Underworld Ascendant - Kickstarter Discussion

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] I'm here in Austin at Fort Arium and I have some very special guests why don't we go and introduce ourselves sure hey I'm Richard gett uh one of the co-founders of origin and the creator of a little series of games called Ultima I'm Paul NRA and I created the original Ultima underworld and now working on a new Underworld my name is star long I was the director for Ultima on on yes so we're here to talk about their new uh underworld Kickstarter project so why returned to underworld after all this time and I always wanted to do new Underworld and uh when the second ultim underworld ultim Underworld 2 was finished in 1993 uh I never imagined that the franchise would go dark for the next two

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   decades the plan was to do you know continue the franchise forward but it ended up getting you know kind of buried in the the Labyrinth of of of of ea uh for many many years and only now have been able to bring it back and and take it forward so it's been a long time coming how's it feel to get the band back together uh pretty darn good uh you know we've got some of the folks who worked with me on the original underworlds um uh uh War inspectors helping out uh providing some some creative input and uh we've got the the the guy who was the lead designer of Ultima Underworld 2 is our lead designer and the guy who did the narrative writing is doing the narrative writing

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   and so we've got some folks who worked on The Originals as well as games like System Shock and Thief that we worked with uh at a Looking Glass that were follow on and and formed by the underworlds and some of the guys also have worked on more recent games that have been influenced by the underworld games like BioShock Infinite DSX games like that so we know the genre pretty well we think and and if I can jump in and even point out the fact that uh you know it's a other side that has their Kickstarter starting but you are here at portalarium and so it might be reasonable for people to go well why are you here at portalarium to talk about this the other side's uh underworld Kickstarter and it's actually more than just the shared history that we have uh it's also that you know as soon as we

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   heard uh that Paul had gotten the rights to pick up and continue the underworld series uh you know we we I'm not even sure who contacted who first we were in we were pretty much immediately in contact from from both directions uh all of us were very excited not only to see him do this but we were also very excited to see what we could do to support it and uh and not just in the same way um uh not just and as a spiritual supporter not just to throw our vote uh behind it and to encourage our followers to continue to be their followers we already think we have a pretty heavy overlap in in our communities uh as would be expected uh but we also immediately sat down and said what can we do to work together how can we literally help on the ground on the ground level how can we help you make that game better and and one of the things that came up immediately was uh

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   you know while Paul's team uh you know did this amazing Innovations being the really the first 3D immersive almost virtual reality like uh fantasy world uh you know I was very honored that that Paul was interested and willing to uh uh adopt the Ultima fiction into that uh into that game and while EA has retained the Ultima fiction because they're still working in that area uh one of the first things we discussed is should we also tie our uh communities together through fictional underpinning and uh and and right from the begin go our instincts across the board from both companies was yes we should do that and so that's another reason we're here is not just because we're emotional supporters uh

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   but we want to be a part of this game we want to uh contribute anything that we have done uh and helped create from intellectual property standpoint or we've even talked about 3D models and other things anything they can use that we have uh uh we are excited to be with them on this journey yeah there was a great complimentary existence uh between Ultima underworld and the other Ultima games where they were very different gameplay Styles but they shared the same world they shared a lot of the same characters they they shared some of the narrative structures but again very different gameplay and so that's the things we've been discussing is how we can replicate that really interesting coexistence that we had between Ultima underworld and linear ultimas and how C shroud of the Avatar are the game we're

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   building which is more of a big sandbox RPG can coexist with this you know first person you know fantasy you know and one of the things I'm so excited about what they're doing not to take you out of your narrative you you only asked you Haven even really asked you haven't even asked a question yet so I apologize starts talking you just kind of but but you you can zip me up anytime you like here but uh uh but one of the things Paul's teams and and to the degree the Innovations have happened outside of Paul's teams it's people he's now brought onto his team that his community of developers uh have taken role playing into depths uh you know not only just with underworld but with thief and System Shock and Dex the uh which I know came from different Studio but you know some of the people he's now working with uh Warren's group uh you know they those games I'm a big believer that a good

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   role playing game goes beyond rules it's not the structure of the level grind it's the can you create an environment where how you play your role is relevant so hiding in Shadows in Thief and learning to hack in System Shock you know whatever those those uh manifestations of a role might be uh that's one of the things his team has has done uh immensely well that I respect so deeply and uh and I'm sure as we watch them go through this process you know things I hope to learn to do better on my side of the fence as well yeah taking that role playing aspect is important I'm get curious is what do you what is the world that you're trying to create what is the world of Underworld Ascension so yeah good question I mean it it will be very familiar to people

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   who are fans of the original games in terms of the uh the texture and the immersion and the sense of story not necessarily all the details because again we're not you know we're not trying to reproduce those exact stories but it'll feel a very familiar place and we think there's some you know great things about the original under worlds and there's no reason to throw that out so we we we want to carry that forward retain that core kind of essence and Vibe um but uh you know one of the one of the things as Richard were saying is that since we're not using the traditional Ultima universe of the you know the early 90s as our basis the way we were the original ones we're having

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    to craft a new specific backstory and fiction and so we we started right off the bat of having early discussions with Richard and his team at portum about how we might intersect the Two Worlds between shroud of the Avatar and uh underworld ascendant so we have some some very fun ways to do that what one of the things we're doing with underworld ascendant is we're retaining the same uh conceit that the players are humans from our world who you know a ARS who go through magical portal to go to this fantasy world and have their role playing experience which is you know it works because you are as a player role playing and so it fits that conceit very

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    well but because we have these magical portals Between Worlds it allows us to connect up with other worlds in a very ready way so we're we're starting to explore some fun fictional ways where these worlds had intersections at various times in their histories and elements that show up you know that were started in uh bretania uh find their way in in the Underworld and in that fiction so you know some some some I know Richard are we talking about specifics here or is that still something to be oh you know I I think as long as we're under the caveat of everything is discussion and planning at the stage and very little is implemented so no plan will survive contact with the Enemy as as long as that's the caveat got or a star says you're you're you're don't

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    lawyer me bro uh that's my celebrity catchphrase don't lawyer me bro it's like it's like the don't tase me just to give an example of one of the things we're looking at is that there's this concept of obsidian in Britannia in trout of the Avatar which uh is this this cool kind of uh rock that has come from uh outer space from Collision ancient Collision of some pair of moons and some some has fallen and on onto prania and it has various magical properties it's a a cool material and so you know we're looking to the fiction where some of that material was brought into you know the the world of of Underworld uh as well and now it's part of that fiction as well so those kinds of connections which I they can be you

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    know players fans will have a lot of fun and we think there's a lot of overlap between the the the fans who play a shroud uh and and fans who interested in the Underworld experience even though it's a very different kind of game play uh uh we think there's going to be a lot of overlap and you know these games the original you know the ultimas underworld ultimas Wing commanders those franchises all grew up together in the 90s and so there's probably a larger we talk about a community of developers who are connected but I think there's a community of fans there that are interested in how these worlds might intersect and uh I think we can have fun with that yeah I can I can uh I have actual proof that there is overlap in the now at four pages thread on our forums about the project already already

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    and they're already speculating I wonder if they're going to be linked are you excited are you excited to appeal to you know the fans who love the older games and now make something new to to keep appealing to them but also to make something new and kind of its own unique thing you know I think that's one of the things that that Paul's team is is going to do masterfully well uh you know you you you you look at the team members he mentioned and the products since underworld they've been involved with and and I think the Innovation uh you know we were talking earlier today about U technical Innovation you 3D rendering technology has continued to make a steady forward progress so the visual aesthetic of course is going to be state of the-art and great and any game these days sort of expects that yeah the thing that Paul's team has already been doing

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    outside of the underworld uh name uh through and through a variety of other genres and companies and products is to continue to take role playing the core mechanics of role playing uh and uh uh and they've put G they've created a a series of incredibly uh valuable memorable you know you know uh Hall of Fame games that have showcased how role playing can continue to to March forward and so so that's the thing I'm most excited about is to see them uh is to see how the role playing mechanic Beyond story uh Beyond 3D rendering but how gameplay will manifest is is I think what their uh what their greatest contribution is going to be to the role playing field if if I can predict what uh uh you know one

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    of the things I think they'll do really well I think I think there's an interesting challenge we have to for those of us who are making these kinds of games of hearkening to the old but doing it with the new uh specifically in the area of of of accessibility uh versus difficulty of the challenge of playing the game and I think one of the things that a lot of games have done in the name of accessibility is they've lowered the challenge of the experience while also increasing accessibility and I think the interesting thing that we can that we're trying to explore is can you ha can you retain the challenge while still having accessibility uh do you have to have those two in stably uh entwined like they have been so I think that's part of where I think we can do the old meets the new is use all them the things we've

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    learned in the last 20 or 30 years about making games more accessible to players while at the same time capturing some of that original Challenge and make you think to play the game versus just sort of handhold you want ah I think that there's there's been a tendency among commercial uh uh you know AAA games games in in more recent years to maybe it's not fair to say dumb them down but but in in trying to make them as accessible as possible to to you know simplify them streamline the game play um and you tend to get a likeness you know a lot of games particularly in the third person I mean sorry the first person you know kind of genre they feel similar they play similar um and you know it it can be all

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    you know a lot of that in the name of accessibility they're familiar with this interface and this look let's just go with that and put a different skin on it it's more than that but but but a lot of that tends to boil down and you know we think about rising to the intelligence of our players um I I think that we don't you know don't always give enough credit to how how players want to interact with these games learn you know challenge themselves I mean gaming well before computer games was bundle with challenge a game that's not challenging it's not doesn't keep your interest you Bor you get bored with it um you do have to make it that there's you know not a steep learning curve you don't we learned that lesson uh you know system Tru was a was one of the most amazing games that we developed with

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    Looking Glass very proud of it but it was a very difficult game to get into uh had a high hurdle a very complicated user interface um but the piece of it that in hindsight we learned from from that is that the depth of the game play once you got into the game and you saw all the options and the ways you could solve problems we really tried to and this started with underworld we really looked at player choice as being foremost and enabling player choice and enabling player authored experiences you know when we created a situation and engagement in the Underworld it wasn't about um uh you know something where we predefined an encounter we gave the player the option to solve it the way they wanted to solve it um so I think that kind of game playay the very player

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    authored experience that provides a lot of depth is is one way to offer you know a deeper experience that's you know not dumb down in any way yeah games now were designed so you beat them not so that you can beat them right so how can we support you how can we help make this happen well we're gonna be kickstarting uh we made our announcement today so on February 4th we're launching our Kickstarter campaign so you know this can only happen with the help of our fans not just for the funding the funding is important we we have Ambitions to make a great game here and that takes funding uh but also to engage our fans and have them participate in the process the creative process uh we want our fans to want to reach out and have them participate and give us

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    feedback uh and help us craft this game as we're making C cretive decisions and and and flushing it out so you know we're reaching out to our fans to help us you you know I have an interesting thing too if I can add in there as well you know um if you look at uh the retail era uh you know or origin and looking glass a lot of the companies we've been talking about today you know were some of the early large notable uh companies making games in that first era but what happened over time in the retail shelf Space Battles is only the biggest companies began to own and control retail shelf space and so everybody you know either was bought up or lost out to uh you know the big five or so uh Publishers and even though some other

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    companies still existed it was it's very difficult very expensive to get shelf space well one of the great democratizers of digital distribution is that you at least technically have access to that shelf space however there's still limited access to the mind of players and that's something I think all of us who are in this crowdfunded crowdsourced uh you know you pulling together that community that was brought together a decade or two ago uh that is still there as hardcore Gamers they're still Gamers they're still buying games they're the foundation of which uh you know that are backing a lot of our of these projects uh it's really that word of mouth it's that exposure it's that making sure you know that we talk about each other is to to to make sure that all those people when we go to when we go to trade shows the vast majority of

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    people who walk past us are still people who go oh I didn't even know you were back online doing new things because unless they happen to go online and see the place we happened to be present at the time there's not print ads there's not shelf space uh you know none of the you know traditional ways uh to get the word out uh you know are are really the best for this new era and so it's really uh you know keeping our community together keeping our communities talking uh with us about it is really the number one thing I think we can all do for each other yeah building awareness in general not just between us doing it as developers but as as the fans too like I mean that's a great point that the best thing anybody can do for any of our projects whether it's Star Citizen or shroud or underworld is talk about it you know talk about it you know with your friends talk about it in your

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    social media you know that helps at least as much if not more than direct funding or feedback Etc so yeah and I think it's a unique you know it's a new opportunity that wasn't available years ago that we can we have these communities of fans that we can talk to directly and and really you know am among these Studios we have an impact that you know a few years ago only a major publisher had they only they had the big megaphone that they could broadcast and now today we can you know these fans between us we've got a lot of fans and I think we're creating a quality of game and experience and innovations that really matter and people want to pay attention to and be

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    part of and that that's pretty awesome because we bring our ideas to the people who want them not the people who think they know what they want that's a great way to say and all of us are still indeed creating worlds yes we are to use our old catch line all right well anything else you like to say about the project or Paul um well we we it's been under development for four months now we've got a a prototype running on the PC one of the things you know different from the old days is there there existing engines where we happen to be using Unity uh so it gives us a big leg up uh so we've already got a team we've got a dozen people on the team right now and uh all told including some outside folks and uh we're working away on it and

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    we're really excited to be to show people you know we're holding a lot back right now for our Kickstarter and uh so we're just starting to review a little bit uh but we're going to be showing a ton of stuff uh come February 4th and you know we're excited to be sharing that thank you guys so much the kickstarter for underworld ascendant starts February 4th there'll be a link on the site