Dark Eden, the Game Boy Advance Metroidvania That Never Found a Backer
Dark Eden was the first project of Rival Dreams, a small studio founded in the early 2000s by Jools Watsham, Ian Dunlop and Kynan Pearson while all three were still at Acclaim. It was meant to be a Metroidvania for the Game Boy Advance, but the team could not secure investors and moved on to another project, Sea Boy.
At a glance
- Created by: Rival Dreams (Ian Dunlop did most of the programming)
- Genre: Metroidvania
- Status: Unreleased prototype
- Made public: 24 October 2022
- What sets it apart: A compressed proof of concept that hands out abilities at a rapid pace
What the prototype is
The design drew on Castlevania games such as Circle of the Moon and Symphony of the Night, and on Forlorn, an earlier Game Boy idea the trio had worked on at Acclaim. The prototype is a vertical slice meant to show the concept: you unlock around ten abilities in roughly ten minutes and pass through six background themes. Pearson has said a finished game would have spread those out far more.
How it surfaced
In 2022 Time Extension worked with the fan site Forest of Illusion and Dunlop to release the Dark Eden and Sea Boy prototypes publicly. The former Rival Dreams members went on to well-known work: Pearson at Retro Studios on Metroid Prime 2 and 3, and Watsham at Renegade Kid and later Atooi, a name that comes from Sea Boy.