Developer Remedy Entertainment is best known today for its third-person action games like the Max Payne series, the Alan Wake games, and Control. However, earlier in the developer"s life, it was working on game demos for various other genres.
Apogee Entertainment published Remedy"s first game, the car combat title Death Rally, back in 1996. Today, the current incarnation of Apogee posted a video of a game demo that Remedy pitched to Apogee in 1997, called Void, on its X account.
When @remedygames visited Apogee in 1997, they pitched three projects: Void, Dark Justice, and a racing game. @JoeSiegler found a VHS tape of the Void demo, and we digitized it. It"s in bad shape, but it"s still worth showing! pic.twitter.com/rPlkx5zJPM
— Apogee Entertainment (@Apogee_Ent) August 16, 2024
According to the post, Remedy pitched three games to Apogee in 1997 for consideration for its next project. One was Void, another was an unnamed racing game, and the third was a game called Dark Justice. The Escapist has reported previously that Apogee decided to pick Dark Justice, which eventually morphed into the first Max Payne game.
Today"s X post says that former Apogee team member Joe Siegler recently found a VHS video that showed Remedy"s Void game demo. While it doesn"t exactly have the best video or audio quality, it still shows what Remedy was pitching to Apogee over 25 years ago.
The video shows space combat with ships that could support individual damage done to pieces of their vessels. It also showed advanced, for the time, colored lighting and particle effects. The demo also mentions in text form that it would have supported internet multiplayer.
In addition, the demo mentioned that the game would take place in a "dark and gloomy universe," which makes it sound like it would have a different art and visual vibe than other space combat games of that 1990s era.
While Void was ultimately never developed past this demo stage in the video, it still shows an interesting concept from Remedy before it found its niche of making third-person action games.