Video Discription |
OPUS Legacy and Adam Butcher have FINALLY released an official version of "CATASTROPHE CROW!", and I have done a full playthrough of the game and explored a huge majority of its content! In fact, there's SO much content it is actually way more content than either Adam Butcher's gameplay video, or even any of the videos created by the game's developer, Manfred Lorenz, on several different YouTube channels.
Play "CATASTROPHE CROW!":
opuslegacy.itch.io/play-catastrophe-crow
Watch Adam Butcher's original video on the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irEb9TS9yEk
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ABOUT "CATASTROPHE CROW!":
(No, the following isn't real. It's a summary of Adam Butcher's "WHAT HAPPENED TO CROW 64?" video. Well, the part where he explains the backstory behind this mysterious game.)
The story of this game's development is a tragic one. The game's creator, Manfred Lorenz, created "CATASTROPHE CROW!" as a gift for his daughter, as the game was based off of one of her drawings. The game recieved sigificant media attention during its development, especially since Manfred promised "fearless exploration" of "unfamiliar worlds", and something called an 'eternal revival system', which Adam passes off as a bad translation. And during the development, things took a dark turn.
The game's release date would infamously constantly pushed back to the point where a release date was getting worryingly vague. Rumors began circulating around Manfred Lorenz, with one of the rumors being that his home life completely broke down, as he, quote: "hadn't seen his family in months". In February 2001, over a year beyond the game's original release date, one of the employees of OPUS interactive got in touch with Manfred directly, begging him to "think of the player" and let them release the game, to which Manfred replied with "the player is gone". At that point Manfred and OPUS Interactive spent nearly 10 million dollars on the game, and they could no logner pay their staff or any of the debts they owed.
As it turns out, Manfred's daughter, Thea, got sick while the game while the game was still knee-deep in development, and Manfred was not even able to visit her once because he was too busy and focused on finishing the game. And, as fate would have it, Thea died while Manfred was working, and Manfred didn't even get a chance to spend time with his daughter during her final moments. The reason Manfred said "the player is gone" is because the only 'player' in his eyes was Thea, who was now dead.
This caused Manfred to spiral into insanity. Programmers were left in the dark and artists were forced to create hundreds of strange assets without knowing what the purpose was for them, some of the assets ranging from weird, to downright creepy. And in doing son, Manfred mistakingly created something that he didn't want, which only drove him further into insanity. It wasn't long until he fired all of his staff, only to work on the game in the OPUS offices by himself, in complete isolation.
At the end of 2001, the debt collectors came from Manfred. But when they arrived at OPUS, for the first time in years, Manfred was missing, and all of the development hardware and backups were gone. They also learned that his family left the country 6 months prior, and that the truck and the sail boat normally hitched to it were gone. And two days later, the boat was found floating two miles off the coast of Cuxhaven. The only thing that was salvaged was a letter directed to his wife, Marta Lorenz. The letter makes no mention of the game or the debts he owed. Only that had finally 'gone home'.
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I really hope you enjoy this video!
And thanks to Adam Butcher for creating an amazing unfiction story! |