Developed by Voidpoint, a studio comprised of EDuke32 vets and Duke Nukem 3D mappers, Ion Maiden was formally announced on a recent Duke4 livestream. It will be published by 3D Realms and is releasing in 2017.
First, a bit of background. The Build Engine powered Ion Maiden is a FPS prequel to the poorly received Bombshell, an isometric shooter from Interceptor Entertainment, a studio which declared bankruptcy last year. A new team called Slipgate Studios was founded earlier this year with many of the same team members.
The game's developer, Voidpoint, is an independent venture founded by TerminX and Hendricks266 when creating the Hail to the King Collection ports for iOS and Android. Work began on Ion Maiden (working titles "The Washington Project" or "Project Washington", and later "The Washington Incident") in early 2015 as a stand-alone project, with the team working on both projects in overlapping fashion until HTTKC was shelved. The game was quietly announced on a poster back in July 2015 as an extra for the digital deluxe version for Bombshell. Since then, however, the scope has expanded considerably and the game is a full commercial product. The developers' chose the name Ion Maiden to distance themselves from the negativity associated with Bombshell (2016). The game is running on EDuke32, built in 2004 by Richard Gobeille and continuously developed over the following decade with a view to preserving the original developers' intent of Duke Nukem 3D and to make it playable and enhanced on modern hardware.
This is a shooter that's coupling truly retro gameplay with truly retro tech, using the original engine and its ideas, with 20 extra years of development--replacing code, but rarely throwing out ideas. The team has created a brand new 8-bit palette, which all assets will use, essentially turning the era's original aesthetic and creative techniques up to 11 (think Mega Man 9 and 10). The score's being made by someone from the European C64/Amiga demo scene who has been making mod tracker music for about 20 years.
Voidpoint's 256 color pallet (Cage is easily one of the most talented pixel artists around):
There's some seriously talented mappers involved (including DavoX of DNF 2013 DLC fame), with the levels being made with the hallmarks of classic shooters in mind, including interconnecting areas, interactivity, and secrets. All of the weapons have either an alt fire or an alternate ammo type which you switch by pressing alt fire. The team's currently working on a demo (which won't feature the alt fire stuff) much like the FEAR demo, the maps in the demo are redressed samples of portions of the registered version. The team recently showed a video behind closed doors at E3 so I hope we'll see more soon, but in the meantime here's some more screens!
Note: the face in the HUD is temp art just cut from a random promo image for Interceptor's Bombshell game. The final game will have a face in the HUD, in much the same way as Doom.
First, a bit of background. The Build Engine powered Ion Maiden is a FPS prequel to the poorly received Bombshell, an isometric shooter from Interceptor Entertainment, a studio which declared bankruptcy last year. A new team called Slipgate Studios was founded earlier this year with many of the same team members.
The game's developer, Voidpoint, is an independent venture founded by TerminX and Hendricks266 when creating the Hail to the King Collection ports for iOS and Android. Work began on Ion Maiden (working titles "The Washington Project" or "Project Washington", and later "The Washington Incident") in early 2015 as a stand-alone project, with the team working on both projects in overlapping fashion until HTTKC was shelved. The game was quietly announced on a poster back in July 2015 as an extra for the digital deluxe version for Bombshell. Since then, however, the scope has expanded considerably and the game is a full commercial product. The developers' chose the name Ion Maiden to distance themselves from the negativity associated with Bombshell (2016). The game is running on EDuke32, built in 2004 by Richard Gobeille and continuously developed over the following decade with a view to preserving the original developers' intent of Duke Nukem 3D and to make it playable and enhanced on modern hardware.
This is a shooter that's coupling truly retro gameplay with truly retro tech, using the original engine and its ideas, with 20 extra years of development--replacing code, but rarely throwing out ideas. The team has created a brand new 8-bit palette, which all assets will use, essentially turning the era's original aesthetic and creative techniques up to 11 (think Mega Man 9 and 10). The score's being made by someone from the European C64/Amiga demo scene who has been making mod tracker music for about 20 years.
Voidpoint's 256 color pallet (Cage is easily one of the most talented pixel artists around):
There's some seriously talented mappers involved (including DavoX of DNF 2013 DLC fame), with the levels being made with the hallmarks of classic shooters in mind, including interconnecting areas, interactivity, and secrets. All of the weapons have either an alt fire or an alternate ammo type which you switch by pressing alt fire. The team's currently working on a demo (which won't feature the alt fire stuff) much like the FEAR demo, the maps in the demo are redressed samples of portions of the registered version. The team recently showed a video behind closed doors at E3 so I hope we'll see more soon, but in the meantime here's some more screens!
Note: the face in the HUD is temp art just cut from a random promo image for Interceptor's Bombshell game. The final game will have a face in the HUD, in much the same way as Doom.
