High-level conceptualisation and design documentation formally began after the release of Dungeon Keeper 2 in June 1999, with a small design team drawn from the same development staff. Game designer and scriptwriter Zy Nicholson resigned from the studio in late 1999 and was replaced on the project by Ernest W. Adams. Though never officially announced by publisher EA, development was acknowledged by a website update from the DK3 team in early February 2000. Development was cancelled in March 2000,though it was not until August of the same year that Bullfrog Productions revealed that the game had been cancelled. At the time, Bullfrog's website explained that it had cancelled production to work on other projects: