KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[J_C]

Dewie_Morgan:

"[A]s I understand it, EA has been pretty firm that nothing from the Ultimas may appear in UA, period. Not even monsters that the Ultimas took from other mythoses, like goblins, giant rats, giant spiders."

Yeah, I call BS on that. How could EA deny them the use of goblins and rats? They are not Ultima specific at all.

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/i-would-love-to-find-chuckles-carcass-in-the-underworld/10076/20

It’s true that Ultima itself doesn’t claim ownership over goblins, giant rats, spiders, and skeletons, or skeletons with jester hats. However, including features or characters that are distinct to the Ultima formula and not to UW1&2 would have raised a red flag and could have gotten pulled. It takes a couple of months to make assets for, place, test, develop and integrate even 1 creature into the Abyss, and at the risk of having it pulled for being too close to Ultima, it wouldn’t be worth making.

So basically EA didn't deny them the use of goblins and rats or other creatures, they just couldn't copy Ultima creatures. That is not shocking, that's common sense.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/otherside-alle3-2019/10081

We have a busy schedule for E3 for sure and that’s good! (always nice when people want to meet with you).

Flatfingers, we’re cooking up a new IP that’s in our wheelhouse. It’s nice to balance something completely new with the other pre-existing franchises we’re working on. We won’t have much to say about it for a while though.

You’re reading correctly. To clarify, we’re working on three franchises in total at the moment: Underworld and System Shock being the two existing franchises I alluded to, with the third is the new one I mentioned in my previous post. The vision is to sort of rotate between the three to give ourselves a reasonable cadence of releases, accounting for various factors like team size, dev budget, market timing, etc…

 

[BEvers]

I wonder what kind of "reasonable cadence" they're aiming for. Annual releases would certainly help to establish Otherside as a household name in the industry.

 

[Terenty]

Just how many people work in Otherside? Instead of throwing all their resources at SS3 they are working on another franchise? Is this Ubisoft we are talking about?

 

[MasterLobar]

This is all BS talk, a desparate attempt to give potential SS3 publishers the impression that this is a company that has a future.

It has none.

 

[Atrachasis]

In legal arrangements, the weaker party often goes beyond what might be strictly necessary to obey the terms of the deal because they can't afford even the slightest risk of a lawsuit.

Hard to believe EA would have actually given a fuck though..

Precisely. When they went and asked EA for a license to use the Underworld setting, EA might simply have used the opportunity to cram all kinds of restrictions down their throats, quite independently of whether they were enforceable by copyright or not, but simply as a precondition for granting the license.

Perhaps "quality" was also among the features from the Ultima brand that they were not allowed to use?

 

[HanoverF]

Working on something new in their wheelhouse? A Ponzi scheme perhaps?

 

[Durwyn]

Working on something new in their wheelhouse? A Ponzi scheme perhaps?

Taking into consideration their absolute incompetence - there is a chance that the investors at the bottom of the scheme could get a nice profit.

 

[MasterLobar]

Does anyone expect them to portray their situation accurately while searching for a new SS3 publisher?

That would mean: "Our first game flopped, the publisher of our only other game abandoned the project and we have unsuccessfully been trying to get a new publisher in the past four months and if we don't find one in the next few weeks, we are going to be bankrupt."

Of course, they are going to make stuff up. "Unannounced" new games in the pipeline, self-publishing SS3 etc.

No doubt, a bright future lies ahead.

 

[MasterLobar]

Otherside is now 10 days past their self-declared deadline for the launch of the UA console version.

There is no new launch date, no update in their forum, no info on their web site, no trailer, no nothing.

 

[Efe]

i will not cite sources but i was told they are waiting for e3 to be over

 

[Zep Zepo]

It was hot-fixed several times, game was still shit.

It was full on "patched" 3 times, game was still shit.

You stand around sniffing your own shit long enough and you can no longer smell your own shit. You've become accustomed to your own shit.

Just die already, OE.

Zep--

 

[MasterLobar]

Their community manager has pretty much stopped managing the community.

Last post on the OS forum: 1 week ago.
https://forums.otherside-e.com/u/sluangkhot/summary

Last post on the Steam forum: 3 weeks ago.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/flarechess/posthistory/
--> while remaining players are screaming "YOU ABANDONED US":

Spoiler

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1642038749319662284/

Spoiler

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1639787494955601222/

Spoiler

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1639787494961469419/

Last post of OS twitter account: 6 week-old retweet.
https://twitter.com/OtherSide_Games

Own twitter account: Nothing that has remotely to do with OS
https://twitter.com/flarechess

 

[agris]

Sounds like the CM isn't getting paid.

 

[Nyast]

.. or maybe he's just having a blast playing the console version which has fixed all bugs and added a ton of content to make this a worthy successor to Ultima Underw...

Err nope, they're simply too busy at E3 hunting for a new publisher

 

[Love]

.. or maybe he's just having a blast playing the console version which has fixed all bugs and added a ton of content to make this a worthy successor to Ultima Underw...

Can we make this a new meme?

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Is that an actual screenshot from this crap? That looks like some generic shit thrown together for a scene in some network TV show where a character is playing a video game and they can't license footage from any actual title to use.

 

[BlackGoat]

Is that an actual screenshot from this crap? That looks like some generic shit thrown together for a scene in some network TV show where a character is playing a video game and they can't license footage from any actual title to use.

They were going for an "authored look"

Spoiler

 

[Metro]

Is that an actual screenshot from this crap? That looks like some generic shit thrown together for a scene in some network TV show where a character is playing a video game and they can't license footage from any actual title to use.

 

[luj1]

Pretty embarrassing that Codex staff genuinely believed this game will be good.

 

[Glic2000]

Yeah, I remember that screenshot. That was the first screenshot showing off their new art style. Needless to say, everyone was horrified at the time. However, I will admit when the first playable build came with that art style, it did look much better.

In the end, graphics were the least of the game's problems.

 

[MasterLobar]

Dead website, dead forum, dead game, dead company.

We are just days away from OS announcing bankruptcy. E3 is their last desperate attempt to find a new SS3 publisher.

Of course, no one will sign on. The lights will go out in a week or two.

 

[Efe]

but that doesnt benefit you.
you should want them to find money so they can finish this game that you paid for, as much as possible.

 

[Nyast]

Dead website, dead forum, dead game, dead company.

We are just days away from OS announcing bankruptcy. E3 is their last desperate attempt to find a new SS3 publisher.

Of course, no one will sign on. The lights will go out in a week or two.

No way. They're hanging on. How, I don't know, but they are. They're definitely releasing their console version and System Shock 3. If the company collapses that'll be a few months after SS3 if it ends up being another disapointment IMO.

 

[LESS T_T]

Yeah, it's curious how they manage to hire experienced developers during and after the disaster of UA, for Boston team at that.