GamesTM takes a look behind the scenes of Anachronox:

Behind the scenes of Anachronox

The minds behind Ion Storm Dallas take us through their most ambitious project, Anachronox. Unique, grand in scope and ahead of its time, it’s the best western RPG you’ve never played

In May 2001 Ion Storm Dallas closed its doors. Founded in 1995 by id Software giants John Romero and Tom A. Hall, the gaming world watched Ion Storm’s every move with great interest. After all, these were the guys who created Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen, so nothing short of a masterpiece was unfairly expected from them with each passing game. However, with hype reaching fever pitch during the development for Daikatana, culminating with that infamous magazine ad which read “John Romero’s about to make you his bitch”, the gaming world was shattered when Daikatana didn’t exactly turn out to be quite so revolutionary.

After a lengthy development cycle and a PR campaign that almost painted it like the second coming of the First-Person Shooter genre itself, John Romero’s Daikatana was, in many respects, deemed a failure. Ion Storm Dallas has largely been remembered as the company that brought us Daikatana, but the other game that was in development in tandem with Romero’s time travel FPS was Anachronox, a game that was more ambitious and inventive than Daikatana could have ever dreamed of being.

When starting Ion Storm, Tom had the opportunity to make any game he wanted, as to did Romero, which led to Diakatana. So, with a deep love for the likes of the Final Fantasy series as well as Chrono Trigger, Tom’s aim was to create a “Western-translated” JRPG . Pepper in an additional appreciation for classic adventure games and you have Anachronox; Ion Storm Dallas’ most impressive outing. The name Anachronox came to Tom’s mind while, out of all places, he was in the bathroom.

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