KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child

Gathering of Developers' KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child will be a first-person shooter based on Todd McFarlane's comic book series of the same name. The game will feature bright colors, strange monsters, and the legendary members of KISS - Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, and Paul Stanley - as playable characters.

According to the game's story, the members of KISS are actually the Elder - demigods who travel across different planes of existence. But they've been double-crossed by a long-dead enemy into breaking an ancient oath. And now that the oath is broken, a horrible creature known only as the Nightmare Child has been conceived, and its birth will signal the destruction of the known universe unless the Elder can return to their own home plane to stop it.

The game itself will be a first-person shooter that takes place in what the designers describe as "recognizable locales, ranging from a subway to a large outdoor circus... really distort[ed] into something wicked and disturbing." Each of the game's levels will have a surreal, nightmarish quality, and each will feature "a circus theme as a backdrop." The game's enemies will also reflect this sort of warped decor. Some are bloated, others are emaciated, some have long, razor sharp claws - and all are grotesque.

The game will also feature replay value in the form of character development. Although every one of them will gain greater power and more special abilities as the game progresses, each will develop differently, and should encourage players who have finished the game to go back and try again with a different character.

Prospective recruits for the KISS army will be able to enlist this June, when the game is scheduled for release.