Crude Awakening (found build of cancelled action driving game; 2007-2008)

Footage from a build for the game.

Status: Found

Date found: 10 Jul 2024

Found by: Nitrozity, kabojnk

Crude Awakening was an action vehicle-combat driving game that was being developed by Canadian development studio Pseudo Interactive and was planned to be published by SCi for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The gameplay was planned to be similar to Carmageddon but with new features to the Carmageddon formula.

Development

Development for Crude Awakening started production around early-mid 2007, starting life as a new entry in SCi's Carmageddon series. A prototype for this early vision for the game dating back to June 28th, 2007 features aesthetics and gameplay in line with what is expected for a Carmageddon game. As development for the game continued into 2008, the direction for the game began to shift into something more stylized, and possibly a new IP instead of being a part of the Carmageddon franchise. The more realistic, contemporary aesthetic began to shift into a 1930s dieselpunk aesthetic with stylized character designs. Concepts and mechanics planned to be implemented into the game, such as car customization and boss battles we're beginning to enter prototyping and the pre-vis phase.

Cancellation

While Crude Awakening was still being developed at Pseudo Interactive, their publisher SCi was in the middle of management changes during early 2008 after demands by the investors because of SCi's plummeting stock value. This was due to deals for a potential buy-out of SCi falling through, causing their stock price to go down 53% on January 11th, 2008. This led to the firing of SCi's CEO Jane Cavanagh, along with other core SCi members Bill Ennis and Rob Murphy on January 18th. A new form of leadership held by newly appointed CEO Phil Rogers of former Electronic Arts experience had begun in April 2008. Rodgers' plans to keep SCi afloat during the publisher's financial turmoil is to begin streamlining the company in an attempt to make SCi "leaner and fitter." This led to the layoffs of around 270 employees and the cancellation of 14 different projects, one of which was Crude Awakening. The cancellation of Crude Awakening has been catastrophic for Pseudo Interactive, as due to not being able to get the greenlight on any of their other projects Divided City and Prodigal, this led to Pseudo Interactive closing their doors on April 2008, with a lot it's developers leaving to establish other studios such as Drinkbox Studios and Finish Line Games. Only concept art, concept videos and a few builds were what have remained of Crude Awakening's development.

Recovery

On July 10th, 2024, several cancelled Pseudo Interactive games were found in an Xbox Development Kit that belonged to the company originally dumped by Hidden Palace contributor Nitrozity and released by kabojnk.. Builds for Divided City, Prodigal, and Crude Awakening/Carmageddon, with development builds for the latter being dated from June 26th, 2007 to February 11th, 2008 were then uploaded to a MEGA file and then to the Hidden Palace.

Gallery

Footage

Gameplay footage of the February 6th 2008 build.

Gameplay footage of the January 28th 2008 build.

Gameplay footage of an earlier version of the game, dating June 28th, 2007.

Gameplay footage of the earliest known version, dating June 26th, 2007.

Artwork/Renders

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  Style exploration concept art

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  Boss concept art

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  Early logo for "Carmageddon"

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  Early controls menu for "Carmageddon"

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  Early press start screen for "Carmageddon"

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  Early press start screen for "Carmageddon"