KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Prototype Thread

[agris]

The level of fucking detail in that 23 year old game really is rather incredible. If they made it largely the same with newer engine I will be happy. I remember throwing skulls at otherwise unreachable switches to open doors, poles through portcullis, item wear, consumables and remnants combines to make new things all of which had plausible characteristics which allowed them to interact with the world around them. The secret sauce isn't just physics, but physics within a grander simulation. Can't wait for that shit.

UU1?

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

UU1?

Yes.

 

[agris]

I need to play it. The Ultimas were a bit before my time and I think I can pass on I-IX, but it sounds as if UU1 is a must-play.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

One of their design team already quoted Amnesia as an influence, and early on they were considering sanity effects. I've not played Harry's Mod.

 

[Aenra]

The Ultimas were a bit before my time and I think I can pass on I-IX

Give at least 4 and 7 a try. Really. Start with 7 if graphics are a big deal to you.
Here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-ultima-vii-in-exult-a-guide-by-jaesun.47447/

 

[agris]

Aenra I appreciate the sentiment. Jaesun loving it adds a huge + to its column, thanks for the link.

 

[Mustawd]

Aren't Ultima 1-3 just a goofy mish mash of sci-fi and fantasy?

 

[Jaesun]

Aren't Ultima 1-3 just a goofy mish mash of sci-fi and fantasy?

Mostly, I basically ignore them. The Ultima series starts to really take off with IV. And ends with VII: Serpent Isle. Ultima VIII: Pagan is a whole different deal, but I still like it.

 

[almondblight]

Every time I try VII I bounce off the stupid writing and setting. Not sure why, but for some reason V and VI don't seem as bad. Maybe because the writing in those two seem a bit more succinct (and they also don't suffer from VII's font).

 

[Darkzone]

agris
Ultima IV V VI are milestones of cRPGs, and if you don't play them then you not only will miss this amazing games, but you will also never get why people are still fans of this games, that are made nearly 25-30 years ago. You got to start with IV, because it is the prelude to the V and VI and if the graphics should be a problem for you, then i pity you. I would post a link to someone who has analysed the games, but that would rob you of the possibility to look and think for yourself of and about this kind of story.
The Ultima Age of Enlightenment series is at the same level with PS:T, Fallout 1 and 2 and Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.
Garriott was never able to reach this level again and if his name will be remembered in the computer game history then it will be just for this series.

 

[agris]

That's compelling shit Darkzone, you're listing my all-time favorites (with the exception of PST).

 

[Darth Slaughter]

agris
Ultima IV V VI are milestones of cRPGs, and if you don't play them then you not only will miss this amazing games, but you will also never get why people are still fans of this games, that are made nearly 25-30 years ago. You got to start with IV, because it is the prelude to the V and VI and if the graphics should be a problem for you, then i pity you. I would post a link to someone who has analysed the games, but that would rob you of the possibility to look and think for yourself of and about this kind of story.
The Ultima Age of Enlightenment series is at the same level with PS:T, Fallout 1 and 2 and Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.
Garriott was never able to reach this level again and if his name will be remembered in the computer game history then it will be just for this series.

Well, I'd add ultima VII as a milestone too. I was the pinnacle of evolution of ultima games, and actually set a bar that everyone tries to copy to this day, only to fail. Well, combat is shit, but it's fun when your companions run away and leave a trail of blood and items behind.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Spark was the worst for that! Aieee!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.gamecrate.com/interview-...tting-license-ea-and-biggest-influences/12143

INTERVIEW: OTHERSIDE TALKS UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT, GETTING THE LICENSE FROM EA, AND BIGGEST INFLUENCES

Developers OtherSide Entertainment was in Los Angeles recently to promote Underworld Ascendant, the Kickstarter-backed third entry in the Ultima Underworld series. We spoke to Founder Paul Neurath and Designer Joe Fielder, who shared details about the game's development process, communicating with fans, their biggest influences, and acquiring the rights to the game from EA.

GameCrate: During the demo, you talked a little bit about going to EA to get the license for Ultima Underworld back. What was that process like? Was it difficult?

Paul Neurath: Well, it took over 20 years. We approached Electronic Arts in 1993, and it took until a little over a year ago to get the rights. (laughs)

GC: From a narrative perspective, is Underworld Ascendant directly linked to the previous two games?

PN: It's a direct sequel. One right that we didn't get from Electronic Arts was the use of theUltima brand, so we can't use that, but otherwise, all the characters, fictional elements, monsters, and settings we can use. We're not using all of them, but a lot of them we are carrying forward with Underworld Ascendant.

Joe Fielder: The original Ultima Underworld wasn't tied into the Ultima mythology itself — it kind of established itself.

PN: That was more of a marketing thing, because back then, Ultima was huge — it was the biggest brand Origin Systems had at the time, so it was a good label to put on the game.

JF: You can enjoy Underworld Ascendant on its own if you haven't played the previous games, but we do have narrative hooks. We have characters, creatures, and whatnot, but we're trying to build upon some aspects of the mythology in some new, fun ways.

GC: As far as the Kickstarter campaign goes, how was the reaction from longtime fans, as well as newcomers who were just sort of interested in what OtherSide Entertainment was doing?

PN: That's a good question. Well, from the longtime fans, we had a great response, and the level of engagement was quite high. We had tons of people on the forums and in comments really passionate about bringing these games back.

And the stories you hear from these fans! There was one guy who passed along a story that when he was young, his dad used to play Underworld, and he would sit next to him, and that was a way they connected. And his did passed away when he was still young, and he said that in the years since, he periodically goes back and plays Underworld as a way to remember his dad and reconnect.

These games really matter to people, and for us as a team, it's really motivating to know that we're not just making a game — it's something that really matters to people.

JF: You get a lot of personal stories. The feedback means a lot — it's really interesting. Back in the day, there was a barrier between the developer and the fan — a lot of would go through the publisher.

PN: Electronic Arts didn't like us talking to the fans. It was all a secret in a sealed room. It's great to reach out and connect with the fans.

PN: In terms of the people who have never played the Underworld games, we do have a fair amount of people who backed who also fit into that category. I think most of them have heard of the games, or they played our other games like Thief, which is better-known, or theSystem Shock games, because they're more modern and well-known. I think they thought, “Oh, those are the guys who made Thief and System Shock, so this must be a cool game, too.”(laughs)

GC: What does modern tech allow you to do now that you weren't able to do with past games? What are you most excited about doing with that tech?

PN: There's two things that are possible with the modern tech. One is the hardware — PCs today are hundred-fold more powerful than PCs of 1992. So when we're doing a 3D texture map of the world we move through, we could barely make that run on a PC of that year. It was all done on software — there were no hardware rendering cards back then, so we had to put an enormous amount of effort, and we got about 10 frames per second, and we couldn't do a full screen, so you didn't get the full immersive experience.

There were a lot of compromises. Now we're able to do a full HD resolution, full screen, 60 frames per second. So the immersion with today's hardware is leaps and bounds above what it was back then.

We're using Unity 5. Years ago, we had to write our own engines, so the team spent half its time writing an engine before it could make the game — and people want to play games; they don't want to play engines. I'd rather focus on building gameplay than building technology and engines, so it's nice now that there are companies out there — Unity and others — that create engines. And we heavily extend those engines, so we're not just using off-the-shelf Unity 5 — we have a lot of extensions we're pushing very, very hard.

But all the baseline stuff the game has to do — the user interface, graphics — we don't have to write our own renderers now, we don't have to write our own shaders from the ground up. Done that enough.

JF: It used to be that you would have to wait and wait and wait for the engine to come online, and you would basically design on paper how you thought things would work.

PN: Which never worked very well.

JF: Then when you got the engine, you just kind of scrambled it. You'd be like, “Oh, you can't do this, or you can't take advantage of this.” A lot of games got crammed in a very short period of time.

GC: During the demo, you mentioned that the Underworld games inspired titles likeBioShock, Skyrim, and Dishonored. Now, do you see those games having some sort of influence on Underworld Ascendant or on the dev team personally? Has it come full circle?

PN: Sure! From my perspective, I would've thought this genre would've moved considerably further than what it has over the last 20 years. But it still has moved forward, and there's been innovation. So you play a game like Dishonored or BioShock Infinite, and there's definitely some very cool stuff that we can learn from. When we were doing the Underworldgames, it was the same thing — we were playing games of that era and games from a few years before.

All game designers are like that — they sort of synthesize all the games they play and say, “They do a kind of interesting thing of character generation here. If we take that aspect and mesh it with this other thing ...” We kind of borrow bits and pieces and try to reassemble those and add our own innovations.

JF: I was a member of a team that wasn't on Looking Glass, but I was very influenced by Looking Glass games. I worked at Irrational for five years and was one of the contributing writers for BioShock Infinite. So a lot of the world-building that the series was inspired by very directly influenced a lot of the stuff that I've worked on. So I'm trying to bring that around full circle, as well.

GC: Now that you guys can work with the license — I know you hold it very near and dear to you — are you looking forward to not just making this one game but sort of making this the start of a resurrection of the Underworld series?

PN: Well, right now we're just completely, utterly focused on Underworld Ascendant and just pushing that forward and innovating on that. But, you know, in the future, we hope to be doing more.

 

[Aenra]

we heavily extend those engines, so we're not just using off-the-shelf Unity 5

Infinitron am not very familiar clueless regarding the tech aspect, but i remember someone (VD i think?) mentioning the difference between Unity and Unity with the code available. For which an extra fee is required of course. Can you estimate what that fee would be for these guys? Am asking because my impression has been that said fee fluctuates from studio to studio?
Also, (Google skills failure), do we know if purchasing of said extra.. "code"?.. comes along with any extra responsibilities?

 

[Darkzone]

Well, I'd add ultima VII as a milestone too. I was the pinnacle of evolution of ultima games, and actually set a bar that everyone tries to copy to this day, only to fail. Well, combat is shit, but it's fun when your companions run away and leave a trail of blood and items behind.

I totally agree with you. I had just emphasis on the Age of Enlightenment series, because Aenra has not put them in their deserving spot.

That's compelling shit Darkzone, you're listing my all-time favorites (with the exception of PST).

There is a reason why Swen from Larian has named Ultima as their inspiration for DOS over and over again. You got to start to play with Ultima IV and play the Ultima VII as the last of the four games, because it develops from stage to stage until the pinnacle Ultima VII.
Do you make yourself a favour and read nothing about Ultima, before you have played the four episodes.

 

[LESS T_T]

Another Looking Glass (and Irrational) guy joins the team: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-11-13-nate-wells-moves-to-otherside-entertainment

Nate Wells moves to OtherSide Entertainment

Former Irrational, Naughty Dog and Crystal Dynamics Art Director adds another to his CV

Nate Wells, who has Irrational, Naughty Dog and Crystal Dynamics on his art direction CV, has moved to OtherSide Entertainment. The studio was founded by the creative team behind Ultima Underworld to work on spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant, which will be Wells' first project to oversee.

"I'm thrilled to be working with Nate again," says Paul Neurath, OtherSide Entertainment co-founder. He and Wells were previously team mates when working together on Thief and System Shock 2. "Nate showed huge promise at LookingGlass early in his career, and it's wonderful to see how he has grown into a supremely talented art director."

Underworld Ascendant is due to enter pre-alpha early next year.

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,174472/

 

[Infinitron]

Yet more evidence that they're not starving for cash.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Many of these guys are senior in their fields. If they have been successful they are more likely to have different currencies in addition to money. I can see the band getting back together even though their project won't be their most lucrative option. LGS were in the glory days of gaming and they did some timeless shit. I bet there are others would love to get on board.

 

[Azazel]

Y'know, with NightDive having acquired the System Shock license, I wonder what the chances are of a legit SS3 project if Underworld does well.

And true words, Sbaitso, while the new generation doesn't know LGS that well they remain one of the most well respected studios ever within developer circles.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I don't believe LGS could ever be reborn. And what they have shown in the early prototype doesn't encourage faith in their capabilities.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

I managed a 70 minute chat with Chris from Otherside Entertainment. I will post it by next week. He talks mechanics, and the only thing off limits is the narrative. I'll answer questions, too, as soon as the dialogue is public. To his credit, he sounded completely confident about his success and his game, they are industry pros carving their own niche, he says. They are not simply retreading the past.

 

[Mustawd]

Nice. Looking forward to it when you can post it.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Nice. Looking forward to it when you can post it.

I am just waiting on Chris from Otherside. He recorded my face accidentally rather than his own, rather funny, but he is gonna add some spruced up special effects to the video chat so the dialogue is not dry.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Two things off the record: they mentioned they are a team of six, so they are outsourcing some of their material. Also, Will mentioned how much easier it is to design a world with emergent details rather than scripted events. It actually allows them more "freedom" as far as the narrative is concerned. Those are the only two things Will mentioned off the record, the rest is about 40 questions or so on a video interview over Skype.