Over at Gamasutra, N. Evan Van Zelfden has written up an account of his tour of Ensemble Studios as the place packs up. I’ve never been to Ensemble, so I can’t look at the pictures and say “Hey, that was where X”, like I can with, say, Firaxis. Still, there is something about a business closing shop that really gets to me, even if many of the principals here already have plans – including working with Microsoft on new content for Halo Wars.

Van Zelfden writes about some of the uncompleted games:

They included: a fantasy-adventure RPG called Sorcerer; Nova, a “Diablo in space” game; a pirate-themed take on Diablo; a game called Wrench; a Ratchet & Clank-style platformer called Bam.

Most detailed was a game called Agent, with an art style and universe inspired by Pixar’s The Incredibles, and using gameplay elements from Tomb Raider. As the concept art shows, the game was instantly iconic and unique.

Another title was Graeme Devine’s Phoenix — an RTS game featuring earthlings versus Martians in a War of the Worlds-style conflict. The game changed over time, and would eventually become something different entirely: Halo Wars.

Good luck, guys.