Dev diary: Assault on Dark Athena’s content kept growing

Starbreeze Studios are serious about Riddick. Yesterday, a developer diary for Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was released (included after the break). In it, the developers discuss the impact Riddick has had on Starbreeze and what exactly led to the creation of Assault on Dark Athena’s content.

Assault on Dark Athena was originally intended to be a total remake of their former game, Escape from Butcher Bay — an Xbox only title. Platform exclusivity and an inability to even access the content in the ‘next-generation’ gave Starbreeze the push to create Assault on Dark Athena. “As you already know, the whole project started out as a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay as the original game couldn’t be made backwards compatible for the 360,” Starbreeze told me via e-mail a few weeks ago. “On top of that the first game was never released for PlayStation, so there is a large audience that never got to play the game. At the start of the project the plan was to just add a few levels and focus on lifting the previous game to the new consoles. This was the embryo for the Assault on Dark Athena campaign.”

As Assault on Dark Athena’s content became more complex, Starbreeze kept adding and managing until they reached a decent sized campaign — a whole new Riddick story inside of a disc that was only intended to be a remake. It’s a cool gift for consumers who dig the goggled antihero.

Hit the break to check out the developer diary, where the embryonic creation of Assault on Dark Athena is discussed, as well as Escape from Butcher Bay’s new additions.