It all started with a weapon mod. Techland programmer Marcin Zygadlo created a Dead Island mod that started turning heads in the studio. "It was a proof that chopping monsters frozen by magic spells using two-handed swords is brutally fun and addictive," Techland dev Marcin Kruczkiewicz blogs. The mod made such an impression that Techland assembled a small team to work on a prototype.
The result is the currently codenamed "Project Hell". It's a first-person hack-and-slash game (for, I'm assuming, PC). It's set in a dark fantasy world. Here are some work-in-progress images of the game.
"Our main goal is to make a game we can all enjoy playing so don't expect unicorns and fairies—we prefer breaking through hordes of undead minions only to slaughter their devilish and loathsome masters in a bloody boss-fight," added Kruczkiewicz. "To achieve that we'll use our experience already gained in game development and enhanced technology from Dead Island."
Early comparisons are to Dark Souls, but that's the default comparison these days for dark fantasy. Have a look and judge for yourself.
Sharpen Your Axes [Official Site]