KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

[LESS T_T]

New alpha coming during E3: https://otherside-e.com/wp/update-preparing-for-e3-more/

UPDATE: E3 Prep, Resherak, & More

Hello everyone,

We’ve been heads-down this month working on a lot of important systems, art, audio, and UI among many other things for the game. We also have some exciting news to share!


Underworld Ascendant at E3 with Alienware and the Backer Alpha
We’re proud to announce that a segment of Underworld Ascendant will be available to play at Alienware’s booth at E3! Catch us anytime on the show floor from June 12 – June 14 and have a sneak peek at the Abyss…

In addition to this, EXPLORER backers and above ($50+) will receive access to the Backer Alpha build during E3 (official date to be finalized). Our current plan is for the Backer Alpha build to include all of the content and features in the E3 build and an updated version of the tutorial level (aka “un-training level”). More information on this will be emailed to EXPLORER backers and above the week before the Backer Alpha is live, so make sure to check your email!

Access to the Backer Alpha will be unlocked on your BackerKit’s Digital Downloads page.

Earlier this month, we were also in Los Angeles to present Underworld Ascendant for consideration for the 2018 Game Critics Awards!

Our publisher, 505 Games, put together an awesome setup for us, which is an opportunity for the judges to demo a number of games that will be shown at E3. Since there are so many games and it can be difficult for people to see them while also having meetings, this gives us an opportunity to showcase Underworld Ascendant for awards nomination consideration in advance of the show. The event went really well overall and we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Enter the Memoreum
We’ve received a ton of questions about the Memora system and how this ties into the narrative of the Stygian Abyss. What exactly has gone on in this world, and who can you trust?

In our February update, we mentioned how Memora can catalogue information by preserving memories, which has allowed Ishtass and his followers to share knowledge across generations of Lizard Men. As the Abyss has fallen deeper into ruin and becomes threatened by otherworldly forces, you will need to harness the power of the Memora to share what you’ve learned.

This is where Resherak comes in:

Resherak, one of the descendants of Ishtass’s teachings and one of the rare Gray Lizard Men, is the Keeper of the Memoreum in Marcaul. The Lizard Man society is built off of shared knowledge, and Marcaul has become a hub where trade and the exchange of knowledge is highly encouraged. Resherak will reward you for sharing Memora of your traversals into the Abyss, and can allow you to access Memora across time and space to peek into the tactics of previous (and future) adventurers.

You may need all the help you can spare to defeat Typhon…

SyFy Wire Exclusive: Typhon Concept

Speaking of Typhon, we also shared some concept art of Typhon, the Big Bad himself, in an exclusive interview with SyFy Wire.

You can read the interview and see the rest of the concept art image here.



What Lurks in the Abyss…
Since last year, we’ve slowly been teasing the monsters you can encounter in Underworld Ascendant. Need a refresher of what’s to come?

Ghosts, like the Eidolon and Lich, are ethereal creatures that can’t be attacked directly. The player must seek out and destroy their Animus (seen above), which won’t go down without a fight. The core of an Animus is extremely valuable and is used in quests where the player needs to alter the environment. Rare cores may even be able to slow the game’s degrading world state.

While an Eidolon is near, recently slain Skeletons can be resurrected to continue their patrol.

In addition to the hostile creatures in the Abyss, new and long-time fans can look forward to seeing some unusual variants in the ecology, food, and more appearing in The Stygian Abyss.

New Insider Blog!

A number of backers emailed us asking to hear about what it’s like to work as an indie, so this month’s Insider Blog describes distinctions that Will Teixeira, Lead Engineer, has noticed as he transitioned from a Triple-A studio to indie.

You can read it on our site here.

The password is available here (for backers only!)



Last but not least, we have one final announcement:


WHAT’S NEXT? UNITE BERLIN!

Our Lead Level Designer Justin Pappas (who wrote last month’s insider blog about designing the basic training level of Underworld Ascendant) will be leading a Unity workshop about how to light levels for stealth gameplay in Breakout 2 on June 20, 2018 from 2:15 – 3:15pm CEST.

Click here for more information. We will update on our socials if the session is recorded for the public!

This month, we’ve been working closely with Unity on getting the most out of their engine, particularly focused on lighting our levels, and we couldn’t be happier! Here’s a sneak peek at an area you’ll encounter later in the game:

That’s all for now! As always, if you want to check in on what we’re working on, we post a weekly update on our forums detailing what our goals for that week are and what’s next. If you haven’t made a forum account, there’s still time to join us!

We also occasionally post WIP gifs and videos on our socials, so be sure to join our Steam community or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Our next biggest news will be coming on June 1st, so stay tuned!


Cheers,

The Team at OtherSide



In Other News…

In case you missed it:

* The History of Graphics Cards and the Games We Played on Them via ExtremeTech

* Joe Fielder spoke with BBC: Let’s Talk About Tech about Underworld Ascendant! Listen to it here!

* How OtherSide is Reinventing the Immersive Sim Genre via PCGames Network

The environment looks much better. Thanks to polishing or the new art director, or both?

 

[Ivan]

The hand reminds me a lot of Dishonored. Was it Bioshock that started that trend? Is it always just there, as in when you don't have a weapon equipped (Dishonored, Thiaf)?

 

[LESS T_T]

New alpha coming during E3: https://otherside-e.com/wp/update-preparing-for-e3-more/

Looks like their SSL Certificate has expired today.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Why does everyone praise melee combat in Dark Messiah? Wasn't it just kick, kick, kick?

 

[Ivan]

I guess some folks really got into it, just how some people enjoy putting in the time to pull off crazy kill combos in Dishonored.

I don't recall Messiah's combat as being great, but that's reflective of how I played it.

 

[Modron]

Why does everyone praise melee combat in Dark Messiah? Wasn't it just kick, kick, kick?

Why does everyone praise melee combat in Mount and Blade? Wasn't it just swing, block, swing, swing, swing?

 

[Big Wrangle]

Dark Messiah's combat was great due to the audiovisual feedback and that it encouraged not playing fair. Wanna knock people off by making something fall? Go ahead and 'cheat' all you want.

 

[Excommunicator]

The numbering on that map roughly matches the order of scenes in the 10 min gameplay footage



Actually recognized the area marked with "2"
Mostly because of the broken stairs.

I love Stephen Russell but that narration is honestly terrible. It must be the direction he's getting, "Read off this paper, OK thanks for coming"

Unfortunately I would turn it off if it sounded like that in the final game

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Why does everyone praise melee combat in Mount and Blade? Wasn't it just swing, block, swing, swing, swing?

The melee combat in M&B is pretty basic, but it's actually reactive, meaning you have to react to what the other guy is doing, and can't just spam attacks. Sad as it is, any reactive combat automatically becomes one of the best in PC games, because most are just spamfests.

 

[Hines]

I love Stephen Russell but that narration is honestly terrible.

Garrett's one of the best V.O. performances ever, but contemporary Russell isn't that great. His take on Corvo was fucking atrocious.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1971.0

Morning everyone! I'm writing this post while on vacation, so here's hoping the wifi doesn't die as I post this.

First thing's first:our May newsletter was posted on Friday!
Discussion and corrections are on our forum here

(Apologies for our site certificate issues last week. Apparently our certification renewed but was not properly installed on Friday. Such great timing :') )

Content was lighter than it has been for the last few newsletters, but it was an important recap and introduction as we lead up to June and the Backer Alpha build. June 1 will be a big day for us in particular, so keep an eye out...

Last week we continued to work heads-down on polishing up a lot of systems, and this week is going to be similar. The animation team is really coming together to optimize our Puppetmaster system, as well as start adding in idles and more flexible animation states now that localized damage and physics are in play.

I know the skills and spells systems are also being checked over this week to make sure they're all qualified for Alpha, and the foundation is working as intended. QA has been working really hard to be as thorough as possible and ensure as many different scenarios are tested, but I'm sure we'll see some divergent gameplay on YouTube once the Backer Alpha is out

That's it for now, but there will definitely be more news by the end of this week! I'm really excited for you guys to see what we've been working on, especially as lighting, level design, and the revised quest system is finally coming into play. This game is getting closer and closer to finished...!

 

[RatTower]

 

[MicoSelva]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018...ere-hands-on-so-far-its-underwhelm-ascendant/

There is also a gallery inside the article.

Underworld Ascendant world-premiere hands-on: So far, it’s Underwhelm Ascendant

Open-world RPG luminaries return, but so far, they're not raising the "do anything" bar.

SAM MACHKOVECH - 6/1/2018, 3:00 PM

SANTA MONICA, California—You'd be forgiven for losing track of Underworld Ascendant. The first-person RPG emerged in early 2015 as another entry in the "game-dev veterans launch a Kickstarter" fray, though this one stood out by emphasizing its Looking Glass Studios heritage. Some of the names behind the original Thief and System Shock games were back to try again, the game's Kickstarter campaign announced—and to renew the classic Ultima Underworld series, at that.

Many years later, a backer-only pre-alpha has been the only proof of life for this crowdfunded game, but that changed during a pre-E3 press event. There, we got to see exactly how Underworld Ascendant's promise of "no right way to play—only your way" has so far turned out.

In short: an action-RPG revelation this ain't, at least so far. And while standard-issue adventuring and a mountain of bugs in a preview aren't entirely uncommon, the latest build's issues make us wonder how, or in what state, Underworld Ascendant will launch this September.

Ragdoll-bouncy skeletons


After asking members of the event's assembled press to play however we wanted—through brute force, stealth, magic, or clever experimentation—writer and director Joe Fielder let us loose into a dimly lit cavern level, pre-equipped with a variety of weapons and spells. Fielder offered a three-sentence overview of the game's lore, revolving around our journey into the Stygian Abyss, but other than brief, vague narration at the outset, the demo offered no indication of how story or lore will appear within UA's core gameplay.

Eventually, a series of narrow corridors opened up to a giant hall, and it included a few paths—sneakier routes along edges, or an outright leap into combat in the center—that we could take to enter a compound on the other side and capture a treasure. I played through this gameplay slice a few times, and at no time did any of my chosen tactics feel satisfying.

To start: combat. Nothing about UA's current first-person swordplay and archery feels right. Melee combat strikes were difficult to aim, and any visual or audio recognition of my strikes was lacking. My combat successes seemed contingent on enemy models—mostly ragdoll-bouncy skeletons—but they often didn't react. Crouch-walking around with a bow, meanwhile, repeatedly got enemies' attention even when I was out of their line of sight, despite an on-screen indicator with a closed-eye icon that appeared to confirm my hidden state.

Emphasizing spells didn't help matters. The primary spell at my disposal, a freeze-enemy move, required aiming and firing multiple times to actually ensnare enemies, even when I was aiming at enemies who stood still. The same went for when I tried to use a sticky seed that I found lying on the ground to ensnare or freeze enemies or traps. (When I finally got a skeleton soldier stuck, it wobbled around in the ground like a wacky inflatable tube.)

I was encouraged to set doors on fire as a means of traversal, and sure enough, anything in the world made of wood could catch fire. Why bother finding a key? But there was only so much stuff in the level made of wood, and no other chemical-reaction spells or items were made available to enable creative spell-solution possibilities. Will we see a variety of burnable, freezeable, and meltable elements in various dungeons to use to either solve puzzles or rain down hellfire on our foes? If so, this gameplay slice didn't reveal them.

Instead, I felt like I had my best time just flinging various powers around while tearing through a been-there-done-that take of series like Thief and Dishonored. "This could be pretty good with another year of polish," I thought to myself as I wall-ran to reach a faraway platform, marched through a sluggish, annoying series of traps, and clumsily slapped my sword onto a skeleton until it finally decided to die.

Then I went back to OtherSide Entertainment's site to confirm the release date. September of this year? Say what?!

Loudly telegraphed

It wasn't just the glitches and frame rate hitches that had me concerned. This gameplay reveal may have included a branching-path room with a guarded treasure at its end, but each of the paths had its tactics loudly telegraphed. The stealth, combat, wall-running, and magic paths weren't pockmarked with hidden paths or alternate tactical items to use. I'd see a chandelier—quite out of place compared to its surroundings—and immediately recognize that I needed to shoot it down. I'd see a wooden door and know that I needed to burn it down to get anywhere.

For a design staff that has so many luminaries among its ranks—none higher than Warren Spector, arguably—the fruits of its labor thus far play like a mountain of compromise. The demo didn't disabuse my notion that OtherSide might just be hustling to get this years-old project out the door with its current series of "yes, you can set stuff on fire and do other elemental tricks" duct-taped together. And a lower-scaled sales pitch might just be fine! "Our skeletons are dumb, and our spells are kind of busted, and our questing is limited, but you'll have enough fun with the janky stuff, we swear." I could endure that.

But Fielder aimed high with his pre-E3 sales pitch, and it just didn't match the game I played. Unless OtherSide has some seriously surprising material still hiding in its vaults—a bunch of incredible, branching dungeon designs, or a wealth of new elemental powers, or, gosh, yet another launch delay—anybody looking forward to Underworld Ascendant should be very careful with their optimism.

 

[Morgoth]

https://www.pcgamer.com/underworld-ascendant-doesnt-feel-like-the-great-comeback-we-were-hoping-for/

Underworld Ascendant doesn't feel like the great comeback we were hoping for

By James Davenport 30 minutes ago

We go hands-on with the long-awaited Ultima Underworld successor.


Using a physics engine to throw a box at an animated skeleton's head isn't a particularly exciting or new idea, but it's being presented as an exemplary expression of player freedom in Underworld Ascendant. You can also put out torches with water arrows to better stay hidden, or build magic bridges out of the weird abundance of boxes lying around the Stygian Abyss.


It's the same assortment of simple chemistry and physics magic we've been performing in games since Half-Life 2 made boxes cool. But for all the talk OtherSide Entertainment's marketing has generated about how Underworld Ascendant will move the immersive sim genre forward, I was surprised by how dated and clumsy it feels in practice.

Set in the same universe as the Ultima Underworld games Ascendant is attempting to build on, you play as a nameless Avatar transported into the underworld. Rather than spend time designing a massive open world, OtherSide is opting for bespoke, dense dungeons filled with clockwork systems working in step with classic fantasy creatures. A bright spectre patrolled the small area I played through, guarding a magic artifact hidden somewhere within. Stealth and water arrows kept me out of its sight, but on a high ridge bordering the area, a plant creature with sharp flailing mandibles stood in my way. A simple petrification spell let me get by with all the hair on my head. Still, smaller skeleton warriors wandered all around, denying easy access to my goal.

With all the components of a fantasy dungeon present, I tried cooking up creative solutions and power combinations in my mind. To kill a given skeleton, I could light the trail of mucus behind a giant cave slug on fire at just the right time, shoot out the rope holding up a precariously hung chandelier just as the skeleton passes under, bash them on the head with a thrown box several times over… or just shoot them in the face with arrows, which proved much more efficient. The choice was welcome, but putting in extra effort for a 'clever' kill never proved necessary in the early stage I played.

I'm sure I would've been more creative if the basic moves and interactions weren't so awkward to begin with. The distance you crouch-slide is tied to momentum, and highly exaggerated. Short sprints away from baddies had me sliding far across the floor and into potential danger like I buttered up my cloak and mail beforehand. The ability to throw objects, a marquee feature, was so tricky in the tight tunnels and dense caverns that I never wanted to use it. Boxes were always getting caught on something just out of my field of view. Even the bow feels bad. Arrow damage is tied to mouse precision and a crude oscillating meter next to the crosshairs—a major distraction—rather than just quick, precise aim alone.

One spell whips up all the physics objects nearby to bash skeletons with, but in use the objects got caught on the environment, monsters, and each other in a glitchy tornado of boxes (so many boxes). It looked like the beginning of a terrible mistake in Garry's Mod, not the deft work of a wizard-warrior descending into the Stygian Abyss, and I didn't feel as though I had much control over the mess anyway. The role-playing curtain pulled back to reveal the videogame often in such a short demo.

Ascendant is likely to leave immersive sims exactly where they were. That's fine, but what's left is a 3D homage to Ultima Underworld stripped of the theatrics and imagination required to convincingly roleplay a character, a physics-based puzzle game wrapped in a cliched cartoon fantasy template with some neat tools and clever uses for them. Even so, I'm not sold on its world, the novelty of its toolset, or simply how its most basic actions feel to control. OtherSide's ambition is clear, but Ascendant just doesn't feel ready to be released anytime soon. If it has to be, I hope it at least manages to be an obtuse, messy game with interesting enough level design and skill combinations to hold it all together.

 

[ciox]

Ouch, but could have seen this coming, lower budget and a focus on physics gimmicks just leads to stuff feeling like GMOD, a comparison which even official outlets are making now.
Are they gonna be able to add enough polish before release?

 

[conan_edw]

Well, everyone been seeing this million miles away

 

[V_K]

Opinions from a guy, whose previous review praises a Bioshock clone for being a Bioshock clone, and a guy, who wrote a couple dozen aticles about an FTP coop something, are extremely valuable and trustworthy, right.

 

[Infinitron]

Sam responds: https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1974.msg27164#msg27164

The criticisms raised in the articles are honest of the build they saw. We've been reading through the press this morning and feel the same way: They both acknowledge that the game isnt 'done' yet, and negative criticism is the most productive thing we are going to get out of any of these articles.

Fixing movement, animations, and even making sure the level design is adjusted CAN be done. It's GOOD for us to have this feedback, especially as we start to ramp up our external playtesting and QA processes.

We've been transparent about what we've been working on for the past month, and a lot of that has been fine tuning the experience based on what we saw at PAX, as well as throwing in entirely new mechanics and animation systems since then. Puppetmaster is in, and we're still figuring out how to make the motions more satisfying and "less janky." We saw a lot of people get stuck early on the PAX build, so we made the level design easier to read so more press could get through the level. (While PAX press had up to an hour to play through the demo, the E3 press had 15 minutes. We wanted to make sure they could see more than just one room, especially if they were stuck!)

As always, we're taking the reviews in stride and will be heads-down working on the game. The game can only get better as we keep working on it!

Some jankiness will be expected, especially as players do crazy things. But who hasn't enjoyed flying through the air or rolling down a mountainside for 10 minutes in Breath of the Wild?

The press were given a special "streamlined" tutorial level meant to teach them quickly how to move around the world, use arrows, and then were thrown into the Ruins of Gwern, which is one of our smaller maps. (It's the one with the Eidolon floating around, and there's three towers with Memora. I believe we highlight this one the most in trailers because it has one of the easiest layout shots to share.) A "dev speedrun" can complete the entire area in 2 minutes. On average, we saw people complete it in 20-25 minutes on their first run and 15 or less on their second. (Some people who are already familiar with WASD and mouselook were in the 15 minutes and under camp, just by being familiar with the controls ahead of time.)

 

[Comte]

Like I said dumpsterfire.

 

[V_K]

(Some people who are already familiar with WASD and mouselook were in the 15 minutes and under camp, just by being familiar with the controls ahead of time.)

Apparently, a majority of Gaming Journalists haven't used KB-M before, let that sink in.

Does it come as a surprise to you?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Sounds to me like that September release date may be a little premature. Game could use some more time 'in the oven'.

 

[Curratum]

What infuriates me the most is that some high-ranking devs and the community manager have the face to pop over and be all: "Look, guys, we take criticism in our stride, but the game is good, we work really hard on it, ok? Pinky promise, we're like crunching and it's really becoming quite something! Really, now, promise!"

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Meh, we'll see when it's released.

 

[Curratum]

Yup, they started deleting critical / caustic posts about the game on their official forum, just had one of mine disappear silently, with no mod PM or anything.

Well, we're done here, it seems.

 

[Infinitron]

The return of Chris Siegel: https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1956.msg27287#msg27287

::pokes his head up::
All Armor, Helms, Rings, and Boots are in the game. All faction items are in the game...except weapons.
Those are all next.
General difference between faction and 'regular' is Faction items have names directly tied to lore.
Regular magic is tied to greek mythology... so the Sandals of Hermes are boots of speed.
I think--again not including weapons---there is around 150 magic items in the game as of today.
Types of magic items you can find:
Might- you can throw things suuuper far.
Stealth- duh- it effects all 3 aspects of stealth, concealment, sneak attack and sneak damage.
Damage resistances - fire, slashing, exc.
Spell enhancements, regeneration exc.


Some of my favorite names :
Shirt of Palaestra
Armor of the Cretian Bull
Delphayne's Melanppie Armor