| LMNO | |
|---|---|
 A screencap from LMNO's visual target animation, showing Eve at a truck shop reacting as government officials arrive outside from the player-character's point-of-view | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 3 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | Cancelled |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing game |
LMNO was the working title for a video game in development by Electronic Arts, notable for Steven Spielberg's involvement in the project.[1]
The partnership with Spielberg, first announced in 2005, was to produce an action game with an aim to evoke emotion, described as "a mix of first-person parkour movement with adventure and role-playing elements and escape-focused gameplay, all involving the player's relationship with an alien-looking character named Eve".[1] According to Sébastien Mitton, the art director at Arkane Studios, the story had the player-character rescue Eve from a government laboratory on the east coast of the United States and help her escape on a road trip to the west coast trying to keep her alien nature hidden from encounters with other humans, which he described as a very typical Spielberg story.[2] As a requirement of Spielberg, the game would have lacked gunplay, instead allowing the player to avoid combat by solving puzzles or if necessary resorting to hand-to-hand fighting. The game also had focused on characterization and expressions with player decisions having impacts on how the game progressed.[2]
The EA Los Angeles studio, which Spielberg had collaborated with before, brought established talent from other studios to help on the project, including Doug Church, Randy Smith, and Habib Zargarpour. They also brought in Arkane Studios in Lyon, France, to help with at least one level, that of a western truck stop.[2] The project was officially announced as cancelled in late 2010,[3] although sources place the actual date that work ceased on the project as being around a year earlier.[1][4]
Details about LMNO, including preliminary gameplay footage, were revealed as part of a larger documentary on Arkane Studios released by Noclip in May 2020.[2]
- ^ a b c Leone, Matt (November 1, 2010). "The Story Behind Steven Spielberg's LMNO". 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- ^ a b c d The Untold History of Arkane: Dishonored / Prey / Ravenholm / LMNO / The Crossing. Noclip. May 26, 2020. Event occurs at 23:00. Retrieved May 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Goldman, Tom (October 12, 2010). "EA Confirms Cancelation of Steven Spielberg's LMNO". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
- ^ Kohler, Chris (August 24, 2010). "When Game Developers Go Indie, Everybody Wins". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved September 30, 2015.