Black Creator Working On New FPS

Stuart Black – the lead designer on Criterion’s famed destruction heavy shooter Black – is working on a new FPS with Codemasters using their EGO engine. Attracting a loyal following when it first appeared on the PS2 and Xbox back in 2006, many thought Criterion would return to the scenery-chewing franchise when the current generation of consoles came around. For reasons probably best known to themselves, however, they decided to focus on the Burnout franchise instead, leaving Black to stand alone as a once-off title that, though thrilling many, was destined to remain a standalone game without any form of follow-up. Until now.

Of course, Stuart Black is not confirmed to be working on a bone fide Black sequel, the FPS title being just one of the many (like Dungeon Keeper, Alien Odyssey, Urban Chaos and Viking) games he’s worked on. But with the news that the Guildford studio are working on a new FPS, and taking into consideration Black’s most renown game (to us at least), well, we’re going to go out on a limb and say “Black 2 is coming!” Just kidding.

Or are we? The taster section which highlights what’s coming next month in the current issue of OXM UK claims a “world exclusive reveal of the shooter that everybody asked for …’

Stuart will be joined by Tom Gillo (executive producer) and Andrew Wilson (senior producer), industry stalwarts who have previously worked at SCE’s London Studio and Blackrock Studios respectively.

Gavin Cheshire, VP of Codemasters, has commented on the appointments by saying:

“Codemasters’ Guildford Studio is key to our overall development strategy, and this year has opened further positions across its design, programming and art teams. With Stuart Black directing the vision for our new IP in production, deployment of EGO and key development figures heading up a highly skilled team, our Guildford facility offers great potential for development talent based in the South East who want to join a growing studio and work on original titles.”

And no, the irony that a guy named Black made a game called Black is not lost on us. Some jokes are just too easy.

Source: C&VG