Dark Camelot

Dark Camelot Placeholder Title

Thief The Dark Project aka "Dark Camelot" Very First Trailer!

First Dark Camelot Tech Trailer

Dark Camelot was the second step on the way to creating Thief: The Dark Project.

Taking the sword element from Better Red than Undead, the game moved much faster than its predecessor and was partly based what was felt as a 'missed opportunity' in the Looking Glass game Ultima Underworld.

The game was to be ambitious and innovative yet kept simple and small enough, focusing on more action-orientation and to be developed and released in a year to help Looking Glass, which was suffering financially.

Marc LeBlanc, chief programmer of Thief: The Dark Project remembered suggesting to project leader Dough Church, about doing stealth missions, which was then shot down since it was deviating from the action-focus.

Dark Camelot was to feature a dystopian twist on Arthurian myth, with King Arthur being a tyrant who used the myth of the Grail to control the people and Merlin was a dandy psychopath. The world was more modern than traditional Arthurian, with steampunk-ish elements, but no gunpowder. They did not want to do orcs and elves but have something more unique. Many concept art pictures known to Thief fans show character and settings from this time, such as the ogre.

The main character was to be Arthur's bastard son, Mordred, rebelling against his father's rule. Despite some tech demo builds being made, the game was almost cancelled when they decided to change the focus. Despite rumours, no art assets or levels were ever designed.

As the team was unable to get a good sword-fighting system, LG founder Paul Neurath suggested dropping the Arthurian theme. This game then became The Dark Project with Mordred replaced by Garrett, the Knights became Hammerites, and Camelot became The City.

Notes

• Despite no art assets being stated as created, a number of pieces of the concept art seem to have been carry over and have been seen in early Dark Project adverts and some assets shown in early previews show a fairly early lesser developed state then final Thief assets but some are recognizable. It is possible Marc LeBlanc's memory is a bit faded on the assets side.