Chile-based indie game studio ACE Team has announced that it has licensed Valve’s Source engine to power its new PC game project, a brutal first-person action/fighting game titled Zeno Clash. Set in a chaotic punk fantasy world, Zeno Clash is the first chapter in an epic storyline following Ghat, a man banished from his clan and forced to journey through the forbidden desert and reach the end of the world. Unlike pretty much every other first-person game, Zeno Clash‘s action will emphasize brutal melee and close-quarters combat for a refreshing change of pace.
“Working with Source gives us the features, tools, and flexibility we need in an engine to bring to life a game world beyond anything seen before,” said Andres Bordeu, game designer with ACE Team. “Source is an incredibly flexible engine that lets us create environments with rich visuals, expansive and highly-detailed believable characters that interact with players in intelligent-and challenging-ways. We look forward to delivering a fantastic experience to gamers in 2008.”
“We’re pleased that the ACE Team has chosen the Source engine for their promising debut game, which will expand the use of Source into new gameplay and visual styles,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. “As we continue to evolve the Source toolset, we will continue the tradition of supplying underlying technology for such innovative projects.”
Get an early glimpse of Zeno Clash‘s uniquely stylized graphical design in these first four in-game screenshots.