Established by a group of developers that included the co-creator of Populous, Glenn Corpes, the defunct UK game studio Lost Toys isn't necessarily the most famous of the offshoots formed in the aftermath of EA's acquisition of Bullfrog. Nevertheless, we'd argue it has a fascinating history all the same, which is well worth diving into — not least because of some of the unrealised titles it was working on behind the scenes.
Over the four years it was in existence, for example, the company only ever officially released two games: the humorously titled Marble Madness-inspired game, Ball Breakers (known as Moho in Europe), and the 2003 mech-based shooter Battle Engine Aquila — both of which were launched across multiple platforms. As we discovered, though, while recently talking to Corpes, the Guildford-based studio actually had plans for two other titles. This included a follow-up to Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer and a werewolf game called Feral.
Previously, the games preservation website Games That Weren't has documented the first of these games, Stunt Car Racer Pro, in quite a bit of detail over on its website (making it pretty redundant to go over the same information again). But Feral, by comparison, is still a bit of a mystery, with the only surviving remnants we're aware of being a prototype video and a piece of concept dug up by the YouTube channel PtoPOnline. As a result, we wanted to share what we learned about the project, show you some art we were presented with, and provide you with some additional context as to what the studio had in store for the lycanthropic adventure.
According to Corpes, the title was in development in 2003, around the same time that the studio was pitching Stunt Car Racer Pro to different publishers and used a modified version of the same engine. The project was led by Darran Thomas (another of Lost Toys' co-founders, who worked on Bullfrog's Hi-Octane and the PlayStation port of Syndicate Wars) and was considered for release on PC (and potentially on Xbox and PS2).
It focused on a story about a man who has spent years as a werewolf, and featured artwork from Mike McCarthy, who would later end up working on Fable II at Lionhead and would also contribute to the look of Fable III and Fable Legends.
"The reason it was called Feral is that you'd gone feral," said Corpes. "You'd basically spent so much time as a wolf that you'd almost forgotten you were a human. So, from there, you would have to kind of figure out what's going on.
He continued, "The whole idea was that you were going to have three states. You were going to be either a wolf, a person, or a werewolf. The werewolf was basically going to be able to climb around environments like Spider-Man, but would be attacked by everything, whereas a human would be able to go wherever they want.
"The wolf, meanwhile, would be similarly able to go wherever it wants. But you'd be able to see smells and track things down."
As Corpes told us, his job was to help program the werewolf's traversal system, but he also had some suggestions for the story. This included introducing a morally ambivalent figure, such as John Constantine from Alan Moore's mid-80s run on Swamp Thing, who would serve as a guide for the player.
"I was a big fan of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing," said Corpes. "And my favourite character was John Constantine, not from Hellblazer, but when he was first invented for Swamp Thing. Because he comes in and you don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. And he sort of holds the fact that he knows what Swamp Thing is over Swamp Thing's head and uses it to make him do stuff.
"So I wanted to have this character that was a complete rip-off of John Constantine as featured in Swamp Thing. And that would be the person giving you missions and stuff. And he's somebody who knows how werewolves work, but you don't. All you know is that you've suddenly turned back into a man."
Several renders were made for the game, as well as a teaser video showcasing a strange combination of settings, ranging from a medieval-style castle to the streets of Tokyo. We asked Corpes if he could remember how these two distinct locations were connected, but he couldn't quite recall, suggesting it may have just been a test from the very early stages of the project.
Following that conversation with Corpes, however, we were able to get in touch with David Cathro — another artist who worked on the project (LinkedIn/Artstation) — who suggested that time travel would have involved portals found throughout the game, inside a large creature's mouth.
Cathro even had a rough concept illustration of what this portal would have looked like, alongside a bunch of other artwork from the project that he freshly scanned for us that showed off a blacksmith forge, the headquarters of a group called the Inquisition, a tavern, and a mission hospital:
In case you're wondering why the game never saw the light of day, it all seems to come down to publisher interest, with Feral — much like Stunt Car Racer Pro - failing to catch the attention of potential investors who could help keep the company afloat.
As a result, the co-founders wound down Lost Toys at the beginning of October, with a small team, including Jeremy Longley, continuing to work on a PC port of Battle Engine Aquila — the safest bet to help recoup some of the money the studio owed the bank.
Looking at the project and caliber of who was involved (Glenn Corpes, for instance, is the often-overlooked co-creator of Populous), we would have loved to see this project advance to a later stage, with Mike McCarthy and David Cathro's artwork really shining. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!