I recently got a chance to talk with the developers of Underworld Ascendant, an exploratory RPG adventure inspired by the first-person RPG classic Ultima Underworld. The original Underworld was a milestone of in computer role-playing games, stretching environmental design, combat, and puzzle-solving to new limits. Its legacy deeply influences subsequent adventures like Deus Ex and Skyrim.
Graphically, the team behind the new Underworld isn't trying to compete with the huge art budgets and resources available to triple-A developers. Instead, the design philosophy focuses on creating a player-authored role playing experience. The developers took me through an early demo featuring an unarmed thief/mage character eluding a Shadow Beast. The monster hates light, so the player used the natural lighted systems of the dungeon to predict its route and lead it into danger. The player carefully followed a flowing lava stream to stay in the relative safety of illumination while the monster conversely attempted to destroy light sources and gain the advantage. The thief eventually lured the Shadow Beast into a lethal trap, and I enjoyed seeing how an enemy could be taken down effectively without a single waving of a sword. Extrapolating how the systems in the demo could potentially interact in unscripted ways made me wonder what might be possible in the broader scope of a complete, sprawling dungeon.
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Graphically, the team behind the new Underworld isn't trying to compete with the huge art budgets and resources available to triple-A developers. Instead, the design philosophy focuses on creating a player-authored role playing experience. The developers took me through an early demo featuring an unarmed thief/mage character eluding a Shadow Beast. The monster hates light, so the player used the natural lighted systems of the dungeon to predict its route and lead it into danger. The player carefully followed a flowing lava stream to stay in the relative safety of illumination while the monster conversely attempted to destroy light sources and gain the advantage. The thief eventually lured the Shadow Beast into a lethal trap, and I enjoyed seeing how an enemy could be taken down effectively without a single waving of a sword. Extrapolating how the systems in the demo could potentially interact in unscripted ways made me wonder what might be possible in the broader scope of a complete, sprawling dungeon.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...