Start-up developer Renegade Kid and publisher Gamecock have just announced that their first project will be a 3D survival horror game on the DS dubbed Dementium: The Ward.

“Survival horror on the DS!?” you cry in shock. SPOnG's with you. It even has first-person-shooter elements! The number of games currently fitting that description is all of one: Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.

The plot, it must be said, is fairly standard genre fare. It revolves around a chap who wakes up in a “mysterious, derelict hospital that is frozen in time.” There he must fend off various aberrations, solve mysteries and grapple with puzzles.

If the head of development at Gamecock, Harry Miller, is to be believed, however, Dementium will be anything but standard fare as far as the DS goes. “From the first meeting, Renegade Kid have proven themselves to be innovative, unafraid to push the ‘norms’ of gaming and incredibly talented – all of which we think are the key characteristics of a great developer,” he said. “It’s great when you can sit down with a developer who shares the same vision of where games should be going in creating new and exciting titles to offer an alternative to the bland remakes and sequels flooding stores today.”

Sounds like they're a bunch of crazy mavericks to SPOnG. Much as SPOnG loves the DS, it does become tiring watching an endless string of puzzlers and licensed games pour onto retailer's shelves every week. It certainly says something odd about a platform when one of it's games is breaking the mould by slotting into the survival horror genre. SPOnG would like to offer Renegade Kid a tip of its cap.

If only they could have given the game a name that's an actual word...