Corv has published an update to the Titans of Ether website, both to celebrate the recent victory of Ultima IX: Redemption in the 2015 fan project poll, and to give us all an update as to the status of the project itself.

The short version of the update is as follows: Corv is currently working alone on Redemption (although he doesn’t necessarily regard that as a bad thing), and there has been progress made on the project…but it isn’t complete yet. That being said, Corv does make a rather bold promise:

…I promise you will get to download something playable this year. It is unlikely that it will be the full game, however I will definitely give you a closed off area to do quests in (= a demo) OR I will release the whole landscape (without story elements and significant spoiler areas, unfinished gameplay) so you can explore our Britannia on your own.

The main body of the update gives details on specific areas of Redemption’s development. Worldbuilding, 3D modelling, and even the story are mostly complete, thanks to the efforts of various former Titans. There are some issues with the story, or rather tying the story to entertaining gameplay, and this is also true of the quests in the game. The main area in need of additional work seems to be the quests and the in-game systems (“Mechanics”, as Corv puts it); these are still being worked on. Click on through to see the complete write-up.

Corv also makes an interesting offer:

Also, if you are interested I could make “New Magincia in Unity 5″ available for download for you to run around in. I wouldn’t polish it or anything, it would be what you saw in the video. Is there any interest? If so please let me know in the forum.

I know I, for one, would love to have a look at that. So count this as my vote, Corv.

Finally, Corv does have some kind words to offer the Ultima fandom:

Congratulations to all the other Ultima fan projects. I know how difficult it is to keep something going you are not getting paid for. I have deep respect for all of you, including WtF dragon for keeping his Ultima news site ultimacodex.com up to date!

All of you are responsible for keeping Ultima relevant and keeping it from being forgotten in all the hype Japanese RPGs are getting nowadays. It seems like Final Fantasy VI and/or VII is the end all be all of RPGs and it bothers me seeing those games hyped as the origin of everything that came later.

Anyhow, I for one am looking forward to seeing a Redemption demo at some point this year. Now…where did I put my copy of Morrowind?