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[Radogol]

Not sure how I missed this. It's from about a week ago but I've searched here and found nothing.

It's common knowledge that Lucasarts worked on a Fate of Atlantis sequel back in 93/94. We finally got new info though, and lots of it.

Aric Wilmunder, one of Lucasarts' most prolific designers, has published design documents from the game. Here they are:

Design Document
Storyboards, Part One
Storyboards, Part Two
Storyboards, Part Three
Character Sheet

There's also a new retrospective from Mixnmojo with Wilmunder's participation. Catch it at this link.

Thought some old-timers over here might care

 

[Dog Problems]

That is so neat. Thanks for posting this.

 

[TheBeebs]

I loved Fate of Atlantis. How can we get Iron Phoenix made???

 

[MikeHattsu]

Ooh. Nice stuff.

 

[SMG]

I loved Fate of Atlantis. How can we get Iron Phoenix made???

A few talented fans. Old school Point and Click fans have proven time and again they can could pretty close to the quality of the golden age greats

 

[DeepEnigma]

This hurts my soul.

 

[kami_sama]

I loved Fate of Atlantis. How can we get Iron Phoenix made???

Yeah, I'd be totally in for a new Indiana Jones old Lucas Arts style.

 

[SpaceWolf]

So why did this get junked?

 

[Radogol]

So why did this get junked?

That's explained in the retrospective I've linked to in the first post. In short: a) part of the game was outsourced to an incompetent company, b) project lead was moved to The Dig, c) there were some story issues that would make it impossible to sell the game in Germany without major changes.

 

[Sheppard]

The hell? I didn't know about this? I REALLY want a Fate of Atlantis remake.

 

[Honome]

This hurts my soul.

Indeed.

I loved point and click games from LucasArts, they were basically my firsts PC games as a kid.

 

[eso76]

Just skimmed through part of the storyboard, sounds interesting.
Would have loved this back then. Still would.

But yep, as others have said, while those sprites are fantastic, I don't think the artstyle fits the series. Coming from FOA this would have looked like it was targeted to a younger audience I think.

 

[Darte]

There was a sequel to Fate of Atlantis?! And now we can't even get a kickstarter due to licensing?! This makes me incredibly unhappy as a P&C gamer from the good old days

 

[Morfeo]

Sucks this was cancelled, Fate of Atlantis was amazing, and Im sure this would have been great too.

 

[KefkaPalazzo]

Cool stuff. Hope DYKGaming does a video on it

 

[Flipyap]

Those sprites are fantastic.
Fate of Atlantis might be the best-designed adventure game and now you're telling me that it could have gotten a sequel with a Full Throttlesque art style?! We truly live in the darkest timeline.

 

[Dan]

Damn, would have loved this.

The world can make up for this by delivering Fate of Atlantis Remastered.

 

[Krejlooc]

Oh my god

I want this so badly. Fuck.

 

[Hassun]

Really cool to see how these design pages are laid out.

 

[Bitch Pudding]

Indy 4 was the first game I paid full price.

Absolutely loved it. But I have to say, I am not a fan of the art style of Iron Phoenix.

 

[poncle]

This hurts man. Fate of Atlantis is special, been wanting that Indy's RETURN for ages.

Still butthurt that there isn't a sound blaster full version of the soundtrack anywhere.

 

[KainXVIII]

Not sure about cartoony sprites though.

 

[Radogol]

Not sure about cartoony sprites though.

They were also toying with live action but none of those assets survived according to Wilmunder.

 

[FlyinJ]

Pretty sure this was the first cancellation as Lucasarts transitioned from one of the top-tier game publishers to shit-tier.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I would have adored this.

 

[pitt_norton]

I remember reading the dark horse comic on this story... sigh

 

[Terra_Ex]

Really unfortunate that this didn't see the light of day.

 

[DoctorFling]

This belongs on Steam, not in a museum :'(

 

[DeathSparks]

Man it sucks this got cancelled, this could've been a great follow up to Fate of Atlantis

 

[RexNovis]

Why did this not happen? It would've been so good... T_T

 

[Radogol]

Pretty sure this was the first cancellation as Lucasarts transitioned from one of the top-tier game publishers to shit-tier.

Well, Loom 2 was cancelled before this was, or at the very least it didn't progress beyond the design document. And Lucasarts still published Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island among other classic titles afterwards.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Shiiiiiiit! I need this so bad.

 

[Radogol]

I remember reading the dark horse comic on this story... sigh

According to the Mixnmojo article, it wasn't terribly faithful. Seeing how different the Fate of Atlantis comic was to the game, I am willing to believe that.

 

[BocoDragon]

Those sprites are fantastic.
Fate of Atlantis might be the best-designed adventure game and now you're telling me that it could have gotten a sequel with a Full Throttlesque art style?! We truly live in the darkest timeline.

But at least we got The Dig......

........

........

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I wish we could get an Indiana Jones game/series on modern consoles in the vein of Uncharted/Tomb Raider, but as period pieces with greater focus on exploration, mythology, and puzzle solving.

 

[Ivan]

I feel really old now .

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Im glad these deep scuttlebutt reveals happen. So much is gotta be sitting on databases and file cabinets around the world.

 

[andrerobot]

This hurts so much. :'(

 

[LastNac]

Real talk, EA signed with Disney who licenses Star Wars, would it be possible for EA to get the license for Indiana Jones as well?

Full circle - an Amy Hennig Indiana Jones game from Visceral!

 

[SchrodingerC]

Oh man, the potential to be a great game was there.
I wish we'd get another Indiana Jones game, especially one voiced by Ford himself.

 

[Sciz]

Siiiiiigh.

It's cool that we get to see hundreds of pages of design documents, but at the same time, I didn't really need to be reminded that this game existed.

 

[Slaythe]

Literally my heart is bleeding.

I can't handle this.

 

[Juice]

OMG I had no idea

 

[kimifan141]

Oh man fate of Atlantis was the first adventure game that got me interested in genre , i got into the internet world pretty late aka 2009 and the first thing i did was look up was for a Atlantis sequel sigh......

I have played almost all adventure games that had atlantis name in it none came as close.

Someone needs to do this game

 

[blast processed]

Nice find. I would have preferred this over The Dig.

 

[SirNinja]

I'm not sure the Full Throttle art style works as well for the Indiana Jones universe, but I would have played the shit out of this regardless. Fate of Atlantis is still THE point-and-click adventure to beat, and this looked like a very worthy followup. I'd known about Iron Phoenix for a while, but I had no idea it was this far along. It really sucks that we'll never get to play it.

 

[Sidewinder]

Not sure if I want to look through that, might hurt too much!!1 Thanks for sharing, loved them good ole Indiana point & click games.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Why was it canned? Did the point in click market crash that fast?

Fate of Atlantis was literally the first game I purchased when I get my first computer in 1993. X-Wing and Ultima 7 were purchased the same day.

 

[Sciz]

Why was it canned? Did the point in click market crash that fast?

The article in the OP goes over its development cycle in detail.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

The article in the OP goes over its development cycle in detail.

Figured- just didn't have time to read right now.