New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

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Affinix Software was a company based in Southern California, that worked on a cancelled game for the Game Boy Color. Infinity was an epic old-school RPG, that promised to be a good choice for lovers of this genre on the Nintendo console. Sadly the team had some problems in finding a publisher for Infinity and Affinix Software had to close down in 2002. We have contacted Eric Hache, former member of Affinix and composer of the score for Infinity (a real “beta-OST” that you can download from his website) for a little interview about their cancelled game and his life as a videogame music artist.

[Interview by Take_it_Slow]

Unseen64: Thanks so much for this interview, Eric.

Eric: You’re welcome!

Unseen64: What is your favourite food? :)

Eric: Anything from the sea, but nothing beats a good ol’ meal with meat and veggies. :)

Unseen64: The Affinix summary of the plot doesn’t go into much detail as to what the evil is or who the characters are. Would you care to expand?

Eric: It’s been a while and I haven’t seen all the story, the evil guy is “The Creator”, the hero is Connor, he used to serve the king but after some conflict he was stripped of his commission.

Unseen64: The piece also says that the Aluthans and The Selerans used to be allies, but were later divided. Is it explained in the game what caused this divide?

Eric: Uhm, that’s a tough one without re-reading the script… Mark (The writer) could know more about that one.

Unseen64: From a screenshot on the Affinix website, it appears that the actions in battle were tied to the direction pad. Is this true? What was the battle system like?

Eric: The battle system is very ingenious, it is controlled by the D-Pad yeah. You point with the D-Pad towards the enemy you want to target and then you hit A to do normal attacks, or you don’t use the d-pad, select an item or a spell and then select your enemy. It’s one of the fastest rpg systems I’ve played. Quite enjoyable!

Unseen64: From that same screenshot, you can make out Conn, Elya, and Vict as character names. Were these stock names, or did the player choose them. Furthermore, what were the characters like and how were their stories related?

Eric: They are stock names. As I said before, I don’t remember a lot about the story.

Unseen64: How was your experience in composing the score for Infinity?

Eric: I loved it! I had a chance to do some nice chip songs and most of them were dark in nature and if you’ve listened to some of my songs, I really like to compose for dark moods. :) It took around 3 to 6 months to do, and I had a full time job at the same time. I didn’t sleep much in that year. ;)

Unseen64: Why do you think Infinity was never picked up by a publisher?

Eric: We took too much time to finish it and the GBC’s lifespan was nearing it’s end due to the release of the GBA.

Unseen64: Did you worked on any other “unreleased” games?

Eric: Quite a few, since I’m a composer trying to make his mark, it’s not uncommon to work on small development teams with limited funds and personel. A few of those were “Legend of Talibah” in 1996, Shadow Incarnate in 1998 (with Yohalem), The Kudhos Project in 1999 and lots of others which I forgot.

Unseen64: What happened to the people from the team? Did they got a new job in the gaming-industry or are they working on something else?

Eric: Mark Yohalem the writer is doing pretty well, he’s written scripts for a few games that are on the market and published books. He’s also a lawyer.Justin Karneges the producer/programmer is always busy programming, he’s currently working on Psi, a messenger client. Hideaki Omuro is still a terrific programmer, he moved to Japan
shortly after Infinity and works for Irem I think. Mathew Valente, (the sound engineer) and I are still very good friends, we met last year in Toronto for a Play! Symphony show and we met Uematsu in person. The artists seem active in other projects but I don’t know if it’s in the game industry or not.

Unseen64: Are you yourself a gamer? If so, what games are you playing now and what is your favorite console (any generation)?

Eric: Of course! I don’t love any console in particular, I own most of them. Right now I’m still playing Final Fantasy XI online on PC, and I still have to finish Baten Kaitos Origins and Tales of the Abyss.

Unseen64: Who are your favourite musical artists?

Eric: Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yuzo Koshiro, Nobuo Uematsu, Kenji Ito and Alex Skolnick from Testament.

Unseen64: Where you get the inspiration for your music?

Eric: I really don’t know, I always end up humming a song in my head throughout the day and I’ve never encountered a block yet :)

Unseen64: Are there any plans for the Infinity ROM to be leaked to the Public? (Please!)

Eric: I’d love to say yes, we still contact each other regularly and discuss about it. I’d say there’s still some chances.

Unseen64: What are you working on now?

Eric: I’m on hold with some projects now, waiting for them to finish a little more before I can jump in. But right now I’m mostly doing studio work for customers and composing for my own pleasure.

Unseen64: Anything else you’d like to say?

Eric: I hope everyone gets a chance to play Infinity, it’s a very special game – one that you wouldn’t believe came from north american talents! and on top of that, it’s am old school rpg that you can actually die at least a few times in. ;) and of course, the music is awesome! haha

Unseen64: Again, thanks for your time, and we really value your help with this project.

Eric: Anytime!

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