Wasn’t aware of Skylanders, he definitely counts.
That line of thought makes me think of the interesting/talented developers who went by the wayside into other careers.
Ali Atabek (Magic Candle) … Stuart Smith (Adventure Construction Set) … David Joiner (Faery Tale Adventure)… ah we hardly knew ye.
Gary Grigsby seems to keep on ticking in the wargaming world, and he was a huge presence in the 80s. More niche than ever though.
Grigsby is still partly developing games, War in the East 2 and Steel Tigers, a reboot of Steel Panthers.
@KevinC forgot a big name: Chris Roberts.
Brian Fargo has three successful games from yonder years which were revived - Wasteland, Torment and now Bards Tale. All of them focus on their key strengths - story and not get encumbered by ambitious 3D graphics. Maybe Garriott has a different dream now, but he could easily have rebooted Ultima if he wanted to.
His was the first name I mentioned! ;)
DOH! I read Richard Garriot :-D
Man, this vanity-items stuff is such a turnoff.
The Release 54 Livestream(s) items are all Tropical and Polynesian themed in honor of the summer months.
Yeah, but it’s their only real revenue stream so they’re stuck in that unending cycle. Meanwhile apparently areas on the critical path still have generic NPCs that say “I DON’T HAVE ANY DIALOGUE YET”.
They should at least say “Good Day!” as a nod to Ultima III. :)
Much to my surprise (and delight), I received my KS physical goods yesterday. I honestly was worried I’d never see them given the low game population and the company laying off people. I had a SotA coin that RG gave out at DragonCon about five years ago and figured that is all I’d ever see.
Happy to say I’m really pleased with the physical goods. The box is sturdy and reminiscent of 80s and 90s boxes (not just a slick printed sleeve over a generic cardboard box but an actual box like with the Ultimas of old). The map is really nice, a little thinner than a few of the Ultima ones but a damn sight better than the majority of KS maps I’ve gotten.
The manual is OK, I was hoping they’d go with the high quality paper and black/brown ink like in the past but it is glossy full color. I also knew they’d mix in actual gameplay/UI instructions, something I wasn’t thrilled about (old Ultima manuals had none of that, leaving it up to a reference card to provide that information). Still, it’s pretty well done and does have some nice Loubet illustrations. I wish it had included a bestiary (Loubet’s monster illustrations were often a highlight of Ultima manuals) but oh well. There is a reference card as well, the front side showing Runic to English and the back the keyboard commands.
The coin (different from what I got at DragonCon) is nice. Also included is an ankh, a bit “embellished” for my taste – much prefer the Ultima IV one – but still neat. There is also a cardboard CD case (like the old PC Gamer demo disks) with the game install and soundtrack. Haven’t had time to listen to that yet.
Lastly, there is a neat booklet with a cover painted by RG’s mother of Ultima III’s cover. Inside are photographs / scans of lots of pre-Ultima/Akalabeth artifacts – old character sheets, stories he wrote that form the earliest Ultima mythology (Shamino and other characters appear), etc. I haven’t had the chance to dive in but I didn’t expect this and was very pleased to see it.
Worth $150 or so given the state of the game? Perhaps not, but still a nice surprise.
Nice, congrats!
I haven’t received mine yet, but I’ve seen lots of pictures of the physical goods on twitter, and they definitely look a lot better than most kickstarted stuff - particularly the map, which looks like it would be a good one even by Ultima standards.
Early Ultima or later Ultima? You know what I mean. Thick cloth or see through cloth?
Yeah to be honest I think the quality of printing and cloth already went down a bit between U3 and U4. U3’s map is amazing – thick cloth and printed with lovely clarity.
I’m not next to it at the moment, but it is thinner than U3 but thicker than most of the “cloth maps” I’ve gotten from KS projects thus far. Feels a little smoother than a normal Ultima map but still has some weight. Decent coloring and the runic lettering is distinct. It has a stitched edge too, unlike some maps that insta-fray due to not having one.
Apparently I’m not going to get my physical collectors edition until “Q4, hopefully” - we’re only a week from Q4, but doesn’t sound like it’s exactly pending. Sad.
Yeah, the Ultima 2 and 3 maps are heavy material and really nice. The Ultima 2 one was also the map with the most utility in the series, since it was needed to navigate the time games.
So, this just went “free to play”.