Game News Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter is LIVE

[Trash]

Is namedropping Looking Glass still enough to get me excited? Yup, guess it is. Pledged.

 

[Zed]

I wonder why they didn't mention Arx Fatalis and Dishonoured - Ralph always said that Ultima Underworld is a great game and it inspired him to become a developer.

Plebs don't know about Arx Fatalis.

 

[Korron]

Underworld wasn't a thing for me, but I guess Thief and SS2 were enough to get me to back this.

 

[Infinitron]

I wonder why they didn't mention Arx Fatalis and Dishonoured - Ralph always said that Ultima Underworld is a great game and it inspired him to become a developer.

There might be some corporate policies/politics involved here, ie, Take Two (BioShock) being more lenient about allowing people to namedrop their games for projects like these than Bethesda (Dishonored) or Square Enix (Deus Ex).

 

[tuluse]

Skyrim and Deus Ex are both mentioned either in the video or the page.

 

[Infinitron]

Skyrim and Deus Ex are both mentioned either in the video or the page.

Yeah, but I meant more in the sense of allowing their employees to comment on things.

Let's see what Raf and Harvey are up to.

https://twitter.com/rafcolantonio
https://twitter.com/harvey1966

Nothin'!

 

[LeStryfe79]

Your brofist harvesting is despicable, my friend.

 

[Minttunator]

This looks good but I doubt it will reach 1 million. Honestly I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 600k.

It was at 47K when I looked at it a couple of hours ago. Took a short nap and now it's already at 100K - so it looks like they'll reach the 600K in a few days at most. To be honest, I'm a bit surprised it's doing this well - must be the Skyrim name-drop and endorsements by the likes of Levine and CliffyB.

 

[Infinitron]

This looks good but I doubt it will reach 1 million. Honestly I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 600k.

It was at 47K when I looked at it a couple of hours ago. Took a short nap and now it's already at 100K - so it looks like they'll reach the 600K in a few days at most. To be honest, I'm a bit surprised it's doing this well - must be the Skyrim name-drop and endorsements by the likes of Levine and CliffyB.

It took them about 4.5 hours to reach 100k. It's now been an hour since then and they've only made an additional 10k. Nah, this is gonna be a long haul.

 

[Jaesun]

I think their co-op light bulb switched on when they saw D:OS hit the top steam spot in the summer and decided that was the primary reason.

IF the only reason to add co-op is for the reason of more sales, might as well ask a Publisher to fund this then.

 

[Invictus]

Backed, the presentación doesnt look all that hot but I love beign a patrón of the indie arts...plus they had me at "you can play a fighter, thief or mage"

 

[Tigranes]

They could have left out BA in Creative Writing, really.

 

[m_s0]

They could have left out BA in Creative Writing, really.

How would the Dragon Age crowd know whether the writing has any chance to be good without this crucial bit of information?

 

[twincast]

Well, early bird tier it is for me. All those in-game exclusives (with rather large impacts, by the looks of it, to boot) have me too disgusted to even consider ever going higher than that.

Wouldn't mind co-op in this particular game, but stitched on, I can't see it working well.

And I just bothered actually having a look at the runes on the logo. I was perturbed enough that SotA simplified their use to being less authentic than in Ultima, but this looks like utter gibberish to me.

 

[Infinitron]

And I just bothered actually having a look at the runes on the logo. I was perturbed enough that SotA simplified their use to being less authentic than in Ultima, but this looks like utter gibberish.

The runic letters below the logo says:
'depthsawaken'

 

[MRY]

Also a published fiction in New York and San Francisco literary journals.

One, they really need a proofreader. Two, I know not every game has to be planescape torment but it should at least not be bioshock infinite.

No, no, there is no error. It's just that Joe Fielder doesn't exist. He's a collective pseuodynm like Franklin Dixon, and a story about his fictitious identity was published in New York and San Francisco literary journals.

Incidentally, the "New York and San Francisco" calls to mind a great tidbit in Dead Souls: "The tailor was from Petersburg himself, and had put on his shingle: 'A foreigner from London and Paris.' He was not given to joking, and and wanted with these two cities to stop up the maws of all the other tailors at once. . . ." (Had to pull this from an inferior translation to the one I read, but the gist comes across.)

 

[Mieron]

I hope this is 75 dollars well spent. And that the backing will pick up a little after a few more hours.

 

[Xenich]

Even if I still used KS I wouldn't want to back this . Cheats ("kickstarter exclusive items") and an unnecessary co-op mode stuff are repellents not incentives..
They're using Unity so it will probably have long-ass loading times and shitty framerate even with low-poly graphics.

I wish them good luck and I'll get it at release if it's any good.

Why would you care about cheat crap? This isn't an MMO and anyone who was interested could easily hack the game on release to provide themselves with any cheat they like. PTW is only an issue in persistent online multiplayer games due to the risk of it affecting how they develop content. If people want to pay extra money so they can get a bunch of digital items in a single player game... well... /derp /derp, more power to them, it will have zero effect on our game play.

Now the co-op could be good, or bad. It depends on the attention it gets and how it affects the game content and flow. Honestly, playing with a friend in a game like this could be a blast. I know for all its problems and being generally shit on many levels, Dungeon Lords co-op was interesting. It would be nice to see it done well in a game like this.

 

[WarHamster]

Chipped in for old times sake, but I've got a bad feeling about this after watching the KS video. Something just feels off to me, even excluding the excessive name-dropping and exclusive items galore. I've got serious doubts they will succeed in capturing the charm of the old Underworlds (I'd be glad to be wrong about this, tho') and fear it will be a "more streamlined experience" for modern audiences akin to Skyrim (but underground). And co-op in an Underworld game? No. To me an Underworld game needs to be single player, period. But I'm willing to accept co-op, gladly even, if the game manages to reach at least somewhere close to the lofty heights of the previous Underworlds.

Tread softly, Paul Neurath, because you tread on my dreams.

 

[Xenich]

I think their co-op light bulb switched on when they saw D:OS hit the top steam spot in the summer and decided that was the primary reason.

IF the only reason to add co-op is for the reason of more sales, might as well ask a Publisher to fund this then.

Exactly. If their Co-op plan is not a sincere planned effort, then it will likely be complete shit.

My worry is when they said they wanted to give players the chance to play the game as they saw fit, to approach things anyway they choose. Problem with that? When every solution works, what is the fucking point? Its like having an upside down dialog tree.

 

[Spectacle]

Even if I still used KS I wouldn't want to back this . Cheats ("kickstarter exclusive items") and an unnecessary co-op mode stuff are repellents not incentives..
They're using Unity so it will probably have long-ass loading times and shitty framerate even with low-poly graphics.

I wish them good luck and I'll get it at release if it's any good.

Why would you care about cheat crap? This isn't an MMO and anyone who was interested could easily hack the game on release to provide themselves with any cheat they like. PTW is only an issue in persistent online multiplayer games due to the risk of it affecting how they develop content. If people want to pay extra money so they can get a bunch of digital items in a single player game... well... /derp /derp, more power to them, it will have zero effect on our game play.

It's just such a monumentally bad design idea that you have to wonder what other stupid crap they will come up with.

 

[Xenich]

and fear it will be a "more streamlined experience" for modern audiences akin to Skyrim (but underground).

Yep... like for instance having your map auto-filled in for you. If that shows up, you know its marketed to the console crowd.

 

[Jaesun]

and fear it will be a "more streamlined experience" for modern audiences akin to Skyrim (but underground).

Yep... like for instance having your map auto-filled in for you. If that shows up, you know its marketed to the console crowd.

You have never played Ultima Underworld have you?

 

[Xenich]

Even if I still used KS I wouldn't want to back this . Cheats ("kickstarter exclusive items") and an unnecessary co-op mode stuff are repellents not incentives..
They're using Unity so it will probably have long-ass loading times and shitty framerate even with low-poly graphics.

I wish them good luck and I'll get it at release if it's any good.

Why would you care about cheat crap? This isn't an MMO and anyone who was interested could easily hack the game on release to provide themselves with any cheat they like. PTW is only an issue in persistent online multiplayer games due to the risk of it affecting how they develop content. If people want to pay extra money so they can get a bunch of digital items in a single player game... well... /derp /derp, more power to them, it will have zero effect on our game play.

It's just such a monumentally bad design idea that you have to wonder what other stupid crap they will come up with.

How is it a bad design idea? I can see it being a poor marketing idea that gives the wrong impression, but handing out some items really is irrelevant due to the ability to cheat anytime you want in a single player game.

 

[Infinitron]

and fear it will be a "more streamlined experience" for modern audiences akin to Skyrim (but underground).

Yep... like for instance having your map auto-filled in for you. If that shows up, you know its marketed to the console crowd.

You have never played Ultima Underworld have you?

Whoosh