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.
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