What is Project Britannia?

Updated

Project Britannia is a fan-made project that ports the world of Origin Systems' Britannia into the Dungeon Siege 1 engine, letting you play Ultima V and Ultima VI on modern hardware with enhanced gameplay and graphics. It began around 2005 and grew into a nearly decade-long, globally distributed effort. The site itself now functions as a resource hub for the two games built on the engine, the engine and modding tools themselves, documentation, a wiki, and a forum.

What the project actually is

The core idea is a game engine and asset base, not a single game. The Project Britannia team built the foundation, and two separate teams then used it to produce playable titles:

  • Ultima V: Lazarus — built by Team Lazarus
  • The Ultima 6 Project — built by Team Archon

Both were developed collaboratively on top of the Project Britannia engine. If your goal is simply to play, you want one of these two games rather than the engine itself.

What you can get from the site

The site is organized around a few distinct resources, and which one matters depends on whether you want to play or to build.

Resource What it's for Who it's for
Links to the two games Downloading Ultima V: Lazarus and The Ultima 6 Project Players
The game engine Installing the engine in your own development environment for use with the Siege Editor Modders
Siege Tools development toolset Creating your own mods Modders
Wiki A record of the engine's featureset plus historical details Both
"Skrit" API documentation Customizing the Dungeon Siege engine Modders
Forum Connecting with other modders, posting about experiences, getting help Both

The Skrit API documentation is the essential reference if you intend to modify engine behavior — Skrit is the custom scripting API used to customize the Dungeon Siege engine.

A few things worth knowing before you dive in

  • The project is described as "is, or perhaps was" — the site's own framing suggests active development has wound down, even though people were still writing mods at the time of writing.
  • The development blog is largely historical. It's mostly filled with links that no longer work and announcements that no longer matter. It's kept as a timeline and testament to the team rather than as a working resource.
  • The forum is the live part. For help with either game, or to find current mods, that's where to go.
  • Setup guides may not exist yet. The site notes that how-tos, an installation FAQ, and a modder setup guide were things the author might add later — so don't assume a quick-start guide is waiting for you.

Who this is for

If you have nostalgia for Ultima V or VI and want to replay them with modern conveniences, start with the two game links. If you want to build on or extend the Dungeon Siege engine, the engine download, Siege Tools, wiki, and Skrit documentation are your entry points — and the forum is where you'll find the people who can actually answer questions.