Just Cause Developer's Canned Dragon Game Was Ahead of Its Time, Says Former Studio Head
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Former Avalanche creative head Christofer Sundberg reveals that the studio's cancelled late-2000s fantasy sandbox AionGuard shared striking similarities with modern open-world hits like Crimson Desert before losing its publisher and being shelved.
Back in the late 2000s, Avalanche Studios was quietly building a fantasy open-world game called AionGuard that may have previewed modern gaming trends. According to former Avalanche chief creative officer Christofer Sundberg in a recent interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, the cancelled project shared major design DNA with today's open-world hits like Crimson Desert. AionGuard combined the explosive sandbox liberation of Just Cause with a magical twist, giving players a dragon to ride and the ability to morph into a giant golem while conquering strongholds and cutting supply lines.
Despite boasting the kind of high-concept player freedom and emergent gameplay loops that modern audiences love, AionGuard unfortunately fell victim to traditional publishing hurdles. After two years of development, the project lost its publisher and was ultimately shelved following a financial fallout. Avalanche attempted to drum up industry interest by showing off the game in magazines, but traditional backers at the time were hesitant to fund the ambitious vision. The core team was subsequently shifted to another unreleased steampunk project named Arcadia Rising, which met a similarly quiet end.
It is always fascinating to look back at the historical sliding doors of game development, especially when cancelled projects echo the design philosophies of games we enjoy today. While players in the late 2000s might not have had the same appetite for sprawling, systemic sandbox adventures as today's cross-platform audience, AionGuard proves that studios were chasing these massive player-driven experiences long before current hardware made them standard. Sundberg has since moved on to found Liquid Swords, which just launched its gritty urban brawler Samson, leaving AionGuard as a lingering what-if in open-world history.
Tags: Avalanche Studios, AionGuard, Crimson Desert, Open World, Game History
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun