Minter and Lionhead's Unity cancelled

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 December, 2004

High standards derail shoot-'em-up.

Lionhead and game development legend Jeff Minter have announced that their collaborative GameCube project, a rather abstract 3D shoot-'em-up which we were pretty excited about called Unity, has come to an end. In an announcement made to the trade press this morning, Minter and Lionhead said: "Unity was always an ambitious and experimental project and as is the case with such endeavours they do not always come to fruition."

"Both Lionhead and Jeff are disappointed that it has been necessary to take this step despite significant publisher interest. However, a shared commitment to excellence and originality meant both sides agree that the cancellation of the project was in everyone's best interests."

In further comments made on the YakYak.org forums to coincide with the announcement, Minter described the decision to cancel the game as a "horrible" one for the team to make, but conceded, "in the end we had to make it".

"Basically, although I've built a shedload of stuff for Unity in the past couple of years it's become clear that getting it all together into something that I'd be happy to call Unity and put my name to was going to take a lot of time and effort both from myself and the guys at Lionhead, and realistically it was becoming unlikely that it'd be finished in time for anyone to want to publish it on GameCube. The alternative would be a rush job and we simply didn't want to do that. Best to call it a day," he wrote.

You can see the rest of what Minter had to say here, and we wish him and Lionhead the best of luck with future projects.

(With thanks to reader Andrew Gillett who alerted us to this sad news.)

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bezzy #1 7 years ago

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    I was really, really looking forward to this. Jeff seemed like the last ray of hope for getting indie/undergroundy stuff done on a major console. Now everybody without a 60+ team is shut out. A sad, sad day.
    Edited by 2 at 10/12/04 @ 12:51

  • Blerk #2 7 years ago

    See? Venture capital money in, originality out.

    Expect to see a squad-based FPS from Lionhead next.

  • Dizzy #3 7 years ago

    A pity! Minter is my god!

    And Bezzy.. you just fucked up the page layout.

  • IronGiant #4 7 years ago

    Since it would have sold about 14 copies this comes as no surprise.

  • CyberClaw #5 7 years ago

    Blerk, actually Lionhead specializes in 2 things. Inovative games (or projects), and squells. Expect to see B&W 2 and Fable 2 :p

    As for underground stuff, there is still some out there. Most for PC, yea, but I can think of some XBox titles which had a small team, and are prety nice (despite being next to unkown).

  • [maven] #6 7 years ago

    He should release the source...

  • Bezzy #7 7 years ago

    There's some stuff on XBox Arcade, for sure. Mutant Storm by PomPom for instance.

    But apart from that incentive, it's almost as if larger publishers would like to see platforms grow in unnecessary complexity and license cost just to shut smaller competitors out of the largest market, creating a monopoly. Now who would suggest somea thing likea theat to Sony?
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/04 @ 13:04

  • Schwabing #8 7 years ago

    @ cyberclaw: for example?

  • saiwun #9 7 years ago

    What was the game anyway? I haven't come across any info about what kind of game it was. Why not switch over to developing for PC? With Lionhead's really long development times, current consoles will have come and gone before their game's are finished.

  • Bezzy #10 7 years ago

    "What was the game anyway? I haven't come across any info about what kind of game it was. "

    It was a side scrolling and tempesty (tunnel) shooter where all the geometry and textures were generated on the fly from the music, and quite possibly the music itself was generated from how you played. It was a psychadelic shooter trip which would have made rez look as tame as a WW2 FPS. But, yeah. It would have only sold 1 copy per hippy/artsy game developer. I was gonna buy a Game Cube just to play it.

    "Why not switch over to developing for PC? With Lionhead's really long development times, current consoles will have come and gone before their game's are finished. "

    Jeff (historically) tends to work at a pretty low level, around the technology so that he can make the most out of its quirks. It doesn't really make for terribly easily portable code as far as I know. Actually I am probably wrong about this. Ignore me if you haven't already. The game also wasn't finished, as far as I can tell, so there would still be a lot of development to do before he would be happy to release it.
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/04 @ 13:17

  • Smiggs #11 7 years ago

    "Jeff (historically) tends to work at a pretty low level, around the technology so that he can make the most out of its quirks. It doesn't really make for terribly easily portable code as far as I know. Actually I am probably wrong about this. Ignore me if you haven't already. The game also wasn't finished, as far as I can tell, so there would still be a lot of development to do before he would be happy to release it."

    Well if thats true, why don't they but it back for launch on Revolution and/or Xbox Next the archietecture seems like its going to be pretty similar. Ninty should be sending him a dev kit now!

  • Bezzy #12 7 years ago

    It was really only Lionhead's generosity that got him the first Ninty dev kit. Nintendo probably had very little to do with it. Although some of his code would be useable, a lot of the low level stuff would have to be redone no matter what the new system is... and at that point, he's just emulating an old piece of hardware on a new one, and I'm sure he'd much rather work with the new technology, rather than despite it.
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/04 @ 13:29

  • speedjack #13 7 years ago

    This is crap.

    I thought things were looking bad when he hadn't updated his blog on this since June. Obviously his ambitions were too big for a 1 man development team to pull off.

    Looked ace too.

  • Bezzy #14 7 years ago

    Exactly right. It was going to be an affront to the Hollywood style mass studio syndrome. Bugger.

  • Aretak #15 7 years ago

    Bah... this is terrible news.

  • Dizzy #16 7 years ago

    Don't worry guys.. Jeff Minter will have new stuff...

  • Blerk #17 7 years ago

    ...for the next 'completely doomed from the outset' console, no doubt. :-)

  • Kiigan #18 7 years ago

    Disappointing :(

    Sorry for Jeff, and sorry for me too coz I wanted to play it.

    Here's hoping something funky will rise from the ashes of Unity.

  • Machiavel #19 7 years ago

    Crap - could he palm it off as a music-accompanying light show?

  • Sid-Nice #20 7 years ago

    I loved Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar, I enjoyed Llamatron and Revenge of the Mutant Camel on the Atari ST, Jeff Minter is a God in my opinion. I'm gutted that Unity has been canned, was it because of the bad language in the text? Phrases like " Arse Biscuit " Shouldn't be on a kiddie console. First BC was canned and now Unity, what's going on at Lionhead? Microsoft and Peter Blender are behind this, I hope all of Jeff's work hasn't gone to waste. :(

  • DaM #21 7 years ago

    It's true, it would have sold 14 copies, but am gutted none-the-less.....
    The oddball CBM64 stuff used to sell, but so did all the crap movie tie-ins, and anything with football in the title.

    A sad day.....

  • #22 7 years ago

    "I hope all of Jeff's work hasn't gone to waste. :("

    gone up on smoke, more like
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/04 @ 14:23

  • [maven] #23 7 years ago

    disc: Wanna collaborate?

  • #24 7 years ago

    can I do the music?

  • AnotherMartin #25 7 years ago

    Crap - could he palm it off as a music-accompanying light show?

    Well he kind of does already in the form of VLM. VLM, which he uses at various raves/events and Unity shared a lot of the same code for the music to gfx effects. I'm sure VLM will still keep going. I sounds pretty good actualy, they've had GC with 4 wavebirds hooked up at events by all accounts, where by the crowed can use the WBs to affect the gfx.


    I'm gutted that Unity has been canned, was it because of the bad language in the text? Phrases like " Arse Biscuit " Shouldn't be on a kiddie console.

    Those where mearly placeholders and done as an in joke for the guys at yakyak.org. The screenies with them on where never intended for press release but where leached from his site as soon as they went up. He tried to explain a few times but I don't think it ever got accross.

  • tiddles #26 7 years ago

    What's happened to Xbox Arcade, anyway? Is it live yet?

  • Bezzy #27 7 years ago

    in america it is, i believe.

  • Pirotic #28 7 years ago

    Saw this one coming - very few people care about tempest, if they did the we'd all be playing our Jaguar 2's right now.

    I have respect for Minter, but he's never going to make a game which appeals to the mainstream or does well at retail.

  • Vlad Tempest 2000 #29 7 years ago

    Tempest is great, imbecile.

  • Pirotic #30 7 years ago

    *claps slowly to keep the retard entertained*

    my point wasn't that it sucked, but that its not a commercialy viable game - it didnt work as the jaguars killer app and it wasn't a selling point on the Nuon powered systems over in the US. and before you ask, yes - i do own a nuon and a jaguar.
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/04 @ 18:51

  • Vlad Tempest 2000 #31 7 years ago

    oh really? I didn't realise ..

  • malloc #32 7 years ago

    I think it's pretty obvious from the reactions in this section that it would have sold more than 14 copies.

    I spose that this means that the GC may do well now, as this game isn't being released. Think about it.

    Whatever, it's a real shame, was looking forward to it. Must have been a hard decision as it's been a labour of love practically for the last couple of years.

  • Pirotic #33 7 years ago

    I do wonder whats up at Lionhead, they 'pause' development on the brilliant looking BC, and then after 2 years suddenly realise this game wasn't going to work.

    i wouldn't be surprised if we hear they've been brought out by sony or something.

  • m2h #34 7 years ago

    Aw damn. The only GameCube game I was actually looking forward too.

  • Pirotic #35 7 years ago

    ManicMinerUK - i agree with you, but sadly the reason this got axed is down to money rather than design, im sure if they spent the time putting all the features together it would of ended up as a rather spiffy game, it wouldn't of got off the drawing board if it sucked.

    it sounds to me like they've concluded by the time they would of finished it, the cube will be on its last legs and they wouldn't make the money back.

  • Trowel #36 7 years ago

    /cuts live to the reaction from Nintendo UK HQ:

    ".....Anything good on telly tonight?"

  • #37 7 years ago

    good one, trowel.

  • Pirotic #38 7 years ago

    Minter must of been working in a team with this title, otherwise what would lionhead have to do with it (they are not publishers after all).

    His games are cool and trippy, but the ones i've seen are very much a 'one man band' development, and as a result the game feels more like polished freeware than something you'd fork out 34.99 for.

  • m2h #39 7 years ago

    Wish Minter would do more dev on the PC side of things. Then he can take his sweet ass time on anything.. we'll wait. We always do. :)