Since last we looked at Scythifuge’s Exult-based remake of Savage Empire, the project has seen several news updates posted to its Facebook page, and it would appear that the communications and partnership that have sprung up between this project and The Ultima 6 Remake (also Exult-based) have been very fruitful. Indeed, that was the main topic of the November 19th update posted on the project’s page:

Communication between Crowley & Agentorangeguy have been fruitful! Agentorangeguy is helping with some scripting for objects & I have offered to assist with some sprites for his Exult Ultima VI mod. The carnivorous orchid from Savage Empire & the Tangle Vine from Ultima VI are very similar, so I have started some preliminary work on that as well as the plant-like hydra from Ultima VI.

Crowley has provided a full set of animated frames for the Nauhuatla noble that I showed off in an earlier screenshot. He did an AMAZING job! These are the situations that help these projects along & make things come together. Of course, I am here to help these two & anyone else working with Exult in anyway that I can.

My work on Savage Empire as of late has been reviewing current sprites & organization of canvases. Things can get a little chaotic with sprites, concept sprites, failed sprites, & potential sprites on multiple canvases all over the place! After some tidying up, I will go back to finishing up the mountain walls which still need grass frames & then tested, & then it is back to trees.

A few days later, on November 24th, Scythifuge corrected himself, slightly:

…disregard my previous post on spriting priority. I am going to focus on the sprites for the S.E. Carnivorous Orchid/ U.VI Hydra/U.VI Tangle Vine due to multi project needs & sprite similarities along with general fan-created Ultima consistency.

This involves examining how Ultima VII slime sprites work as well as looking to existing Ultima VII stuff such as the corpser & similar situations in non-Ultima games such as the Broodmother from Dragon Age: Origins, & the movie “The Ruins” (don’t ask just yet, I have crazy ideas & take inspiration from many sources).

(The Ruins, by the way, isn’t the best film in the world, but it is noteworthy for its keen and skillful use of tension-building, rather than blood-spattered violence, as its primary means of inducing terror.)

The November 28th update to the project page demonstrated yet another shift in focus:

The hydra (it is so confusing that they called a plant creature that) is a challenging sprite. Of course it gives me a lot of spriting practice & is giving me ideas for Savage Empire’s carnivorous orchid.

Not only is design & detail a challenge, but also determining how animations should work given the limitations of Ultima VII’s 32 frame max for npc’s & creatures.

Of course, being that the hydra is a plant that is rooted in place (like the reaper), I have a couple of ideas…

Just two days later, he uploaded pictures of…something else entirely!

The above has a connection to the site here:

Due to a discussion on Ultima Aiere concerning the GOG release of Ultima VII & specifically barges, Dominus reminded me about the Serpent Isle ice raft, which in turn reminded me of the early, very basic bamboo raft that I drew a while back.

So I redrew it over the last 24 hours or so, & here it is, along with two oars (I haven’t settled on the design) & a fishing pole. I put some blue color under the raft to show how it will look during use.

Two days later, it was back to business:

I am working on the hydra sporadically while looking over canvases & organizing them, such as copying a creature sprite from an environment canvas to the fauna canvas, because a thought popped into my head while drawing ground tiles. Many canvases have random things on them because of random thoughts.

I have different alpha versions of the hydra as well as vines for the carnivorous orchid/U-VI tangle vine. Also, even though Agentorangeguy (of the Ultima VI remake for Exult) didn’t specifically ask me to, I am drawing giant silver serpents for fun & because snakes appear in Savage Empire & frankly, drawing sprites is fun. I have plans for revisiting other Ultimas at some point, so drawing lore related sprites is a good thing.

On December 4th, Scythifuge noted that Crowley had sent him an animated version of the Nahuatla male commoner from Savage Empire, prompting Scythifuge to suggest everyone check out this thread at the Exult Forums to see other examples of Crowley’s work and to offer him some praise.

A day later, the hydra was ready for the next stage of its development:

Preliminary hydra has been sent off to Agentorangeguy for his opinion & I am working on a Silver Serpent not only for his Ultima VI conversion, but also for drawing serpents in general for various things involving Savage Empire.

That same day, Scythifuge also posted some sample artwork of a Silver Serpent:

Now, here’s the important update. I actually missed reporting on this when Scythifuge posted it initially, but I’d like to draw attention to it now:

I need some opinions from the community. While this project is a remake of The Savage Empire, the idea is to give it the “Ultima VII Treatment” through Exult. Certain aspects of the original game aren’t meant to be taken seriously, such as the three stooges tribe & so on.

My plan was to redesign the Disquiqui to remove the humorous aspects & make them more culturally Polynesian. There are also other aspects that may not be possible due to engine limitations, such as the feeding of the giant turtles & then each party member ridding on one scenario.

I am seeking community feedback on these issues since they affect overall drawing & game design through Exult Studio.

My own opinion is that the comedy elements should be kept in, because Savage Empire was always intended as a kind of tongue-in-cheek RPG with various funny elements peppering its outwardly serious main storyline. The stuff about engine limitations is something that can’t be helped, and any workaround that preserves as much of the feel of the game as possible is acceptable. If that means everyone rides on one turtle rather than each person on his own turtle, so be it; Ultima 6 had horses and Ultima 7 had horse-drawn carts.

On December 15th, news was posted of work being done, but not necessarily on Savage Empire:

I have been working on various sprites, though some not necessarily for S.E. (i.e. wooden barrels & steel drums), yet some that can be used for multiple projects such as water & rock sprites. I am practicing different techniques. I have tried a new mountain texture but may keep the enhanced version of what I have already shown in order to save time.

I know that it sounds like not much is getting done S.E.-wise, but what I have shown on here is just a small portion of what I have drawn object-wise. Basically, I am finalizing the style that the world tiles & objects will look like so that the game is unique yet familiar & cohesive. I have a way for the character to wade in water, but I want the style of water tiles a certain way & to work with the rest of the environment. Creating brushes, drawing different leaves, experimenting… these are helping me to come up with the final look of the world & will affect the creation of the next round of sprites.

This experimentation proved fruitful a few days later:

Drawing various sprites is paying off. I am learning new ways to approach things. With that said, I have gone back to my undulating water tiles & am trying some things in order to wrap those up. What I showed back in may was the alpha version. Details are being added as well as creating versions to show directional flows. Like many things with this project it is tedious with a lot of testing in Exult to find the right combination of colors & pixels.

The cool thing about it is that water is a major part of the environment in Eodon & these water tiles will be able to be used in future projects.

Most recently, the news from Scythifuge is of a minor slowdown in the project’s progress:

I have been called to work this week so work on the water tiles & a couple of things for Agentorangeguy for his Ultima VI project have not progressed as I would have like. Though while at work I often imagine sprites so work does continue in a manner-of-speaking.

However, he did manage to come up with this quite festive Santa sprite before the reality of the working life re-asserted itself.

And that, Dragons and Dragonettes, is all the news from The Savage Empire Remake posted between mid-November and today. I’ll endeavour to keep more on top of Scythifuge’s project in the future, since these round-up-style posts are more properly suited to open threads and coverage of upcoming RPGs like Reckoning.

If you’re on Facebook, be sure to “Like” the remake’s project page, and check it regularly for updates.