Starr Long, a 20-year industry veteran who worked on the original Ultima Online (and, er, Tabula Rasa) has joined Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar team at Portalarium.
Long has spent his last four years working as an executive producer over at Disney, overseeing the studio responsible for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Pixie Hollow, Toontown, and a bunch of Facebook and mobile whatsits. After that, I can only assume that working as the executive producer on a grand-scale fantasy MMO comes as quite a nice change of scenery.
“Richard’s ideas for remaking the genre are well aligned with where the industry is today in terms of technology and design,” reckons Long. “It is really exciting to know that we are creating Shroud of the Avatar with the idea of bringing back the concepts and principles that Richard used successfully in making his Ultima series.”
“This news sends a clear signal to our fans that the game they’ve been waiting 15 years to play is that much closer to reality,” commented Garriott. Just try to forget about Tabula Rasa, he didn’t add.
Shroud of the Avatar made just under $2 million on Kickstarter, nearly doubling its $1 million goal. It’s certainly an interesting-looking take on the MMO genre, offering classless levelling and the ability to play solo or only with friends, but we’ll have to wait until next year to see how it stacks up. If you missed the Kickstarter and still want to throw some money at them, then you can do so over on the official website.
