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Game News Underworld Ascendant Update #18: Now Entering Full Production

Infinitron

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Tags: Chris Siegel; OtherSide Entertainment; Underworld Ascendant

The first Underworld Ascendant update for 2016 announces that the game is now entering full production. Chris Siegel explains:

In 2015, we were successful at our first Kickstarter, assembling the core team, and erecting all the scaffolding that games are built upon. The groundwork for the key systems are in place: character building, magic, movement, and combat. We've also tackled the pre-production for the narrative and key characters, the three factions and denizens of the deep you'll encounter, the lay of the Stygian Abyss, and the other fantasy world design elements that go into The Underworld.

As the New Year begins, we're busy making the transition to full production. The focus shifts to building out all the game play elements. Right now, we're barreling along on two tracks: art and design.

Our designers are heads down prototyping the quest and narrative systems, building out character skills, and working out how to create spaces that take advantage of those skills. We've even started coming to grips with the major characters in the game and the main plot points.

It's fun to see a team switch gears from "Wouldn't it be cool?" to "We all agree that is cool. Let's build it and prove it!" Seeing an idea on paper isn't nearly as awesome as seeing it the game engine. One of the most rewarding things as a producer is being the guy who gets the first look at everything. It's like opening presents every morning when we reach this point in development. From something simple like getting a new shader for stalactites to testing out wall-running and ground-sliding for the first time, it's never boring.

The other track is art. After Nate Wells joined us as Studio Art Director late last year, we revisited the look for the game and decided to evolve to something that would be more distinctive. Something that captured the vibe of an old school dungeon crawl, but at the same time brought something new to the genre. Nate arrived at what he terms an "authored" art style, where The Stygian Abyss looks as if it were crafted by mages of yore who more-or-less terraformed the environment by their mighty mystical hands. The art team is busy working on the evolved look. A couple of sneak peeks are shown here, but we should have a playable build with the new look to share soon enough.

Things are going to get even busier for us as we transition to full production; but it's a good kind of busy where we're firing on all cylinders and where we'll have more to share with you each month going forward.
With the game's small team becoming ever busier, update frequency will be dropping down to once every three weeks for the foreseeable future. According to a forum post by Chris, they're expecting to hit pre-alpha stage in the second quarter of this year.
 

Crescent Hawk

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I am really curious of what is coming out of this, if they still have the right sensibilities. The thunder.
 

Perkel

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frankly speaking this is my #1 thing to look out for. Sure their scripted demo was garbage for press but how they design stuff and put focus on systems instead of just scripts is really showing that this won't be your just another "XYZ dungeon crawler". I mean just their ropes mechanic they presented in technical demo means a lot to dungeon crawling. Imagine completely vertical parts of dungeons instead of flat levels like in 99% of rest dc games. Same with other stuff they do like material system for everything (so it can react with fire or other stuff).

It will be probably nightmare to release it polished but if history thought us something it is that usually interesting titles were coupled with shitty release version.

Only thing that is unknown is story and lore. Though this will be probably something they will show later on.
 

Raapys

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Ye it's interesting enough stuff, but I want to see some proper gameplay before becoming enthusiastic. Talk is cheap, as is messing around in Unity for a few hours to create neat-looking effects.
 

Feyd Rautha

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There are still stretch goals left! The two most interesting to me was 'expanded story & lore' and the editor. Those two will probably benefit the game most.

https://www.underworldascendant.com/the-game/stretch.php

Are you high?

Pledged: $915,715

my last pledge update was like..months ago...then it was like 910K.

Zep--
I meant 'are' of course. If they reach the expanded story & lore + the editor then the game will probably have much more potential.
 

Burning Bridges

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Rip off? Otherside officially doing System Shock 3 is the closest anyone could possibly get to making an SS sequel justly, no?

System Shock based on Unity? These games were about technological innovation, not just ticking some superficial boxes so that hipsters can say it's the sequel. You should have been around ca 1994. System Shock and UU were amazing, and showed what computers can achieve, now what we will get is Bioshock light with a blue tinge, barely able to run in Unity engine. Fuck this shit.
 
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Graphics whore confirmed.

I was thinking that perhaps you had reservations on the design side.

Is System Shock 2 also a rip off? Design-wise, it wasn't such a great pace forward. In fact, it was rather more restricted in some aspects but still a classic no?
 

Zed Duke of Banville

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Nonlinear level design was where Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss really shined, as with the later Looking Glass Studio games, and I think this aspect will determine whether Underworld Ascendant is a success or a failure.
 

Mustawd

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NOW entering full production? What were they doing before?
200.gif
 
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Smashing success or smashing failure, we now have this and a SS sequel to look forward to. I am glad they spent so much forethought on planning, before building. This is either going to smash out of the gate, or fly under the radar, but I am convinced the devs have their eye on the right apple.
 

Burning Bridges

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They are "busy making the transition to full production", are they fucking kidding? I wonder how much of the money is even left. The plan could be to finance Ultima Ascendant from Newfag Shock kickstarter and another two kickstarters to finish anything. The only snag is, if the kickstarter is a failure, everything could be over by end of 2016.
When a project generates so much hype over nothing and obviously not run by people who know what they are doing (what have they done except show some Unity samples?), this has all the signs of a huge fuckup.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
They are "busy making the transition to full production", are they fucking kidding? I wonder how much of the money is even left. The plan could be to finance Ultima Ascendant from Newfag Shock kickstarter and another two kickstarters to finish anything. The only snag is, if the kickstarter is a failure, everything could be over by end of 2016.
When a project generates so much hype over nothing and obviously not run by people who know what they are doing (what have they done except show some Unity samples?), this has all the signs of a huge fuckup.


It's been just nine months since the Kickstarter and backers already have something playable. No other Kickstarter has done this. Do you not remember that it took Obsidian fucking years to dignify us with just some gameplay footage for PoE, let alone a playable? The way some people on the Codex have been reacting to this game is just Bizarro World.

And by the way Zepo, I played the prototype and it's cool.
 
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