Sci-fi game makers aim to bring back the 3D space combat of Descent

For old timers like me, the classic computer game Descent was a novel experience that depicted spaceship combat in full 3D for the first time. Now, Descendant Studios has acquired the rights to the old game and it is rebooting the franchise as Descent: Underground. The Austin, Texas-based company wants to raise $600,000 in a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

Eric “Wingman” Peterson, head of Descendant Games, loved playing the game when it first came out, and he wants to bring it back with modern 3D graphics and six-degrees-of-freedom gameplay for the PC. The original Descent featured the ability to fight other spaceships in tunnels in an asteroid mining belt, and the game sold an estimated 25 million copies. But Peterson said in an interview that he wants to beef that up with voxel technology, which enables destructible environments and customizable chips.