Un-Blocked: Minimum Still Exists, Hosting Beta Weekend

Minimum is not the reason TimeGate dropped off the face of the earth. Not by a long shot. That would be a series of unfortunate events (and decisions) that forced the partial Aliens: Colonial Marines developer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and close up shop. It was kind of an implosion. Among others, a jilted pizza place was involved. One would assume, then, that its final project, Minecraft-influenced shooter Minimum, ended up as collateral, given that Atari now owns the license and dubiously discarded Prey 2 steward Human Head is on development duties. What does all of that mean for the game, though? You can find out this weekend.

Minimum is a old-ish-school-style game of builderly shooting and shooterly building. Also there are giant Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot mechs that just sort of... do their own thing in the background. Blasting and crafting apparently powers up said violent titans, as mechs often find those sorts of things highly inspirational.

A beta event will run from now until Sunday evening, and you can sign up for an apparently pretty good chance at nabbing a code here. Apparently a similar recent event provided "voluminous player feedback," but Human Head's inhuman hunger will never be satisfied. It wants more. Mooooooooooooore.

It really will be interesting to see where Atari and Human Head take this one, though. Who knows? Maybe this will be good for it in the long run. There are a million voxel-based, crafting-oriented everythings out there, but Human Head has demonstrated solid creative chops in the past. Prey was a fairly standard shooter with strong environment design and some brilliant topsy turvy twists, and Prey 2 was jam-packed full of inventive FPS ideas before a dispute with Bethesda put it in developmental limbo. Minimum is in good (human) hands, in other words. Here's hoping it ends up being worth the rescue effort.