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KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
They could have slapped on some textures and made a pretty dungeon map if they wanted to, but expecting a full vertical slice at this early stage (with everything from combat to character progression to lockpicking) probably wasn't realistic
 
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Doctor Sbaitso

SO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS.
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
They did say they would release a corner of the abyss but they not once said "the fist thing we put in front of you will be a corner of the abyss". People made that leap themselves.
 
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When I think of Otherside's marketing, I am reminded of Einstein, who needed to paint his door a different color to find his own house. Otherside are savants. Meta-humans that are possibly too bright for their own good.
 

Zep Zepo

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Men,

The false hope you keep holding onto ITT will be a delicious meal for us non-believers once they release their shit game.

Zep--
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
There was an update: https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=925.msg15897#msg15897

Patch notes 12/4/2015 Build: 0.1.5816.266
-jumping and ropes improvements
-Improvements to the mantle-er
-lights performance
-ground slide has a proper animation tied to it now
-you can ground slide by landing and holding crouch on an angled surface!
-getting out of the jumping state no longer sets your velocity to zero (this was killing your momentum when jumping onto ropes, and when landing on staircases, boxes, etc)
-detecting ropes is a little bigger/easier as well as more refined (if part of the rope is bent and part isn't you will grab the one that isn't. Before it would fail early if any part was bent past 45 degrees)
-bug fix: landing would sometimes make your guys arms hold up forever.
-pressing crouch to fall off a rope will no longer have you in 'crouch toggled on' mode when you land
-faster jump/land animation speeds
-ground slide physics is now an editable asset (instead of instancing one)
-basketball now has bouncy physics that make sense (yes, the NBA has regulations on it)
-bowling pin now has proper physics as well
-Removing the 'glint' intractable on objects.It was an interesting experiment, but feedback proved it wasn't good
-Grab objects is now faster.
-picking up objects now shows a different (heavy) icon for objects that you can't "lift" (anything over 20kg)
-move+bind plant now attach the marionette to the object's center of mass instead of its transform position (the explosive barrel and some other things would have a strange looking offset)

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=925.msg15902#msg15902

my current plan for the next couple of months is to update the 'playground' even adding to it as new systems come online.
At some point obviously we will stop, around the time our Artists and level designers have the first layer of the Abyss built. Then the next up will be Alpha.

(he might mean "pre-alpha"?)
 
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Totally digging what these guys did with the playground, textures or no. This has potential. Spells are neato--I prefer utility to blasting things.
 
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In answer to Zep:

Neurath did Space Rogue before Ultima Underworld. Be as grumpy as you want, but the guy knows how to code and is really ambitious. If you don't trust him, it's your loss. Just give him a break, serious designers browse the codex, and shitty edginess such as yours just don't help them.
What was exactly the last RPG that you enjoyed? Because it seems that you just spend your time bitching.

Do you at least know what he tried to do on Space Rogue? I bought it for my C64 and was astounded (even if I didn't really love the game, the wormhole sections broke it): think Elite with textured polygons, and Ultima top-down RPG goodness when you land on a space-station or a planet. On a C64.
Give him a break already.
 
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Cosmo

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In answer to Zep:

Neurath did Space Rogue before Ultima Underworld. Be as grumpy as you want, but the guy knows how to code and is really ambitious. If you don't trust him, it's your loss. Just give him a break, serious designers browse the codex, and shitty edginess such as yours just don't help them.
What was exactly the last RPG that you enjoyed? Because it seems that you just spend your time bitching.

Do you at least know what he tried to do on Space Rogue? I bought it for my C64 and was astounded (even if I didn't really love the game, the wormhole sections broke it): think Elite with textured polygons, and Ultima top-down RPG goodness when you land on a space-station or a planet. On a C64.
Give him a break already.

:salute: but if you really think Zep can listen to reason, you're in for a disappointment...

Personally i see that guy's pathological behaviour as a last-ditch attempt at finding someone to be jealous of (otherwise why choosing the very competent but also extremely mild and uncharismatic Neurath ?).
Without that he'd be forced to see himself as he is : a fat fifty-somehing mediocrity with nothing in his life and a the personnality of a 13 year old boy.

Ironically i think it's the 13 yo part that saves him from total breakdown...
 
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It's just extremely distressing. Neurath, even if he always kept a low profile, is one of the geniuses of game design. I find it horrible to bash him.
He's no Molyneux. Even if Underworld Ascendant doesn't cut it in the end, by playing his games (not counting his casual work during the years of decline, but hey, a guy has to pay his rent), I know that he tries as much as he can, he always had a vision.
Fargo and Lord British are car sellers (even if they understand great games and great design), Neurath is a genius, he changed the industry at least three times, even if the games didn't sell well.
 

Cosmo

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Ultima Underworld was made before Doom, for god's sake. And while Kojima had tested the waters, he built the modern concept of stealth in Thief.

True dat, but looking at him, i'd say he looks way too even-tempered to be truly concerned by his own fame.
He seems more interested in staying a top-end programmer and surrounding himself with like-minded people...
 
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And that's the beauty of it! He doesn't give a shit about glory, fame or being rich.
Every serious artist is at the service of a vision, the ideas and designs that knock at his door.
 
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Miyamoto is also a genius, life was sweeter with him, but I'm sure that in the end, like Neurath, he doesn't give a shit about the fame and being rich.

They don't give a damn about their hype, it's absolutely clear.
 

Cosmo

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Project: Eternity
They're still different : Neurath is first and foremost a programmer and system-designer and Miyamoto a gameplay and fun guy, which can also explain why he's more famous than the former...

(Speaking of art, any Poni Hoax release on the way ? )
 
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Zep Zepo

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Keep that hope alive, Clown. You provide valuable butthurt salve to your fellow believers. The internet thanks you.

Zep--
 
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I believe in nothing Zep, art is not a question of faith. Perhaps that Underworld Ascendant will not be great, but Neurath doesn't deserve your scorn.
The codex holds no punches, and it's one of its virtue. But when the edginess becomes nihilism and obstructs the genuine designers work for dumb reasons, it's shit.
I can understand people throwing mud, I was personally disappointed with POE or Wasteland 2, and can understand the shitstorm ensuing after the marketing guys vomited keywords such as "hardcore" while the final product is mild at best.
But not barking at a guy like Neurath while he's still trying to sort out the mechanics. Who gives a shit about the lack of textures in the prototype? It's a prototype, for god's sake, not even an alpha.
I can understand people bickering about Underrail fonts (even if it's bullshit), because people know already that the game is a masterpiece, but Underworld Ascendant is still at a very very early stage.
I'd personally never bash Neurath, Heinemann or the guys from SSI while they're still trying to figure out how to be as relevant as they were before, now that the economy of incline allows them to try to come back.
Neurath, Heinemann (as bitchy as he/she is) or the guys from SSI are not Fargo, Lord British or Molyneux.
 
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Darkzone

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@Clown
Every thread deserves someone who has a different opinion, to spice it up. I have pledged some bucks on Neurath and i want to believe that UA will be a great game, but i have no problem with criticism from Zep and Immortal, quite the opposite i like their posts. They have shown where there are problems and that we should take it with a grain of salt. There is no need to bash Heineman, because Heineman is enough punished and SSI guys have shown that they lack a fighting spirit besides a good art designer. Neurath has made many mistakes during the KS and in some way this mistakes bite them in their asses, but what is done is done and they should move forward. If the game reaches alpha stage in Q2 2016 we will certainly see where the project is going, and then either we will laugh about Zep or we will be sad that Zep was right and he will laugh about us. Either way only time will tell who is / was right.
 
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Mustawd

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I personally don't understand the hand wringing over the appearance though. Like Clown mentioned, who cares what it looks like right now? They're trying to nail down their concept of the game, not fully flesh out what it looks like beyond initial prototyping.

Zep has made some good points on the team's learning curve as they get back into game making. But a lot of his posts are bashing them just for the sake of bashing them. I think it's at least fair to call that out.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://madewith.unity.com/stories/rising-tides

A CHAT WITH OTHERSIDE ENTERTAINMENT, THE TEAM BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO THE UNDERWORLD
BY EVAN SHAMOON, 3 DEC 2015
fire_elemental_concept_2small.jpg


As those who experienced it firsthand can surely attest, the dungeon crawler Ultima Underworld was nothing short of revolutionary when it was released in 1992. Underworld featured multi-tiered levels with inclines, platforms, bridges, and water the player could swim through; as a result, the gameworld felt amazingly alive, with surprises seemingly lurking around every corner.

More than 25 years later, Paul Neurath, one of the pioneers behind games such as Thief and System Shock, has formed a new game studio in Boston called OtherSide Entertainment. Its debut game is the spiritual successor of the Ultima Underworld franchise, titled Underworld Ascendant. The game was Kickstarted to the tune of nearly $1 million, and development is well underway at the studio’s Boston headquarters.

In charge of getting the band back together, Neurath, CEO and founder of OtherSide, says things were a long time coming for Ascendant. “I’ve been plugging away, on and off, since 1994 to get the next Underworld made,” he says. “It got buried deep in EA’s vaults for nearly two decades, and only last year did the opportunity arise to bring the franchise forward as an indie studio.” This involved the formation of the team, forgoing the license itself, launching a Kickstarter, and getting the team to where they are today—deep into development on the game.

ua_2015-10-04_11-30-38-55.jpg


“To me, it feels like a continuation of many of the amazing improvisational gameplay elements that Paul, Tim [Stellmach], and the others at Looking Glass pioneered with Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2,” says Ascendant design director Joe Fielder. “Those games were full of great ideas, many of which went on to influence dozens of fantastic RPGs, but what surprises me is how many haven’t been followed up on. That’s good for us, I suppose, since we’re attempting to bring that player-authored experience to the next level with Underworld Ascendant.”

One key difference between Underworld Ascendant and the titles that spawned is it is that the team is ditching the pen-and-paper RPG mechanics from the original games. “No more rolling dice to see if you get 18 Strength,” says Neurath. “With the original games, we felt we needed to keep an anchor in the pen-and-paper games to ensure the games felt suitably familiar to RPG players. Now we’re free to design fully for interactive and immersive experiences that can stand on their own.”

ua_2015-10-04_11-30-00-36.jpg


The game’s Improvisation Engine is fantastically ambitious. The idea, essentially, is to attempt to create a setting where player will be able to approach scenarios in their own way; the thinking behind these improvisational options is to capture the sense of those pen-and-paper D&D sessions, where one’s own wild ideas aren’t limited by what’s been programmed, without the dice. “[The Improvisation Engine] comes from what we learned on games going back to the original Underworlds, through System Shock, Thief, and various team members’ work on more modern games such as BioShock Infinite,” Neurath says. Across these games, he points out, the team has in various shapes and forms experimented with technologies and design approaches that enable players to make clever choices; the Improvisation Engine builds on that experience, and then nudges it forward with some new ideas. “Our goal is to set a new high water mark with player choice, and sandbox, emergent gameplay.”

“If we do our jobs correctly, it’ll be one of the most fun, varied set of actions seen in a game, and provide the player with an enormous toolbox to experiment with,” Neurath continues. “Half the fun, for me, is to see the craziest solutions I can devise. Our crowdfunding allowed us to make great strides with that, which might’ve been a tough sell before it was up and running and only a concept on paper. Without our fans’ support, that might not have been possible.”

ua_2015-10-04_11-33-25-48.jpg


What already comes across in gameplay videos that have been released is the team’s bold, steadfast intention to ensure that the game adapts itself to different play styles and character specializations. We’ve seen demonstrated a player who has picked athletics and acrobatics over strength and combat skill, for instance, and their resultant ability to use these assets to evade a fight rather than succumb to it. The player’s behavior is meant to have significant effects upon the world, including which creatures thrive, what conversations players will find themselves in, and how NPCs feel towards them.

The core team is working together in OtherSide Entertainment’s Boston offices, along with a number of folks working remotely with the team, particularly with art and audio departments. “We like to work with the most talented folks we can find, and some happen not to be based in the Boston area,” says Neurath. Office conventions are “nothing exotic,” according at the CEO; instead, he’s focused on letting his talented staff function as efficiently as possible. “Mostly, it’s the fundamentals of empowering team members to thrive and being creative,” he says. “That includes letting them take risks, failing at times, and learning from that. We also take an especially cross-discipline approach to development, where design, engineering, art and audio all have essential voices in decisions, and are motivated to leverage each other’s talents and work closely together.”

shadow_beast_render_shadowfx_-small.jpg


ua_2015-10-04_11-34-36-11.jpg


“What strikes me as particularly unique about OtherSide is that there are ‘aha!’ moments pretty much every day,” Fielder adds. “The amount of talent and experience on the team is amazing. Today, it was a discussion about the ecology of the undead in the game with lead designer Tim Stellmach; yesterday, it was Paul dropping knowledge about readably varied reactions from the AI, regarding their morale toward the player. Tomorrow and the next day, there’ll be something new and memorable.”

The mix of generations of developers at work at OtherSide prompts constant, new ideas. “[We’re] not old school,” Neurath insists. “We have a mix of game veterans and relative newcomers to the industry, and they learn from each other. We’re all learning, trying out new techniques—it never stops.”

ua_2015-10-04_11-37-18-08.jpg


Looking back at the games that have most influenced him and his team, Neurath says Arkane Studios’ 2012 Dishonored probably comes closest to an “Underworld-style” game that he’s played in recent years. “It has some really fun, emergent gameplay, and supports both stealth and fighting approaches to working through the narrative line,” Neurath says. “It’s a really well done game, and I’m looking forward to Dishonored 2,” he says. He also cites Almost Human Games’ 2012 title Legend of Grimrock as the most recent game that’s harkened back to the original Ultima Underworld. “It hit on a lot of the dungeon crawl elements, but to be honest Minecraft is the only game I can think of that’s really carried the torch forward in terms of systemic gameplay and player choice,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of wariness of those particular elements, because they seem intimidating from a QA standpoint. That’s a good thing for us, I suppose. We think the more the player can experiment, the more unique and fun of an experience it can be.”
 
Self-Ejected

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"Minecraft is the only game I can think of that’s really carried the torch forward in terms of systemic gameplay and player choice.”

:incline:
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
-nyFScRhLb5kGTvkW6pyMhco59mQW8LEA1H-UXn7UXZSsMk3vAnvtvn9JGlB7VDLMtCRqroUVBP9i3QVIWqP6TlzGj9lSF6tP_zzDXaIYIU9zQE3GhfrutSe0THuZefW2_-eIthK2rC9cIN3l9U_la3i_ASeCWBORk_JxmY=s0-d-e1-ft
Issue #16, December 7th 2015


ROLLING OUT THE PROTOTYPE TO MORE FANS!
As you know, we recently released the Underworld Ascendant Playground as a pledge reward for backers who backed at Lore Seeker and higher tiers. Huzzah!

This Prototype build is meant to provide an early peek at core game mechanics, like physics interactions and magic. In it, the player is taught the fundamental rules and given a series of goals, then let loose to find their own means of solving them. It’s been fantastic seeing all the inventive solutions that fans have come up with. This is exactlythe kind of experimentation that we intend to foster in Underworld Ascendant.

Soon we’re going to make the Prototype available to even more fans. For everybody who pledged at the Pioneer tier and higher, you will be able to get a $5 Add-On through that gives access to all future versions of the Prototype builds we release. This Add-On will also come with a $5 credit towards any future Add-ons or additional Pledges.

We’ve already made a host of improvements to the Prototype, based on fan feedback and bug fixing. We intend to continue for many months to come, so you’ll get to see first-hand how your input makes a difference.

We’ll be sending an email to eligible backers shortly when this Add-On is ready.


SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

We’ve got some exciting news to share. Something else besides all of the incredible developments occurring behind the scenes on Underworld Ascendant. Thing is, we want to have some fun revealing the news. See if you can guess at what it might be. Go check out the teaser site as we do the reveal over the coming week here.

"besides all the incredible developments occuring behind the scenes on Underworld Ascendant" - does that mean it's a different game?
 

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