My obsession with Kenji Eno continues to grow despite the fact that I have yet to play a single game he designed. It isn’t just the mystery behind the man and his philosophy on design that’s got me so intrigued, but the fact that his games have always been on the periphery of my experience, especially the original D. Long before I had a Playstation or even a home computer that had a prayer of running the game, I remember gawking at pictures of the macabre adventure title in advertisements and being both fascinated and legitimately creeped out. When D2 came out for the Dreamcast, I was keen to check it and satisfy my younger self’s curiosity, but lost interest when I found out that the American version had been heavily censored. Thanks to Lost Levels and PC Games That Weren’t’s Timo Weirich, Kenji Eno and D just got a little bit more delightfully mysterious.
Weirich has been posting video of the original, scrapped version of D2 that was designed for the M2, the unreleased successor to Panasonic’s 3DO console. It’s fully 3D like the D2 that was eventually released but is almost the exact opposite in art direction and play, with an eerie castle setting as opposed to arctic wastes. Eno’s said that this version of the game was abandoned because he wanted to make a game with snow it, but other than that he’s offered no explanation for the radical change in design. This footage is all the info we’re likely to get.
Much love to Lost Levels, it’s great to see you all back after so long.
Related links:
Kenji Eno is a Mule of Epic Proportions
Kenichi Nishi and Kenji Eno’s Newtonica Brings iPhone Gaming Into the Realm of Awesome