Ultima Forever's announcement came as a surprise earlier this month: Bioware has apparently been working with Richard Garriott's old Ultima 4 property to create a new entry in EA's growing collection of free-to-play titles. But despite the big announcement, Ultima Forever has been steeped in mystery, leading to plenty of guessing and speculation about what it's going to be like.

So we cornered the game's lead designer, Kate Flack, to try and get some answers. She couldn't tell Joystiq everything yet ("We're in alpha at the moment," she said, "and we'll be leading towards closed beta soon"), but read on for a few more insights on what Ultima Forever is ultimately going to be.