Greg Kasavin, creative director of Bastion and Transistor, joins his friend Felicia Day at E3 2014 and picks Richard Garriott's mind about all things Ultima.
You're a good man, RG, arguably a great man, and I appreciate the relevance and eloquence of this interview, particularly from the standpoint of a jack-of-all-trades game developer and designer. Thanks, and never give up.
I only finished UW, and I have but no finished all the others (thanks gog), even U7-2 and U9 in boxes with the maps and books, they are awesome, and bring me fantastic memories, like the first time I heard the voices in UW... Great interview by the way!
25:00 Fun fact. I have a friend that played only 'Ultima Online' before we met. I played only 7th (although all expansions), 'Underworld' and 8th. We both completed 8th on my rig that was sufficient to do it. So I was the guy who introduced him to something beside online version.
I'm amazed he mentioned Time Bandits. I've always been aware of the similarities between that movie and Ultima 2, but always considered it coincidence.
first time Richard uses a gaming Engine, and it's Unity? And the game was a disaster. I want to see the interview on how that happened. He got everything he wanted to make that game. Fully crowd funded so nobody else dictating a schedule, all the time he needed to do it right, and hand selected people to work with. How did it fall apart? Shroud of the Avatar looks great in videos.. but all the mechanics are not working. I'd love to see Richard team with Larian Studios. I think they would work so perfectly together.
just a snap shot into the mind of a genius. todays developers should take a page or two from this man, make games great again for the players and not their revenue, revenue will come if the players are happy, period =)
I personally love it! ....unfortunately all I own is a rusty spring and a half an apple. (a bit yellow) - them freemasonic trance-lizards took my wallet, with mindwaves! (and my job... and my sanity) :(
I think I played Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny remember trying rescue the king. Very good for custom avatar. Real good interview a lot of info. Great information on video around 29 minutes to 33 minutes about personal choice and use with video games.
Actually a term 'avatarism' in application to games means exactly that: playing yourself in game environment contrary to playing some kind of character that has nothing to do with your identity. Being an avatarist my whole gaming life I was glad to put last piece of story into this. I knew the playstyle did not exactly born with Ultima, but got it's name certainly because of series. Heh, so he did this on purpose, to get rid of players' excuses. Heh.
This video feels weird: I don't know if the intro is staged or improvised; the editing is strange; it last 50 min. yet they start talking like if they were being rushed; they seem to be in a big and empty room however they sit in a nook near the corner; Are there only 2 free chairs in the whole building?
34:00 'Infamous'... :D Yeah, you are. All hell broke lose. And no one even tried to think about one simple truth: how many games that makes you disappear from this world for a few hours? That are 'on the level' with games we played back in the day? He was right on money that time. Compared to number of other brilliant people in the industry same level game designers are few. Chris, by the way, is very good example. And not because they are pals or I am fan of 'Wing Commander' series, which are true. Results. He brings results.
'Ultima 8 and 9 I was manager of the managers and I think it shows in the game'. You betcha! :D I could not find computer powerful enough to run 'Ultima 8'. And don't get me started on 9. No, because I cannot get started. I barely played it.
I don't think he's researched his religions very well.... there alot of similarities between religions... Taoism has connections to Buddhism and Buddhism has connections to Hinduism. Judism has connections to Christianity, and Christianity even has connections to alot of Egyptian mythology...
Richard Garriott: "We're gonna make a game that is at least as big as UO with 30 people" Other game developer nobody really cares about: "Yeah, these days with stuff like Unity, Assets Store......" Assets store? Sure, but have you ever considered the fact that the assets store is public? Everyone can buy and use the same assets. And in that case it's no longer a genuine product -to me -to many. Is it really game development at this point? because it looks more like a collage. Or.. what do you call that these days.. modding?
yeah, right, mmhmm, yeah, right... this interview would have been much better if Felicia stayed.. Kasavin was just annoying and he obviously isn't cut out for interviews.
Richard Garriot certainly has an ego and likes to talk. Though it's possible I was just expecting more of a back and forth after watching the "No Man's Sky" interview. Of course, I'm a long-time fan of Ultima, so I guess a certain amount of that ego is justified. I think if I were interviewing him, I'd have really hard not pelting him with questions about what happened with 8 and 9 (more-so 9).
