As of maybe fifteen minutes ago, the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign has reached its base funding goal of $600,000, meaning that it will in fact be funded…and will, as such, get made.

Watch thy step.

It’s also worth noting that the latest update posted to the campaign page teases the possibility of VR support:

…we have been working with an Oculus Rift developer kit. We’ve only spent a day so far experimenting with the kit on Underworld Ascendant, but already the prototype is running with full Oculus Rift support.

Playing it myself, it’s pretty darn cool! In the chamber shown in the prototype with the rickety wooden bridge over the pit of lava, I actually hesitated for a few moments, before stepping out over the void.

Which, of course, hearkens back to some experimentation that was done at Looking Glass, back in the day:

On a side note, some of us actually did VR headset support at LookingGlass in 1996. This was the first generation of consumer VR, and we experimented using it for Terra Nova and Flight Unlimited. We quickly concluded the technology was far from ready.

And it should be noted that, for the moment, OtherSide have not come to a decision about whether they’ll work to support VR in Underworld Ascendant:

…we are well aware that VR hardware, and a sufficiently powerful PC and graphics card to drive it, don’t come cheap. Most who play Underworld Ascendant would not have access to VR, at least not for a few years to come. So even if we were to support VR, it is essential that the game play wonderfully well without VR.

…based on these considerations we are not prepared to make a decision yet as to if we might support VR for Underworld Ascendant. We will be staying on top of upcoming advances in the technology, and spending a bit more time doing experiments over the coming months. But until we get to a point where we are confident that the hardware is ready, and that we could deliver a great experience, we need to wait and see.

It’s probably enough for now that VR support is being considered, at least. VR technology has become significantly more viable than it was in the mid-90s, after all.

But really, that’s just a long and interesting side point to the main thrust of this article, which is to say:

Underworld Ascendant has (finally) been funded!