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George Ziets opening a new RPG studio - Digimancy Entertainment

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
A lot of interesting things in this segment, about creativity, the "save the world" trope, RPG moral alignments, Dungeon Siege 3, the Pillars of Eternity narrative(s) etc-etc.

Did we ever find out who made that unfortunate decision to have a pitching contest for PoE's narrative? And, even worse, who decided that various elements from various pitches should be combined? Was it Feargus?
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
MCA who didn't wanna be lead also pitched a story and were it to get approved was he gonna be lead? :P
 

G Ziets

Digimancy Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
66
Location
Columbus, OH
A lot of interesting things in this segment, about creativity, the "save the world" trope, RPG moral alignments, Dungeon Siege 3, the Pillars of Eternity narrative(s) etc-etc.

Did we ever find out who made that unfortunate decision to have a pitching contest for PoE's narrative? And, even worse, who decided that various elements from various pitches should be combined? Was it Feargus?
I still don’t know who decided upon that particular approach to PoE's story development. The person who provided the "winning" story wasn’t necessarily going to be narrative lead, though. I think the idea was to grab good ideas from many sources and then give the best one (or, as actually happened, a composite of the ideas we liked the most) to PoE's narrative crew for further development.
 

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
Well, Obsidian obviously realized the mistake, and, as you said in the clip, has not used the same method since. But ambitious projects need a Champion, someone who really-really believes in them and is determined to make them work. PoE clearly lacked a Champion on the narrative side. As an outsider, I attribute this to that mixing of ideas.

The old guards of good RPG writing have abandoned us, George. With Avellone mostly fucking around (although Kingmaker is awesome in every way), your new effort is a big hope for me. All the best!
 
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Messages
1,121
G Ziets do you have any cool insights and stuff into how you came up with the gods in Pillars of Eternity (mainly Queen Woedica)? Also were you responsible for the paladin orders because Steel Garrotes are like the fiercest super glossy of orders to roleplay as in any rpg world ever! Thx
g0gRYio.png
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
Steel Garrotes are POE2? I don't remember them from 1 and, uh, I don't know if I really want to know.
 

G Ziets

Digimancy Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
66
Location
Columbus, OH
G Ziets do you have any cool insights and stuff into how you came up with the gods in Pillars of Eternity (mainly Queen Woedica)? Also were you responsible for the paladin orders because Steel Garrotes are like the fiercest super glossy of orders to roleplay as in any rpg world ever! Thx
g0gRYio.png
During the original PoE Kickstarter campaign, I actually wrote a dev diary about the process of developing the gods, with a focus on Woedica: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/395376 . One thing I didn't mention in that article was that the original visual image of Woedica also included the figure of her slave, following along on the road behind her - the character who eventually became Skaen.

re: paladin orders - The original paladin orders came from Josh and me, and yes, the Steel Garrote was one of mine. I think they appeared in my first design document for Woedica and her faith.
 
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Messages
1,121
G Ziets do you have any cool insights and stuff into how you came up with the gods in Pillars of Eternity (mainly Queen Woedica)? Also were you responsible for the paladin orders because Steel Garrotes are like the fiercest super glossy of orders to roleplay as in any rpg world ever! Thx
g0gRYio.png
During the original PoE Kickstarter campaign, I actually wrote a dev diary about the process of developing the gods, with a focus on Woedica: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/395376 . One thing I didn't mention in that article was that the original visual image of Woedica also included the figure of her slave, following along on the road behind her - the character who eventually became Skaen.

re: paladin orders - The original paladin orders came from Josh and me, and yes, the Steel Garrote was one of mine. I think they appeared in my first design document for Woedica and her faith.

That is so cool! Thanks so much George! I can't wait to see what new games you make!
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Lead System Designer Doug Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasahill/

Lead Systems Designer

Company Name Digimancy Entertainment (Contract)
Dates Employed Dec 2019 – Present
Employment Duration 7 mos
Location Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Almost 20 years experience in the industry, to be frankly I don't see any game/company Codex would appreciate: mostly casual, online, and mobile games. But I believe George chose him for a good reason.

Also he worked with Kevin Saunders at Nexon on the Nebula project. From Kevin's LinkedIn recommendation:

Through much of his time at Nebula, Doug was forced out of his comfort zone, having to tackle both design and implementation challenges that were significantly different from his past experiences. (We both knew that this would be the case.) Doug exhibited great perseverence and dedication as he adapted to the ever-changing situation. He came through with what we needed of him.

Meanwhile, when working in a domain in which he's familiar, Doug is capable of brilliance. For example, within a couple hours after a team playtest involving some new gameplay mechanics, Doug made major balance changes that drastically improved the play experience.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,633
Location
Ommadawn
I legit don't care about curriculum at all. All the people with 20+ years experience did was either shit out half finished abortions or put out incredibly mediocre trash. All the good games came from new blood.
 

Bester

⚰️☠️⚱️
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
11,003
Location
USSR
So who's this lucky favorite publisher?
What kind of project is it? RPG, or shitty visual novel about vampires, or a match 3 in the Faerun universe? What's the scope of the project?
What's the contract about? Is it for an entire project with all milestones worked out, or is it just "yeah ok, make a prototype for us and then we'll see, here's a hundred bucks George".

Hard to get even a chub on for this complete nothing-burger.

But what irks me the most is the use of instead of '. I don't even know where is on my keyboard.
 

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