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Josh Sawyer is taking a break from directing games

Glaucon

Prophet
Joined
Sep 11, 2016
Messages
1,000
"without any degree" irrelevant

But yeah. Josh does seem pretty burned out.
 

Keppo

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Sawyer has good CV and tons of experience working on RPGs. At worst he can land Senior Designer position at literally every company no mather if indie or AAA, at best if company would have open Lead or even Directing position especially company focusing on CRPGs or high budget ARPGs he would have big chance getting that job. There is not than many people in gaming industry with knowledge about RPG design, even less with similar knowledge to Sawyer, like him or not thats the truth.


Also im not suprised that he is burned out.. Pillars of Eternity has such a shitty generic and dull setting that these two games killed Sawyer passion probably.
 

Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
That's not 'balanced' that's the truth. His career is Obsidian. He started as a community manager and ended up leading major projects, but outside Obsidian's door he is still 'just' a community manager. He doesn't have any advanced coding skills that we no of and certainly no writing skills. Having last directed a commercial failure wouldn't help either. The best he could hope for would be senior game tester or contracted work as an external producer.

I think you’re confused. Josh was never a community manager. He got his start as a web designer at Interplay. Before going to Obsidian, he had a fairly senior position at Midway’s San Diego office presumably on the strength of Icewind Dale 2.

He was the project lead on Fallout: New Vegas, which was a monster success. Even if Deadfire is the flop we think it is, he wouldn’t have any trouble finding high level work in the industry.

Anyway this is all baseless as we have no reason to think he’s leaving Obsidian. Also, I’m pretty sure this is not a new story—Josh has been saying this since before the game was released so it has nothing to do with Deadfire’s commercial reception.
 

Lycra Suit

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Political refugee in Canada
When I meant Obsidian I meant the core team as a whole. It's through the connections he made at Black Isle that he was then hired into the growing studio.

Judging by the ratings it seems many users either can't read, behave like triggered fans, or misinterpret my points. I'm not saying that he doesn't have a career ahead of him if he leaves the company I'm saying that his opportunities outside of Obsidian are limited much like anyone else with informal qualifications leaving a company he rose into. And he isn't a legendary designer or code writer. Just a somewhat competent manager who stood out in a company who we just learned is struggling in that domain.
 

laclongquan

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Searching for my kidnapped sister
I dunno, he could do great.

I mean, he can do the whole producing a game right? From start to finish.

With his resume, he can do a great KS for funding.

Then he can command and control a studio in some 3rd world to develop a game precisely to his satisfaction. He can stay in LA and do the remote work with the teams, thus are answerable to his backers. Or he can leave that to a financial and marketing guy, and move to 3rd World to do the on-site things.

As you know, I have a sister-in-law who is graphic artists, outsourced from some Japanese/Spanish game studios, aside from her official work for some JAP-investment game studio in VN. I know a little of that kind of work.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
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Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,023
Honestly I feel sorry for him cause he has no future with Obsidian anymore. That's got to hurt after 11 years spent there.
 

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
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Messages
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Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Even with all his hipsterisms I like Sawyer, he seems like an interesting guy... he should freelance for awhile or go to Beth along with Avellone
 

Cross

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Messages
2,983
It's a shame if this means Sawyer never gets to make his historical RPG. It would certainly have been interesting to see how he would explain why the population of medieval Germany has such a high percentage of strong independent sassy black women.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
Josh wouldn't join Larian, unless they give him free reign of what game he'd make otherwise he wouldn't work on Swen's wet dreams. There is a better chance he'd go indie before joining another studio but he'll stay at Obs for sure.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Developer
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath

It really is.

A degree will help a lot landing your first job. At age 42 what counts is the last five years of your CV. What you did 20 years ago is completely irrelevant.
Yep. I doubt anyone will turn down a senior designer who created a few of the best received RPGs in the last decade because he doesn't have a degree in some kind of irrelevant field. Some companies are even employing modders at junior positions, game development is not a field where a degree adds too much to the expertise of a person.
 

Kruno

Arcane
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Village Idiot Zionist Agent Shitposter
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Let us assume Josh is working on the next CoD. When he comes back I really hope it is with a new project that is a spiritual successor to Icewind Dale.
 

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
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Dec 28, 2013
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In your face
Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Honestly though, didn't Arnold Hendrick recently say the he would love to make another Darklands?

This is your chance for creative fullfilment, Josh. Just give the man a call, talk Feargus into letting you work externally or say you are burnt out and need a sabbatical or something, assemble a team of devs and make a cool little indie game. No need to meet mass market expectations, just a small team you can have a creative role in, work with your personal hero instead having Feargus yell at you, dude, who knows, maybe you'll even make a game thats so good it will get a neutral positive Codex review! The sky is the limit, Josh. Break the shackles.
 
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