A gory and ultra-controversial film, Cannibal Holocaust will have marked absolutely all the spectatorsdepicting chilling sequences of cannibalism while featuring unscrupulous Western journalists. Fantastic Studio had been working on a canonical game since 2019, soberly titled Cannibal and produced in collaboration with Ruggero Deodato.
Its creative director Andrea Valesini recently spoke with gaming pc to come back to this crazy adventure that was Cannibal, a game today greatly modified, but not totally abandoned. Andrea Valesini explains that his studio was initially hesitant to produce a game like this, doubting the interest of players in the franchise. But when the announcement was made, the enthusiasm was total and the studio had decided to turn Cannibal into a real adventure game point & clickand no longer a simple visual novel. But lo and behold, the trailer also caused legal hassles, Fantastic Studio did not have the rights to use the images of the film in its teaser… After tough negotiations, the studio nevertheless found common ground, which cost it money in the process, preventing it from serenely develop the game to offer a demo to the Steam Neo Fest. Oh, and COVID-19 didn’t help matters, especially working with then 81-year-old Ruggero Deodato.
Eventually, Fantastic Studio decided todrop the Cannibal name and rename the title to Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare, which will be a real 3D game with an in-house engine, but still in the spirit of Ruggero Deodato’s feature film. The ambitions are revised upwards, the studio has produced a more polished trailer… which caused a scandal in Indonesia. Residents of Borneo and surrounding areas deemed the visuals racist, cartoonish and reductive, with tattoos and weapons completely irrelevant, even going so far as to send threats to the developers. Another hard blow for Andrea Valesini and his team, which nevertheless reminds us that in Cannibal Holocaust and so in his future game Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare, it is the Whites who are shown as savages. After internal discussions, the studio decided to continue development anyway, and to release a new version of the trailer with a warning message at the beginning, in order to calm things down.
The year 2021 was not easy, Ruggero Deodato’s health was declining rapidly, it was increasingly difficult to work with him…until his disappearance in December 2022, at the age of 83. Here again, Fantastic Studio decided not to give up. It develops in parallel Cannibal Tales, which will include two visual novels written by Ruggero Deodato before his deathwhich will have no link between them, but which will still be connected to a third game. Because yes, in addition to Cannibal Tales (expected in January 2024) and Borneo: A Jungle Nightmarethe studio is working on another 3D game, which will use theUnreal Engine 5 and which will be co-developed by Troglobyte Games (Blind Fate: Edo no Yami, HyperParasite). It will be a game stand-alonebut still in connection with the cannibal franchise, and of course, the studio will take great care not to mention Borneo in the title…
Fantastic Studio undeterred, but right now players are still waiting to get their hands on a cannibalistic game. You can find Cannibal Holocaust collector’s edition at 24 € on Amazon.
| Clint008 Writer – Tester |