Nightmare Creatures 2

Shortly after the Playstation 2 version of Nightmare Creatures was ported to the Nintendo64, the team at Kalisto began gathering interest for a sequel and Activision accepted. The PS2 version of Nightmare Creatures 2 was set to be released October 31 - 1999, but then slipped to "early 2000" before landing a late 2000 release date. The development of the Nintendo64 hadn't even started late 1999. Activision supposedly wasn't too happy with the sale of Nightmare Creatures for the Nintendo64 and late 1999 they were still evaluating wether to make the sequel appear on the N64 or not.

IGN attempted to contact Activision late 1999 for a comment on the N64 version, but no further updates were made about the game on their site.

This is supposedly a story from an anonymous team member, posted at ign.com

June 7, 1998: After wrapping up production on the original Nightmare Creatures and then porting it to Nintendo 64 in shiny good form, a bunch of us got together and decided to go forth with the sequel. It wasn't long, of course, before we got the green-light from publisher Activision and we began writing the design specifications for the project. I've decided to keep this journal as a constant reminder of what will undoubtedly be our greatest endeavor ever. Tomorrow we're planning to have a team meeting where we will assign portions of level design to our artists. It might also be nice to see what our programmers have planned. I'm cold and hungry.

June 8, 1998: I just returned from our first meeting. We've decided to continue onward with the storyline of old. In the original title, gamers met up with and conquered the very evil Adam Crowley... or so they thought. It seems the sinister figure has escaped to the early 20th century. I think 1934 might be a good time to start this adventure. The plot still needs a bit of ironing, but I've got some good ideas rolling around in my head. It's going to be scary.

June 13, 1998: I met with our code junkies today. They've got some brilliant plans for a completely redesigned 3D engine. If everything goes as planned, we'll be able to pull off things we simply couldn't have done with Nightmare Creatures.

When I got home tonight, I was positive I saw my bedroom light on when I got out of my car. However, when I went inside, all the lights were off. I think I need to take a break. These 10-hour days are cracking me up.

July 18, 1998: This was supposed to be a daily journal. Oh well. Good news. The team met today and we've got a concrete idea of where the game is going... finally. Lots of new goodies to look forward to, which I've listed below for my own convenience:

Completely revamped 3D engine. High-resolution mode (512x240 pixels -- it looks brilliant!) Much smoother framerate (not that the original was bad) Lots of real-time cut-scenes (over 15 minutes in all) Multiple characters to choose from (why do I keep putting additions in parentheses?) Newly added gouraud shading on objects, monsters and player characters. Large and open levels. Lots of less fog. Innovative camera management and user-selectable look-around mode. Loads of new combos for characters to execute. Loads of new disgusting monsters for characters to execute. Enhanced gore effects (seriously bloody stuff!) Not bad, huh? And this is only the beginning.

I have to go to bed now. It's three in the morning and I'm still up writing about this sequel. I haven't been able to sleep very good lately. I thought I heard someone walking up my stairs last night. I'm obviously sleep deprived.

Before I forget, we decided to simultaneously develop both the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of Nightmare Creatures 2 together.

August 12, 1998: I'm scared. We got the word from Activision today that we are to meet a deadline of October 1999 -- just in time for Halloween. One of our programmers quit today. The other tried to jump out of the window. Things are not good.

I should go.

January 15, 1999: It's been awhile. I haven't slept in four days. We've been cramming. Pikachu won't stop staring at me. One of our designers brought him back from the mall yesterday. They're all out to get me. I can feel them planning my demise.

January 17: I've locked myself in my room. The development team is gone. Gone! Something happened... I don't know... I'm scared. I'm going to lock this journal in the company safe tonight. Please, let me take one moment's break from my state of panic to note to potential readers that Nightmare Creatures 2 looks absolutely stunning. Back to my crazed mood now: God help me. God help us all for what we've done.

I just want to apologize to the parents of all the gamers who buy this game. It was my project.