THE MAKING OF Agony

IN THE KNOW

» PUBLISHER: PSYGNOSIS

» DEVELOPER: ART & MAGIC

» RELEASED: 1992

» PLATFORM: AMIGA

» GENRE: SHOOT-’EM-UP

DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS

NO, NEVER OUTSIDE

SYSTEM: COMMODORE 64

YEAR: 1989

UNREAL

SYSTEM: AMIGA

YEAR: 1999

OUTCAST (PICTURED)

SYSTEM: PC

YEAR: 1999

At a packed 1991 European Computer Trade Show in London, a group of young Belgian game developers was buzzing with excitement. Artists Franck Sauer and Marc Albinet, along with programmer Yves Grolet, were attending care of Ubisoft to promote their mystical platform shooter hybrid Unreal. But they had also brought with them an early prototype of something new. It was a dark fantasy shoot-’em-up with an owl as the protagonist, and their ultimate hope was to get the demo in front of their dream publisher Psygnosis.

Just as planned, the group managed to get talking with Psygnosis producer Steve Riding, who was overseeing half of the external games published by the company at the time. Even better, Steve instantly expressed an interest in producing the game. “We were massively impressed by the quality of the demo, and the team too,” Steve told us. “The graphics and smoothness were immediately impressive. It was clear it would become one of the Psygnosis big-box products once completed.