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess to what the company has planned for the future, whether it’s a new game in their Delta Force series, a new entry in the Joint Operations franchise or an entirely new product.

Destineer’s Upcoming Spy Game:

What We Know: Destineer Studios was the developer of 2005’s modern military tactical shooter Close Combat: First To Fight, which was originally made as a training program for the US Marine Corps. Soon after the game was released Destineer announced a deal with In-Q-Tel, a group funded by the Central Intelligence Agency to create training simulators for the intelligence industry. With the more recent announcement of a new in-house game dev studio in the Raleigh NC area, Destineer is clearly still in the game development business and some kind of commercial title based on their work with the CIA could come of it.

What Destineer Says: The company’s PR spokesperson told us, “We haven’t made any official announcements about this project. However, I will confirm that we are working on a something along the lines you mentioned at our new Raleigh studio. That’s all I can say for now…”

What We Think: Having a spy action game that has the experience of the real CIA is something that not even Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series can claim. Destineer’s upcoming title, even with the small amount of info we have about it, has us intrigued and we can’t wait to get more info on the title very soon.

DoubleFine’s Game For Vivendi Games

What We Know: DoubleFine was organized and formed by Tim Schafer, who was the driving force behind a number of acclaimed LucasArts adventure games in the 1990’s. In 2005 the company released its first title via publisher Majesco, the critically acclaimed but sales disappointment Psychonauts. However, the company announced in 2006 a new publishing deal with Vivendi Games for an all new title that has yet to be revealed.

What DoubleFine Says: DoubleFine officials did not respond to our inquiries about their unnamed game by the time of the posting of this article.

What We Think: Psychonauts was a rarity in games; a title that had a quirky and fun game design that was actually funny and original. The high sales, however, did not occur as expected. The acclaim that DoubleFine got for their first title helped to secure their publishing deal with Vivendi and that hopefully will give their next title more of a marketing boost than Majesco created for their first game. So what will it be like? Quirky, fun and original….just like all of Tim Schafer’s titles.