Game News Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 1 coming August 25th

[Infinitron]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Paradox Interactive; Pillars of Eternity; Pillars of Eternity: The White March

With the game's Patch 2.0 set to go into beta soon (though not without some difficulty), it's become clear that the first part of the Pillars of Eternity: The White March expansion can't be very far off. A press release sent out today confirms that:

IRVINE, Calif. — Aug. 5, 2015 — Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive announced today that “The White March – Part I,” the first expansion to Pillars of Eternity, will be released on August 25, 2015. “The White March – Part I,” revealed during E3 2015, adds a tremendous amount of new content to the Pillars of Eternity universe, and can be played alongside the original game whether players have completed the core game or not. The expansion offers a higher level cap, artifacts, new companions, new abilities, and a new realm to explore along with an expertly crafted story from Carrie Patel, author of the Recoletta series and writer on the original Pillars of Eternity, and Eric Fenstermaker, lead writer on Pillars of Eternity and one of the co-writers of South Park: The Stick of Truth alongside show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Take a peek at what waits in The White March - Part I with the reveal trailer.

Pillars of Eternity is a role-playing game (RPG) inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, backed by over 70,000 fans and released to critical acclaim in March, 2015. Featuring an original world and game system that evokes and improves upon the traditional computer RPG experience, Pillars of Eternity now ventures into new parts of Eora in its first expansion, “The White March – Part I,” including a selection of snow themed environments inspired by Icewind Dale. The White March - Part I offers new features for first-time players and veterans alike, including new rogue and monk companions, a party-based AI system, multi-class abilities, and many new challenges to conquer.

For more information on Pillars of Eternity, visit http://pillarsofeternity.com/.
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Putting Carrie and Eric front and center, eh? That reveal trailer is the same one we saw at E3, so I guess there's not going to be anything new for Gamescom in the way of trailers.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I had no idea Eric contributed any (or at least any substantial) writing to the Stick of Truth; I thought it was written entirely by Matt & Trey. Unless they mean something like item / ability descriptions.

Case in point:

The Stick of Truth was completely written by the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/south-park-the-stick-of-truth

 

[Infinitron]

Sawyer has said it'd take six months to create an entire expansion, but it ended up taking five months just for the first part. I wonder what that means exactly. Maybe they didn't actually start right after the game was released? Or maybe we're just getting moar stuff.

I had no idea Eric contributed any (or at least any substantial) writing to the Stick of Truth; I thought it was written entirely by Matt & Trey. Unless they mean something like item / ability descriptions.

Case in point:

http://www.ign.com/wikis/south-park-the-stick-of-truth

I think they'd have an interest in making it appear like they wrote the entire game, but the specialized nature of games writing makes me think that's very unlikely.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I'm hyped.

Carrie Patel is amusing, she just retweeted this:

In the hardcore game of science fiction and fantasy genre writing.... which character class do YOU choose?

Lesifoere liked

 

[Zed]

I guess they must put writers forward now when they've lost Avellone. Writing is supposed to be their thing.

 

[ArchAngel]

So do we know the price of this half of the expansion?

 

[Infinitron]

So do we know the price of this half of the expansion?

No, but it has to be at least $10 since the Kickstarter expansion add-on cost $20.

I can't imagine it'll be much higher than that if it is, so maybe $15 tops?

 

[Dorateen]

Nice timing. I'll just muddle through more of the early areas for a couple of weeks, until the new content is available.

 

[m_s0]

With my current pace I might get through the base game before the second part of the expansion comes out so yeah, the timing isn't bad.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Eric Fenstermaker is an Obsidian vet. He's been there for years and is one of the last of 'old' Obsidian, at least as far as the writing team go. Remember that MCA, George Ziets, Tony Evans, Jeff Husges and Travis Stout have all left.

Fenstermaker worked on MotB and Fallout: New Vegas. I'm not sure about Carrie Patel, but I really liked the writing in Pillars of Eternity (and the writing in the guidebooks), so I will give her a lot of credit for it.

My concerns about the expansion being too combat heavy may be allayed if these two have been allowed to write some good stuff.

 

[Infinitron]

Jeff Husges

? Not that I know of: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeff-husges/4/754/b1a

 

[Deleted member 7219]

? Not that I know of.

Oh? Fascinating. I wonder what he's working on (unless he's doing design work for the MMOs).

Anthony Davis would it be NDA-breaking for you to tell us?

 

[Anthony Davis]

Jeff Husges is at Obsidian and is working on PoE.

Eric Fenstermaker is old school enough at this point. He originally applied to work at OEI as a programmer. I'm the one that reviewed his submission and suggested we hire him immediately. Shortly after his joining, he requested to move to design, hahahaha.

He was a content designer for quite some time. He did writing on Fallout NW, for example he wrote Boone and some vaults. He didn't become a full-time writer till PoE... I think. He might have been a full-time writer on Stormlands.

Edit: he did content and writing for South Park obviously, but I'm still not sure when he became a full time writer.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Jeff Husges is at Obsidian and is working on PoE.

Eric Fenstermaker is old school enough at this point. He originally applied to work at OEI as a programmer. I'm the one that reviewed his submission and suggested we hire him immediately. Shortly after his joining, he requested to move to design, hahahaha.

He was a content designer for quite some time. He did writing on Fallout NW, for example he wrote Boone and some vaults. He didn't become a full-time writer till PoE... I think. He might have been a full-time writer on Stormlands.

Fantastic. Thanks for the info.

I'm currently playing through KOTOR 2 for what seems like the millionth time and fired up the credits the other day to see how many names I recognised. Saw you in there. Didn't realise you were at Obsidian from the very, very beginning.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Edit: he did content and writing for South Park obviously

Can you tell us what content he wrote, at least roughly, or is that classified?

 

[Anthony Davis]

I don't know how to judge old school or not at Obsidian.

The way I judge it is this:

Were you at Obsdian during the Santa Ana Office days? The dark days when the power would shut off if you tried to microwave a burrito - ahhhh the rhythmic chiming of 20 back up power units going off at the same time. A place where the cockroaches were big enough to fight off the rats. A place where ants could carry off any unattended bagel or donut.

Eventually we moved into our offices across from the Irvine Spectrum and things like air conditioning, working power circuits, and an actual kitchen were available.

If you go by that standard, this is the list (probably not spelling every name right):
Feargus Urquhart - owner and CEO
Darren Monahan - owner, runs IT and IT systems
Chris Jones - owner, programmer
Chris Parker - owner, producer
Dan Spitzley - programmer
Scottie Everts - artist
Dennis Presnell - artist
Brian Menze - lead concept artist
Rich Tayler - programmer
Jay Fong - programmer
Anthony Davis - (myself) programmer
Adam Brennecke - programmer -now a producer
Joshua E. Sawyer - designer
Jeff Husges - designer
Bobby Null - designer
Eric Fenstermaker - programmer - then designer, now writer
Brian Heinz - designer
Tyson Christensen - designer
Dimitri Berman - artist
Charlie Staples - designer
Matt Festa - designer
Matt MacLean - designer
Matt Singh - producer
Brandon Adler - producer
Constant Gaw - designer
John Lee - designer - now producer
Dennis DeVore - programmer
Larry Charles - designer
Olivier Pougnard - designer
Javier Olivares - programmer
David Szymczyk - programmer
Seth McCaughey - animator
Antonio Govela - animator
Anthony Rogers - artist
Tina Parker - HR
Shon Stewart - animator

edit: for various spelling fixes and to add or remove names

...hmmm, I'm sure there's a few more... but I can't remember right now. Out of ~180 employees, the number is probably < 30.

 

[Ulminati]

MCA wasn't along from the start? Huh...

 

[Infinitron]

Careful now, Anthony Davis, you have to specify which Torment you're talking about these days.

MCA wasn't along from the start? Huh...

I think people who left the company are excluded from that list.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I don't know how to judge old school or not at Obsidian.

The way I judge it is this:

Were you at Obsdian during the Santa Anna Office days? The dark days when the power would shut off if you tried to microwave a burrito - ahhhh the rhythmic chiming of 20 back up power units going off at the same time. A place where the cockroaches were big enough to fight off the rats. A place where ants could carry off any unattended bagel or donut.

Eventually we moved into our offices across from the Irvine Spectrum and things like air conditioning, working power circuits, and an actual kitchen were available.

If you go by that standard, this is the list (probably not spelling every name right):

Joshua E. Sawyer - designer

Interesting. I thought Sawyer didn't join until later, although it makes sense. I hear Sawyer had to take over from Ferret Baudouin when he left during NWN2's production.

Probably worth saying that Scott Everts is a Black Isle / Fallout vet.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Interesting. I thought Sawyer didn't join until later, although it makes sense. I hear Sawyer had to take over from Ferret Baudouin when he left during NWN2's production.

Probably worth saying that Scott Everts is a Black Isle / Fallout vet.

Several of those are Black Isle/Interplay Vets.

Ulminati - yes, I am only including those who are still here. Thanks for making me sad again.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Careful now, Anthony Davis, you have to specify which Torment you're talking about these days.

I actually edited the list to take off title specific roles. For example, Josh is the Project Director of PoE and Adam is the Exec. Producer of PoE. Their core roles are what I'm focusing on.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Interesting. I thought Sawyer didn't join until later, although it makes sense. I hear Sawyer had to take over from Ferret Baudouin when he left during NWN2's production.

Probably worth saying that Scott Everts is a Black Isle / Fallout vet.

So is Dan Spitzley, for example.
Full legend list and interviews are available at http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7143
I remembered some names from reading the interviews.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

So is Dan Spitzley, for example.
Full legend list and interviews are available at http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7143
I remembered some names from reading the interviews.

Fascinating stuff. I also see CMcC was a designer on Fallout 2. That man gets around, I only knew about his work on Torment.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I updated some more names.

I could be wrong, but I think out of the entire list, Scottie and Darren probably have the most titles. Feargus and Parker are probably a close second. I might wrong though. I guess someone could check Moby Games, but they aren't always up to date (for example, last time I checked, they didn't have my Aliens Colonial Marines work listed).

 

[Anthony Davis]

So I checked, Eric Fenstermaker was a full time writer on South Park. Figuring out what he wrote is a bit tougher because it was such a collaborative process between OEI writers and Matt & Trey.