BC was going to be an action-adventure video game in development for Microsoft's Xbox video game system by Intrepid Computer Entertainment, a satellite of Lionhead Studios. It was cancelled in 2004, having been in development for seven years - initially on PlayStation, then on PC and finally on Xbox; BC was canceled because Microsoft had created a cut-off time for first party Xbox titles and BC was unable to be completed in time.

Set in a Harryhausen-esque prehistoric time period, BC featured the player having to advance their tribe in a world inhabited by dinosaurs and other anachronistic creatures.

Summary

As BC was cancelled, it is unknown exactly what would have been seen aside from general information. The official company line states that:

Before there were roofs overhead, there were dank, dark caves, echoing with the grunts of their prehistoric inhabitants. Before organized crops and farming, every new fruit and berry picked off a tree could be sweet, delicious sustenance--or deadly poison.

Every roar in the distance necessitated tribal unity. Every rock shard and broken stick could be a weapon. Every flame needed to be preserved. Before there was history, there was BC.

BC is an original third-person action-adventure game that hurtles players back millions of years into prehistory, to the beginnings of humankind. Members of a clan take part in an epic journey of survival, battling against ferocious, prehistoric creatures and exploring vast natural environments.

New technologies and knowledge could be just over the next rise. If humanity is to survive, the tribe needs to evolve into a thinking, resourceful unit that can rise up to become the pioneers in a primeval, unpredictable world.[281]

Features:

Brutal prehistoric combat: Players experience savage battles in an uncivilized, merciless era. Heads and limbs get torn off, and pools of blood congeal after brutal conflicts in a violent, dangerous world--where only the strong survive.

The world as a weapon: Gamers will discover and create a multitude of deadly weapons, using naturally occurring materials. Enemies can be poisoned with native plants. An avalanche can be triggered to kill predatory opponents. Interactive environments allow for multiple solutions. Any object can be picked up or used as a tool or weapon, and wild animals have the potential to be predator or prey.

A massive prehistoric world: Players must lead their tribe through the nascent earth's deadly, but beautiful environments. From ancient rainforests to underwater settings, from scathing desert heat to fierce mountain blizzards, gamers must weather the elements.

Deadly adversaries: The tribe becomes the hunted when deadly creatures, ranging from saber-toothed tigers to velociraptors, stalk tribe members for food or viciously defend their young when they perceive danger.

Evolution or extinction: Gamers handpick tribe members to produce babies born to be hunters, mystics, fighters, or other specializations. As their experience grows and time passes, players choose the right skills and powers to enhance their characters and benefit the tribe.

From what is known, the player would assume the role of a tribal chief who is responsible for the welfare of his people. It is up to the player/chief to spur his people's technological development and lead his tribe of cavemen to a Valley free of predatory dinosaurs and savage ape-man where they can evolve in peace. Part of that means that the player/chief would assign various duties to his tribesmen. However, it would also have been possible to play as any member of the tribe.

Early images at E3 showed extreme clarity and self shading but early reviews called the artificial intelligence the most impressive game aspect. According to Gamespot.com's information on BC, the game would have had a foodchain, like Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, in which each part would have been subject to being eaten by something higher on the foodchain. In addition, the dinosaurs and other creatures would have been intelligent, interacting with each other, thus acting independently of the player. It would have been possible to affect the videogame world as a whole, leading some people to comment on the driving of certain species to extinction. Other activities would have included capturing and training certain animals to use against tribal enemies. Animals known to exist in the world would have been Tyrannosaurs, Velociraptors, Pachycephelosaurs, Sabre-Toothed Tigers, Apatosaurs (or Brontosaurs as the game would have focused on anachronisms) dodos, ape-men, and others. As part of the exaggeration, in addition to anachronisms in the dinosaur age, BC would have featured dinosaurs as being larger than they really were. In one preview, Molyneux was quoted as saying that the Rex seen in screenshots was a child, a third the size of its parent. the game was also planned to be very bloody. Gamespot quoted Molyneux as saying that the dinosaurs will spill "swimming pools full of blood" when killed.

At the moment, the game has been cancelled, fans believing that it was too ambitious to be made; indeed, even while the game was still in production, Molyneux said that he was unsure when he could release it due to "the ambitious nature of the gameplay and the high standards the people developing it are pushing for." According to one article, as of May, 2002, "[the demo build] was roughly 50 percent complete". Its cancellation was announced in late 2004 with Molyneux saying "The decision to suspend work on any games project is always a very difficult one, particularly when it is a title with the potential of BC." However, fans hope that Molyneux will live up to his suggestion that the game might be revived at a later date.

References

BC for XBox

Report from E3 2002

Archived notification of BC's suspension