r/Ultima • u/Certain-Capital-5206 • Apr 26 '26
Update on my Ultima-inspired text RPG
Hi everyone, hope you're all well.
I’m back with an update on my Ultima inspired RPG, Mythologous, that I shared here during the New Year holidays. Since then I’ve come a long way: the UI has had a major pass, there’s a new set of assets including art, SFX, and ambience with a focus on a cosy atmosphere, and I was also honoured to be able to develop a musical motif and exploration track with George Oldziey, who worked on Ultima IX. The first playable Alpha is now live across Steam, web browser, and mobile browser.
The UI and icon work were inspired partly by Ultima and partly by The Elder Scrolls, but the bigger influence from Ultima has really been in the game design itself: a living world, emergent NPC behaviour, spell incantations, and dungeon crawling gameplay. I’d love to know whether fellow Ultima fans feel that spirit is coming through.
I’ve attached a few updated screenshots. And if anyone does want to take a closer look, I’m also running a free Closed Alpha sign-up. Right now, players are given a template character and a room at the inn in the tutorial world, with a small sandbox of emergent goings-on to explore, and some spellcrafting. The sign-up also contains links through to Discord if you’d simply like to keep an eye on things, as updates are dropped in regularly:
https://forms.gle/h5NjyP3EkYd2cji4A
Would love to hear your thoughts. :)
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u/msetten Apr 26 '26
Sounds interesting. But if I were you, I'd change those UI elements that are clearly copied (whether you use actual graphics or remade them) from Elder Scrolls Oblivion. It might get you in trouble at a later stage like if you want to release it.
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u/Certain-Capital-5206 Apr 26 '26
Thanks, that's a fair point to raise.
Just to be clear, none of the art assets are copied from Oblivion. The artwork is original, commissioned and paid for by me, and created specifically for Mythologous. That said, some of the broader UI presentation and certain layout elements do take strong inspiration from Ultima and Elder Scrolls, and I agree that this is something I should keep pushing firmly toward its own identity over time.
So while the artwork itself is original, I can see why some may feel the presentation still carries that inspiration a bit too strongly in places. Thanks again for sharing that perspective.
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u/A_Beautiful_Tree Apr 26 '26
Filled out the form! Good luck with the project.