Alien Year Zero was the working title for Alien: Isolation.
Alien- Isolation Pre-Production Prototype
The "IL0" demo in April 2009.
After completing development of Viking: Battle for Asgard in 2008, Creative Assembly's Console Team began development of another title, rumoured to be based on Robin Hood, whilst fielding requests from SEGA to develop a game based on the London 2012 Olympics. In 2009, the team decided to change gears and produce a demo over a few weeks to pitch for a shot at the Alien IP, codenamed "IL0", with the project name Alien Year Zero. Unfortunately SEGA already had three titles in production utilising the Alien IP; Aliens: Crucible, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Aliens vs. Predator, which was all their deal with 20th Century Fox would allow. The "IL0" demo proved so popular internally at SEGA however that the team were granted permission to begin development of a project following the same vibe, but with a new IP outside the Alien universe. The team began production of Moon, a sci-fi horror title set on a moon base: the project was developed until some time in late 2010, when SEGA took the decision to cancel Aliens: Crucible.
Alien- Isolation Third Person Demo
The "IL3" demo in December 2011.
In May of 2011, it was first announced that Creative Assembly had been given permission to use the Alien IP[1]. Moon was reworked, culminating in the infamous third-person "IL3" demo in December 2011, which pitted the player against a single lone Xenomorph around an early version of Sevastopol Station's Engineering Platform.
It is believed that the project changed title from Alien Year Zero around mid 2013 during the final of many story rewrites and changes which occured during development under the Alien IP. In this rewrite several maps and cutscenes were removed or reworked including a mission aboard the Solace, and missions taking the player to the Gravity Anchors and Dry Docks. Notably although the title changed in this final rewrite, it survived through a series of other rewrites and changes to the game during development - including at one point the removal of an online co-op mode, which was believed to be scrapped due to the poor reception of Aliens: Colonial Marines. These changes, including the recasting of Amanda Ripley's voice actress due to a late request from Fox, reportedly caused the game to be delayed - missing its originally intended reveal at E3 2013.
There was no public mention of the Alien Year Zero title, aside from the name appearing on various portfolios from employees of Axis Animation (who produced the game's cutscenes before the final story rewrite) and some other 3rd parties. The name can also be found within the Steam Database for the depot and package names of the game: the beta of Alien: Isolation is named "AYZ Beta" and the early access package of the game is named "AYZ Early Access Comp". On Xbox 360, the game's executable is named "AYZ_Final.exe".
A large number of files within the game (such as animations) typically begin with the prefix of "AYZ", with one "AYZ" sound file being dated as late as 7th October 2013. The trademark for "Alien: Isolation" was filed on the 17th of October 2013, with no trademark being filed for "Alien Year Zero". The domain "alienisolation.com" was however registered on the 6th of February 2013, showing that the title was planned to be used around a year before the game's announcement - even though the AYZ logo found in an animator's portfolio has metadata dated for 6th March 2013.
Trivia[]
- The "Alien Year Zero" title was dropped in-part due to an album released by Nine Inch Nails in 2007 of a similar name (Year Zero).
Links[]
- BraisPerezReel - a showreel containing the name Alien Year Zero for the game's CG trailer.
- Steam Database - the Alien: Isolation depot, named "exe_ayz".
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