Icarus: The Name of Vengeance is a third person open world action/adventure, story-driven game that is set in the fictional world of Abrox.

             It tells the story of Sam Hucks and what led him to become “The Ghost of Abrox” in a blizzard of emotional storytelling binding him to the city, his past, and his revenge.

             The game’s story was initially planned to be released as a three-book novel named “The Trilogy of Vengeance”. But the author, believing in what games could deliver through brilliant storytelling, saw that it is more suitable to unleash the story by releasing a game based on it.
 

Being a lot of other things, from a curious gamer to an uprising game developer with a degree in Computer Science to a music composer, Adnan Jabbado – The author of the novel – decided to start a game studio called “Shadow Phoenix Interactive” and team up with amazing minds to bring this game to life.
 

Icarus: The Name of Vengeance is the first installment in the “Trilogy of Vengeance”.

Did you like the trailer?

Why not play it on your own computer!?

Hop onto our website to download a demo version of the trailer! You may also help us benchmark our demo on your hardware and give us feedback, that would be amazing.

Click here  and then scroll to the button “Download Demo (PC)” to be directed to the file on Google Drive.

You can also watch the trailer in 4K60FPS on YouTube:

Help us reach more stretch goals so that we can bring you the best experience possible!

The trailer and demo we launched with our Kickstarter project were designed with nearly no funds at all. No motion capture suits, no rigging specialists, no animators. We need your help to reach our Main Goal so that we can deliver the expected amount of motion fidelity and realism in our future updates!

As a renowned financial supervisor working with companies including A.A.F (one of the biggest financial consultancy companies in the country), Sam Hucks was one of the few blessed people in the city of Abrox to be able to afford a living with some luxury.

He returns home one day to find his wife and daughter murdered. In complete loss and disorientation, he tries to reach out to his closest people only to know, through certain events, that the killing of his family was not at all an accident.

He understands that his apartment by the seaside, however luxurious, is no longer safe. His friends advise him to stay at their place for a while until things have settled a little bit, but his rage and need for revenge lead him to become someone else.

As a result of his actions and pursuit of truth, he becomes hunted on the streets even in broad daylight. So he only roams the city at night, under the cover of darkness.

Through the events of the game, Sam encounters various friends and foes in Abrox. Syndicates, secret societies, strangers, activists and people with unique tales. They each play a role in telling the story.

You will accompany Sam on his journey to become one of the most feared assassins in Abrox, using every available resource to his advantage, as an attempt to uncover the truth behind his family’s planned murder. And you will play to know the consequences of that truth, until Sam’s revenge is served.

             A lot of events unfold, some through Sam’s acts and some in the background, that lead you to learn about the origins behind the birth and motives of the ever-battling secret societies. “The Trident” and “Icarus”.

*All of the events, characters, names and places mentioned in the game are fictional and have no connection with the real world.*

The game is set in the city of Abrox. A beehive of injustice, criminal plots, social insecurity and endless political opportunities. The year is 2017, Mayor Georges Zayde’s service is about to end and he has to make sure that every last penny in Abrox ends up in one of his bank accounts before he runs for another election.
             People downtown, where the buildings are tall and lit and the parks are sleepless, surely are concerned about Mayor Zayde’s next move. But those who live in the outer districts of Abrox, those who survive out there, don’t really have the luxury of politics. They are rather busy locking themselves and the ones they love in and praying that tonight’s mob raid isn’t at their place.
 

             During Sam’s journey, you will encounter groups that disturb the peace in Abrox, and others that try to keep it. From The Black Beards forcefully claiming the city’s business as their own to the illegal electronics and weapons smuggled by The Spiders and the human trafficking surveilled by The Sleepers in the underground tunnels of the city, the world of Abrox has a lot of branching plots within its network of societies. Men of power and politicians manipulate these factions to achieve certain goals. But some other factions are hidden even from those with huge powers, and they are changing the game.

          Every place you choose to be, at any moment, will have something special to offer.

          The map itself is split into three layers intertwined: The underground, the streets and the rooftops.

We will not provide any further details about the story because *SPOILER* happens. But talking about some of the main characters in the story is completely safe.

Sam Hucks – 27 Years Old

             “The Ghost of Abrox” and the one whose story led to the birth of “Icarus”. Whether he is a vigilante, a savior, a criminal or a cold blooded assassin, is a long debate. Opinions vary, but he is wanted in the eyes of the government. The loss of his wife and daughter made him perceive life differently. For some, life was never really meant to be lived, but fought.

Jennifer Li – 33 Years Old

             Jen is one of Sam’s closest friends and his Kickboxing coach since 2013. She works in Killars Klub, where they first met and where Sam hides after leaving his house. One way or another, she knew she’d get involved in Sam’s business. So she always kept an eye on him and doubted his every move with cautious criticism, and a lot of sarcasm.

 Zacky Ofrivia – 32 Years Old

             Zacky is the owner of the Killars Klub and the godfather of the trio that is Jen, Sam and himself. His side businesses and the time he spends outside of Killars Klub are a secret to his friends, but they trust that he always shows up when it matters the most.

The whole game revolves around one very interlaced, emotional, story under which a lot of subplots take place. It is only convenient that ever mechanic in the game should serve that storytelling.

          The game offers main quests and side quests. Main quests help the player progress through the main story by doing tasks that get Sam closer to his revenge. While side quests, sometimes visible and sometimes unexpected, weave Sam’s encounters in the world of Abrox and outline the politics of the story and the people of Abrox.

          When out in the open, Sam parkours over rooftops at night using his rope launcher or stealthily treads through dark alleyways to avoid being seen, interacting with every bit of Abrox’s dark yet breathing world. When not in the open, the player can follow the main line where Sam has his own kind of fun, from infiltrating governmental facilities alone, to blackmailing directors of the biggest corporations, to taking care of personnel who might help him know what actually happened to his family and who was behind it all.
 

          The nature of the story requires Sam to be stealthy in most of his encounters. Therefore, some loud fights have to be replaced by silent, well-planned, takedowns and sometimes lethality is the easiest way, but never the best. But when it is needed, an all-out club fight is always a good thing to do. That’s why Sam is equipped with weapons that are efficient for every fight. Sam’s roster of weapons changes along the story and you’ll find yourself taking cover then firing at times and jumping over bad people’s heads and punching them right in the face at other times. In short, the world is open and so are Sam’s fights and ways of traversal.

A word from the creator of Icarus:

When Adnan Jabbado (Game Director) first imagined Icarus, he provided its sonic identity right away. Emotions, Action, Revenge and Consequence. That’s what the music has to reflect and that’s what why we chose to take an orchestral approach to that idea. An OST for the game will be recorded and the first track from the OST (also used in the reveal trailer) can be heard in the media player below, named “The First Shot” – composed by Adnan Jabbado.
          A sense of mystery and heroism flies along the rooftops of Abrox. More intense, choir-driven, parts will be recorded for fight scenes and certain cutscene sequences. We wanted to launch our Kickstarter Campaign with one of the tracks on the OST to show the soul and feeling of the game and the city.

In our Stretch Goals, we mentioned two expansions that might see the light if you help us fund them!

           One that is called “Mafia Wars” and another that involves a new p******e c*******r, (Oops, we have to unlock that Stretch Goal first!). Both expansions take place after the end of the main story. “Mafia Wars” continues Sam’s political battles and emphasizes the consequences of the changes he made to the city. The other expansion is a SURPRISE.

          We believe that a game should never be bought twice, or paid for twice. And we believe that when you back a certain project, you gotta get a reward. So we decided that both of these expansions, if funded, will be released for free for everyone who owns the base game. The release dates for the expansions are not set, for now. But we promise that we will be doing our best to bring the most polished, and fun, experience to you.

We are new to the industry and we’re creating an open world game. That alone is enough to show the challenges we’ll be facing during the development. That’s why we needed the tools that would help us step our game up.

 
Unreal Engine 

The trailer and demo you saw in our Kickstarter project were both made using Unreal Engine 4. The scalability of the engine, its diversity and its many helpful packages in the Unreal Marketplace helped us build the levels shown in the trailer with minimum cost and maximum efficiency. Our approach to Unreal Engine actually helped us cut a lot of our planned budget because it made it easier for us to have access to AAA assets. Furthermore, the availability of Unreal Engine experts around the world makes it convenient for us to hire developers whose work we admire to work with us on the game.

              It is true we used Unreal Engine 4 to create everything you’ve seen so far, but when the game ships it will be powered by Unreal Engine 5. So if you liked what you saw, and if you felt it was optimized, we can guarantee that – by the time the game is ready to ship – it will be looking much better and smoother thanks to Unreal Engine 5’s optimization upgrade.

 *Everything you saw in the trailer and the demo was made with very low funding. Expect things to be MUCH better if we reach our funding goals!*

Our job is to create games, and games are for everyone. That’s why we will try to bring our game to every possible platform if we hit the enough funding.

             Planned platforms:

             Steam (PC)
             Epic Games Store (PC)
             GOG (PC)
             PlayStation 5
             Xbox Series X

             Help us fund the game to bring it to as many players as possible!

If we manage to hit our main goal, the game will be fully localized in 3 languages!
 

English, French & Arabic.
 

If we manage to hit the designated stretch goals, the game might be localized in more languages!

Including:
 

Spanish, German, Chinese & Italian.
 

Vision

             We are a small team of ambitious people, brought together by one vision. Make games for everyone.
          We believe that looking at games nowadays is like skipping through a field of explosive mines. We are gamers, first and foremost, and we understand the struggle of finding a game worth playing.
          Some games take our money and give very little, some games ask us for additional money, some games restrict us with exclusivity. That is not fun! Games are supposed to be fun!
 

             Our vision in Shadow Phoenix Interactive is that games should be what they are called. If our game is selling at the full price, then it will offer everything for everyone, no hidden plots or workarounds. If we decided to make an expansion then we would definitely want everyone who owns the game to enjoy it, because we’re proud of it.

             A lot of games offer exclusive in-game content for players who do a certain task, like sharing a post or participating in a draw. We don’t do that. We believe that everyone who owns the game should have the same experience, all of the game, no compromises.
          Our game doesn’t want to know who you are or to track your progress to upload it to a certain server. If our game is a single-player experience, then it is an offline game and it never connects to the internet. The only time your device will be connected to the internet is when you’re updating the game or syncing your progress, and that doesn’t have to happen on our own servers. It happens through the launcher/store.

          We feel sorry that the phrase “Our game has no micro-transactions” is somehow used to market a game in 2020. It is just very sad. We will not use that phrase, nor its content.
 

 
Make hard things achievable 

          We endorse a different type of workflow in our studio.
          We are in 2020, this is the future. Let’s make good use of it.

          Our team is divided into two parts: Local & Remote.

          Our local team is a group of 8 members that stay in the studio to supervise the progress of the development and compile codes and designs provided by the remote team.

          The remote team is a group of up to 50 members hired by us to complete certain tasks and then send them back to the local team for compilation and inclusion in the main project files.

          This ensures that:

             – Our remote developers are getting paid right away, in badges, as they finish their tasks because the payment will be based on what the developer sees fit (Tasks or time).

             – Our remote developers don’t have to ask for a day off, or to stay away from their families or to spend endless hours at the studio simply because the workflow is smooth, reliving, organized, and you can work at home; whenever you like to.

             – The term “crunch” actually has no place in our dictionary. The members at the studio are the founding members, they are not the developers. No one is staying a night out on our watch! We all sleep at home!

             – The fact that our tasks are being done remotely allows us to stay on the lookout for fresh members, on the internet, who might help bring our games to life. We don’t require degrees or prior experience. Race, religious views, political views, sexual orientations and personal opinions have nothing to do with our criteria. If you can do the job, if you’re friendly, you’re hired. It’s this simple. This way we can help newcomers with huge potential who are too shy or afraid to apply at big corporations to have a chance in the gaming industry. Shadow Phoenix Interactive is a place for everyone who’s creative enough to make games and brave enough to see that through.

We simply can’t talk about Shadow Phoenix Interactive without shedding the light on our members who made the Kickstarter Campaign, the trailer and the demo possible!

Saed Misski – Co-founder & Producer

Adnan Jabbado – Co-founder & Game Director

Wassim Halawani – 3D Model Artist

Nourhane Zahra – Concept Artist

Saad Jabbado – Graphic Designer

The market nowadays misses good games with emotional stories and cohesive gameplay. There are a lot of brilliant games being released by huge studios from whom we learned a lot. But we think that most of these games, while they offer endless freedom and a wide range of playable activities, have lost their sparkle when it comes to storytelling and narratives; whether in the main story or in the side quests.

          Most of the story-driven third-person games are being released on specific platforms, rendering a huge chunk of the players unable to experience them.
          We want to break the mold. We want to provide an immersive story-driven Action/Adventure game that keeps the gamers at their seats and leaves a print after they finish the game. And we want to deliver it to everyone.

          Our vision, creative points and approaches might not align with the current requirements needed by publishers to sign on a certain game. So we came to Kickstarter to get the enough funding to create our own space and our own game.

          When you fund our game, you are helping us change a lot of “standards” in the games industry. We believe that a good product influences other products to be as good, and we promise that we will only deliver the best we can.

 
Is €470,000 enough to fund an open world game? 

             Ideally speaking, our main goal is much lower than what it takes to create an open world experience. But thanks to our unique workflow system mentioned above and to the technology used, we managed to cut a huge amount of the budget. Why?

          See the reasons below:

             – We won’t have to “employ” developers or designers. We simply hire them to do certain tasks and that cuts a lot of working hours out of the budget.

             – We decided to use Unreal Engine. Its popularity and ease of access helped us reach a lot of experts in the engine easily without having to consume their whole schedule or sign with them to stay only at our studio.

             – Unreal Engine’s popularity helps us gain access to AAA assets with very low costs thanks to its Marketplace that houses thousands of assets that are being updated daily.

             – We are trying to deliver an Open World experience that is not vague or empty. We prefer to have a smaller world full of events and details rather than having a huge world with few things to do and “collectibles” scattered around the map.

          We will be trying to deliver the best experience we can using a very effective budget scheme.

When you help us fund our game, you are helping us get a step closer to creating a beautiful experience for every player out there!
          That makes us happy, and when we’re happy we give REWARDS.

          We simplified our rewards system into cards with different colors. Every color is a category and every category has many tiers. Some cards are limited (stated next to the tier number).

          If you choose to back our project, please feel free to pick the card that suits you most!

 *You don’t have to pay any additional shipping fees if your reward card offers physical rewards. You read that right! We will handle the shipping fees and we’ll do it with a smile! You’re helping us achieve our dreams!*
 *”Paid trip to visit the team” reward literally means that we will handle your tickets and trip and bring you to our studio. Hell, we might even have some good food, ON US!*

          All rewards (excluding the game itself and its box contents) will be delivered a few months before the release of the game, if we hit our main goal.
          The rewards including the game (digital and/or physical) with its box contents (Map, Compendium, Artbook) will be delivered to the backers a few weeks before the release of the game. Yes, you will get to play the game before everyone else!

          Precise dates will be updated when we set the game’s release date. More information about the game’s release date can be found in the “Risks & Challenges” section below.