Adam Blaster: Atomic Enforcer
Arcturus Tombstone
(Screenshot from cinematic)
Adam' second fugitive is reported to be hiding in the mining outpost of Arcturus Tombstone. Although the outpost seems now deserted, the ominous silence harbors more than a few lethal surprises and a glimpse of the sinister conspiracy brewing behind the scenes.
Adam is greeted by a swarm of curious creatures, which turn out, surprisingly, not to be friendly.
Something terrible happened here. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Wait a second, they're not so dead after all...
Tracking a giant tracked mining vehicle shouldn't be too difficult,.but watch out for the indigenous life forms. There isn't much to eat out here.
Creature Features
While I oversaw the development for all the levels in Arcturus Tombstone, I got to program three of the levels myself. Programming for Arcturus Tombstone was a most enjoyable task, as the environments, masterfully modeled by John Anderson, really lended themselves to exciting gameplay, and the creatures designed for this desert wasteland were unique and interesting.
We sat down to figure out how to really bring these levels to life. The key was to make the interaction with the creatures as memorable as possible. So, we drew from our library of knowledge for movie creatures, and adopted a few creature features from some of our favorite films:
+ Seemingly harmless little critters follow Adam Blaster around, keeping their distance... But their numbers increase with each passing moment. What do they want? The Canyon Rats are reminiscent of the "compys" in Jurassic Park 2.
+ Slow and mindless, but relentless and very numerous: These words describe the behavior of the Miner Corpses in the Domed City, a homage to George Romero's zombies. The miners act as hosts for the ethereal other-dimensional Wraiths.
+ Hidden in the dirt, Reptilian Arachnoids feed upon unwitting surface life forms. Oftentimes an arachnoid will burrow in pursuit of its prey. The sound of distant rumbling and a dust trailing streaking across the terrain toward the player are as unnerving as the giant worms in Tremors. Crossing the vast desert wasteland had the feeling of swimming to shore in a Jaws movie.
©Richard Yeh