Ultima Underworld - Retrospective @The Digital Antiquarian

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The Digital Antiquarian looks back at the making of Ultima Underworld.

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In many ways, Underworld was at odds with the prevailing trends inside Origin, not to mention in much of the games industry at large. Following the huge success of the first Wing Commander, Origin was banking heavily on cinematic games with big, set-piece storylines. The company's org chart reflected the new impetus, with film-making terminology - producer, director, screenwriter - shoehorned in absolutely everywhere. Blue Sky, on the other hand, was making something very different, an immersive, emergent, non-linear experience without cut scenes or chapter breaks. Yes, there was a plot of sorts - the player got cast into a dungeon to rescue a princess or die trying - along with puzzles to be solved, quests to be fulfilled, and other characters to be spoken to, but it was all driven by the player, not by any relentlessly unspooling Hollywood-style script. Origin, it seemed, wasn't quite sure what to make of it, wasn't quite sure where it fit. And certainly it's easy enough, given Blue Sky's unorthodox working methods, to understand why so many at Origin were skeptical of their ability to deliver a finished game at all.

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