Joel “Deadmau5” Zimmerman is in the very early stages of development on his own game and, although he doesn’t want to talk much about it, the musician did stream some early alpha footage on Twitch.
“Mad early ‘alpha alpha’ testing … but making great progress with the team,” Zimmerman tweeted. “For now, consider it a pet project … give us a year at least.”
The footage can be seen in the clip below. Zimmerman’s character can be seen running around with a sniper rifle that he says won’t have hitscan built into the weapon.
Hitscan refers to the instantaneous consequence of a player firing a weapon and an opponent being hit. There’s no delay allocated for the distance the bullet needs to travel or the curve of its trajectory to hit another player.
The shooting mechanics seen in the clip are most comparable to Fortnite, according to Zimmerman. Every weapon in the game will be equipped with hitscan, with the exception of the sniper rifle; the same decision Epic Games made with Fortnite.
Although the footage makes the game look like an arena shooter (with the arena in question being loomed over by a giant Deadmau5 statue in the background), Zimmerman wouldn’t confirm or deny that’s the type of game he’s making.
“Its not ‘anything’ right now,” Zimmerman tweeted. “It’s a prototype. Lots to do.”
This isn’t the first time that Zimmerman has worked on a game. He partnered with Absolut Labs to create a VR experience based on his lifestyle as part of a campaign for Absolut Vodka. Zimmerman’s new game, however, doesn’t seem to be tied to a brand initiative. More details are expected to be announced later in the year, according to Zimmerman’s tweets, but for now this footage is all we have.
“[This is the] best I can do for a statement for this early in development,” Zimmerman tweeted, linking out to the Twitch footage.
Who knows, maybe Zimmerman will make a surprise appearance at E3 to tease his game. If Kanye West can do it, why can’t he?