''Prodeus'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

game developed by Bounding Box Software and published by

Humble Games Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

. The game was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

by a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

campaign in April 2019. An

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

version was released on November 9, 2020. The full game was released on

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

, Microsoft Windows,

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North A ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020 ...

in September 2022. A DLC was announced for the game in 2023

Gameplay

The developers describe ''Prodeus'' as "the first-person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques." The gameplay resembles that of classic 1990s

s such as ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...

'' and '' Quake''. The player must explore complex levels, sometimes searching out keys to progress, while engaging enemies in fast-paced combat using a variety of weapons. To help the player find their way, and to aid in discovering secrets, the game features an

automap A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to aid players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective in what details ...

similar in function to those featured in games such as ''Doom'', ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and '' Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke N ...

'', and ''

Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main installment in the ''Metroid'' franchise and the first game in the series to use 3D co ...

''. ''Prodeus'' employs a modern game engine to extend the experience of classic shooters with visuals such as dynamic lighting and

particle effects A particle system is a technique in game physics, motion graphics, and computer graphics that uses many minute sprites, 3D models, or other graphic objects to simulate certain kinds of "fuzzy" phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to repro ...

, interactive levels, a gore system, and a dynamic soundtrack. Though the game may be played entirely with modern visuals, the game allows the player to apply

shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...

s that give the game a pixelated look, simulating resolutions down to

360p Low-definition television (LDTV) refers to TV systems that have a lower screen resolution than standard-definition TV systems. The term is usually used in reference to digital TV, in particular when broadcasting at the same (or similar) resolut ...

or even 216p.

Plot

The player assumes control of a corrupted agent of ''Prodeus'', the mysterious creator of the player and the game world. The only goal is to destroy ''Prodeus'' and anything that gets in the way.

Development

Developers Mike Voeller and Jason Mojica met while working together at

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the stu ...

on '' Singularity''. By 2017, Voeller had decided to leave the industry to pursue an idea for a retro first-person shooter (that would become ''Prodeus''). Around that time, Mojica reconnected with Voeller and decided to leave his job at Starbreeze Studios to join the project. Later, the two recruited

Andrew Hulshult Andrew Hulshult is an American video game music composer and sound designer. He is best known for his work with 3D Realms as well as his scores for several first-person shooters, such as ''Dusk'', ''Quake Champions'', and ''Doom Eternal''. Ca ...

for the soundtrack and Josh "Dragonfly" O'Sullivan from the ''Doom''

modding ''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb " to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specific ...

community to work on level design. ''Prodeus'' was announced in November 2018. The launch trailer and later gameplay demos were created with a pre- alpha version of the game showcasing a typical level. The developers have stated that community engagement was considered a core principle of the game from the beginning. Thus, ''Prodeus'' includes an integrated level editor from day one. Anyone who owns the game on a PC will have the same tools used by the developers to make levels from scratch. The level editor is built specifically for ''Prodeus'' and is designed for speed and ease of use. Despite originally promising a native

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

version, it was announced on September 5, 2022 that the game would instead merely be tailored for the Proton compatibility layer, citing issues with platform support from the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a ...

game engine.

Reception

''Prodeus'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://prodeusgame.com/ First-person shooters Early access video games 2022 video games Windows games Cancelled Linux games MacOS games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Xbox One games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Andrew Hulshult Kickstarter-funded video games Indie games Multiplayer and single-player video games Sprite-based first-person shooters Humble Games games