Welcome to the YAGER Pitch Archives!
As you know we are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, a good reason to let you peek behind the curtain and show you some games and game ideas from the past that never made it past the prototype or pitch stage.
What is a pitch?
A game pitch is created to sell a game idea to a publisher, to team members, potential investors, or game journalists. As a game developer you always try to bring ideas to paper and afterwards to life. Some of the games you see here were more advanced than others, some were the foundation to partnering with others and some even had huge influence on projects that we did later.
Vertical War
The first game we are talking about in our Pitch Archive series is a project that internally was called “Vertical War”. Back then, thanks to Kill Switch, many companies explored third person cover shooters and in late 2006 a game that massively influenced the gaming landscape for some time was released – Gears of War.
We at YAGER had our own idea for that concept, a concept that was focused around fully embracing 3D and leaning into verticality, something the genre had not seen at that point.
Vertical War is set in a dystopian megalopolis called The City and you are part of its police team. You are looking for an ambassador from the wasteland and will encounter mysterious mutated creatures called “The Creep”, while you make your way down into the depths of the city. While you are exploring the city, you will uncover a conspiracy that could shock the rest of the world of Vertical War.
Please watch the video for additional information and gameplay.
The Aftermath
Our first game Yager was a flight-combat-sim, Vertical War was supposed to be a third person shooter … so what is next for YAGER? Well, this pitch, even if it never entered full development, was a crucial step for us to gather the experience that later helped us with the creation and development of Spec Ops: The Line.
Vertical War was just one of the pitches we have worked on in the past 25 years. We will be releasing additional entries in the Pitch Archives series in the upcoming weeks, so you can have another look at past projects with us. Do not forget to check our website regularly or follow our socials, so you do not miss the next entry.
