It's crunch time for the guys at Chaotic Games. Founded by Ben Anderson and Will Hudson in 1997, the design studio has grown from a hobby to a relatively well oiled team of designers, artists and programmers. And just as the team has been taking shape over the last 2 years, so has Chaotic's work in progress: Raven of Darkness.

"A lot of our inspiration comes from Valve's Half-Life," says Hudson, Raven of Darkness' project leader, "but our storyline is more detailed". RoD will find players searching for an alien artifact, the Raven, in a futuristic environment. Character development will play a big role in RoD, as deceit, betrayal, conspiracy and fear all have a significant effect on the path and outcome of the game. Plenty of NPC and character interaction should keep players from feeling lonesome during those long Raven hunting nights as well.

"We want to go back to the basics", says Hudson, "because what is a game without killer gameplay and storylines?" Chaotic, however, isn't simply going to ignore the technological aspect of their game. In fact, they can't… not if they hope to stay competitive in the face of technological giants like id and Epic later this year.