As you know, we’ve been focusing our efforts on The Challenge of Ishtass, where the player is first introduced to the bevy of choices available to them with Underworld Ascendant‘s player-authored Improvisation Engine gameplay.

We’re happy to report that we’ve progressed into the bug-fixing and polish phase. The team has been feverishly addressing gameplay feedback by Paul and Warren. It’s been at times challenging work, but we’ve been making tangible progress on combat, stealth, magic, AI, and more.

A New Look at Underworld Ascendant

We’re deep in the thick of it all, so for this month’s update we have a much-requested look at our art director Nate (BioShock, The Last of Us) Wells’ latest headway on upping our visual bar.

The areas pictured below are still receiving additional polish, lighting, and VFX passes, but we hope you’ll agree that they’ve come far since we first showed them off.

We recently gave a glimpse at these shots to a few industry colleagues and were asked, “Is that Unreal? Is that concept art? Are those renders?” The answers: No, no, and no. They’re untouched, in-game screenshots and the game engine is Unity 5.

Starbreeze to Publish System Shock® 3

ICYMI – OtherSide recently signed a publishing deal with Starbreeze (Payday, Chronicles of Riddick) for the eagerly-anticipated System Shock 3, which is currently being worked on down at our Austin studio under the guidance of Warren Spector.

We’re pretty darn excited to be working with Starbreeze, who were responsible for developing great games like Payday and Chronicles of Riddick, and joining a line-up that includes titles like DoubleFine’s Psychonauts 2.

You can read all the details right here.

In Other News…

And finally, a few things you might find interesting:

inXile’s Torment: Tides of Numenera recently came out for Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One! (PC Gamer‘s review called it “a fitting follow-up to a beloved RPG.”)

OtherSide’s own Thomas Schlapp and friends are Kickstarting Zero Sum, a sci-fi competitive card game. Worth checking out!

Speaking of Warren, he recently participated in a PC Gamer Immersive Sim roundtable discussion (with developers like Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare, Steve Gaynor, and more) and gave at talk at GDC about The Making of Deus Ex.

Until next time!

Best,

The Team at OtherSide