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Tags: Joe Fielder; OtherSide Entertainment; Paul Neurath; Underworld Ascendant
The Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign has earned over 50,000 dollars in the past couple of days, which enabled it to meet its funding goal of 600,000 dollars earlier than most people expected, with six days of fundraising still to go. Paul Neurath and the team celebrate the occasion in the latest Kickstarter update. They've also taken the opportunity to rearrange the stretch goals to a more crowd-pleasing configuration. In particular, the much-desired Lizardmen stretch goal is now at the achievable 750,000 dollar point. Here are the details:
The Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign has earned over 50,000 dollars in the past couple of days, which enabled it to meet its funding goal of 600,000 dollars earlier than most people expected, with six days of fundraising still to go. Paul Neurath and the team celebrate the occasion in the latest Kickstarter update. They've also taken the opportunity to rearrange the stretch goals to a more crowd-pleasing configuration. In particular, the much-desired Lizardmen stretch goal is now at the achievable 750,000 dollar point. Here are the details:
Today we reached our base funding goal of $600,000. What to say…
Humbled. Honored to have your support. To be honest, a bit relieved that we did in fact reach this milestone. Incredibly excited that we can now make the game we have so passionately wanted to make for twenty years, and do it together with you.
The team will celebrate and enjoy for a long moment… then right back to work! We are relishing climbing up into the stretch goals over the next 6 days of the campaign. Let’s enjoy that together. Then we can have an even bigger collective celebration.
Speaking of stretch goals… Once it became apparent that we would not necessarily be zooming up and past the $1.2M stretch goal, we decided that it made more sense to break out the $150,000 big stretch goals into 3 smaller $50,000 chunks each. Breaking it out like this gives the community a better chance to reach at least 1 or 2 of the 3 original features within whatever stretch goal we end up in, rather than making it an all-or-nothing proposition.
We have also taken this as an opportunity to shift around a couple of the features. Most notably, we swapped the Necropolis and Haunt, with the Underswamp and Lizardmen. These are both very similar scoped features. We made the swap because we’ve seen a lot of chatter about the Lizardmen, which seem to be a fan favorite, and we wanted to up the odds that they would get reached.
So let’s pull together and make sure that we can reach the $750,000 mark, and bring the Lizardmen to their swampy home in the Stygian Abyss. They’re counting on us!
You can view the revised stretch goal map in the full update. You might also be interested in the previous Kickstarter update from earlier today, which among other things introduced the game's writer, Joe Fielder, formerly of Irrational Games. In a blog post on the game's official site, he revealed something of the characterization of the game's core three factions:Humbled. Honored to have your support. To be honest, a bit relieved that we did in fact reach this milestone. Incredibly excited that we can now make the game we have so passionately wanted to make for twenty years, and do it together with you.
The team will celebrate and enjoy for a long moment… then right back to work! We are relishing climbing up into the stretch goals over the next 6 days of the campaign. Let’s enjoy that together. Then we can have an even bigger collective celebration.
Speaking of stretch goals… Once it became apparent that we would not necessarily be zooming up and past the $1.2M stretch goal, we decided that it made more sense to break out the $150,000 big stretch goals into 3 smaller $50,000 chunks each. Breaking it out like this gives the community a better chance to reach at least 1 or 2 of the 3 original features within whatever stretch goal we end up in, rather than making it an all-or-nothing proposition.
We have also taken this as an opportunity to shift around a couple of the features. Most notably, we swapped the Necropolis and Haunt, with the Underswamp and Lizardmen. These are both very similar scoped features. We made the swap because we’ve seen a lot of chatter about the Lizardmen, which seem to be a fan favorite, and we wanted to up the odds that they would get reached.
So let’s pull together and make sure that we can reach the $750,000 mark, and bring the Lizardmen to their swampy home in the Stygian Abyss. They’re counting on us!
Werner Herzog once said, "The common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder." That's a bit dark, but clearly true in The Stygian Abyss. It's one of the most hostile environments possible. And yet Cabirus attempted to build it into a utopia, one of the most optimistic goals imaginable.
Will you decide to follow his example? Or stoke the flames of war?
It'll be our job to craft the story to react to your decisions, immerse in the world, compel you to discover all the amazing things you can do, and goad you to play further.
We'll also be working hard to ensure Underworld Ascendant retains its deep dark dungeon fantasy feel, but in a fresh, original way that's all its own. Part of that means coming up with takes on races that are different from what you've seen elsewhere.
For instance, the Dwarves in Underworld Ascendant are true mountain folk: rugged frontier types who are smart and wary, like early pioneers like Kit Carson mixed with HBO's Deadwood and Jack London's White Fang. They feel a distinct sense of ownership over the Underworld since they erected much of its infrastructure and see the other intelligent races as freeloaders, at best.
Meanwhile, the Shamblers are a fungal society, an alien hive mind who view The Stygian Abyss as a complete ecosystem... which would thrive under its direct care. The Dark Elves are obsessed with attaining mental and physical perfection, like a mix of Spartan warriors and social Darwinists. They're fiercely independent, rankle at what they perceive as The Shamblers' controlling influence, and like to pick fights with the Dwarves simply to test their mettle.
As in the original Ultima Underworld games, no race has a set alignment. Each faction has its own unique worldview and valid reasons for their actions. They're headed for conflict and, likely, tragedy.
I wonder how he'll characterize the Lizardmen if they make it in.Will you decide to follow his example? Or stoke the flames of war?
It'll be our job to craft the story to react to your decisions, immerse in the world, compel you to discover all the amazing things you can do, and goad you to play further.
We'll also be working hard to ensure Underworld Ascendant retains its deep dark dungeon fantasy feel, but in a fresh, original way that's all its own. Part of that means coming up with takes on races that are different from what you've seen elsewhere.
For instance, the Dwarves in Underworld Ascendant are true mountain folk: rugged frontier types who are smart and wary, like early pioneers like Kit Carson mixed with HBO's Deadwood and Jack London's White Fang. They feel a distinct sense of ownership over the Underworld since they erected much of its infrastructure and see the other intelligent races as freeloaders, at best.
Meanwhile, the Shamblers are a fungal society, an alien hive mind who view The Stygian Abyss as a complete ecosystem... which would thrive under its direct care. The Dark Elves are obsessed with attaining mental and physical perfection, like a mix of Spartan warriors and social Darwinists. They're fiercely independent, rankle at what they perceive as The Shamblers' controlling influence, and like to pick fights with the Dwarves simply to test their mettle.
As in the original Ultima Underworld games, no race has a set alignment. Each faction has its own unique worldview and valid reasons for their actions. They're headed for conflict and, likely, tragedy.
