Stygian Sentinel 28
Hello backers,
Hope you’ve been having a wonderful summer and playing many fantastic games.
As we’ve mentioned before, we’re keeping quiet on major announcements until we finish up our Underworld Ascendant’s Vertical Slice, but as many of you are longtime fans of the series, we thought you’d be interested in hearing a bit about…
Ultima Underworld influences in Underworld Ascendant[edit]
Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2 were ground breaking RPGs that influenced dozens of games – including, not surprisingly, our own. With Underworld Ascendant, our goals have been to do justice to those original games and be as innovative as they were at the time.
- Those that came before...
We have a number of innovative new features that we’ve yet to reveal (including a narrative system that our producer Chris Siegel calls “Looking Glass 2.0.”), though intend to show in detail farther down the line.
But for many basic questions, like how survival elements should be handled or letting the player increase difficulty by descending to lower levels, we often look to the original Ultima Underworld for guidance. There’s simply so much those games did right.
In our last update, we mentioned that the Green Lizard Men will be found in the neutral zone of Marcaul, an area featured in our Vertical Slice. That’s a direct connection to one of our favorite moments in Ultima Underworld -- a game that, a year and a half before Edge Magazine famously said, “lf only you could talk to these creatures…” about Doom, let you decipher the language of a race of creatures, talk to them, and make alliances with them.
As you can imagine, we find this sequence pretty inspiring and intend to feature the Lizard Men prominently in the Vertical Slice. (We’ll even drop the name “Ishtass” as a hint…)
- Great moments in human/Lizard Man relations
Another one of our favorite moments in the series? In Ultima Underworld 2's Prison Tower of Tarna level, the player could: 1) fight your way through several levels full of goblins or 2) talk your way through past all the guards, access the jail on the top floor, and release a captured troll, who would then proceed to wipe out every single goblin in the place. Both were fun ways of solving the same challenge and allowed a large gameplay choice on a quest level.
- Garg -- Not really a fan of goblins, per se...
As we've said before, in Underworld Ascendant, we provide players with a large toolbox and let them choose how to solve a challenge. While that's mainly meant on a moment-to-moment level, we're also seeing some interesting opportunities to feature Tower of Tarna-style quest choices as well.
As far as other direct connections go, you've heard the game will feature Ultima Underworld characters Cabirus, who attempted to found a utopia in The Stygian Abyss, and Tyball, the "big bad" wizard... who is returning as a lich. One of the two? Has a very major role to play in Underworld Ascendant.
- Tyball: Before and after.
Beyond that, we'll save additional details about inspirations and links from the earlier games for future updates, but it's safe to say that they influence us every day.
Underworld's Shocking Sibling[edit]
There's a pretty direct line from the development of Ultima Underworld, which is often called "the first immersive sim," to System Shock. Since the two series are more or less siblings, we'll assume you're interested in the latest news on both.
As you may already be aware, huzzah! Our friends at Night Dive Studios recently wrapped up the System Shock Kickstarter to remake the original game with a modern engine, updated graphics and controls, and more. Since they raised $1.3M, there managed to reach some fun stretch goals, including Mac and Linux support and expanded narrative and locations. (Listen to a thank you message from SHODAN here.)
Night Dive has recently said on Twitter that they intend to continue crowdfunding beyond Kickstarter and to release the original source code to System Shock. Exciting!
But, wait! What's the latest on development of OtherSide's System Shock 3, down in Austin with Warren Spector?
Let's just say, keep an eye out for updates... very soon.
In Other News[edit]
Many of you have probably been playing Pokemon Go. To date the game is the most successful mobile App of all time, reaching over 100M downloads in less than a month. Almost overnight it has changed the behavior of tens of millions of gamers, getting them to explore their local neighborhoods in pursuit of virtual creatures, and collaborating with other players in the real world.
What is perhaps most surprising is the game's massive success despite it having some notable flaws, lacking key features such as trading, and getting by with a bare bones AR implementation. The Pokemon license is certainly a factor. At the same time, there have been 30 Pokemon games released over the past decade and none has had close to the same impact.
What then is the difference maker? We believe it springs from Pokemon Go's innovative blend of location-based gameplay and AR, which results in a genuinely new kind of game play experience.
We're fans of game developers who innovate. Too often developers are reluctant to take creative risks. Yet some must take these risks to keep our industry vibrant. So a shout out to Niantic for bringing Pokemon Go to life!
ICYMI - Here are a few articles and interviews you might find interesting and/or entertaining:
- Game Maker's Toolkit (via Polygon) asks the question, "What Makes an Immersive Sim, and Why are They Making a Comeback?"
- Fancy Pants Gangsters recently posted a great interview with Stephen Russell, the voice of Thiefs Garrett, Fallout 4's Nick Valentine, Underworld Ascendants Cabirus, and more.
- With the release of the latest Deus Ex game this week, Gamasutra been spotlighting their article on the Developing Deus Ex: An Oral History with our own Warren Spector.
That's all for this time.
Until next!
Best,
The Team at OtherSide