Ah, 2020. The 12 months of issues that would’ve been.
On this newest version of “stuff you may solely dream about” is a glance again to twenty years in the past, when the now-defunct Pink Lemon Studios was seemingly engaged on a online game based mostly on The Simpsons for Sega’s ahead-of-its-time console, the Dreamcast. (h/t The Verge)
What you see here’s a tech demo set within the Simpsons’ kitchen and front room (full with a TV displaying an outdated Itchy & Scratchy episode). There’s not a lot to it, only a player-controlled insect that may run and hop round. However the cartoon artwork type (generally generally known as “cel-shading” in video games) is totally beautiful for a 20-year-old creation.
Because it seems, this was solely ever meant to be an in-house experiment, and doubtlessly a manufacturing instrument for the present to make use of(!!!), as Pink Lemon co-founder Andy Campbell explains in a remark shared by Dreamcastic Channel, the video’s creator:
Oh my! Not seen that for 20 years! We had an important coder who had developed an incredible cell shading engine for DC. I knew Fox fairly properly, so this was a demo we created and I pitched to them. We had been by no means commissioned, so this was technically by no means an official title in growth.
This was a visit down reminiscence lane. The tech was nice, developed by a man name Wealthy Evans, nice coder. Bug Squad idea got here from Jamie Grant if I bear in mind. An ideal artwork staff constructed the fashions. The tech was additionally pitched as a manufacturing instrument for the present itself. No sport made although.
How cool!