X-COM: Genesis (Genesis or XCG) was a computer game in development in the X-COM series. It was being produced by original MicroProse employees, then working for Hasbro Interactive who bought out the game developer. Production took place in the original MicroProse offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. X-COM: Genesis was never completed due to Hasbro's shutdown of Hasbro Interactive late in 1999.
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The development team consisted of MicroProse veterans and new hires to help with the workload. Some of the new hires were game industry veterans, but some were new to game development. A substantial number of the new hires came from the freshly shutdown EAI game development studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Chapel Hill development team, just after finishing X-COM: Interceptor, had completed converting the original X-COM games from DOS to Windows (using DirectX). Wanting to return to gameplay of the original games, the team began developing a storyline that was conducive to squad-based missions, the highlight of the original games. The creepy atmosphere, frighteningly powerful aliens, base building and research were all allotted for in the new version.
Two innovations are notable, however: the game would be in 3D and would be real-time strategy instead of turn-based (as in the original versions). The last feature was tentative—if using it didn't convey the same atmosphere and feel as the original, it would be replaced with a turn-based implementation. As a precaution, the game designer, Dave Ellis, had provided for a feature where players could easily stop the action and issue commands to their units.
In mid-1999 the team started developing a 3D engine from scratch. The engine used Direct3D to take advantage of hardware acceleration, but also had a software 3D engine for those computers without 3D cards.
The team developed a "Geoscape", a view of Earth from orbit, that far surpassed the implementation in previous versions. The original game had a flat-shaded, rather blocky representation of the Earth. XCG had a smooth globe on a background of stars. With the mouse, the user could turn the Earth and when doing so, could see the Sun and Moon pass by in the background. A translucent covering of clouds swirled above the tranquil blue, green and brown planet surface below.
The team built a level editor to allow the artists to build levels for the "Battlescape"—the areas where battles against the alien invaders would take place. The artists created an urban environment with a filling station, warehouse, an apartment building, attached parking garage, a park, a burning trashbin and streetlights that cast pools of light. Floating above it all was a blimp with floodlights streaming earthward. Standing in formation outside their aircraft were the X-COM soldiers, shifting on their feet, looking left to right. Zooming in closely, one could even see their chests huff as they breathed. By simply pointing and clicking, the soldiers could be commanded to move from place to place. All action was in real-time.
Once at this point, the programmers busied themselves adding more features to the engine, refining current features and implementing AI. Meanwhile, Dave Ellis was busy developing the game design and the artists were producing concept art. In the studio's main conference room, one entire wall was covered with concept art—original sketches and color treatments of illustrations. The facing wall was covered in colored Post-it notes depicting the player's possible paths through the game. Technology trees, base discoveries and pivotal events were all represented.
On December 7, 1999, the entire studio was called into the conference room adorned with X-COM miscellany. Hasbro Interactive management, flanked by security guards, told the employees that they were shutting down the studio and cancelling development on all titles (prototypes for other games and an updated version of Atari's Combat! were also being worked on by others at the studio). The employees were informed they'd have a month to find new jobs. Immediately after the announcement, a job hunting specialist started a lecture, but employees waved him off, trying to recover from the blow. The Chapel Hill Hasbro Interactive studio shut its doors forever on January 7, 2000.
Shortly thereafter, the remaining Hasbro Interactive studios were shut down, one by one. Hasbro finally sold all of Hasbro Interactive's assets to Infogrames (now Atari). In 2005, Take-Two Interactive acquired the rights to the X-COM series from Atari.[1]
Several previous employees of the studio quickly banded together and formed a new studio. Calling it Vicious Cycle Software, they immediately set to work developing a new 3D engine—a technology demo—showcasing their prowess. Dave Ellis, leveraging contacts at Mattel, arranged for a demonstration of the demo to Mattel's management. They were impressed with the program and contracted Vicious Cycle to make a Robotech game for the then new video game consoles, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Many employees left game development altogether, some left North Carolina (since Hasbro had just relocated several people to work at the studio and had kept them employed for under a month, they agreed to re-relocate them to a destination of their choice). Some former employees who weren't initially included in Vicious Cycle would go on to join them later, and some original employees would leave.
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