KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

[BEvers]

The review embargo ends today!

You should start seeing reviews today! We're looking for them to hit throughout the day too.

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6444.msg35360#msg35360

 

[J_C]

The review embargo ends today!

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6444.msg35360#msg35360

I can already see the mediocre reviews, because the game is buggy. And we all know that buggy games are inexcuseable, unless you are Bethesda.

 

[udm]

Either way, there's gonna be popcorn-worthy entertainment.

 

[BEvers]

The full IGN interview with Joe Fielder is out:

 

[BEvers]

Und hier noch ein paar schöne Werbevideos für deutsche Spielefreunde, die sich über den neuesten Knüller von Andereseite Unterhaltung informieren wollen:

 

[glass blackbird]

If someone wants to part with their key I'd be willing to buy it off you

 

[Infinitron]

The full IGN interview with Joe Fielder is out:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/1...-an-hour-with-joe-fielder-a-ign-unfiltered-37

WORKING WITH SPIELBERG, BIOSHOCK, AND UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT: A CHAT WITH JOE FIELDER – IGN UNFILTERED #37

Underworld Ascendant creative director Joe Fielder has enjoyed quite a career. From starting out as a video game journalist to crossing over to game development and working with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Ken Levine (BioShock), and Warren Spector (Deus Ex), he is now releasing a spiritual successor to the beloved Ultima Underworld. Check out the full interview above to hear his fascinating life story!

If you'd rather listen than watch (but we encourage you to watch!), here's an audio-only download link of the full episode.

Here is a preview clip, in which Fielder recounts a story he heard from Spielberg about how the legendary director fell in love with video games while filming Jaws:

And if you missed it, here's last month's episode of Unfiltered, in which 3D Realms founder Scott Miller recounts the troubled development of Duke Nukem Forever, the triumph of his shareware model for games, working on Prey and Max Payne, and more:

Catch up on every episode of IGN Unfiltered here, including conversations with former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton, Journey creator Jenova Chen, voice actress Cissy Jones, Cuphead co-creators Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, and many more!

 

[Latelistener]

 

[LESS T_T]

Funny, while he claims he's just a consultant on this, almost all interviews about this game are actually about Warren Spector: https://dailydead.com/interview-leg...sses-his-latest-project-underworld-ascendant/

Interview: Legendary Game Designer & Producer Warren Spector Discusses His Latest Project, UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT

If you’ve been playing video games since the ’90s (or earlier), chances are that you’ve played a game from Warren Spector. The legendary game designer and producer is behind some all-time great games including System Shock, Deus Ex, and a number of games in the Ultima series, including Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss in 1992. The Underworld series is back in Underworld Ascendant (due out on November 15th) thanks to OtherSide Entertainment, and I recently had a chance to visit the studio, check out the game, and interview the creative team.

During my time with Warren Spector, he talked about leaving teaching to return to gaming, his role in the development of Underworld Ascendant, trying to recreate that experience he felt the first time playing Dungeons & Dragons, and more:

How did you get involved with OtherSide Entertainment’s Underworld Ascendant as Studio Director?

Warren Spector: I was teaching at the University of Texas. I created a game development program that ran for three years, and about midway through that I realized that, as much as I enjoyed teaching, I was not a teacher and I still wanted to make games. And right around the time my three-year commitment was ending, Paul [Neurath] came along and said, "I'm starting a new studio. Do you want to go in with me?" And I just said, "Yeah!" We've been working together since Paul did a game called Space Rogue in 1989.

I was the producer on the original Underworld and Underworld 2 and System Shock, so we've worked together a long time and I jumped at that opportunity. He knows me well enough to know I wasn't going to leave Austin, Texas, so I set up my own studio down there. It's working on System Shock 3 now, and I've been assisting up here. All credit to Joe Fielder and Paul. This is their game, not mine. I was a creative consultant on it and continue to consult, but that means helping Joe. It’s the first time he's leading a project, so I’m going over design documents with him and making sure that he was building an immersive simulation like we want to build and giving him pages notes on every build. I've been playing builds for a long time.

And then, I've been deeply involved in the narrative, because it's all well and good to let players do amazing stuff and interesting, unique stuff, but if there's no reason or context for it, it's really kind of falling flat.

How connected is Underworld Ascendant to the original two games?

Warren Spector: Well, there certainly won't be any requirement that you played the earlier games or know the earlier games. For players who have played the earlier games, characters like Cabirus are back and the lizard men are back. The Silver Seed and the Silver Sapling are back, but more than any specific object or character, one of the things that set Underworld apart, was that the world felt like a character. It felt like a believable place, and this game has the feeling of that same place, but after a disaster has befallen it. So you can see the transition, and this space that you're playing in now was once this thriving community of lizard men, knights, and dwarves. You can see how this world came to be if you know what the old world was like.

This world has such a rich mythology. Where do you draw your inspiration from when helping build the narrative and this world?

Warren Spector: Joe was really inspired by classic Greek and Roman mythology, so I think that would be where the biggest shift comes from most traditional fantasies. He didn't want to just make something up from scratch. He wanted to pull from things that already have resonance with people, so I think that would be the biggest inspiration, and all credit to Joe, because that really came from him.

Looking at your past game work, whether it be on Underworld or System Shock or Deus Ex, how are those experiences shaping your feedback and direction on this game?

Warren Spector: Other people may not see this, but every game I've worked on is like the same game. They're all like steps on an evolutionary path, and you just try and do it better and better. What you're trying to do better is empowering players to tell their own story.

That's what I think games are all about. It's not how clever and creative I am. It's how clever and creative you are, you know? It's about me getting off the stage and letting the player [become] the actor. And you'd think that would be a really common thing for game design, but it's not.

Game designers want to create puzzles that stump players, and the joy for players is to figure out how to solve the puzzle. But in our games, it's not about that. It's about creating problem spaces and then letting players solve the problem the way they want. And that kind of thinking comes through in every comment I've ever made to Joe or anybody else. The only thing I think is important about games is that it allows everyone to become a storyteller.

The magic of our media is that we're the first medium in human history that lets noncreative people or creative people be the authors of their own tales. That's behind everything I did in Deus Ex, Epic Mickey, System Shock, Thief, and now Underworld Ascendant. It better be everything about System Shock 3.

That’s very apparent in the way the skill tree is set up, how you interact with the characters, and I was amazed that people I had been playing with were solving puzzles in completely different ways than I was. I can’t wait to show this to my friends that play D&D because I think they will really love this.

Warren Spector: I've said many times that my entire career as a game developer has been about trying to recreate the feeling I got the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons.

D&D is magical and it's about players telling their own stories. It's about telling stories with other players and with a Dungeon Master. It's not about the Dungeon Master telling you a story. It's about you telling one with that person. And that's what we want Underworld Ascendant to be.

What's on the horizon for you? I know you’re working on System Shock 3. How is everything going with that?

Warren Spector: It's going well. I don't want to steal Underworld Ascendant's thunder, but it's definitely a game in the same vein. Again, every game is a stepping stone towards ultimate player expression. We're bringing back SHODAN, obviously one of the great villains in digital game history, and we're going to be looking into how SHODAN came to be, we're going to be talking about what happened to some of the characters in some of the earlier games, and Citadel Station from the original game will be coming back in some form. I'll be a little mysterious about that…

And some of the iconic enemies will be coming back, but in a very modern form. Amazingly enough, it's not 1994 anymore, so we're bringing it into the 21st century, well the 22nd century.

 

[drgames]

I thought that I may buy it, is it worthy to play?

 

[Curratum]

Please, don't. At the very least wait for reviews. Devs claim review embargo ends today, they should start hitting in a few hours.

 

[udm]

Cannot wait!













































(for the review embargo to be lifted)

 

[Background Character]

I want to believe

 

[Curratum]

I want to believe

I spent the last 3 years believing. Now I'm just selling my key for half price! :D

 

[taxalot]

I need to review it for the Codex so I can become full circle, and complete, about the Ultima series.

 

[Grauken]

I need to review it for the Codex so I can become full circle, and complete, about the Ultima series.

That can never happen, we never got the real Ultima 9, there will never be closure

 

[Nyast]

I need to review it for the Codex so I can become full circle, and complete, about the Ultima series.

But is it an rpg ?

 

[Astral Rag]

Powered by Unity 3D so it will most likely look like hot garbage AND run like a three-legged dog on Haldol.

 

[BEvers]

Chris Siegel is posting on QuartertoThree today. Notable that the official team size seems to have shrunk from 14 to 10:

Its closer to DM MOM than the original, and that is what we said we were building. Sadly it seems that was not communicated as clearly to some, and people expecting a redo of UU are not happy. That was never the plan, its not what we would have built back at LGS after Shock and Thief, and frankly we already built that game 20+ years ago. Maybe we should have just done a remastered for those people, but as designers that was not exactly something that made us happy.

I’ll be glad to post- mortem post launch about some of the stuff, but not pre-launch. For a team of 10 it is what it is. Skyrim was never an option, and I think in some ways we put ourselves in an uncanny valley between - obviously indie 16-bit styles and AAA but didn’t hit it. As with any project hindsight is 20:20 and I can point to a zillion things we could have done better, or different or whatever. That said, there are things in there that I love- the magic system works really well for a small example.

Granted I cant be objective at this point–too close–no sleep-- but it will be interesting if people beyond the ‘you didn’t make UU’ crowd get it or like it. The reality is you never know–if you think we knew at launch that Thief was any good…hah.
Already onto the next thing, but it will be interesting what people think- good or bad.

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/...ught-to-you-by-zombie-looking-glass/76311/540

On negative feedback to the beta:

I tested Diakatana- it is not even close.

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/...ught-to-you-by-zombie-looking-glass/76311/542

 

[Nano]

Jesus Christ. Imagine developing a trainwreck and then being as condescending as that.

Sadly it seems that was not communicated as clearly to some, and people expecting a redo of UU are not happy.

Wow.

 

[BlackGoat]

lol, they literally pitched it as an Ultima Underworld game. Fuck off

 

[BEvers]

The review embargo ends today!

You should start seeing reviews today! We're looking for them to hit throughout the day too.

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6444.msg35360#msg35360

Nope!

I should have clarified: we had one article with IGN, and a couple of YouTubers who were allowed to post about the game before launch.

The real reviews should start coming out tomorrow, on launch day.

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=6444.msg35367

All the youtube videos were sponsored content and the IGN article was the Joe Fielder interview, so I'm not sure why she used the word "reviews". Maybe crunch time is to blame.

 

[The Wall]

From all we have seen, heared and read so far Fallout 76 is more Ultima then this. Also more RPG then this. And F76 is neither...

We'll see tomorrow. Off I go to buy sack of corn so that tomorrow I can turn it into popcorn while holding it over flames of this dumpsterfire.

Something good and tasty will pop out of this, at least

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/1...game-developer-what-its-like-a-ign-unfiltered

FROM GAME JOURNALIST TO GAME DEVELOPER: WHAT IT'S LIKE – IGN UNFILTERED

In the world of video games, it’s not uncommon to see a large amount of career shifting. Game designers turn into business executives, video editors become award-winning actors, and sometimes journalists become game developers themselves.

That’s exactly what happened to Joe Fielder, who worked at GameSpot as an editor throughout the 90’s. On this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, Fielder spoke with host Ryan McCaffrey on how the transition from journalist to developer panned out in a successful career helping to design games like BioShock Infinite and the new Underworld Ascendant.

When asked what the biggest thing he’s learned in his years since jumping ship, Fielder gave not one, not two, but three colorful ways of describing game development.

“It is a tough process,” Fielder said. “It is a managed disaster throughout. It's a series of putting out fires throughout, really making the best decisions possible. It's tough. But it's also really fun. Coming up with creative solutions to tough problems with time and manpower and whatnot while still managing to have everything come together in a fun way and innovate, man, it's a really challenging system. Making games, it's never boring.”

For more stories like this one, make sure to check out the complete episode of this month’s IGN Unfiltered above. Every month, host Ryan McCaffrey chats about the lives and behind-the-scenes details of some of gaming’s biggest names, including 3D Realms founder Scott Miller and Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price.

 

[Max Heap]

Okay, this is just sad...