Ultima Forever: Initial Avatar Concept Art

In Paul Barnett’s GDC Online presentation, he showcased a trailer that Mythic mocked up to present the Ultima Forever concept to their bosses-to-be at BioWare. It actually featured just a single piece of concept art, which could be glimpsed in mediocre detail during the presentation:

Well, seeing this jogged my memory, because this was a piece of art I had seen before. And indeed, it was sent to me (and a few others) back in the fall of 2010. I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about the context of that particular email, but I asked and was told that — since it’s visible for free online in this presentation anyway — that I could release the version of the image I received:

Paul Barnett jokingly refers to this picture as: “The Avatar’s Back.” Yes, that’s a play on words.

Now, it’s obvious that the art style of the game has changed drastically since late 2010, and in fact I’ll be putting up a post shortly showing — with grainy, blurry screen captures — some of the graphical evolution of Ultima Forever. But I though you might all be interested to see the artistic vision from which the game started.

I’ve also added the image to our concept art gallery. Check thou it out!