When High Voltage Software challenged third-party publishers to “step up to the plate and deliver,” the developer had looked to become “the most technically innovative Wii developer on the planet.”
That ambition would lead to The Conduit and Conduit 2, there was also a first-person horror shooter called The Grinder that had been in development. In a new and extensive 28-minute Unseen64 video, Liam Robertson has meticulously researched what fate had in store for the project – learning from those that had worked on it.
It started life as a prototype for allowing large numbers of enemies to appear, with some successful tests resulting in as many as 75 characters having been on-screen at once. Whenever the developer needed to think about what project(s) to work on next, they would look to popular games and emerging trends to riff on.
Borderlands and Left 4 Dead were dominating the conversation at the time, but, unsure as to what the consumer reaction would be to Gearbox Software’s new IP, it was Valve’s zombie-laden cooperative first-person shooter that won out. That and the supernatural elements from their own Hunter: The Reckoning, at least.
This new video presents a fascinating chance to learn more about the cancelled game, which was planned to have been playable solo or with up to four players cooperatively, even if we know that the eventual outcome wasn’t a positive one.
