If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Ultima creator tease suggests Kickstarter on Friday

Richard Garriott is teasing a reveal later this week, with all signs pointing to a crowd-funded project inspired by his influential RPG series, Ultima.

Garriott has launched a website called Lord British Presents, which is counting down to a reveal on Friday, or the wee hours of Saturday morning by Australian time.

The only official clue so far is a sketch of standing stones released on Twitter, but RPGCodex dug up an image file from the same cloud hosting service the Lord British Presents site uses, bearing the Kickstarter logo and the title Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.

The Avatar is the player character in the Ultima series, and Garriott's nickname, Lord British, is that of the character representing him in-game.

Although there aren't many hard facts to throw around, there are plenty of hints as to what Lord British is up to. His new company, Portalarium, is oriented around social games, and the respected designer has frequently defended the casual space from detractors. So we can probably expect some sort of spin on casual or social gaming; in general, Garriott's comments to press over the last few years have favoured PC and mobile gaming; non-expoitative free-to-play models; and social collaboration.

As for the content, it seems pretty clear we're looking at something Ultima-inspired. Garriott said he was working on a new entry in the series, but EA didn't want to play ball.

In mid-2012, Garriott announced a mobile RPG called New Brittania, another obvious Ultima reference which he called the spiritual successor to Ultima, but the project went silent shortly thereafter; it's possible it has been resurrected under a new name.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Sign in and unlock a world of features

Get access to commenting, homepage personalisation, newsletters, and more!

In this article
Related topics
About the Author
Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

Comments