KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Silentstorm]

That does seem to be the case, at this point they should announce a kickstarter for a documentary, if For Honor gets a documentary, i don't see why this game can't.

 

[Nano]

They just missed their deadline for the console version. They don't even have a trailer ready. And they still haven't sent out the physical backer rewards (7 months after launch).

I just... don't know what to say. What the fuck is even going on inside OtherSide?

 

[Old Hans]

That does seem to be the case, at this point they should announce a kickstarter for a documentary, if For Honor gets a documentary, i don't see why this game can't.

this game doesnt even deserve a documentary on why it was such a pile of garbage.

 

[Cael]

That does seem to be the case, at this point they should announce a kickstarter for a documentary, if For Honor gets a documentary, i don't see why this game can't.

this game doesnt even deserve a documentary on why it was such a pile of garbage.

There are some companies that should be part of a documentary on what not to do, be it management, marketing, sales or operations. I have been in a company where the customers tell us pointblank that this is the case for management and operations. It would seem that OS is another for marketing and sales.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

That does seem to be the case, at this point they should announce a kickstarter for a documentary, if For Honor gets a documentary, i don't see why this game can't.

this game doesnt even deserve a documentary on why it was such a pile of garbage.

I'd pay good money to see what's going on behind this dumpster fire

 

[Chunkyman]

I'd pay good money to see what's going on behind this dumpster fire

I'm pretty sure this is a standard case of Low-IQ boomer incompetency and laziness. It's a managerial style prevalent with our 60+ friends that involves treading water indefinitely and having a generalized apathy towards efficient, timely, and/or quality work for the task you are supposed to be managing.

 

[Cael]

I'd pay good money to see what's going on behind this dumpster fire

I'm pretty sure this is a standard case of Low-IQ boomer incompetency and laziness. It's a managerial style prevalent with our 60+ friends that involves treading water indefinitely and having a generalized apathy towards efficient, timely, and/or quality work for the task you are supposed to be managing.

I'm sorry, but who are you comparing them to? Because I can't see the entitled, lazy, useless, ignorant, fanatical millenials being any better and a hell of a lot worse.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

That does seem to be the case, at this point they should announce a kickstarter for a documentary, if For Honor gets a documentary, i don't see why this game can't.

I think this documentary could be a real success. It could be very relevant from a scientific/educational point of view.

 

[Katana1000S]

I don't think so much it would be a good documentary, but perhaps a good comedy, the whole project including their forums has been one big joke.

Or perhaps even a tragedy movie up there with the likes of Titanic, the Underworld (first two fames were my most favourite of all time) franchise ruined forever ... nobody is going to do another one now.

 

[JarlFrank]

Nah. There are worse games. Asset flips, mini puzzles, baby's first game, many mobile games etc..

It might however be a contender for the worst game with a $5M budget.

Cheap 5 dollar asset flips released on Steam by a no-name dev nobody has ever heard of aren't as bad as UA.

UA had expectations behind it, it had a million dollar budget behind it, and it had big-name industry veterans behind it. By all means it should have been at least okay. But it's not okay. It's far from okay.
Which makes it a much worse game than a one-man asset flip with a budget of 50 bucks.

The more money, effort and talent is behind a game, the better it should theoretically be. If it ends up being utter shit despite all that, it makes it into a worse game than the exact same pile of shit without all this budget. Because a one-man 5 dollar asset flip didn't have that much effort invested into it which had gone to waste. Nobody would expect it to be good. It's not a trainwreck of a game because there was no train in the first place.

UA though? That train was going at full speed, right into a solid brick wall.

 

[Max Heap]

Underworld Ascendant is a classic example for poetic tragedy.

You probably think I'm joking, but 18th and 19th century theater in both germany and france heavily relied on a principle called "Fallhöhe" (height of fall) or "degré d’élévation" (altitude).

The higher the social status of a character on stage is, the more dramatic is his or her downfall.
That is why a 5 dollar no-name asset flip is less of a tragedy than Paul Neurath damaging his reputation with UA.

 

[Glic2000]

If you want to talk about bad games... I have a friend who sends me joke gifts via Steam every year. The amount of trash on there now is absolutely unbelievable. Donald Trump joke games, gay joke games, Hitler joke games, semi-pornographic games. Basically anything goes, I think the only thing they rule out is actual genitalia. Some of them are barely even functional. Literally no one is checking the quality of this stuff anymore.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Steam recently started allowing the sale of adult content games, including perverse stuff by any definition. You don't need to look hard to find deviant shit.

 

[unfairlight]

They arbitrarily ban certain adult games, still.

 

[vota DC]

Underworld Ascendant is a classic example for poetic tragedy.

You probably think I'm joking, but 18th and 19th century theater in both germany and france heavily relied on a principle called "Fallhöhe" (height of fall) or "degré d’élévation" (altitude).

The higher the social status of a character on stage is, the more dramatic is his or her downfall.
That is why a 5 dollar no-name asset flip is less of a tragedy than Paul Neurath damaging his reputation with UA.

What if Jew resistance sabotaged the game?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_von_Neurath

 

[PsychoFox]

What a shame man. This game could've turned out something special.

 

[talan]

Well the explanation was they thought they were going to have more money than what the Kickstarter raised, but they didn't, because that funding got pulled almost immediately. At this point, they probably should have just cancelled the game.

Instead, they apparently muddled around for a couple of years, not doing much of anything until the game got a publisher. Then the publisher said, "take that pile of trash and cobble it together into something we can sell." And Underworld Ascendant was released!

It's actually fascinating that they managed to persuade 505 to publish UA. I'd really want to know what their sales pitch was.

When 505 made the publishing deal, the situation was the following:

- OS had burned through all their kickstarter money
- Their first publisher opted out
- They had put the game on hold for almost 2 years without finding a new publisher
- They didn't have anything to show that worked properly (almost a year later, they had a totally broken alpha)

The top OS guys have to be grandmaster-level con artists to sell that deal.

They probably didn't think 505 would let them publish a shit game as it would affect them as well -- turns out the publisher put out "Takedown: Red Sabre" so they're OK with the release strategy of 'occasional turd in the punch bowl'.

 

[MasterLobar]

Yeah, and that's why no one wants to bail OS out now. They conned everyone they worked with. 505 Games, their equity investors Michael Dornbrook and Geoffrey Hyatt, probably Starbreeze, too.

Oh, and their backers, of course. Recently posted in the OS forum:

Dewie_Morgan:

"[A]s I understand it, EA has been pretty firm that nothing from the Ultimas may appear in UA, period. Yes, Ultima references would be lovely, but no, not even as casual references. Not monsters, weapons, characters, spells, rune names… Not even monsters that the Ultimas took from other mythoses, like goblins, giant rats, giant spiders."

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/i-would-love-to-find-chuckles-carcass-in-the-underworld/10076/2

sluangkhot:

"Confirming Dewi’s points about developing UA with EA’s terms in mind. It would be very risky to explicitly name or reference anything that belonged in an Ultima game that wasn’t introduced FIRST in Ultima Underworld."

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/i-would-love-to-find-chuckles-carcass-in-the-underworld/10076/10

That sounded very differently during the kickstarter:

"We have the rights to use all of the elements of the original Underworld games, except for the Ultima brand itself. The characters, monsters, settings, and stories from the original Underworld games are all available for us." (emphasis added)

https://underworld-ascendant.backerkit.com/faq

The community manager has now confirmed the exact opposite of what they told us is true.

Can we legally call it "fraud" now?

 

[Efe]

no

 

[Roguey]

Not even monsters that the Ultimas took from other mythoses, like goblins, giant rats, giant spiders.

You can't copyright goblins, rats, and spiders.

 

[Love]

Why has none of the people involved in the developement found their way to the Codex? Are they still trying to keep this sting going?

 

[MasterLobar]

no

Thus God reveals the shill.

 

[Nyast]

Yeah, and that's why no one wants to bail OS out now. They conned everyone they worked with. 505 Games, their equity investors Michael Dornbrook and Geoffrey Hyatt, probably Starbreeze, too.

Oh, and their backers, of course. Recently posted in the OS forum:

Dewie_Morgan:

"[A]s I understand it, EA has been pretty firm that nothing from the Ultimas may appear in UA, period. Yes, Ultima references would be lovely, but no, not even as casual references. Not monsters, weapons, characters, spells, rune names… Not even monsters that the Ultimas took from other mythoses, like goblins, giant rats, giant spiders."

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/i-would-love-to-find-chuckles-carcass-in-the-underworld/10076/2

sluangkhot:

"Confirming Dewi’s points about developing UA with EA’s terms in mind. It would be very risky to explicitly name or reference anything that belonged in an Ultima game that wasn’t introduced FIRST in Ultima Underworld."

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/i-would-love-to-find-chuckles-carcass-in-the-underworld/10076/10

That sounded very differently during the kickstarter:

"We have the rights to use all of the elements of the original Underworld games, except for the Ultima brand itself. The characters, monsters, settings, and stories from the original Underworld games are all available for us." (emphasis added)

https://underworld-ascendant.backerkit.com/faq

The community manager has now confirmed the exact opposite of what they told us is true.

Can we legally call it "fraud" now?

OMFG. That trainwreck just never stops. It's amazing and yeah it's getting borderline to fraud now.

Also just lol at the "we couldn't even use generic monsters in the game cause EA could sue" when you know the basic monster in UA is.. skeletons.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why has none of the people involved in the developement found their way to the Codex? Are they still trying to keep this sting going?

blackmail

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Not even monsters that the Ultimas took from other mythoses, like goblins, giant rats, giant spiders.

You can't copyright goblins, rats, and spiders.

If you can't copyright rats then explain Mickey Mouse
checkmate