KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[luj1]

This isn't worthy of even being pirated.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

You have to be looking pretty hard, no?

Wrong thread.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Update 4 launched and the game peaked at 15 players.

https://steamcharts.com/app/692840

 

[Silentstorm]

Wow, that's just...sad, i imagine if you could look at the number of people playing System Shock, Ultima Underworld and the first Thief games, you would find they all still have more than 15 players.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

It took them release + 4 updates to implement "Press I to open Inventory".

Hey don't mock them, according to this speed we will get a save system by 2023! Though I reckon it will be mostly due to consumer rights advocacy groups. Talking of which, maybe by then they'll brush up on what "consumer rights" and "quality testing" signify.

 

[MasterLobar]

The 15 people who are playing have BIG plans.

sluangkhot

We made Update 4 with the expectation that it would be the Last Content we could afford to build for Underworld Ascendant.

However! Once we have confirmation that this is the last large content update, I believe some of our fan modders have some plans…

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/so-update-4-is-1-new-enemy/10086/7

 

[McPlusle]

Why would anyone even want a new System Shock? Can you really trust anyone, even the original developers, not to tarnish the legacy of such an incredible duology of games?

 

[Steamboat Willie]

The 15 people who are playing have BIG plans.

Yiffy McFurfag over on the OSE forums put together a multi-page "Code of Conduct" for modders to follow. In it went more time and effort than will ever be spent modding Underworld Ascendant.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The 15 people who are playing have BIG plans.

sluangkhot

We made Update 4 with the expectation that it would be the Last Content we could afford to build for Underworld Ascendant.

However! Once we have confirmation that this is the last large content update, I believe some of our fan modders have some plans…

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/so-update-4-is-1-new-enemy/10086/7

"We can't afford to finish making our game so we hope some other people do it for free"

 

[CyberModuled]

Finally, some incline for the PS4 /s

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant/posts/2486822

Update 4, PS4 Launch, and KS Update (June 2019)

Hello everyone,

Update 4 is now live for Underworld Ascendant!

This update includes more performance improvements, additional NPCs and narrative quests, added areas, and more. You can read the full build notes here on Steam.


In addition to Update 4's launch, Underworld Ascendant is now available on PS4! Watch the updated console trailer here:

Our release on Xbox is coming soon! We will share an update as soon as it is available.

For Kickstarter goods, we are still on track to begin the physical shipment of goods in the next few weeks. You can track the status of all rewards here.

Additional Kickstarter content, such as certain digital rewards, will continue to be rolled out when they are ready. This includes the Game Art portfolio, the Making of DVD, and the Game Manual.

To access your currently available digital rewards, remember to log into BackerKit with your Kickstarter credentials to access your Digital Downloads for your Steam keys. If you are having issues logging into your BackerKit, please contact us at support@otherside-e.com.


Our next step is finishing up our Mac and Linux ports for our backers and for general release. The Mac and Linux versions will contain all of the improvements brought from Update 4. We have been working closely with our external porter while we made adjustments to Update 4 to make sure we stayed on track for our PC and console releases.

When we have more to share, we will post another update. If you want to check in on our progress on a weekly basis, feel free to join us on our new forums and skim through our Weekly Updates.


Cheers,

The OtherSide Team

 

[McPlusle]

How long was there even supposed to be a console version? Who even asked for one? If you walk into any place that sells physical retail games you'll see a ton of late console ports of already-shovelware PC games by 505 Games and Focus Home Interactive and honestly I couldn't even tell you who the hell is buying these. I'd be surprised if most of them even sell five digits.

 

[taxalot]

Update 5 will add the long awaited Battle Royale mode everybody asked for.

 

[taxalot]

How long was there even supposed to be a console version? Who even asked for one? If you walk into any place that sells physical retail games you'll see a ton of late console ports of already-shovelware PC games by 505 Games and Focus Home Interactive and honestly I couldn't even tell you who the hell is buying these. I'd be surprised if most of them even sell five digits.

Update 6 will add gamepad support to the console versions.

 

[Nyast]

And they'll patch the fun in update 7, I heard.

 

[MasterLobar]

How long was there even supposed to be a console version? Who even asked for one? If you walk into any place that sells physical retail games you'll see a ton of late console ports of already-shovelware PC games by 505 Games and Focus Home Interactive and honestly I couldn't even tell you who the hell is buying these. I'd be surprised if most of them even sell five digits.

That is further evidence for my theory that 505 has the making of a console version as a standard contract obligation for all developers.

OS made the console version because they were legally obliged. The community manager confirmed some time ago that OS is paying for the entire console development themselves. 505 didn't provide any funding for it.

They made it because they had to, and not because they think it is going to be a good seller.

What is more, all the revenue goes to 505 until they recoup their investment plus a 20% or so margin per usual publishing deal agreements. UA sold so poorly that 505 is certainly far away from that, so any money the console version makes goes straight to 505 and not to OS.

Even with the console version, OS isn't earning one dollar from UA sales. They still have zero revenues and they are not going to release any other game any time soon. And they have to pay back $7 million to Starbreeze.

I stand by my prediction that this company is dead by August.

 

[Silentstorm]

And they'll patch the fun in update 7, I heard.

Patch 8 will be them giving free copies of Thief, System Shock and Ultima Underworld games so that they will give good games, and for whoever owns all of those...i don't know, some GOG or Steam Wallet money so they can buy an actually good game?

 

[Glic2000]

Shouldn't they have announced an SS3 publisher by now? if they had one?

 

[MasterLobar]

Shouldn't they have announced an SS3 publisher by now? if they had one?

Bragging about "so much interest" and "so many meetings" with publishers becomes a bit of a problem if 4 months later you still got no deal.

Happily, given the pedigree of System Shock and the progress we’ve made so far there’s been a lot of interest.

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/starbreeze-cancel-system-shock-3-publishing-deal/9855/8

I’m optimistic we’ll find an even better path forward on SS3, we had some great meetings at DICE this week)

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/otherside-entertainment-please-do-not-do-ss3/9840/9

Our SS3 meetings and pitches are going well so far. Those we’ve shown the recent builds to seem genuinely excited about it.

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/starbreeze-cancel-system-shock-3-publishing-deal/9855/12

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

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/otherside-alle3-2019/10081/5

Always nice when people want to meet with you. Not so nice when none of them wants your sh*t.

 

[LESS T_T]

The Thief 2 vid predates the Prey vid. He must have moved up the ladder

Perhaps, but unless i missed it (it is a 71 minute video after all), he doesn't mention that he was the one worked on the level (he actually mentions "the designers" - which can be interpreted as both him being part of the team and not) so it isn't clear if he did move up the ladder.

Of course it is possible he was promoted (and might be mentioned in an in-between video, i haven't watched the Alien Isolation one since i haven't played the game yet) but i have my doubts considering that the Thief 2 video was uploaded a year ago whereas the Prey one was 9 months ago and i do not think they'd promote him to a totally different position in just a few months *and* to he to have any significant impact on the game.

So actually i went looking around a bit and found his site where he says that he's still on QA, although they did let him do a bit of "additional design" a couple of months ago (Feb 19):

Otherside Entertainment (Additional Design, Feb ‘19; Senior QA, Nov ’18 - Present; QA Consultant, Nov ‘17 - Oct ‘18): Position working on Underworld Ascendant and Underworld Overlord as a bug tester. Involves running smoketests, logging bugs in Hansoft and Jira, formulating and executing test plans, and writing C# scripts in Unity to automate tasks. Was given responsibility for technical and level design tasks under guidance of senior design, resulting in an Additional Design credit on Underworld Ascendant.

So now that they released the patch and console version...:



I hope him find a better place that he can show his dedication.

 

[Child of Malkav]

The Thief 2 vid predates the Prey vid. He must have moved up the ladder

Perhaps, but unless i missed it (it is a 71 minute video after all), he doesn't mention that he was the one worked on the level (he actually mentions "the designers" - which can be interpreted as both him being part of the team and not) so it isn't clear if he did move up the ladder.

Of course it is possible he was promoted (and might be mentioned in an in-between video, i haven't watched the Alien Isolation one since i haven't played the game yet) but i have my doubts considering that the Thief 2 video was uploaded a year ago whereas the Prey one was 9 months ago and i do not think they'd promote him to a totally different position in just a few months *and* to he to have any significant impact on the game.

So actually i went looking around a bit and found his site where he says that he's still on QA, although they did let him do a bit of "additional design" a couple of months ago (Feb 19):

Otherside Entertainment (Additional Design, Feb ‘19; Senior QA, Nov ’18 - Present; QA Consultant, Nov ‘17 - Oct ‘18): Position working on Underworld Ascendant and Underworld Overlord as a bug tester. Involves running smoketests, logging bugs in Hansoft and Jira, formulating and executing test plans, and writing C# scripts in Unity to automate tasks. Was given responsibility for technical and level design tasks under guidance of senior design, resulting in an Additional Design credit on Underworld Ascendant.

So now that they released the patch and console version...:



I hope him find a better place that he can show his dedication.

Is/was he an employee at OS?

 

[Max Heap]

So now that they released the patch and console version...:

QA is normally the first department that is hit by layoffs. Followed closely by Community Management.
Administrative jobs like secretaries are next and once content creators like artists or programmers are being laid off it's normally over.

I remember when EA Mythic laid off the lead art designer for Warhammer Online. It was clear at that point, that no further content patches would be released. And that's basically what happened. The only update then was a weird skaven patch with models that have been in the game forever already.

 

[MasterLobar]

These people who are now getting laid off have no one but themselves to blame. It is obvious for at least 2 months now that this company is going to close down this summer.

And it's also safe to say this is just the first wave. You heard it here first.

I predict: After the console version (contractual obligation for 505) is out, OS Boston is going to be closed as a cost-cutting measure and the UA and SS3 teams are going to be merged to make more progress to be shown to potential publishers.

Won't save the studio, though. They are doomed.

Protip for everyone still employed in this sh*thole: Run as fast as you can.

And one day all of a sudden, it's going to be like 20 years ago:

"Late in the day on May 24, 2000, Paul Neurath called a meeting. The co-founder of Looking Glass Studios asked every employee to attend. (...) "We’re closing," Neurath told the anxious crowd, (...) and the Looking Glass faithful were officially unemployed."

https://www.polygon.com/2015/4/6/8285529/looking-glass-history

Til the last day, these sociopaths are going to tell everyone that everything is fine. The last ones they'll screw over will be their own employees. Poor folks.

 

[taxalot]

It's not losing a job. It's gaining new opportunities.

 

[Bad Sector]

I think in his case it is, considering he wasn't doing what he actually wanted to do and was able to do it.