The invasion is real.

To say The Bureau had a troubled development would be a massive understatement. Early development started in 2006 and saw several playable demos created each with unique game mechanics. Designers returned to the drawing board again and again.

The final version of the game started to coalesce around 2009. Set during the Cold War, it featured a top secret base to be explored, intelligence gathering and combat missions, and a sprawling tech tree.

It was an exciting setting to work in. Other-dimensional aliens, strange super science, political intrigue, it challenged every aspect of game narrative.

I had a lot of fun doing placeholder voice acting for some of the characters, to the point where our sound man Justin Mullins said I should play the character in the final version. Ah, opportunities lost.

This is the E3 2010 reveal trailer, which shows an earlier iteration of the game. In this setting, the invading creatures were less from outer space and more from another dimension. Their forms were geometric and, I felt, very original and frightening. In particular the alien that you see at the end of the video, called the Brute, was absolutely terrifying, especially when coupled with the unsettling, unearthly audio.

I would like to have seen this version make it to the end of production. I’m still haunted by some of the ideas and images.