3D Realms resurrects 22 year old Build engine for Ion Maiden

3D Realms announced on Twitter today that a preview campaign of Ion Maiden is now available on Steam through early access.

Ion Maiden is being developed using the 22-year-old Build engine, which was also used to make previous 3D Realms first-person titles from the 90s, including Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.

Josh Olin, formerly VP of publishing at 3D Realms who worked on the upcoming Ion Maiden said on Twitter, "What's really special about it is that it's built on the 90s era Build engine. So it's not like Unreal or Unity, dumbed-down to look retro. It is a retro engine, retrofitted to run on modern hardware."

Described as a prequel to Bombshell (which released in 2016), 3D Realms is working with developer Voidpoint to make Ion Maiden in the Build engine.

The Dallas-based studio has been under the ownership of Danish investment firm SDN Invest and investor Mike Nielsen since 2014, acquiring 3D Realms with the intention of making new games. 

"Ion Maiden is a throwback to classic shooters, a spiritual successor to Duke Nukem 3D,” VP of 3D Realms Frederik Schreiber explained to VentureBeat. “It doesn’t impersonate a ’90s game. It is a ’90s game.”