As we all know, Microsoft shut the doors of Ensemble Studios and with it many projects were canceled. One could only wonder what the developer was working on before their fate. Thankfully, Gamasutra got to tour the fallen studio and got a quick look at a few ambitious titles. First of all, no, none of them are an Age of Empires game.

In fact, most of the games are original IPs. They included a “Diablo in space” game titled Nova; a platform game entitled Bam, and a adventure title called Agent. The last was influenced by the Pixar film The Incredibles and apparently used gameplay elements closely related to Tomb Raider. Sound’s awesome if you ask me. The article also takes a look at the pre-cursor to Halo Wars, Phoniex, an RTS that pitted humans against martians. The concept then evolved into the Halo-themed RTS we see now. Of course there is also a little peek at the Halo MMO, code-named: Orion.

The article really showcases the immense talent at Ensemble and personally, gives me a new appreciation for the developers out there. Hopefully, we will see the former Ensemble employees working on other great projects soon.