Work on TimeSplitters Rewind began back in 2013 as a fan project to recreate and release the classic shooter series to modern audiences. That work continues today, after a number of hiccups and setbacks over the last five years have caused some delays and scares that the project wouldn’t come to fruition.
In 2017, the team of volunteer developers moved the game over to CRYENGINE, which effectively required them to rebuild the core of the game from scratch. The latest update vlog shows a series of assets, including weapons, level design, and sound effects work from TimeSplitters 2’s opening level, Siberia. You can watch the developer update above.
Development on TimeSplitters Rewind is supported by Crytek, the company that now owns the TimeSplitters IP. As an entirely volunteer project, the team cannot accept money for development or sell the game on release, due to their agreements with Crytek. For right now, a PC release is the only guaranteed version from the development team, but their FAQs do state that they are open to looking into console release of the project based on certain factors.
Release on Windows is definite; release on other PC platforms and consoles depends on a checklist – Crytek approving the release on the platform, licensing the game for the platform and possible costs of that, and then making the game function properly on the platform, not necessarily in that order.
It’s uncertain how all content being “free to everyone” would play into a console release, but this early in development, that’s probably not something that they are worrying about just yet. My hope is that Crytek sees interest in the title, and backs the release of console versions of TimeSplitters Rewind, though at the rate the project has been going–not to mention that fact that it’s entirely on a volunteer basis–one has to wonder if it would even release during the PS4’s life cycle.
Are you happy to see that TimeSplitters Rewind is still in active development?
[Source: TSRewind]
