From The Art of Darkwatch, Design Studio Press 2005Ĭode of the West had very little in common with Darkwatch, the game it eventually became. “If you create a character in a world, that world should have franchise potential to become a board game, an animated show, or a movie.” In the summer of 2002, Sammy Studios got the green light to develop two original IPs: a sci-fi shooter called Invasion L.A., and a western called Code of the West.Ĭhaz Bartlet, gambler and watch maker.
“Men in Black was a 5,000 circulation comic book that ended up becoming a major international franchise,” Ulm explains. Ulm was a former editor-in-chief at Malibu comics and had helped launch original IPs like The Ultraverse and Men in Black. Early on, Valdez and Varahramyan explored a number of licenses on older games owned by Sammy, including a potential remake of Ecco the Dolphin, but the team was keen to focus on development of an original IP. Rowe hired creative director Emmanuel Valdez, whom he’d previously worked with at Midway, while the other three co-creators, O’Connor, Ulm, and creative visual director Farzad Varahramyan, had all previously worked together on the Oddworld series. Related: Final Fantasy And God Of War Among 700 PS2 Prototypes Shared By Preservation Group “We know it wasn’t perfect,” O’Connor says, “but we also think that we were onto something, and it’s a crying shame that it didn’t become a franchise.” Despite a positive critical reaction to Darkwatch and an enthusiastic fan base, Darkwatch 2 became a casualty of conflicting business directions, and the series never became what its creators hoped it could be. Between the development of Darkwatch and its ill-fated sequel, ownership of the studio changed hands five times before eventually becoming a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, where it remains to this day. O’Connor, along with Chris Ulm, Farzad Varahramyan, and Emmanuel Valdez, brought Darkwatch to life amidst years of organizational changes and economic uncertainty. O’Connor is one of the four co-creators of Darkwatch and a founding member of both Sammy Studios and the company it would eventually become: High Moon Studios. “That was our company, that was our game, that was our shot.”
“I miss Darkwatch every day of my life,” Darkwatch lead designer Paul O’Connor tells me.
It’s been 15 years since the release of Darkwatch, but creators of the game have never stopped dreaming about what the universe could have become.
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