Ultima Forever: Guardian’s Hollow
After the shutdown of Ultima Forever’s online services was announced, I took one last stab at extracting the game’s data files — which are encapsulated using Mythic’s proprietary MYP archive format — using EasyMYP. There was nothing to be gained from the MYP files in the iOS version of the game; these use a newer version of the encoding that EasyMYP can’t process. However, one of the MYP files for PC alpha version of the game could be opened using the tool…and inside it, I found these images.
What’s notable about this dungeon is that it’s a holdover, a relic from the earlier days of Ultima Forever’s development. There is no Guardian’s Hollow dungeon that appears in the game; indeed, there are no overt references to the Guardian at all.
The dungeon would really have been, by all appearances, a homage to other Ultimas in more than one respect: there would evidently have been a lot of serpentine art and decoration for players to take note of as they progressed through its depths. Some of the serpent art very explicitly evokes Serpent Isle.
The character art visible in the one image is what gives the age of this set away; the more cartoonish, oddly-proportioned characters date back to…well, early 2011 or 2010, I suppose. By the time that a few of us got a first look at the game in mid-2011, the appearance of the characters — and the art of the game in general — had been iterated upon.
Which is another point: the background art, though still excellent in terms of quality, is somewhat different in style than what appeared in the release version of Ultima Forever.
I wish they had kept this, more references to U7 would have been nice. But what’s up with the proportions of those early sprites? Some characters have freaking huge heads, and other have realistic proportions. And that tobacco-smoking stone Guardian head is WTF-worthy.