The newly emerged http://discmaster.textfiles.com archive crawler website came bearing gifts. Bsky user rabidrodent unearthed the most lucid captures of the Virtual Boy Mario Adventure project Nintendo dispreferred over the three dee jamborees of Mario Clash.
What is most remarkable is that this cancelled project openly features some traditional Japanese, namely Kyoto cultural elements that could not be found in the remaining mainline Mario game of that era. Notice the 大 (Daimonji) character atop a mountain, a reference to the Gozan no Okuribi Summer festival fires.
There is also very suggestive use of the Torii gates. Habitually found at the entrance of Shinto shrines, they symbolize the passage from earthly to holy domains. Their functional representation in the game allows the player to move into a third dimension.
Lastly, we have what appears to be an interesting take on traditional Buddha head statues as a timed ascending/descending obstacle, shown here with the shape of Wario's visage and eccentrically jagged moustache.
Coincidentally, traditional Japanese motifs were sporadically featured in Mario games released since, namely in Super Mario RPG (Monstro Town), Super Mario 3D World (Hands-On Hall), and more recently in the Mario Odyssey's reimagining of Bowser's as medieval Japanese castle.
Remarkably, the concept for this game weaved a Zelda-inspired top-down oblique perspective into what was expected to be a Super Mario Land 2 sequel. Notice elegant the design of Mario's sprites despite the fact that a large portion of their visual makeup is rendered in pure black. While the first one is nearly identical to the final sprite featured in Mario Clash, the second was disposed off alongside much of what made this concept so extraordinary.
The Boulder Dome was a location planned in the cancelled Fallout game known as Van Buren. The massive scientific research facility overshadowed the city of Boulder, built to specifically to withstand a direct nuclear attack. Surrounding the structure are the blasted remains of the city, with what's left of it contaminated with radiation and toxic waste.
This idea was later reused by Chris Avellone when creating the Big MT for Fallout: New Vegas. In a presentation for the NYU Game Center, Avellone stated:
So a lot of the work I had done for Boulder, Colorado in Van Buren had actually ended up mutating and actually becoming a part of the work that ended up being in Old World Blues, which was the Big Empty Research Facility, had a lot to do with the Boulder Dome that was in Van Buren.
Everhaven was a sandbox survival crafting multiplayer RPG game that was being developed by Phoenix Labs. It had fantasy characters and quests inspired by Minecraft and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was cancelled months from Early Access in 2024, but there is a community that wants the game to be revived and finished. We first hear about Everhaven through the former development team of the game, including the character artist @nicholaskole on his Twitter/X where he explains what the game was about and how far along it was in development.
The game had been in development since 2021, 3 years. It was to be announced in June 2024 and released later in Early Access in September. The player would've started with 5 playable races: Humans, mountain-dwelling Fauns, plantlike Valekins, draconic Wyvarrs, and the feline Purrans.
Players would also collect creatures and have them as pets or ride them as mounts. Many regions were planned, and a starter region was to be used for launch, the Inner Lands - "a cosy pastoral paradise of rolling fields, lush forests, and alpine slopes". Like Minecraft, players would be able to build houses and customize their land, and grow crops and gardens.
Fully voiced NPCs would've given the world of Everhaven life, expanding the lore surrounding the 5 playable species and a story for players to follow. Enemies would also fill the regions of Everhaven as you explore the land, embark on quests and gather materials.
Each NPC was designed with unique art, gameplay traits, quests, and quirks. They each had a profession, a culture, a backstory. Some had friends and rivals and possible love interests. Aside from their personal quests, they had no linear story. Instead, by playing the game, players would discover their own developing narratives. Narrative designer Bethany Higa stated that the world of Everhaven would be procedurally generated each time, and everyone's experience with the characters would be different. When you met them, and how, and where in your journey, would all be unique. Phoenix Labs wanted to give players the freedom to choose how to build their own story using the NPCs.
The story of the characters would've been told through cinematics driven by the aesthetics and motifs of their cultures.
According to Nicholas Kole, Phoenix Labs was entering the final 3 months stretch with Everhaven: the character customization was working, music soundtrack and character voiceover was mostly done and still being recorded, cinematics were close to completion. After the Early Access period, Phoenix Labs would've went on with a full plan from there.
The game received excellent feedback and mock reviews, as it was preparing for its upcoming release.
Unfortunately...
A blockchain company named Forte quietly bought Phoenix Labs in 2023 and later decided to cancel all projects that were in development, including Project Unicorn and Everhaven. The team members assigned to the projects were also laid off. This decision was done to focus fully on the other existing games at Phoenix Labs, Dauntless and Fae Farm. There were internal attempts made to save Everhaven but they were unsuccessful.
On July 12, 2024, the embargo for Everhaven was lifted, allowing the former team members to post their contributions of the project on social media and on their personal portfolios.
Phoenix Labs wasn't the first company Forte had purchased. They had also bought Rumble Entertainment, the developer of the mobile game Towers and Titans, and decided to shut down the studio this year in July 2024 in, what a former Rumble dev member calls it, "a ruthless pursuit of profit". This reveals that Forte buys game studios and would casually shut them down if they choose. A gaming news article with anonymous former Phoenix Labs employees later revealed that Forte would close down studios they acquired and cancel their game projects if they can’t find ways to implement their blockchain tech into the games.
The same interview revealed that Forte allowed Phoenix Labs 3 months to try and find a new owner for Everhaven, but Forte stopped them 1 month in and laid off the dev team. Forte mentioned they currently aren’t looking for funding on paused projects.
After seeing the content made for Everhaven, a movement was formed by fans; this campaign was called #BringBackProjectDragon, at the hopes of getting Forte's attention and convince them to revive Everhaven and at least sell the game to another publisher. Word spread, and a few cozy game influencers covered Everhaven and its cancellation.
A petition was even created that has reached over 10,000 signatures as a way to show Forte and others that there is a fanbase that cares for Everhaven.
In 2025, after a disastrous monetization update for Phoenix Labs' other game Dauntless, Forte shut down the game in response to negative user backlash instead of reverting their update. Later that year in September, Forte announced quietly the closure of Fae Farm's online services. These two games were the game Forte said they would focus on after shutting down Everhaven. But in a twist of fate, they sold Fae Farm to a new game studio, saving it fom sharing Everhaven and Dauntless' fate. This shows that Forte is willing to part with the game IPs they gain if supposedly offered a big amount of money. And this reopens the possibility/hope of Everhaven being saved.
To try and get Forte's attention, or share this game to other game studios who might save Everhaven, please spread the word about Everhaven to your friends and on social media (Twitter/X, Facebook, here on Tumblr, Bluesky, etc.), sign the petition, send big game studios passive messages about the game and suggest they save it from Forte.
For Everhaven fans, there is a Facebook Fan Group, a Bluesky fan account, one for Twitter/X, a subreddit, and a discord server.
Virtua Hamster (SEGA 32X and Saturn) - One of SEGA's stranger lost projects
Virtua Hamster is one of SEGA's more unusual lost projects. Think S.T.U.N Runner with rodents. Nearly finished on 32X, but cancelled before release, with a Saturn version never even started.
I love this game concept so much that part of me wants to develop my own interpretation for fun and repitch it but tbh I think it would do worse now that it would then??
