VergeWorld Coming To PC This Fall
Development studio Bad Bones is now hard at work on the 3D shooting game VergeWorld. The title has retro inspirations, and when we say retro, we mean it — they have experience.
The game has a very unusual development history, in that it started on the Amiga — yes, a computer from the 1980s. The programmers were involved in the Amiga demo scene and wanted to see if they could get voxel graphics running on the computer. Voxel is a form of 3D that is less demanding than polygon 3D (yet kinda looks worse, with everything rendered as a block). Many of these blocks put together at calculated positions can simulate a mountain or canyon. And through this method, they did manage to get a playable 3D shooter on the Amiga:
Just for funsies they decided to see if they could get the same thing running on the Sega Genesis — a console even more underpowered than the Amiga. They managed to do it, but it undeniably looks worse:
From there, they thought “why not make it for PC.” And that led to the somewhat modern version of VergeWorld that’s now in development for Steam. The shooter is being made in Unity, but will still sport retro-ish graphics, this time inspired by the original Playstation…
“We managed to combine retro design, which provides a fresher look than the widely used 2D pixel art, and modern game mechanics,” says a Bad Bones rep. “In creating this version, inspiration from classic retro games was mixed with productions such as Hades, Returnal, Everspace, and Star Wars Episode I: Racer.”
The PC version of VergeWorld will be available this fall, but you can download the Amiga and Genesis demos today through this link.