Underworld Ascendant - Breaking Free of Fantasy Tropes

The devs of the Ultima Underworld remake, Underworld Ascendant, updated the site with an editorial on fantasy tropes.

As we've mentioned in our previous update, the team at OtherSide has been feverishly working on our latest demo. While we'd love to give you peeks at all the recent progress, we'd rather hold off for a bit and until it's ready for the full reveal.

In the meantime, we thought we'd share further details on how we're approaching Underworld Ascendant's world building and story.

Part of the challenge in tackling the fantasy genre is there are a few high watermarks that are extremely influential, and a bevy of well-worn tropes. That leads to questions such as, how do you present races like dwarves in new and interesting ways?

I find a good way to start this process is figuring out interesting creative challenges. If you can come up with an idea that you find so compelling that it requires your absolute best work to pull off, then it'll motivate you to give it your all throughout the long, sometimes exhaustive, development cycle. The thinking is also, if you're engaged, your audience will hopefully be as well.

Another key part of the process is research. The old maxim of "write what you know" is spot-on but incomplete, since it leaves out the part where you can actually learn new information.

One of the things I learned from working on Irrational's BioShock series is that research is absolutely essential to good world-building. It's also incredibly fun. By digging through primary historical sources, you get a real sense of how people spoke, thought, went through their daily lives, and more. You pick up little details that make a world feel real, which then in turn helps make the fantastical elements of your setting seem more believable.

We also learn that the $900K stretch goal has been unlocked.

Thanks Christoph.