Neopets: The Darkest Faerie (lost build of unreleased original PlayStation version of PlayStation 2 action-adventure game; 2003)

Neopets The Darkedt Faerie PS1 Boxart.jpg

The boxart that formerly appeared on an Amazon page for preorders of the game, featuring Tormund, Werelupe King, and the Darkest Faerie; with Sally notably taking Roberta's role as a hostage in the Werelupe Woods.

Status: Lost

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie is a video game developed by Idol Minds and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released on November 16th, 2005 in North America for the Playstation 2. However, this game was in fact a reworked version of an earlier PlayStation 1 version that was unreleased.

History

In late April of 2003, the Playstation E3 Press Kit CD was created, which included press materials for Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, including several .psd files, two .pdf files, and a broken 286 byte .jpg file titled "Village Square.jpg" intended to promote Neopets: The Darkest Faerie for the upcoming E3 2003 event, and would gradually make its' way out to journalists in the coming month.

In around May of 2003, the e3.playstation.com website was updated to include an outline of the Neopets: The Darkest Faerie game, which was slated to release for the PlayStation in November 2003, and is as follows:

Extend the Neopets.com® adventure to the PlayStation game console.
With more than 50 million registrations in the past three years, www.neopets.com is the fastest growing youth community in the world. The NeoPets® website creates a growing vortex of activity rewards that brings players back day after day.
“NEOPETS The Darkest Faerie™” is an action/adventure game for the PS one™ console that extends the online entertainment of www.neopets.com and provides a fully interactive offline experience.
In “NEOPETS The Darkest Faerie,” players enter the land of Neopia™ and journey with Neopian characters on an adventure to rescue Neopia from the clutches of the evil Darkest Faerie. Together they will travel through new lands, meet strange inhabitants and discover a mystery unseen by Neopian eyes. Complete quests, defend yourself against evil creatures under the influence of the Darkest Faerie, participate in numerous mini-games, earn NeoPoints™, Common and Rare Neopian Items. In addition, the PS one adventure ties in key game play elements to the Neopets website and vice-versa, allowing Neopets fans to transfer Items between the game and the popular website.
• A fun-filled adventure featuring Neopets from the popular website www.neopets.com. • Discover colorful worlds, unlock new quests, play fun mini-games and earn up to 450 valuable Items. • Play as Grimilix the Grundo, Tormund the Lupe or Sally the Aisha whose stories intertwine into one big adventure. • Equip your characters with swords, wands, gadgets and armor to defend against the powers of the Darkest Faerie. • 12 different mini-games provide tons of game play variety and an opportunity to earn Rare Neopian Items or collect NeoPoints. • Light-hearted action/adventure game play that all levels of gamers will enjoy. • Neopets fans will have access to 100 new Neopets Items that can be collected and used both in the game and on the Neopets website. These Items can be transferred, via Neopets Rare Item Codes embedded into the video game, to a player’s online Neopets account. • NeoPets will offer special “PlayStation Faerie Quests” to its online members after the game’s release, which will allow players to replay parts of “NEOPETS The Darkest Faerie” to complete these quests, thus extending the players’ experience long after they have finished the original storyline. • Available for the PS one console and PlayStation game console, which are in 34 million North American households.^[1]

On May 20th, 2003, Neopets would update it's New Features page to inform its' users about the press release, and read as follows:

In case you missed this last week, here it is again (and remember to go to the E3 Playstation Site and give us an AWESOME vote!)
We are proud to announce The Darkest Faerie - a game for PlayStation that is going to be released in November of this year. It features an epic quest set over the worlds of Neopia featuring Tormund the Lupe, Sally the Aisha, Illusen and a whole host of other characters!^[2]

On July 10th, 2003, Neopets would announce that they would add images to the Press Kit relating to Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, which included images of Tormund, Sally, the Darkest Faerie, Werelupe King, and Werelupe Sage. The announcement text would say:

We updated our Neopets Press Kit images. Yes, all nice shiny up to date images! If you are lucky you may even see a *sneak preview* of characters from The Darkest Faerie, our PlayStation game!^[3]

Sometime in the middle-latter half of 2003, images of tie in stamps for the game would be uploaded to Neopets' image servers, showing general story beats for the game, but would never be given an actual release.

On November 2nd, 2003, it would be announced on the New Features page on Neopets that the original PS1 version of the game would be cancelled in favor of development of a version for the PlayStation 2, releasing in 2005, with the following statement:

UPDATE - A while back we mentioned that we were working on a PlayStation game called The Darkest Faerie, well there have been a few delays. Basically we felt that it couldn't achieve everything we wanted it to on the PS1 and so we are going to re-make it as a PS2 game (so the graphics will be much better!) and it will be out in 2005. Don't worry, it's only $TIMETemplate:Note seconds away (roughly!)^[4]

Development for the game would be restarted and none of the original staff and nearly none of the assets would be carried over to the PlayStation 2 version of the game.

Differences from the final version

As the game would be reworked for the Playstation 2, many aspects of the game would be reworked and revised from the final game. Notable changes include:

Tormund did not yet have an official name, as he is generically referred to as his species, "Lupe", in all promotional material.
The inclusion of Sally, a Red Aisha as a protagonist, using wands as weapons. She would be replaced with Roberta, the princess of Brightvale in the final version of the game, with her only appearance afterwards as a cameo in the Gigantic Snowball card in the Neopets Trading Card Game. Sally appears to have been playable in Neopia Central.
The inclusion of Grimilix, a character who first appeared in the Neopet V2 plot on the Neopets website. He appears to have been associated with Terror Mountain. In the final game, there is no third playable character.
A character in the Press Kit images that would be uploaded is the Werelupe Sage, who does not appear in the final PS2 version of the game, but would be included in the Neopets Trading Card Game.
Sally and Grimilix would have accompanied Tormund in Meridell when he was knighted.
Altador and Brightvale were not present in the original PS1 version of the game.
A red Kacheek with a chef hat and a Green Jubjub were present as NPCs in Neopia Central. Neither would appear in the final PS2 game.

Search

Past search efforts have primarily targeted ex-employees of the developer of the PlayStation 1 version of Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, The Code Monkeys Ltd, which had closed by February 2011.

David Blewett

David Blewett worked as an artist on the game, and was contacted via email on April 9th, 2021. He stated that he did not retain any assets from development.

Simon Perrins

Simon Perrins worked as a 2D and 3D artist on the game, and was interviewed via direct messages on X (formerly Twitter) by ProblematicPeriwinklePlum on March 28th, 2021. While he did not retain any development assets, he agreed to answer questions about the game. In the interview, it was stated:

The publisher (Sony Computer Entertainment) "wanted a PS2 quality game but on the PS1".
System limitations made development on modelling characters and environments "very challenging".
Well into development, fully voice acted FMV custcenes were suddenly introduced and had various elements that visually contradicted what was already complete with the expectation that the development assets would be revises to match the cutscenes.
Sally had a different design early into development, where she wore a "very Sailor Moon type costume" that was unpopular with development staff.
Sally remained a constant in developmemt until the game's cancellation.
Simon had designed "a big dungeon with a dracolich type character", likely referring to the Draik Skeleton battle, which had an unreleased stamp as well as being present in the final PS2 game.
Characters associated with Altador in the final game, specifically Jerdana and Kelland, were deconfirmed to have existed in the PS1 version of the game.
All character models were complete, rougly 50% of locations, and only a quarter of gameplay were completed by the time the game was cancelled.
It was in August of 2003 when various staff working on the game including Simon had lest The Code Monkeys, which had eventually led to the game's cancellation.

The interview in full can be viewed here.

Mark Kirkby

Mark Kirkby was one of the head staff at The Code Monkeys Ltd. and was contacted on LinkedIn on June 8th, 2021 about if he had retained any development assets for Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, and would respond on June 10th saying that he would look into it.

It wouldn't be until 2 years later that Mark Kirkby would eventually respond via email on July 19th, 2023 saying that he was unable to resurface any production material or prototypes of the game, and had assumed that they may have been intentionally destroyed.

Alex Crowther

Alex Crowther was a programmer on the Neopets team (or TNT) and was contacted on July 20th, 2023 via email, and had provided footage of a webcam recording of Sally's idle animation, marking the first time that video of the PS1 version of The Darkest Faerie has resurfaced online. Alex was impressed that "they got bone aninations working with fixed point maths", stating that John Christie was responsible for the feat.

The only known surviving footage of the game.

Paul Slinger

Paul Slinger was a programmer on the game and was contacted on July 20th, 2023 via email, but did not retain any development assets. He reaffirmed claims that the game was simply too ambitious for the platform.

Gallery

Screenshots

Sally in Neopia Central with a Pant Devil following her.
Sally in Neopia Central next to a Kacheek.
Tormund in Meridell fighting an enemy.
Grimilix at Terror Mountain with an unnamed blue NPC resembling a Lupe.
Grimilix at Terror Mountain with a Pant Devil following him.
Ditto, but with the shadow layers from the .psd file from the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD removed.

Artwork

Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (1)
Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (2)
Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (3)
Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (4)
Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (5)
Press Kit artwork of Tormund. (6)
Press Kit artwork of Sally.
Artwork of Sally shouting from the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD. It is notably dated April 21st, 2003.
Artwork of Grimilix from the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD, reusing existing site artwork.
Artwork of Grimilix running from the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD.
Press Kit artwork of the Darkest Faerie. (1)
Press Kit artwork of the Darkest Faerie. (2)
Press Kit artwork of the Darkest Faerie. (3)
Press Kit artwork of Spite.
Press Kit artwork of Malice.
Press Kit artwork of Vanity.
Press Kit artwork of the Werelupe King. (1)
Press Kit artwork of the Werelupe King. (2)
Press Kit artwork of the Werelupe Sage.
Press Kit artwork of Tormund and Sally attempting to rescue Tor's younger sister, named Sally in the final PS2 game.
Tormund, Sally, and Grimilix at Meridell's castle courtyard, observing Tormund's suit of armor.
Artwork of a battered Tormund meeting Illusen. This was included on the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD titled "illusen lupe.psd".
Artwork of Tormund battling the Darkest Faerie, with Grimilix tied up next to a presumed early Werelupe design. This was included on the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD titled "lupe_n_darkest faerie.psd".

UI Concepts

Sourced from Dan Nuttall's portfolio.

Concept art for various menus.
Concept art for in-game UI. Note the two distinct screenshots of a Yellow Lupe at a gate saying "To Terror Mountain", and Tormund fighting a Pant Devil in his knight armor.
Art for various items. (1)
Art for various items. (2)
Concept for a name input screen, 3D item icons, and Neopia.

Unreleased Stamps

Stamp featuring Sally.
Stamp featuring Meridell Castle.
Stamp featuring King Skarl cursed by the Darkest Faerie.
Stamp featuring an unused older Yellow Lupe character, presumably an early version of Hubert Ellis or Kell the Beggar.
Stamp featuring trees, preumably Illusen's Glade.
Stamp of Tormund.
Stamp of a book.
Stamp of the Draik Skeleton.
Stamp of the Dark Faerie Sisters.
Stamp of Fyora.
Stamp of the Werelupe King.
Stamp of the Werelupe Sage.
Stamp of the game's logo.

Neopets Announcement Rlse

This was originally a .pdf document found in the PlayStation E3 2003 Press Kit CD.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Neopets Fact Sheet

This was similarly sourced to the above document.

Page 1
Page 2

Other

The Gigantic Snowball card from the Neopets Trading Card Game, featuring a cameo of Sally.
The Werelupe Sage's card from the Neopets Trading Card Game.

References

[1] PlayStation E3 2003 website

[2] Neopets New Features Archive, May 19th 2003

[3] Neopets New Features Archive, October 27th 2003

[4] Neopets New Features Archive, October 27th 2003

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]