Codename Xeno: Spiritual Sequel To Alien Vs Predator In The Works
Most would agree the Atari Jaguar was a flop, but a console can only really be judged by its library, and there were a couple of standouts in the Jaguar’s. Alien Vs Predator was one. It was one of the original first-person shooters to grace the console market and the first Alien franchise game to capture the movies’ tension.
Jane Whittaker, who worked on Alien Vs Predator for the Jaguar, has founded her own development team, Athena Worlds, and they’ve announced their next game, Codename Xeno, will take heavy inspiration from the 1994 classic. In fact it will be even better: this game will be open-world, with advanced enemy AI, crafting, resource management and stealth mechanics. You’ll need to keep track of more than just what’s crawling ahead of you to survive. ‘After crash landing on planet XL-243, players will quickly find they are not alone and the battle for survival begins,” reads the light plot description.
“Alien Vs Predator for Atari defined my career,” Whittaker reminisces. “It defined a genre, often regarded as the first true survival game, with over 100 awards and recently honored with number 3 in the top 10 scariest games of all time awards. It spawned an enduring franchise. It is no exaggeration to say we changed the face of gaming and 30 years later, I still receive messages from fans asking if I’ll return to that genre with a new franchise. I can now announce that Athena Worlds, thanks to support of a soon to be named key publisher, will be returning to a genre that I hold very dear to my heart with a whole new survival horror IP, Codename Xeno. We have brought together the perfect team to realise this dream project.”
That team includes co-founder Mike Meaden (producer of Star Citizen, Squadron 42 and Forza Horizon), and character designer and Blizzard scholarship award winner Blaire Wathen. More team members may be announced at a later date, as well as a possible release wimdow. Plans are to produce the PC version of Codename Xeno first, then console ports later.
