Years after last Ultima game, Richard Garriott eyes a comeback
It's been more than 15 years since Richard Garriott, , launched Ultima Online, an聽massive online game produced by Origin Systems.听
And now Garriott is back, with a new role-playing game entitled聽Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. The game, which Garriott has called a "spiritual successor" to the Ultima franchise, will take place in a massive, magical realm peopled by warriors, magicians, and dragons. It cool. And it like a whole lot of fun. Only hitch: In order to actually develop the game, Garriott needs some capital.听
So this week, Garriott took to Kickstarter, the venerable crowd-sourcing website, where he hopes to raise a million bucks. Interested in contributing? Pledges of $10,000 will earn you a guided tour of "," Garriott's home in Texas, and a copy of Akalabeth, Garriott's first game. Pledges of $25 or more, on the other hand, will earn you access to "early-bird Alpha" and beta builds of the game.听
The Shroud of the Avatar's Kickstarter has a whole lot of art, although it's clear that plenty of details still need to be worked out. Pricing, for instance.听
"It is neither what I'll call a standard retail boxed game where it'll have a retail price and that's the end of it; nor are we anticipating that it will be subscription-based MMO," Garriott Gamespot today. "But at the other end of the extreme is also what we're not going to be; we are not doing a social game, we're not doing a game where it's free-to-play then it endlessly pesters you for money. That is also not what we are doing."
Garriott says the game will be playable offline or online, as an MMO; he estimated that the alpha version could be available as soon as the end of this year.听
Thinking about contributing to the Shroud of the Avatar's Kickstarter drive? Drop us a line in the comments section. And for聽more tech news, follow us on聽.
