Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter Update #11: Sling Backer Goal, Stephen Russell, UW Retrospective
Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter Update #11: Sling Backer Goal, Stephen Russell, UW Retrospective
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Mon 16 February 2015, 12:49:46
Tags: Looking Glass Studios; Origin Systems; OtherSide Entertainment; Paul Neurath; Richard Garriott; Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds; Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss; Underworld AscendantJust under twelve days since its launch, the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign has reached 450,000 dollars of funding, with over 8,000 backers. The Dwarven Claw Knuckles goal from last week was reached on time, adding that item to the game for all backers (though without any opal stones). Now OtherSide want to repeat that tactic again, this time with a Dark Elven artifact. The latest Kickstarter update explains:
Despite being over an hour long, the discussion is far too abridged to really say anything very interesting about the Ultima Underworld games themselves. However, I enjoyed the final part when they began talking about the "Origin tribe" and the concept of "company culture". At one point, Dallas Snell honestly admits that Origin failed at sustaining its culture after EA took over and the founding personnel began leaving the company.
We’re having a great weekend so far, pushing past the 8,000 backer goal for the week. As of noon Sunday there are 8,078 of you strong! That’s a small army… growing into a larger army. This also means everybody who backs this Kickstarter will receive gratis the exclusive ‘Little Friends’ digital reward, which our dwarven smiths are busily crafting.
With this goal met, we’re setting a new challenge. Let’s grow our army of backers to at least 9,000 strong come next Sunday noon. The Dwarves are not the only faction helping us out with this. The Dark Elves are working on a special gift for everybody if we meet this next goal.
A handy sling, popular with the Dark Elves. This one comes with rare Splatter Seeds. The elves harvest these seeds from a creeping vine that thrives in their domain. The seeds have sharp thorns that can damage a foe, but they also split open on contact to spray a phosphorescent goo. Great way to tag a foe in the dark! The 5 seeds that come with this sling have a one-of-a-kind, extra long-lasting, purple goo. For every hundred additional backers over 9,000 that join us by Sunday noon, the elves have offered to include a bonus purple seed.
There's more exclusive item-related stuff in the update - details about the Dark Elven buckler available to people who back both this and Portalarium's Shroud of the Avatar, and about the Avatar's robe available to backers at the $200 and above tiers. But the most exciting thing in the update is the announcement of the voice acting talent that OtherSide have picked up. That's right, Stephen "Garrett" Russell:With this goal met, we’re setting a new challenge. Let’s grow our army of backers to at least 9,000 strong come next Sunday noon. The Dwarves are not the only faction helping us out with this. The Dark Elves are working on a special gift for everybody if we meet this next goal.
A handy sling, popular with the Dark Elves. This one comes with rare Splatter Seeds. The elves harvest these seeds from a creeping vine that thrives in their domain. The seeds have sharp thorns that can damage a foe, but they also split open on contact to spray a phosphorescent goo. Great way to tag a foe in the dark! The 5 seeds that come with this sling have a one-of-a-kind, extra long-lasting, purple goo. For every hundred additional backers over 9,000 that join us by Sunday noon, the elves have offered to include a bonus purple seed.
It’s our pleasure to announce that Stephen L. Russell will be doing voice acting for Underworld Ascendant. Among gamers, Stephen is perhaps best known as the voice of Garrett in the original Thief games. At Looking Glass we worked closely with Stephen, where he voiced some of the more memorable characters from Thief, Thief II and System Shock 2. Stephen also did voice acting for Fallout 3 and Skyrim. We’re looking forward to working with him once again.
If you want more nostalgia, you might also be interested in this Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 retrospective discussion that was featured in Star Citizen's "RSI Museum" a couple of days ago. Starring Richard Garriott, Paul Neurath-on-a-stick, and veteran Origin producer Dallas Snell, it's actually more of a retrospective of their entire careers and the companies that they founded. Here's the video:
Despite being over an hour long, the discussion is far too abridged to really say anything very interesting about the Ultima Underworld games themselves. However, I enjoyed the final part when they began talking about the "Origin tribe" and the concept of "company culture". At one point, Dallas Snell honestly admits that Origin failed at sustaining its culture after EA took over and the founding personnel began leaving the company.
