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Game News Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter is LIVE

Infinitron

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Tags: OtherSide Entertainment; Paul Neurath; Richard Garriott; Scott Kimball; Tim Stellmach; Underworld Ascendant

The Kickstarter campaign for Underworld Ascendant, the Ultima Underworld spiritual successor from Paul Neurath, Tim Stellmach and other Looking Glass Studios veterans at OtherSide Entertainment, began a short while ago. It's a pretty sharp-looking campaign - it's obvious that they haven't spent the last half year since the game's original announcement just sitting around. Here's the pitch video, where you can see some short clips from the game's already-functioning prototype, demonstrating its cool environmental interaction features:



In 1992, Ultima Underworld changed the rules of what a fantasy RPG could be. It introduced the concept of 3D immersion, a player-authored experience, and a richly dynamic world to explore. Its influence led to a whole generation of games such as Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Skyrim, and Dragon Age.

Underworld has been hidden away in the deepest vaults of its publisher for two decades. Only now have the original creators unchained the franchise, freeing it to innovate yet again.

Backing the game grants you unprecedented front row access to the creation of the next epoch of this storied masterpiece, Underworld Ascendant. With your help, here's a glimpse at what we can together build:
  • Exquisitely Realized Underworld – Plunge into The Stygian Abyss: dark, ripe with dangers, full of ancient secrets to discover. A vast subterranean fantasy world made startlingly real and alive.
  • Dynamic Factions – Become embroiled in an epic plot, as rival factions vie for dominance in struggles that ebb and flow across The Stygian Abyss. Your choices will alter the outcome in subtle and dramatic ways.
  • Improvisation Engine – Delight in player-authored gameplay taken to a whole new level, with a suite of technologies that empower you to solve challenges with astonishing ingenuity. Be the ‘MacGyver’ of a fantasy world.
  • Hero to Call Your Own – Jump right in as a Fighter, Thief or Mage. Then as your Avatar grows, freely mix and match across any skills to develop a unique hero, tailored to your style of play.
  • Pushing Boundaries – Stretch Goals will innovate on co-op play with a friend; letting you build your own corner of The Stygian Abyss; and more.

See the full pitch for lots more information on all that stuff, plus a special twist: the ability to vote on various aspects of the game, starting from the physical appearance of one of its races, the shambler "mushroom people". The campaign's base funding goal is a steep-by-today's-standards $600,000, with stretch goals going up to 1.2 million. Let's hope they can make it.
 

Infinitron

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How the fuck did UW influence Dragon Age, though? I'd love to hear the explanation for that one.
 

FeelTheRads

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They have a generic quote from Ray Muzyka about how it influenced games produced at Bioware.
So I guess they could've gone with anything from Shattered Steel to Sonic RPG, but Dragon Age is likely to sound better.
 

karnak

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
I admit that the co-op possibility is starting to freak me out a bit.

Even though games like Baldur's Gate already had that option and it didn't damage the single player campaign.
 

Junmarko

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So many old series are making a come back. Wonder how long until Warren Spector kick-starts something.
 

LeStryfe79

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I bet the co op will be buggy but won't hurt the main game. It's a good pitch vid though. Not great but p. good.
 

Spectacle

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I hope they get funded. It's been a while since the last big RPG fundraiser that wasn't from an established team, so I wonder if they'll be able to get the attention they need to recruit enough backers. Things are not the same as in 2012 when the media would report on anything related to kickstarter.
 

t

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Should I be excited for this? Not sure how competent they are...
 

Wizfall

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I found the first half of the video quite awful with all the name dropping.
That does not inspire any confidence of what king of game they want to make and dilute the second half of the video (which is much better but the damage is done IMO).
 

LeStryfe79

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I'm leaning toward positive here. Even the 10 yr old graphics had a nice feel to them. and they are properly using social media. This fucker was well thought out.

I completely disagree with wizfall.

EDit: The Garriott stuff was a little clunky though.
 
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karnak

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
I found the first half of the video quite awful with all the name dropping.
That does not inspire any confidence of what king of game they want to make and dilute the second half of the video (which is much better but the damage is done IMO).

Unfortunately, nowadays everything is about Hype.
Some smart people will know how to look and search for gold. But unfortunately the majority of folks will be like duhhhh? until you drop names like Skyrim, Dragon Age, etc. Heck... I guess some people don't even remember the first Thief game.

Little folk have little memory.
I know some guys who loved and played Darklands back in the day and who don't remember the game now.
 

Jaesun

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OK I am sold. I do not like that CO-OP shit, that is a huge fucking waste of development time, spend all that money on the base game FFS. Though at least they put co-op at a large dollar amount stretch goal.
 

Zed

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Even if I still used KS I wouldn't want to back this . Cheats ("kickstarter exclusive items") and an unnecessary co-op mode stuff are repellents not incentives..
They're using Unity so it will probably have long-ass loading times and shitty framerate even with low-poly graphics.

I wish them good luck and I'll get it at release if it's any good.
 

LeStryfe79

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Well, there's a toolkit before the co-op, so I figure their dream is to let people create DnD dungeon crawls. I think their heart's in the right place at least.

Edit: Somebody just picked up a 10k. Wonder if it was Garriott? :D
 

Pony King

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I should probably back this, but I'm feeling a lot of inertia.

Has any of the local kickstarter hounds seen any thoughts on whether discounted early bird tiers are worthwhile for kickstarters?
 

LeStryfe79

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Yeah, sounds reasonable. There's a strange number of high end slots available.
 
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Why so many KS exclusive items? Seems like EVERY tier has them. And they don't seem to be "only" cosmetic... Coop stretch goal is a turn off too.

Also: "The $75 tier says it includes stretch goals and none of the other tiers do. I'm assuming this is an oversight. Will other tiers get stretch goals as well?

All tiers above $75 receive the benefit."

Sorry but shelling 75$ to recieve even more KS exclusive items in stretch goals, as far as I can see is a bit too much.

I do wish them a lot of money though, maybe they make a great game.
 
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Zed

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Fargo backed this at 10k to redesign it into a Bard's Tale tie-in.
"And then- and then- THE LURKER FARTS HAHAHA BUBBLES IN THE WATER AND THEN- AND THEN- A WENCH WITH BIG TITS WALKS IN AAAAHAHAHA" *slaps knee while laughing, falls over*
 

MuscleSpark

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Its influence led to a whole generation of games such as Thief, Deus Ex...
Hey that sounds g-
...BioShock, Skyrim, and Dragon Age.
Disgusting.

Why so many KS exclusive items? Seems like EVERY tier has them. And they don't seem to be "only" cosmetic... Coop stretch goal is a turn off too.
Going by the description, they're not cosmetic at all. It's dumb but that's how Kickstarters seem to be convincing people to pitch in.
 

LeStryfe79

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I actually like the idea of co-op in a game like this. I hate the in game items though.
 

Jedi Exile

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I wonder why they didn't mention Arx Fatalis and Dishonoured - Ralph always said that Ultima Underworld is a great game and it inspired him to become a developer.
 

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