Game mod boosted to full version

A game that started life as a user add-on for the first-person shooter Half Life is to get a full release on PC in September.

Mindscape is working on The Ship, a first-person maritime game involving a fleet of 1930s steam liners.

A team of coders and artists at Edinburgh-based Outerlight has been commissioned to create a full single and multiplayer game in its own right.

The full game will follow the same format as the original game mod, where players have to track each other down among a cast of computer characters and kill their intended target.

"To be successful in the hunt players will need to know their way around all of the liners in the fleet," said Mindscape.

"Each ship has its own secrets, including hidden rooms, passages and tunnels, extra weapons in special locations, environmental traps and triggers and 'extra special' ways of murdering."