Report: Warhammer 40K FPS, The Walking Dead Colony Sim Pitched by Lost Boys Interactive; Concept Art and Screens Surface
We recently broke the news on several canceled projects at Gearbox’s former subsidiary, Lost Boys Interactive, sharing screenshots of a new Brothers in Arms and early work on a Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands sequel.
But the studio also conceptualized two major franchise spin-offs that were previously unheard of: a Warhammer 40K first-person shooter and a The Walking Dead colony simulator. While these games were in development before the studio was split from Gearbox, it appears ultimately neither advanced very far.
Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at both titles through early development materials we have uncovered, featuring art, 3d renders, and even a piece of footage.
Lost Boys’ Warhammer FPS & The Walking Dead Pitches
As is often the case with games that never see the light of day, details on these pitches surfaced through the portfolios of former Lost Boys Interactive staff. While explicit dates weren’t provided, the employment timelines of the people involved suggest work took place between 2023 and early 2024. This timing aligns with the major round of layoffs that affected LBI in January 2024, which likely brought development on both projects to a halt.
The first of these concepts tackled the Warhammer 40K universe. Our findings indicate the game was envisioned as a “squad-based tactical FPS” built on Unreal Engine 5. Mechanically, the design focused heavily on a cover-based combat system.
While further details on the gameplay are sparse, the 3D models below offer a clearer picture of what the studio was building through assets created for the internal pitch demo.
The renders show the expected Warhammer 40K elements, centered around a rad-looking Techmarine character model equipped with cybernetic augmentations. In addition to props like grenades and ammunition pickups, we see weaponry including a Chainsword, a Boltgun, and a Plasma Gun. These elements also include a look at the first-person camera angle, revealing how weapon handling would have appeared in-game.
Though we only get a brief glimpse of what the Warhammer shooter could’ve been, the materials we uncovered for The Walking Dead illustrate a highly complex prototype.
Designed as a collaboration between the studio and Skybound Entertainment, The Walking Dead was pitched as an open-world colony simulator incorporating stealth and survival mechanics. Just like the 40K project, it was being built in Unreal Engine 5, with significant development effort thrown into a playable prototype.
Among the details gathered, the pitch outlined core mechanics like item crafting alongside an AI dialogue system that allowed companions to react dynamically to branching player choices.
Several pieces of concept art showcase an isometric, top-down perspective typical of the genre, offering detailed exterior and interior views of potential bases where players could gather and shelter survivors from the zombie threat. These locations included a large mill complex, a roadside diner, and even a mobile camp centered around an RV convoy, allowing players to transport their community from point to point across the map.
The artwork also details various stages of base fortification, illustrating how defensive structures could be constructed around each outpost over time. On top of that, the visuals show these locations gradually filling up with scavenged loot and resources brought back by survivors, ranging from crates of food and supplies to equipment cluttered throughout the interiors.
Outside those walls, the concepts highlight the broader world and its grim tone through a variety of settings, from a zombie-infested fight pit and an abandoned hospital to urban streets reflecting the aftermath of the outbreak.
Evidence suggests the experience may have also featured a closer third-person camera. A snippet of prototype footage shows a survivor controlled from a tighter perspective during gameplay missions, including tasks where the goal was to construct a barricade across a bay doorway.
Other missions shown in the UI tease human threats alongside the undead, with objectives involving taking down hostile guards and the rescue of other survivors named Cassidy and Tristan.
Altogether, the footage and illustrations paint a picture of a highly ambitious survival title, especially with the open-world elements combining base management, resource scavenging, and faction-based combat into one big world.
Unfortunately for the studio, 2024 was marked by two major waves of layoffs, as well as a structural separation from Gearbox. Now that the studio is operating independently, it is highly unlikely that either of these projects remained in active development. The Warhammer title, at least, appears completely scrapped, as a developer portfolio explicitly labels it as unreleased.
That said, Skybound still appears to have plans for its flagship franchise. A recent leak involving Steam achievements revealed that a new The Walking Dead project has been in the works for a while, pointing towards a visual remaster of the 2019 Telltale Collection. Whether this updated edition actually makes it to release remains to be seen.
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