Game News Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter is LIVE

[Infinitron]

It's sad that the freaking LOOKING GLASS KICKSTARTER isn't doing better than this, but I guess you could argue that this is a genre that people might feel is already being served, one way or the other.

Why would you even want them to have a chance of hitting that co-op goal?

I'd like them to have a chance of hitting the goals before it.

 

[Roguey]

I'd like them to have a chance of hitting the goals before it.

Kickspy, which is more nearly accurate than kicktraq, says that's likely to happen.

 

[zero29]

new update:

Meet some of our team

I wanted to start introducing some of the folks helping to make Underworld Ascendant a reality. First up, our concept artists. These are the superbly talented guys who help envision the look of The Stygian Abyss and its inhabitants.

Robb Waters worked with our team at LookingGlass in the 1990’s, doing some of the most memorable concept art for the System Shock games (including SHODAN), as well as for Thief (including the main character Garrett.) More recently Robb did a bunch of the concept art for BioShock and BioShock Infinite, games which won awards for their visual style. Here’s a couple pieces Robb has done so far for our game:

Shaddy Safadi, art director of his own concept studio One Pixel Brush, has been behind some of most stylish game art coming out in recent years, including for Uncharted 2, BioShock Infinite, Last of Us, and PlanetSide 2. A few pieces Shaddy’s done so far:

CLICK HERE to check out more concept art.

Getting a superb look for a game is more than just fancy rendering and high-end hardware. Great concept art can inspire more than mere pixels can. We are still refining the visual style for the game, it’s an iterative process, but we are off and running towards reaching a high bar. The concept artists are keeping notes and works-in-progress. This will all get rolled into a special Concept Art Portfolio. All Backers who pledge at the Adventurer tier or higher will get a digital copy for free.

Also wanted to introduce you to Warren Spector, who I’ve had the enormous pleasure to collaborate with since the 1980’s. Warren was our Producer on the original Underworlds, and worked at LookingGlass as well. He may be best known as the creative vision behind Deus Ex, and more recently Epic Mickey. Warren has never been timid to challenge conventional thinking about game design, and as a creative advisor to our team he keeps us on our toes. Here’s Warren waxing poetic about what we’re doing with our Improvisation Engine, which underlies one of the most distinctive aspects of gameplay in Underworld Ascendant:

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.n...68689e44a8b119ddc9374aef16cf643_h264_high.mp4

Finally, thrilled that on the third day of our campaign we have over 5,000 Backers. You are the vanguard! The fans who recognized the vision of this game, and stepped up first. We are honored. All the help in spreading the word and sharing the vision is greatly appreciated.

Paul Neurath

 

[Jasede]

I'd do it.

 

[Metro]

Only just noticing this... seems like they won't be going too far over their base goal. Cautiously optimistic but... eh.

 

[Abelian]

On the question of runes, they are almost identical to the ones Tolkien used in The Hobbit (he revised his system in LoTR to make it less similar to Scandinavian runes).
While they both seem to be based on the Anglo-Saxon furthorc runes, I wonder whether Garriott used Tolkien as a source (he did include "bobbits" in the early Ultimas). It is also interesting that they both have the same multiple-letter combinations (TH, EA, ST, etc) but also exclude the same ones (ȳr, īor, āc, ēoh).

Ultima switches the futhark/futhorc rune for H and W, as was earlier noted. Also, the runes for X and Z are switched around as are those for EE and NG. I suppose that Tolkien used the futhorc rune for X and Garriot used the same symbol in futhark for Z, but it's interesting that they both inverted the character to obtain the rune for Z and X, respectively.

Ultima uses the futhorc rune for J, while in The Hobbit, I and J are used interchangeably (reflecting the characters' common ancestry in Latin).
Similarly, The Hobbit uses the same character for U and V, based on their historical origins.
The Hobbit does not include the Q character, using KW instead.

Dwarf runes in The Hobbit

Runes in Ultima

 

[Jasede]

Remember when you were a kid and you were playing pirated copies of Ultima 7 and learned the runic alphabet without a manual to a degree where you could read signs on the fly?

One of my fondest memories... ;_;

 

[Abelian]

Funnily enough, it was the reverse for me: I had a copy of an EA compilation user's manual but without the actual U7 game.