Video: Ultima Forever – Reimagining a Classic
Over at the GDC Vault, Mythic’s studio general manager Paul Barnett’s talk on Ultima Forever is now available to watch for free. And I’ve managed to figure out its embed code.
There is some gameplay footage shown at various points throughout the presentation, so if you’d like to skip around and find that, select the fullscreen option on the embedded video at the link above; it should bring up a chapter selection menu.
The First Age of Update: It’s a pretty sweet presentation, all things considered, and Barnett tells the tale of Ultima Forever’s development with amusing humour.
And, as a consequence of this video being released, I’ve been able to publish a piece of old concept art for the game (as well as grainy images of a few other pieces of concept work that I caught brief glimpses of in the presentation) and an examination of the changes in its graphical look and feel over time. Have a look at both!
Nice video, WtF. Barnett makes me feel more sane as an outspoken dev on the fringe of his surroundings, as he speaks plainly and sometimes acts like he’s on weed. Or -highly- impassioned and uninhibited.
Paul is a very excitable and very passionate sort. And probably a little nuts. And very outspoken, to be sure…you can find plenty of examples on the Internet of him getting lambasted for things he’s said or done (mostly said).
But he’s also a very genuinely funny guy, and tends to always try and move things toward some sort of humorous close. He can make a joke of nearly anything, and can entertain a room full of people quite handily. Which, in turn, means that EA often flies him around to do general PR work for games that Mythic isn’t working on, in addition to his role as a booster for the games that Mythic is working on. That’ll probably happen less now that he’s the studio GM, though.
Paul Barnett is an overly enthusiastic half insane kind of guy, but insane in just the right kind of way. Like Ken said, he’s genuinely funny, charismatic, and a joy to meet in person.