Founded in 1998
Darkblack Ltd was a UK game development studio founded by Richard Beston and Imran Khan in the summer of 1998. The studio made two MTV Sports games for THQ in 2000: MTV Sports: Skateboarding and MTV Sports: Skateboarding featuring Andy Macdonald. As soon as the game was completed, Darkblack was asked to develop another game for THQ as part of their Nickelodeon license. It was based on the popular children's cartoon series Rocket Power. In 2002 the studio has been known to work on at least three more games: Moto XXX, a motorcross racing game, Wreck'n Krew and the firstperson horror shooter Asylum that was handed to Octagon Entertainment, a company that acts as an agent to sell the game to publishers. Due to financial problem for Octagon, the development studio also ran out of money. All titles were eventually cancelled and the last update to the website was on October 2002. Although the reasons are not disclosed, Darkblack lost the rights to the title Asylum, presumably to Acclaim who did not pursue further development. The staff at Darkblack found a new investor and founded the company HotHead Studios, a short-lived game development studio established in early 2003. Taking along most of the team, they had lost the rights to the firstperson horror title Asylum and started a six-months development cycle to create a new game based on the technology behind Asylum: Shadow of the Sun, but now with vampires as a main theme. According to Richard Beston: Shadow of the Sun is an extremely cinematic, story-based first-person adventure title set in an alternate universe where vampires rule. The main character was once a powerful Vampire Lord who was overthrown and imprisoned by the devious Vampire Council. After hundreds of years of torture and imprisonment he is visited by a vision of a beautiful woman pleading for his help. Compelled to find and help her, he is filled with a new sense of purpose; and thirsty for revenge, he escapes from his cell and sets out on a path of bloody revenge. As with Asylum, again Hot Head Studios contracted Octagon Entertainment to negotiate with a publisher, but according to the development team Octagon eventually never made a real effort. During development, the company website never even listed the game, but instead advertised a product called Hyper Streetracing. The company disappeared in the same year, leaving the title unreleased.
