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'Hero' looks like it could have been Midway's 'inFamous'
Last week we got a tiny, one-image glimpse of Midway Chicago's game-that-could-have-been, Hero. Now we get a better picture of what the title might have looked like, thanks to the portfolio of Tae Young Choi, a concept artist at Midway who worked alongside Stephan Martiniere, the former staffer responsible for the release of last week's image. There are also some small tidbits regarding the game's design to be gleaned from Choi's site, including that there were going to be multiple (presumably playable) characters, each possessing unique super powers. From Choi's descriptions of his drawings, we know that the katana-wielding hero (seen above, fighting an enemy on the wing of Air Force One) could "jump really high," and that at least three other heroes were planned: one that could control water; one that could generate a force field; and a "dumb strong" character with a tail. Choi also hints at one possible cause for the mass destruction visible in the gameworld: an out-of-control laser beam coming from a satellite that's "cutting everything." Unfortunately, the game itself was cut before we ever got a chance to see it in action. Visit Choi's site to peep some additional concept art.
Artwork surfaces from canned Midway game, 'Hero'
Concept illustrator Stephan Martiniere worked at Midway Chicago until August of 2008. Some time before he left the company to work at id Software, he inked concept art for a game titled "Hero," spotted by Siliconera on Mr. Martiniere's website. Midway, as you likely know, went bust over the last few years, with some titles being picked up by other publishers and some games in-development being put on permahold. Only one image of Hero is in the portfolio, but it indicates possible characters Hero might've explored -- an adult figure holds a sword in one hand and a child's hand in the other, while an ethereal being floats above both figures in a ruined Chicago (as indicated by the Chicago Transit Authority sign). That sounds an awful lot like the plot of Lone Wolf and Cub to us (minus the whole Chicago thing), so we're clearly sad to hear it never came to be.%Gallery-112362%[Image credit: Stephan Martiniere]
More Midway departures including Chicago studio head
Just a day after learning of another blood-red quarter at Midway, with $34.8m lost in its second quarter, Kotaku brings word of a trio of high-level departures from the beleaguered publisher including Mike Bilder, head of Midway's internal Chicago studio, currently tasked with bringing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Blitz: The League II to market.Also gone: Mona Hamilton, veep of marketing, and Reilly Brennan, director of media relations. Midway confirmed all three departures, and said that Bilder accepted a senior management position with another Chicagoland dev (any ideas, Joystiqland?). There are two additional rumored departures, but Midway's apparently not ready to talk about them yet. That's fine. For now we'll just add these three to the list we've already got going, right there next to these two guys and the company's CEO.
