Arkane Studios is above all an adventure of enthusiasts. His story begins at the dawn of the 1990s with the meeting of two video game lovers, Rafael Colantonio and Harvey Smith. The first official first at Electronics Art as a designer on series such as FIFA or on the adaptation of the game Warcraft on PlayStation. Harvey Smith spent most of his working time debugging games such as Ultima VIII on behalf of Origin System. Is it a coincidence that their professional destiny makes them meet in 1995 to work on the translation of a certain System Shock? What is certain is that this meeting marks the beginning of a great friendship built around a common vision of immersive gaming experiences for a subjective view.
THE START OF A HISTORY
From Arx Fatalis to Prey, back on the leg Arkane Studios
Eliminated in his creativity, Rafael Colantonio soon left his post in 1997 to go and try his luck at Infogramme. On the other side of the Atlantic, Harvey Smith seized the brilliant opportunity to join the Ion Storm team, a studio led by Warren Spector, in preparation for a major project: Deus Ex. , In search of independence and desire to achieve his own creative vision, Colantonio opens the doors of Arkane Studio in Lyon with the idea of creating a spiritual suite at Ultima Underworld. If the first prototype of the game is received very favorably by the Looking Glass studio, the Electronic Arts editor imposes gameplay modifications incompatible with the philosophy of the young studio. So much for Ultima license rights, Arkane will not sign the contract.
The team of developers will nevertheless use the basis of his work to create what would become one of the monuments of the RPG of action in subjective view: Arx Fatalis. Released in 2002, the title already carries Arkane's paw, this immersion creed that is so dear to them. Without being really FPS, the productions of the studio always adopt a camera in the first person, halfway between the pure action and the mechanics of choice and consequences of the RPG, they also give a place of choice to the infiltration like In Dishonored, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or the next Prey.
From Arx Fatalis to Prey, back on the leg Arkane Studios
THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE
From Arx Fatalis to Prey, back on the leg Arkane Studios
Arkane is then approached by Valve who proposes to him to use his engine graphic Source for the development of their second project. While the studio was originally oriented towards a direct follow-up of Arx Fatalis, the relative commercial failure of the first opus brakes the investments of the publishers. It was at this point that Ubisoft, interested in the work of the team, suggested that the studio use the Might and Magic franchise to transform Arx Fatalis 2 into action-RPG. Thus Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was born, title where the immersion of the player passes through a rich system of combat with the first person weapon. Nervous, handy, this new flamboyant example of hybrid genres proves once again that the balanced mix of several gameplay formulas forms the solid foundation of the Arkane paw.
We are in 2006 and the studio benefits from the commercial success of Dark Messiah (more than a million copies sold) to open an American branch in Austin, Texas. The idea is to capitalize on the know-how of the young talents of a city strongly marked by the culture of the immersive game (one finds there the studios originating Deus Ex and System Shock). The proposals and ideas flocked in and Arkane set to work on The Crossing, a crossplay project mixing solo FPS elements and multiplayer content in a multi-universe experience with a solid graphic leg. Supported by Valve, the title has nevertheless struggled to find a publisher sharing a common vision with Arkane.
Trailer of the canceled project The Crossing
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