The story behind the making of Darkwatch has almost as much drama as the video game itself.
It features an all-star development studio, built in Carlsbad, Calif., from scratch at the behest of a parent Japanese company. A merger changed those corporate plans, however, leaving the studio, employees and the game in the lurch earlier this year.
"Fortunately for us, it [the turmoil]was for a very brief period of time," recalled Meelad Sadat, director of business relations for High Moon Studios, as it is now known.
"It was kind of a combination of fear and excitement," added Brent Disbrow, a Vancouver native who is senior game designer at High Moon.
"The fear coming from the potential fact that here's this game that I've been working on - at that point for two years - and gosh, we may not be able to even finish it. . . . On the other hand, it was also a lot of excitement. Here's a chance to hook up potentially with a major publisher that has a big presence."
Uncertainty turned into opportunity. A management buyout kept the dream alive, turning Sammy Studios into High Moon Studios, and Darkwatch was completed.
The concept of an original vampire-western first-person shooter quickly attracted publishers and the stylish game (rated M for Mature) was released by Capcom in August for Xbox and PlayStation 2.
Set in the Wild West around 1876, the game tells the story of outlaw Jericho Cross who makes the mistake of raiding a secret train that belongs to the Darkwatch, an ancient organization dedicated to defeating supernatural evil.
Cross unwittingly frees a captured vampire lord named Lazarus, who bites him in the process. Cross must hunt down the vampire, in the hope that if he can kill Lazarus he may regain his soul.
The game's tag line is "Death fears those who wear the badge."
Disbrow, a 35-year-old who joined the Darkwatch team from EA Canada, isn't the only Canadian to work on the game. Other Canadians at High Moon include creative visual director Farzad Varahramyan (St. Albert, Alta.), senior animator Sean Letts (Toronto) and artist Wesley Cann (Toronto). High Moon also used Canadian web designer My Pet Skeleton to create the official game website (darkwatch.com).
High Moon started out in 2002 as Sammy Studios, created by Japan's Sammy Corp, to have a U.S.-based foothold to create original game projects. The new studio also had a small publishing element, having absorbed a Sammy subsidiary in the U.S. called Sammy Entertainment.
In an industry filled with licensed products, from Madden Football and FIFA Soccer to Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter, original hits are video game manna from heaven. They offer publishers a chance to avoid licensing fees and create their own lucrative franchises.
Halo, for example, has spawned two games, books, action figures, and now a film. The Doom franchise has also generated sequels, books and a movie.
Darkwatch was the first project for the fledgling Sammy Studios, which started out small in Carlsbad.
"It was eight people in the equivalent of a garage," said Sadat.
The goals of Sammy Corp., however, changed after a merger with Sega, a giant video game company with plenty of its own original product. The future of the American studio working on Darkwatch was up in the air, although the parent company still wanted the game.
Instead, Sammy Studios boss John Rowe led a management buyout, making the company independent and taking the game with it.
Rowe is now High Moon's president and CE0. And today, the studio has 95 to 100 employees, with 80 involved in game development.
Sammy's decision not to go ahead with its North American studio came in February 2005. The management buyout quickly followed and High Moon made the announcement in March at GDC, the Game Developers Conference trade show in San Francisco.
"The timing was perfect," Sadat said.
That's because everyone in the business attends the conference. Plus, Darkwatch was 90 per cent complete.
"It's a lot more impressive to go into a presentation with a publisher and show than a game they can play from beginning to end than a couple of playable levels and a design document," Sadat said.
High Moon met with every major publisher in the industry. And there was lots of interest in Darkwatch.
The game was already known. While developers worked on Darkwatch, others at the studio were looking to get it into the gamers' consciousness with a marketing campaign that was already a year old by the time GDC rolled around.
The image of a creepy, ominous gunslinger was on the Internet and in a slew of specialty magazines.
"So the game was known, it had good buzz behind it," Sadat said.
Expect to see more of Darkwatch. There are already negotiations for film and comic deals. Merchandise will follow, as will a sequel if the game's positive reception continues.
"We are absolutely exploring other avenues," said Sadat.
"It was meant to be a franchise property. There's reams and reams of material that's not in this first game."
That means possibly a Darkwatch set outside the Wild West, in the future or in Roman or Crusader times.
The interest in Darkwatch has already led to other opportunities. Another publisher, who initially came to see the game, has since struck a deal with High Moon for two more projects.
Plus High Moon is also working on another original project it is keeping under wraps.
For Disbrow, the decision to quit his hometown and a secure job at an established company has been vindicated.
He came on board in January 2003, persuaded by Darkwatch's concept and the early art he saw. He was known to the design team through Paul O'Connor, now High Moon's vice-president and design director, who was a former colleague at EA.
"What convinced me [to join] There was this real opportunity to learn from some very talented directors," said Disbrow.
He also wanted a new challenge. At EA, Disbrow had worked on a string of FIFA soccer titles during a six-year stint. "While that's a tremendous amount of fun, I was getting a little stale creatively."
He also enjoys the corporate ethos at High Moon, noting that any potential new design hire is interviewed by the entire design team, plus others.
"It's a slower hiring practice," he acknowledged. "You tend to maybe reject a lot of people that would be able to do the job.
"But what you get is a team that's very cohesive and talented and can work together and will stay together, rather than maybe a clash of egos scenario."