It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with Scythifuge and The Savage Empire Remake, his Exult-based remake of (what else?) Savage Empire. And, in fact, I missed a goodly number of the updates he posted to the project’s Facebook page in 2019. For example, back in April, he posted some thoughts about possibly changing engines for the project:

I am looking for the same things I have been looking for for years, however. I need help with drawing the frames for animations, and for people to learn how isecode/scripting/Exult Studio works. Programmers who could possibly take a look at Exult/E.S. and see if certain features could be added would be awesome.

Another idea, which I exchanged some messages about with someone, would be to switch to Unity, amd make a 2d looking game in a basic 3d world which could utilize artwork I have created, would circumvent the limitations of the current state of Exult Studio, such as height/lift constraints, the combat system which almost everyone hates from Ultima VII, and other cool features I envision for a retro game to be fun and accessible for everyone.

He also mused, later that same month, about some of his planned changes to the plot of the game. Here’s the first three; you’re advised to click on through to check out the remaining dozen or so:

1. Eodon is now a pocket plane created by the Timelord in order to preserve cultures and creatures that were disappearing from Earth throughout history, almost like a preserve. The Kotl are going to be connected to the Annunaki/lizard people legends, and they originally assisted the Timelord, but became corrupted by power. The Timelord sends you to Eodon this time, not Lord British, and would be a character in the game. This also helps establish other ideas I have for other Ultima games, and is part of an overarching plan to fix plot holes in all of the games (I have studied Ultima since childhood like you wouldn’t believe.) Kotl city technology would allow the player to view footage of the Kotl’s opulant, imperial past, via cutscenes.

2. The Disquiqui will remain more lighthearted and peaceful than the rest of the tribes, though they will be depicted more realistically, and less silly.

3. Cultural differences between tribes will be more apparent. Each tribe will have their own style of dwelling and unique look and items.

In May, he continued posting about some of his planned changes to the game, especially to its magic system:

Many Ultima games had the 8 schools of magic. The original Savage Empire had a few spells which required the use of three animal skulls.

I am thinking of expanding the magic system to 8 skulls and at least as many spells as Ultima VII. Many of these spells would fit the theme, such as being nature based (call lightning, summon creatures, etc.)

Offensive spells would be… savage. Looking through my canvases, I found one where I was working on a spell where red army ants would be summon to cover a paralyzed enemy, eating their flesh and leaving behind a skeleton. It would be a level 8 spell requiring reagents and a human skull.

Make no mistake, I want this game to be brutal, befitting a land of magic that is full of primitive, war-like tribes (one of which who sacrifices people,) and flesh eating beasts, and natural dangers lurking deep in the dark, dense jungles, temperate forests, chilly crags, sulfur and tar laden swamps, and volcanic wastelands of Eodon.

Scythifuge also confirmed, also in May, that he was continuing to work on the project using Exult Studio…though he was also exploring the Unity engine as well:

I am creating assets so that they will work in Exult, though I am starting to go through Unity tutorials.

Sometimes it takes a while to create assets “just right,” because of the bounding boxes and offsets used by Ultima VII. I remember coming up with a cool mountainside texture, but had trouble taking it apart to apply to shapes that will snap together properly.

I am working on those now, and then finishing some waterfall animations, some trees and other plants, the Avatar frames, and some small creatures.

I hope to put something together in Exult in the coming weeks, as a prototype of sorts, to show off the style I am striving for. Even though I am starting to learn Unity, I will keep things compatible with Exult as I can, and use Exult for testing and prototyping.

In December, having continued his studies of the Unity engine, he posted a truly interesting idea for a change to Savage Empire that would add a measure of urgency to the game. It wouldn’t work in Exult, of course, and Scythifuge still has given no indication that he’s actually going to change engines at any point, but this does sound like a really amazing thing even so:

I was watching videos on Unity and voxels, and imagining The Savage Empire made with voxels (tiny voxels to simulate pixels, not the Minecraft cubes.) In the original game, it is stayed that the Myrmidex are a threat, but they never do anything except for random attacks in the jungle.

What if, as you play the game, there are Myrmidex digging tunnels, unbeknownst to you. The hive population is growing, so they need to dig, and they need to eat -you. They are even a threat to large dinosaurs of they swarm, just like army ants.

Not only would they eventually cause the Valley of Eodon to collapse (and tear a hole in the fabric of time and space because my Eodon is in a pocket plane in between different dimensions of Earth,) but they could burrow beneath the player, erupt from the ground, and attack.

Of course, over the same span of time (April 2019 until now), Scythifuge has also been working on creating graphics for The Savage Empire Remake (you’ll note he mentioned this in one of the news posts above). Happily, he has posted several samples to the project’s Facebook page, beginning with this collection from April: