Underworld Ascendant - Interview

TGG interviewed with OtherSide Entertainment’s Joe Fielder:

Underworld Ascendant interview with OtherSide Entertainment and 505 games

As you might remember, back in August it became publicly known that 505 Games is to publish the long-awaited fantasy rpg “Underworld Ascendant” for PC. Well, since I just happen to have grown up playing “Ultima Underworld” 1 and 2. I simply couldn’t resist the urge to do an interview with OtherSide Entertainment and 505 games about “Underworld Ascendant“. So, that’s exactly what I did =) And that resulted in us talking about everything from the old “Ultima Underworld” games, old memories and the plans for “Underworld Ascendant”.

So without further ado, please enjoy our interview with OtherSide Entertainment’s Joe Fielder.

Robin TGG
We always start off our interviews with having people introducing themselves to our readers. So please go ahead and do so =)

JOE
I’m Joe Fielder. Former game journalist, turned level designer, producer, and writer. I’ve worked on games like BioShock Infinite, The Flame in the Flood, BOOM BLOX, and [redacted]. I’m the game director and writer of Underworld Ascendant.

Robin TGG
Would you be so kind and explain what “Underworld Ascendant” is all about? (the story, etc.) And how, when, where and why did the project came to be?

JOE
Underworld Ascendant is a first-person, emergent RPG, where the player is plucked from modern-day earth and dropped into a deeply-immersive, fantasy world, full of conflict and intrigue.

The game takes place in The Stygian Abyss, an incredibly dangerous, underground environment on the borders of The Underworld. It’s a place where life shouldn’t exist. And without your help, it won’t much longer.

You may have visited before, in fact.

Underworld Ascendant’s the modern follow-up to Looking Glass’ Ultima Underworld series, which has been credited with inventing the “immersive sim” genre and influenced developers of such games as System Shock, Deus Ex, BioShock, Thief, Fallout 4, Skyrim… Even Minecraft.

It’s our goal to follow-up on Looking Glass’ legacy of innovation, to make a game takes the immersive sim forward in some intriguing, new ways.

The game promotes experimentation and rewards creativity using The Improvisation Engine, a series of interwoven systems that oversee and direct the player experience to keep the game challenging and fun.

As far as how it originally came together? Paul Neurath, who co-founded Looking Glass, helped create the Immersive Sim, and designed the opening levels of Ultima Underworld, started OtherSide a few years back with the intent to bring back classic series like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and more. Not long after, Underworld Ascendant had a successful Kickstarter and recently attracted the attention of 505 Games.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!