Coming to all the platforms.

The latest update posted to the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter page brings glad tidings to those of you who prefer to play your games on operating systems not made by Microsoft:

Over the last 2 weeks a number of folks have been asking about Mac and Linux versions. From our forum poll on platforms, we’ve also learned that a larger percentage of you play on Mac or Linux than we had anticipated. There is also some information suggesting that a non-trivial number of people who have come to check out the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter page move on as soon as they see that we’re only showing Windows support up front.

So… we have decided to roll Mac and Linux support into the base funding goal. There are tradeoffs when moving around features within a budget, but this seems worthwhile. One tradeoff is that it will likely mean we’ll need to hold off for a month or possibly longer to release the Mac and Linux versions following the initial Windows release (staging it this way helps to minimize budget impact.)

If making this change brings in new backers and funding, then it will all be a wash, as we’ll be that much more likely to go past our first stretch goal. We do suggest that our Mac and Linux backers take a peek at a tier or two above where they are currently pledged…

As well, Blade of the Avatar author Tracy Hickman will evidently be collaborating with OtherSide Entertainment on an Underworld Ascendant novel:

Tracy’s talents as a fantasy author, together with his deep experience with gaming and close collaboration on Shroud of the Avatar, a world connected to ours, make him ideally suited to write the Underworld Ascendant novel. The novel is going to be set several generations before the game takes place, and tell the story of how a band of Dark Elves from the land of the Shroud of the Avatar passed through a magic portal to make an exodus into the Stygian Abyss. It will tell of their trials in this harsh and dangerous underworld, and of how they carved out a place for themselves.

You should click on through if you want to see a video in which Hickman discusses his partnership with the OtherSide team.

Truth be told, I don’t think it should come as much of a surprise that Hickman agreed to write a novel for Underworld Ascendant; we did already know that it and Shroud of the Avatar were connected, after all, sharing lore and fiction.