Shadow Man: 2econd Coming

PUBLISHED
February 2002

PUBLISHER
Acclaim

DEVELOPER
Acclaim Studios Teesside

MY ROLE
Storyline/Design (Sony PlayStation 2)
Voices: Ogou Feray


Despite a less-than-successful showing on PlayStation, the original Shadow Man‘s success on PC, Nintendo-64 and SEGA Dreamcast meant that we were asked to create a sequel for the, then new PlayStation 2 console.

Going back to the mention of the name ‘Asmodeus’ in the original Shadow Man that we had purposefully placed to set up a sequel we created a storyline that expanded on and explored the origin of ‘Legion’ – the bad guy from the first game. In the sequel Legion was revealed not to be the only demon around that wished to exploit Deadside – he was simply one of a number that has lived amongst us for many thousands of years. So when a new star appears in the sky the Shadow Man is called into service by the voodoo priestess Nettie to once again save our world and that of Deadside.

My involvement in the project lasted nine months, during which I managed to spec out the entire design on paper, direct the design and development of all the characters and production art and with co-designer Guy Miller, write the voice script and get it recorded.

Our dream was to surpass what we had achieved in Shadow Man, particularly on the Nintendo format and take the character to new heights, however, sadly for many of us, rather than beginning our new project with a real bang, a real combination of events threw a great many obstacles in our way making the development of the sequel far tougher than it ever should have been.

The Shadow Man: back in a far more detailed Deadside, and thanks to modeller Rob Nash – looking even more decayed than ever – a true Lord of Deadside

At the time I received a number of offers that simply could not be refused and after five years of working with the wonderful team at Teesside, I had to move on.

The rest of the guys really slugged it out, delivering Shadow Man: 2econd Coming in 2002 – by all accounts, with many others leaving during the course of the project, a real tough one to complete.

Sadly after the release of Shadow Man: 2econd Coming Acclaim decided to close down the studio in Teesside – a real end of an era, as for a time working there had truly been for me, the best of times.