New game from Wideload, Alex Seropian named, dated

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The first title from Halo designer and Bungie cofounder Alex Seropian is finally coming into view. The game's publisher, Aspyr, revealed today that the game Seropian's Wideload Games has been working on will carry the title Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse." The game is destined for the Xbox, PC, and Mac sometime during the summer months of next year.

Working on the game in Wideload's Chicago-based studio are 11 full-time staffers. They are being supplanted by 30 to 35 outside artists, programmers, and coders. Such is the unique business model and company structure created by Seropian to keep costs down and maintain an environment where creativity is encouraged and bureaucracy is kept at bay.

"The bulk of the talent comes together for a project rather than being employed by a studio," Seropian told GameSpot today in a visit. Saying he draws inspiration and techniques of project management "from the way movies are made," he is hopeful the upcoming game will appeal to action gamers who have a sense of humor and maintain appreciation for the game mechanics and AI popularized by his seminal run-and-gun title, Halo.

Austin-based publisher Aspyr dropped hints today that it would put the full range of talent it controls--which includes film and music production divisions--behind the game, although it declined to elaborate, pointing instead to an update to the Stubbs story due sometime next month.

Going for laughs as well as action, the game is described as one where "players take on the role of the rebel himself--Stubbs, a wisecracking Zombie who takes on an ultramodern city of the future using nothing but his own carcass and the weapons of his possessed enemies. The game's tongue-in-cheek humor, innovative combat, and strong storyline keep Stubbs the Zombie's gameplay as bizarre and unpredictable as its namesake."

Seropian addresses the game and development process more fully in the accompanying GameSpot Live-produced Developer Diary. All but one of the screens of the game are exclusive to GameSpot readers.