#traditional orcs are fantastic but I felt like trying something different

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Gone but not forgotten, the story of Project Offset

Project Offset

The beauty of being a gamer, is that there's always a high degree of excitement for the next AAA release. The industry over the years has delivered so many new series or sequels, that regardless of the year, there's always a title to look forward to on the calender. While some games release on time, others well, get delayed a bit, and then you have some titles, pushed back years. It's a level of frustration that few can understand outside being a gamer. All the teasing, videos, images, demos, that tug on a gamers heart for years n years till the final release date, becoming a passionately exhausting roller coaster. 

Unfortunately, history has shown, there are a select few titles, despite the enormous attention and potential, will never see the light of day. None showed so much promise, potential and excitement, arguably more than Project Offset. 

Now for some of you reading, might be wondering What's Project Offset? Well, don't feel bad if you don't have a clue to what it is. Project Offset originally made its debut a decade ago. A time where YouTube was just starting, Myspace was all the rage, and service pack 3 for Windows XP wasn't a thing yet. So back then, it was actually pretty easy to overlook a new trailer or projects studios were working on. But for those who do know what Project Offset is, undoubtedly feel a slight bit of sadness towards the game that never was. 

"We're making a first person shooter, set in a epic fantasy world, rendered at cinematic quality"

To bring you all up to speed. In 2005, a new studio by the name Offset Software demonstrated a revolutionary new engine, showcasing stunningly beautiful visuals that pretty much shocked the industry. The original demo gave several different glimpse of a Kingdom of old, under attack by unknown invaders, Dragons and Orcs. Project Offset also had a unique twist to the FPS approach as well, instead of machine guns like Halo or Call of Duty, it used crossbows, stealth and magic. The whole display screamed Lord of The Rings, which released their final film in late 2003. To quote the original video "We're making a first person shooter, set in a epic fantasy world, rendered at cinematic quality." And that was the thing,at the time, the visuals were so damn amazing, that it did appear to reach the mythical unicorn, a video game that had the visuals of a big blockbuster Hollywood film - The ultimate wet dream for a gamer. 

On-line debates of fans posting comparison pictures of the Orcs from Lord of The Rings and the Orc shown in the Offset Demo are still fresh in my mind. Though the difference was still clear that Hollywood, still several steps ahead, but everyone agreed, this has been the biggest jump towards a cinematic presentation then ever before. However - not everyone was convinced. The Gaming industry has been plagued by fake "real time" demos and constant PR bullshots for decades, why should this be any different? Especially when very little was known about Offset studios, not to mention its very small size. The few staff members that we knew were Sam McGrath, Travis Stinger and Trevor Stringer, who all previously worked for S2 Games. 

For the most part, Offset Studios was an enigma, despite all the red flags, everyone was too busy drooling over the gorgeous videos and images. 

If Offset Studios was famous for its Project Offset demo, then it was equally famous for how little information they ever gave out and their silence. Which made it incredibly frustrating for its fans. There was no twitter to make cryptic tweets, or a blog to leave little nuggets of info on how the development going, wouldn't appear till years later. Nope. Nothing. The only place, where you could get the slightest glimmer of anything Offset related was on the official website forum. Which had its own unique community, that grew over the course of Offset life, creating its own distinct culture. The lack of any information didn't stop the devoted to scrubbing through every single frame of the few videos released and discussing any tidbit of graphical hardware related to Nvidia or ATI. 

They worshiped various Idols, none so more famous than the fabled Teapot, the holy grail of the game. Some believed the Teapot would be the final boss. An unstoppable foe which could summon the very fabric of life, creating a sea of monsters to fight. All hail the Teapot! Joking aside, random objects fans happened to spot from the demos soon became viral. For instance the Teapot I was talking about, one of the videos showed a room filled with little trolls running around, and at the corner of the screen, you could see a 3D Teapot model in the background, that seemed all the trolls were appearing from. Little things like this, gave this little corner of the internet life, as fans waited hand and foot for any crumb to devour. 

Offset Software living up to their reputation of remaining silent, leaving fans empty, with hardly any details given - For years. Rumors of the entire project were nothing more than smoke and mirrors continued to grow and the online community numbers would continue to whittled down to only a few active members left. Project Offset, the most promising looking title had all but vanished. Until one fabled day in early 2007, a leaked video showcasing entirely new artwork and video footage spilled out onto the interwebs. Causing an eruption of hype, the game was real and more importantly, it was alive. Though, despite the warm feedback from the community, it seemed the higher staff was not happy at all about the video being leaked. Supposedly, it was made for internal purposes only. Official quote the man himself: It has come to our attention that a video we made for internal purposes was leaked and is being spread around. Again, this video was for internal use only and we didn't intend to release it publicly. We'd like to request that news sites, please not post this video - Sam McGrath.

Of course, this only leads to further speculation and rumors surrounding the game. Why create an internal video demonstrating the game to such a small staff size? Are they aware of what they're working on? The video is getting fantastic attention and praise, why try to remove it? Something was amiss with Offset Software, which, of course, continuing their fine reputation. Went underground, Again. 

The world of Project Offset remained silent once more for some time until an unthinkable bombshell scenario hit. Intel, the giant semiconductor, CPU making beast, in early 2008 - purchased Offset Software. It was the shot that rang across the world kind of moment. Why did Intel have any remote interest in a software gaming company? Well, if you recall, years and years ago, Intel had great interest getting in the GPU market, to rival against Nvidia or ATI. Working on their own card under the code name Larrabee. Intel GPU was supposed to deliver unheard of gaming performance, showcasing real time Ray tracing, which was unheard of at the time. So, if you had an unbelievable graphic card, what better than to pair it up with an unbelievable game, Project Offset. 

Naturally, everything about was met with mix emotions. More red flags continued to be raised and speculation about the earlier leaked internal video was originally made to pitch to Intel to seal a deal. While others felt relief that Offset Software now resting on the shoulders of Intel would have all the resources needed and time to develop the game. As for a while, people began to wonder, if this game was ever going to see the light of day...

Thankfully, Offset Software started to release a few additional demos and pictures, showcasing other interesting tidbits of their engine. Giving hope that the project was well alive and the partnership with Intel looked to be a fantastic match made. A complete 180 from a company, previously famous for being so tight lipped. A steady flow of information continued to dip out throughout 2008 and early 2009. A promising sign that the development was going well, and fans began to speculate that Offset Software was getting ready to completely unveil the game from their shroud of mystery and even possibly a release date. The game been in development for several years now, surely something should be coming.

Then everything went quiet. 

Did the company go back to their traditional ways? Was Project Offset deep in development Hell? Were things going sour with Intel? Regardless of rumors floating around. Things didn't feel right. 

Sadly, in early July 2010. Intel canceled their Larrabee project and scrapping everything connected to it. Including Offset Software, which at the same time disbanded. For any fan, who follows a game in development for years and years, this is, without any argument the very worst possible scenario. Gone, done. Goodbye. There was no Larrabee, no Offset studio, and Project Offset will forever remain nothing more than a video, sitting on YouTube. 

After the disbanding of Offset Software, few details are known what happened with the original staff. Several employees split ways left to do their own thing while a portion of the staff joined together to create a new company Adhesive games.  Who already have one release under their belt Hawken, A title you can play right now. While the former Offset leads created a new smaller company Fractiv, making mobile App games. 

Questions piled up after the fateful day, fans who chased after Project Offset was left with very little closure. No one would get any answers until a post on Fractiv website giving a few details, relating to the ending with Intel and showing off a few pieces of Project Offset:

"Our previous company, Offset Software, was purchased by Intel in 2008. Our labor of love was Project Offset and the game engine that went with it. As many of our fans already know, Project Offset was cancelled. The graphics hardware it was being designed for did not ship and our game was a casualty of this. The IP and Engine are property of Intel so its future is out of our hands. We have tried working with Intel to obtain the rights and there are some good people there who have made some effort to help us, but without success. We would like to thank all those who supported us and the project. We learned some good lessons along the way and met some incredibly talented people who we are fortunate enough to call our friends"

So with that, answered several questions relating to the fate of Project Offset and Intel. On that same blog, Sam shared a portfolio reel piece that belonged to one of the animators who worked on Project Offset showcasing never before seen footage, including a few brief pieces that included audio, showing the game was at the stage of voice acting. Sadly, that would be the last piece shown of Project Offset for several years...

Until last year, a sound engineer who previously worked with Intel, posted a few videos, all never before seen footage of stages and enemies, including a few boss fights, showcasing that the game was indeed in playable form. Answering one of the age old question, was the game smoke n mirrors, or was it legit? Seeing these final videos, shows, that Project Offset was indeed real and at some point playable. 

Despite its age, the game still looks gorgeous, the atmosphere and detail is top notch, I would be so bold to say, lives up to today's titles on the current consoles. A little rough around the edges, but that should be a true testament to just how unbelievable this game was when it made its debut a decade ago. A title with graphics that would be several consoles ahead. It's a tragic story, what could of been, to imagine not only how great Project Offset could of been, but what Offset Software could of done next.

#Project Offset #Offset Software #PC