Studio 3AM Games and Focus Interactive--the same publishers behind the upcoming Mars War Logs and Bound by Flame--have shown off some new screenshots of their newest upcoming game, Magrunner: Dark Pulse, along with some new details on the development process.

Magrunner stars Dax Ward, a smart and talented young man, and one of the few competitors chosen to participate in the Magtech training program at the heart of the Gruckezber Magtech space exploration training facility. Using his Magtech glove, players can power any other Magtech objects with either green or red colored charges. Similarly charged objects attract each other, differently charged onjects repel one another. Magrunner: Dark Pulse is set in the near-ish future (2050 to be exact), and blends a gritty cyberpunk-like setting with the fantasy horror creatures of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

Similar to Portal, the game will have players navigating through training modules, solving platforming puzzles through the use of the Magtech mechanic, and getting through obstacles that consist of cubes, cube transformers, catapults, and more. Getting to the end of each room also requires more than just intellectual and problem-solving skills, but reflexes, with defense turrets and monsters to avoid or destroy. Players will also later rely on Newton, a robotic dog that can be charged and used to overcome obstacles.

It's interesting to note that the developer's blogsite also revealed the game's evolution, having originally been designed as a game called NYC: Newton, Yoshi Cthulhu, and starring Yoshi Takamoto, a young Magrunner and tech-hacker. Before you call fowl on the hero going from Asian to the typical, plain, shaven-headed protagonist of most games this generation, the studio made it clear that they had gone through a big process for these decisions, with everyone agreeing upon Yoshi as a suitable protagonist. It was only when they were made of a few things that changes had to be made.

With 3AM Games a Ukraine developer, they were (surprisingly) unaware that Yoshi was the name of the Mario franchise's famous green dinosaur, and (even more surprisingly, or perhaps this is the hubris of an American speaking) they didn't know that NYC was popularly equated with New York City. So the game was repackaged as Magrunner: Dark Pulse, with the new Dax Ward in his place.

You can view the Magrunner: Dark Pulse world in the screenshots below, and learn more about the game's fleshed out backstory and characters (which include mutants and scientists) on the Magrunner website. Magrunner: Dark Pulse is being developed on the Unreal Engine 3, and set to release to the Playstation Network, Xbox Live, and PC.