Anachronox is a third-person role-playing video game produced by Tom Hall (pictured) and the Dallas Ion Storm games studio. It was released worldwide in June 2001 for Microsoft Windows. The turn-based game follows a down-and-out private investigator looking for work in the slums of planet Anachronox; he travels to other planets, collects an unlikely group of friends, and unravels a mystery that threatens the fate of the universe. The game's design and unconventional humor were influenced by cyberpunk and film noir; inspirations include the video game Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series, animator Chuck Jones, and the novel Ender's Game. The game was built with a heavily modified version of the Quake II engine, rewritten chiefly to allow a wider color palette, emotive animations and facial expressions, and better particle, lighting, and camera effects. Originally planned for a 1998 release, Anachronox's development was long and difficult. Critics enjoyed the game and awarded it high marks for its design and story, but Ion Storm closed down one month after the game's release. In 2003, Anachronox cinematic director Jake Hughes spliced together gameplay footage and cutscenes to create a feature-length award-winning film. (Full article...)
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