Areal was introduced as the spiritual successor to
S.T.A.L.K.E.R., a popular FPS survival-horror game developed by GSC Game World and published by THQ. West Games started off with a goal of $50,000 desipite not having much game footage to actually show off; with this lack of footage came backers’ skepticism that a game of
Areal’s scope could be made on such a small budget. This was exascerbated when the developers who worked on
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stated that
hundreds of people worked on the game, so West Games’ claim that they were the folks behind
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. aroused a fair amount of suspicion.