“Xeno” – Jane Whittaker is Back With Spiritual Sequel to Alien VS Predator
In space, no one can hear you scream, but players have been screaming for a very long time about another Alien vs Predator (AvP) game, and after more than 30 years, the person who started it all, Jane Whittaker, finally heeds the call.
The prodigy developer’s AI, gameplay and programming work on AvP for the Atari Jaguar back in 1994 is still considered groundbreaking. It defined a genre and is regarded as one of the very first true survival games. With over 100 awards, and an acknowledgement as one of scariest games of all time, it’s difficult to argue against it.
“It is a very personal journey for me,” Jane Whittaker, CEO of Athena Worlds, wrote on LinkedIn. “So many people still talk about our work on AvP to this day, with a massive following. I have been asked for over 30 years to create my next survival and stealth strategy game. I am beyond thrilled to say that thanks to generous support my day has come.”
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What We Know About Xeno So Far
The game has been put together in stealth for a couple of years already and we may not be too far away from the first demo trailer. Xeno is aimed at being a landmark open world game of exploration, survival, high stakes tension and combat. Whittaker shared a bit of the synopsis on LinkedIn that said the following.
“An emergency beacon bursts into life on planet XL-243. An investigative team is dispatched. A team of 12 comprised of a pilot, space marines, scientist, and medic. In the outer atmosphere the rescue shuttle encounters a solar storm. Minutes later the shuttle is debris on the planet’s surface. There’s only one survivor… you!”
Xeno is currently the codename for the new IP and not set in stone. Whittaker pointed out that there are no plans of using any source material from the Alien franchise.
“I want to create another ‘monster’ game with our own IP. Although we are happy to talk to Disney,” Whittaker wrote on LinkedIn.
Production on the new title will be led by Mike Meaden (producer Star Citizen, Squadron 42, and Forza Horizon), with character design by Blizzard scholarship award winner Blaire Wathen.
The All-Star Team at Athena Worlds
Athena Worlds is made up of industry veterans, including the aforementioned Whittaker, Maeden, and Wathen, who all have a history of working on some of the biggest games and franchises in the industry.
The Sims, World of Warcraft, Dark Seed, and Crysis would just be a small example of titles the team at Athena Worlds has worked on.
Athena Worlds has developed a proprietary technology named Athena, a platform-agnostic code library designed to enhance 3D graphics quality while reducing development time and costs by over 40%. Athena utilizes shape recognition AI to dynamically optimize 3D scenes, making game graphics up to 10 times more detailed across various platforms, including mobile devices and consoles.
