Update 9

So, who makes these games run?

Feb 12 2015

While the game designers and artists frolic and have all the fun, somebody has to make the software actually run. Let me introduce you to a couple of the software engineers who are doing the heavy lifting on Underworld Ascendant’s technical bits…

Jeffrey Kesselman has worked on a host of PC and console games, including being in senior engineering roles on GEX, The Horde and Duke Nukem 3D. He is also a pen-and-paper D&D player, going back to time before the game was published in hardcover.

Will Teixeira is a comparative newcomer to game engineering, having been coding games for a mere half-decade. But in that brief time he grew into a senior role on Dungeons & Dragons Online, as well taught college courses in game development.

Jeffrey and Will tell more:

Not all AI’s are an Artificial Intelligence gone Insane

One of the coding challenges Jeffrey and Will are working through is making the creatures of the Stygian Abyss come to life. Honing an effective AI is one of the one of the most potent tools for pulling this off well.

For instance, in Thief we built the AI all around stealth tactics. Before the AI was coded up and working the game was not fun. You could stomp loudly past a guard, and half the time he’d ignore you.

From Thief II, lurking in the dark

But once we got the AI working it was a transformative experience. I recall playing the prototype build where we first got the AI to click. I was breaking into a noble’s mansion when a guard thought he heard my footsteps, and got suspicious. He came searching down the dark corridor towards me. I crouched down and pushed my back against a dark alcove. Literally holding my breath, I watched while he guard brushed a mere arm’s distant past me. He never saw me. The sense of relief and then satisfaction that I had snuck around the guard was awesome.

Underworld Ascendant is not stealth-centric like Thief, but it will use stealth AI and mechanics as one of the tools players can use during encounters with creatures of the deep.

We want to hear from You!

We’re doing a set of polls to get a better sense of who our fan community is and what they are looking for in the game. For instance, how interested are you in VR? Please go over to the forums.

Your input will help us better prioritize what we’re working on going forward. When we get to 500 fans having participated in the Polls, we promise we’ll do something silly. We’ve also made a new section for Fan Submissions in the forums.

Over the coming week, we cordially invite any of you who have played the original Underworld games to post in our forums fun stories around a memorable experience you had playing them. We’ll then select several to highlight with the community.

Paul Neurath

External Links

• Kickstarter Update