Arcanum Canceled Arcanum mobile sequel

[toro]

https://joelcarlson.artstation.com/projects/QzQNkl

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg_gamers...3_cancelled_arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick/

Last year, an artist named Joel Carlson uploaded a series of concept art for what he claims was a Arcanum mobile game being developed assumedly by Activision sometime in the early 2020's. In the LinkedIn profile for Joel Carlson linking to this concept art set, he elaborates that a sequel to the 2001 RPG from Sierra, "Arcanum" was going to be a "Mobile game aimed at ages 10+" and from the concept art file names in his portfolio, you can see where the story with this game was going to go:

Many years after Arcanum, the Living One's first companion, Virgil, is now an elderly mage teaching a young boy, Thomas, in magic. At some point, the game features two teen protagonists, Thomas, and a young technologist girl, Bekah, as Kerghan has 'somehow returned' and possesses them in a vision to elderly Virgil, with Thomas later casting a spell on Bekah with Virgil at his side during the plot. At some point, Virgil has flashback sequences to his quest with The Living One, meeting them at the IFS Zephyr crash site, encountering the Panarii cult at Tarant, (seen spying on them from a window in the concept art), recalling Kerghan's past life as a Necromancer resurrecting the dead, and then defeating Kerghan in the Void with help from the Living One's companions casting spells, with Kerghan's design now being retconned into a spooky demonic figure with a scythe.

In the character lineup, were also unnamed concepts for a Technologist Gangster and a Half-Ogre with a gun.

This project was likely shelved very early in pre-production due to how niche Arcanum was as an IP, and the difficulty of trying to sell an obscure 2001 RPG for an altogether different tween mobile gamer audience, two decades later. This will have been the second attempt (that we know of) of Arcanum's attempted sequel that has failed, following "Journey to the Center of Arcanum"

 

[Dark Souls II]

Will it finally be good this time around

 

[toro]

Will it finally be good this time around

Yeah. It was cancelled.

 

[Tyranicon]

Taking an IP only recognized by the groggiest of grognards and trying to repackage it to zoomers is a hell of a move.

 

[deuxhero]

Is this an out of season April fools joke?

Arcanum is rated M for Mature 17+ by the ESRB with Blood, Mature Sexual Themes, and Violence.

Perfect game for kids!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

 

[Fargus]

Whoever came up with the idea should kill xirselves... slowly and painfully.

 

[Sphere of Many Eyes]

The only thing crazier than this existing is that someone had the sense to shitcan it.

I think we can all agree this is a bullet dodged!

 

[Infinitron]

This is Joel Carlson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelaaroncarlson/

He's a nice Christian man.

Unfortunately his CV doesn't offer any clues as to which team he was working for. I'd love to know whose idea this game was. It would seem more likely that some external team wanted to pitch this to Activision, rather than the idea coming from within Activision.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

This is Joel Carlson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelaaroncarlson/

He's a nice Christian man.

Unfortunately his CV doesn't offer any clues as to which team he was working for. I'd love to know whose idea this game was. It would seem more likely that some external team wanted to pitch this to Activision, rather than the idea coming from within Activision.

Nobody sane could possibly pitch this to Activision. This level of incompetence and delusion could only come from within.

 

[PlanHex]

Oh man, I hope some pitch documents leaks for this. Sounds wonderfully stupid.

 

[Konjad]

Last year, an artist named Joel Carlson uploaded a series of concept art for what he claims was a Arcanum mobile game being developed assumedly by Activision sometime in the early 2020's. In the LinkedIn profile for Joel Carlson linking to this concept art set, he elaborates that a sequel to the 2001 RPG from Sierra, "Arcanum" was going to be a "Mobile game aimed at ages 10+" and from the concept art file names in his portfolio, you can see where the story with this game was going to go:

Many years after Arcanum, the Living One's first companion, Virgil, is now an elderly mage teaching a young boy, Thomas, in magic. At some point, the game features two teen protagonists, Thomas, and a young technologist girl, Bekah, as Kerghan has 'somehow returned' and possesses them in a vision to elderly Virgil, with Thomas later casting a spell on Bekah with Virgil at his side during the plot. At some point, Virgil has flashback sequences to his quest with The Living One, meeting them at the IFS Zephyr crash site, encountering the Panarii cult at Tarant, (seen spying on them from a window in the concept art), recalling Kerghan's past life as a Necromancer resurrecting the dead, and then defeating Kerghan in the Void with help from the Living One's companions casting spells, with Kerghan's design now being retconned into a spooky demonic figure with a scythe.

In the character lineup, were also unnamed concepts for a Technologist Gangster and a Half-Ogre with a gun.

This project was likely shelved very early in pre-production due to how niche Arcanum was as an IP, and the difficulty of trying to sell an obscure 2001 RPG for an altogether different tween mobile gamer audience, two decades later. This will have been the second attempt (that we know of) of Arcanum's attempted sequel that has failed, following "Journey to the Center of Arcanum"

source
https://joelcarlson.artstation.com/projects/QzQNkl

 

[Harthwain]

for what he claims was a Arcanum mobile game being developed assumedly by Activision

a sequel to the 2001 RPG from Sierra, "Arcanum" was going to be a "Mobile game aimed at ages 10+"

We dodged the bullet here.

 

[tritosine2k]

concepts for a Technologist Gangster

art imitates life

 

[baronjohn]

You meet the gnomish business moghul Kobby Botik who it turns out stole the secrets of gaming from the dwarves. Killing him gives you a fate point.

 

[Tavar]

I think there's a thread for this already: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/canceled-arcanum-mobile-sequel.153638/

 

[Poseidon00]

Arcanum *mobile* game? I'm glad this got cancelled. What an insult.

 

[Zarniwoop]

What, you guys don't have phones?

 

[Morgoth]

"Mobile"
"Age 10+"

The utter shamelessness.

And yet, that concept art still captures the spirit of Arcanum better than Cockney Revolution.

 

[VonMiskov]

The art looks straight out of Discworld and not Arcanum. With all due respect to Pratchett.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

The art is actually kinda nice.
But yeah, age 10+ is a stupid idea. Arcanum isn't for kids. And Mobile sequel for a PC game sounds stupid as hell.
Kerghann pulling a "Palpatine" is also goofy as fuck, could have been an original villain. Through honestly, if I did an Arcanum sequel, I would make the Big Bad technological, like some sort of Steampunk Cyborg turning everything into Victorian hellscape industry.

 

[whocares]

The art is actually kinda nice.
But yeah, age 10+ is a stupid idea. Arcanum isn't for kids. And Mobile sequel for a PC game sounds stupid as hell.
Kerghann pulling a "Palpatine" is also goofy as fuck, could have been an original villain. Through honestly, if I did an Arcanum sequel, I would make the Big Bad technological, like some sort of Steampunk Cyborg turning everything into Victorian hellscape industry.

Not to say that a mobile game for kids Arcanum isn't stupid but this plot summary is just speculation based on file names. For all we know Kerghan would just stay in Virgil's flashbacks.

I do like your Steamborg idea. Make him a Saruman-type figure and have him organizing orcs to "sieze the means of production." PC will begin by being all "oh my poor oppresssed orksies, let's build communism together." Only to then realize you've been duped and it's time to grind Cyber-Stalin into scrap. Feels quite fitting for Arcanum. Not that in Current Year we can get a piece of media with gommunists as the bad guys, but a man can dream.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Mobile?

Lol.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

The art is actually kinda nice.
But yeah, age 10+ is a stupid idea. Arcanum isn't for kids. And Mobile sequel for a PC game sounds stupid as hell.
Kerghann pulling a "Palpatine" is also goofy as fuck, could have been an original villain. Through honestly, if I did an Arcanum sequel, I would make the Big Bad technological, like some sort of Steampunk Cyborg turning everything into Victorian hellscape industry.

Not to say that a mobile game for kids Arcanum isn't stupid but this plot summary is just speculation based on file names. For all we know Kerghan would just stay in Virgil's flashbacks.

I do like your Steamborg idea. Make him a Saruman-type figure and have him organizing orcs to "sieze the means of production." PC will begin by being all "oh my poor oppresssed orksies, let's build communism together." Only to then realize you've been duped and it's time to grind Cyber-Stalin into scrap. Feels quite fitting for Arcanum. Not that in Current Year we can get a piece of media with gommunists as the bad guys, but a man can dream.

Oooh that's a good idea, essentially Russian Revolution in Arcanum, with an added racial tone. The Saruman-Stalin parallel is brilliant, especially when you consider how Arronax in the original game is sold as pretty much Arcanum's Sauron/Dark Lord figure. Could be a Robespierre or Napoleon-esque figure as well.

The villain of the original game was an ancient wizard who used technology as a tool to bypass Magic Wards and punch a door through dimensions, using tech to ultimately serve his mystical goals. The opposite would be either a full-tech villain, or a techie using magic as a mean to attack his rivals' technology, hmmmm...

I remember the original Arcanum said that Orcs were made from Elves through magic (like in LOTR), and therefore Orcs actually have immense magickal potential, they just fail to use it because they are dumb (then again, Arcanum implies at times that Orcs aren't actually stupid, they're deliberately kept savage and ignorant). The original concept of a Gnomish bodyguard was a elven-orcish hybrid, but they only managed to make one and it was a failure. Maybe Cyber-Stalin somehow manages to harness the raw magickal potential of Orcs and uses it to attack his rivals' machines? Maybe some sort of "Magickal Luddite Revolt" - Act I antagonists? This would serve to cause chaos and havoc, preparing the ground for the Revolution.

Could even bring back Donn Throgg as a rival of "Cyber-Stalin Saruman" - gradual reformist vs revolution.

 

[Funposter]

I refuse to believe that art this shitty was used for an in-production Arcanum sequel. This looks like the sort of crap that I painted in my first year of art school.