Stygian Sentinel 38
Hello backers,
It’s been a busy few weeks and there’s much to cover.
First off, if you haven’t seen the big news…
Underworld Ascendant to be Published by 505 Games[edit]
We’re very excited to announce our partnership with 505 Games, finding in them a publisher who believes in our vision and is as excited about Underworld Ascendant as we are.
We think 505 is a great fit for Underworld Ascendant and for us as a studio, as they’ve published a number of noteworthy and unique indie games, like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Abzu, Terraria, Portal Knights, and upcoming games like Last Day of June and Indivisible. If you do not know much about them, we encourage you to browse their website and read their about page to learn more.
Partnering with 505 will allow us to focus on what we do best – make games – while they help us get the game in the hands of more people. OtherSide will continue to develop the game and retain creative control over the project. And we of course remain firmly committed to honoring our Kickstarter commitments to you and ensuring you receive all of the rewards you are due.
Here’s the press release that went out earlier today.
Along with today’s announcement, we also released a bevy of new screens, including the first look at the Fort Evidius area of The Underswamp and our new, improved skeletons in-game.
As you can see, Underworld Ascendant will be a number of different-looking environments, with a variety of moods. The Underswamp is darker and more foreboding, while not quite as much as The Necropolis and [redacted].
You've seen the game’s look evolve further over time, even over the last few months, and it will continue.
We also released a new teaser video, which features the work of fan-favorite voice performer Stephen (Thief, Fallout 4) Russell. Check it out right here.
Pre-Alpha Build Released![edit]
As you probably know, we released the Underworld Ascendant Pre-Alpha Build last week to those who backed at the ADVENTURER tier and above or added on Prototype Access.
Like we mentioned in the build notes, the Pre-Alpha Build is meant to highlight:
- The game’s visual bar and core tenets of combat, stealth, and magic.
- The world as an interactive toybox full of interesting opportunities for the player to experiment with and areas that provide unique opportunities and challenges.
- Interactive elements that the player can combine with skills, spells, and each other, such as:
- Physics-based traps that can be manipulated and exploited.
- Spreading fire that can be weaponized.
- Caches of useful items.
- “Glue bulbs” that can stick to objects.
- An initial implementation of rewarding the player for creativity.
A few things worth noting:
- The Pre-Alpha Build is not representative of the final product. (The Alpha stage of production is about standing up gameplay elements, while Beta is about tuning, polish, and bug-fixing.)
- The implementation of skills, combat, stealth, and spells is all still preliminary work. We will be refining and honing how they work, adding functionality, and polishing usability.
- Bugs occur and it lacks the full range of weapons, skills, magic, and meta elements such as quest selection and player growth.
For more, check out our FAQ here.
We appreciate all of your feedback so far, both through the survey and on our forums. We’ve been digging through it all and watching the playthrough videos that backers have created so far, like this one.
Your feedback has been extremely useful as we continue adding to and refining the game further, so please keep it coming.
Developer Roundtable Update[edit]
Due to a last-minute scheduling conflict, we had to push back our first Developer Roundtable a few days.
We'll be live streaming on Tuesday, August 22nd at noon EST on our Twitch page here.
Again, while the Developer Roundtables are meant to be exclusive to backers at the DIGITAL PROTAGONIST level and above, this is a bonus session open to all to thank you for your patience and support. (Details of future sessions will follow afterward.)
Lead designer Tim Stellmach, designer Chris Siegel, lead engineer Will Teixiera, and game director Joe Fielder will be on-hand to talk about the next steps we have planned for combat, stealth, and magic.
We'll be taking questions from those present in the channel about halfway through and intend to post the session later, for those who miss.
Hope you can join!
In Other News[edit]
In case you missed it:
- OtherSide’s own Warren Spector will be giving the keynote address at PAX Dev this month and spoke to Game Industry Biz to give a preview of the talk.
- Stephen Russell, the voice of Underworld Ascendant’s Cabirus and Thief’s Garrett, will be signing at Golden Triangle Comic Con this Saturday in Columbus, MS.
- Last week marked the 18th birthday of System Shock 2. Let us know what you liked most about it here.
Until next time!