Interview Oscuro’s Obsidian Overhaul

[Jason]

Tags: Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>The latest <a href="http://bethblog.com/index.php/2010/10/27/inside-the-vault-obsidians-jorge-salgado/" target="_blank">Inside the Vault</a> profiles Obsidian's Jorge Salgado, better known as the guy behind <a href="http://www.oscurogamedesign.com/oscurosoblivionoverhaul-high.html" target="_blank">Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul</a>. Warning: Jorge's advice on making your way in the gaming industry might disgust and terrify some of our more spergerish readers. Reader discretion is advised.</p>
<blockquote>Develop social skills. This is really important. Unlike modding, professional game development requires this 99% of the time &ndash; you have a lot of social interaction among the members of the team. You&rsquo;re going to be working with these people for a long time, on the same thing, solving problems (often of your own making), and the end result needs to be greater than the sum of its individual parts. Drama, and unprofessional attitude, will be a bigger problem than in other biz, because of what I said above, and because this is a &ldquo;small&rdquo; industry &ndash; you&rsquo;d be surprised to find out how quickly it&rsquo;s expected for &ldquo;word&rdquo; to go around.</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[Trojan_generic]

The Bethesda community – its modders, and fans — are among the most civil, involved, and driven out there. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with Fallout: New Vegas.

It was OK until this.

 

[Arcanoix]

this is a “small” industry – you’d be surprised to find out how quickly it’s expected for “word” to go around.

It's become claustrophobic because the streets closed their walls* in all around an otherwise broad, creative industry.

*See what I did there? Fact.

 

[Andhaira]

News post did not contain any joke(s).

 

[DalekFlay]

I should really re-install Oblivion and use this mod to see if it becomes deeper than a rain drop.

Or not.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I should really re-install Oblivion and use this mod to see if it becomes deeper than a rain drop.

Or not.

Go for broke, try to install F-Com and see if you can get it to work right.

 

[Micmu]

So OB is employing oblivionite modders now?
Can we expect startrek pijamas and lightsaber DLCs for their excrements?

 

[Azrael the cat]

The Bethesda community – its modders, and fans — are among the most civil, involved, and driven out there. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with Fallout: New Vegas.

It was OK until this.

In fairness, the 'civil' and 'driven' criteria count us out. Bioware is out ever since its fanbase merged with the slash-fiction community. It would be hard to talk to Blizzard's fanbase, what with all the drool and foaming at the mouth. With Valve you're not going to get much back other than 'yes master'. So the guy might actually have a point.

So OB is employing oblivionite modders now?
Can we expect startrek pijamas and lightsaber DLCs for their excrements?

It isn't worth installing Oblivion for, but the OOO is a pretty damn impressive mod, just as a mod. It's one of those mods that shows up how limited Bethesda are - it's main things is that itremoves level-scaling of NPCs, mobs and loot entirely, handplacing all spawns by area and loot so the game can actually be explored, amongst a lot of other stuff. It's well-balanced and at least makes the game a genuine open world rather than a series of randomly rolled encounters that function on your level instead of where you are / what you are doing. Unfortunately, the underlying weaknesses of the game are still there. But I'd have been surprised if no-one hired the guy.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Develop social skills.

I was ok until this.

Game development should be about having a coherent design vision, implementing it regardless of focus group bullshit, crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentation of their women.

 

[Excommunicator]

I’m pretty hardcore

That is really asking for an appropriate image.

 

[commie]

I'm glad that at least some of these great modders have been hired by the companies who's games they manfully tried to fix. The guy behind the Darthmod AI for for the Total War games is the other one I'm thinking of. Didn't know that the OOO guy got hired, maybe Beth's next game won't be as shit out of the box regarding the exploration part of the world at least?

 

[Jim Cojones]

Didn't know that the OOO guy got hired, maybe Beth's next game won't be as shit out of the box regarding the exploration part of the world at least?

He's working for Obsidian, not Bethesda.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

^Didn't he work/help on FO3? If not, at least some of his ideas were used.

 

[Topher]

Develop social skills.

I was ok until this.

Game development should be about having a coherent design vision, implementing it regardless of focus group bullshit, crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentation of their women.

Just like everywhere else you have to be popular to get anything done. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong so long as people like you they'll take your side and it's rare to find people who won't act like "yes men" whenever it suits them to do so. No nonsense people who keep there head down and get things done don't get promoted or at least don't get promoted very high up the chain but people who know how to gab with the boss about their kids move right along. The problem is compounded by the fact that once you hire somebody it's incredibly hard to fire them. I've been in position where I wasn't allowed to fire blatantly incompetent employees even though they had been blatantly incompetent for months on end out of what I can only describe as fear. I suppose big companies don't like to deal with civil suits from angry ex-employees but the amount of evidence you need to compile before getting the ok to fire an employee is often staggering.

 

[poocolator]

The Bethesda community – its modders, and fans — are among the most civil, involved, and driven out there. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with Fallout: New Vegas.

It was OK until this.

This is his interpretation of "developing social skills"-- spout bullshit.

Or actually believe it.

 

[DraQ]

The Bethesda community – its modders, and fans — are among the most civil, involved, and driven out there. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with Fallout: New Vegas.

It was OK until this.

It's hard to not be civil on TESF:

HALT!HALT!HALT!

 

[Brotherman Bill]

They should hire Drog.

 

[Tycn]

Modders are willing to work for nothing and are presumably all hungry for developer cock. I'm not sure why the practice of hiring them isn't more commonplace.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I'm glad that at least some of these great modders have been hired by the companies who's games they manfully tried to fix. The guy behind the Darthmod AI for for the Total War games is the other one I'm thinking of. Didn't know that the OOO guy got hired, maybe Beth's next game won't be as shit out of the box regarding the exploration part of the world at least?

I could have sworn that the Darthmod fellow was rejected, upon which he had a big rant and left the modding scene. Mind you, I haven't really been into the TW series since the release of Medieval 2 and it's addon, after which upon hearing of how bad the Napoleonic total war games were, the addition of forced Steam-like client, and the dearth of any real news of future improvements, I lost interest.

Did he eventually get given a job at CA?

 

[madbringer]

Yeah, I’ll reload a zillion times until I manage to overcome great odds — or I’m happy to just let go, keep adventuring in such immersive worlds, and then come back for a well-deserved revenge once my character is up to the task.

RPGs are, in my opinion, among the most complex, and complete, game experiences out there. Not only do they rely on combat, stealth, and dialogue, mechanics, but also demand sub-textual depth, solid characters, quality writing, breathing worlds, and vast design systems. It’s the type of experience that most resembles stepping into an alternate digital reality, where you’re free to do things of which you can almost only dream to do in the everyday. RPGs are, to me, the closest thing to the “ultimate” game-experience.

My favorite game of all time is Planescape: Torment – it just blew my cookies back when I played it. I had never seen something so different, so engrossing, so mysterious, and yet so familiar. The creativity and sub-text threading of that game sets it apart from anything else I’ve played. It was the game that most captivated my imagination — pulling me into its complex, evolving, story in a way that has marked me ever since.

The Bethesda community – its modders, and fans — are among the most civil, involved, and driven out there.

Seems like a decent fellow, all in all.

 

[Roguey]

I've never see the phrase "blew my cookies" before. I hope I don't see it again. He seems like a cool guy though. Poor Qwinn.

I’m pretty hardcore

That is really asking for an appropriate image.

 

[commie]

Didn't know that the OOO guy got hired, maybe Beth's next game won't be as shit out of the box regarding the exploration part of the world at least?

He's working for Obsidian, not Bethesda.

Yeah I just realised. Should have known that Bethesda would be far too arrogant to hire someone that dared to try and 'improve' their 'masterpiece'.

I can see why the world in NV is more sensible though. Of course he's one of many but still...

I could have sworn that the Darthmod fellow was rejected, upon which he had a big rant and left the modding scene. Mind you, I haven't really been into the TW series since the release of Medieval 2 and it's addon, after which upon hearing of how bad the Napoleonic total war games were, the addition of forced Steam-like client, and the dearth of any real news of future improvements, I lost interest.

Did he eventually get given a job at CA?

Yes I remember Darth's rant when CA told him to piss off before Empire was released. I read on the TW forums that he was eventually hired after the shitstorm about the diabolical Empire AI. I think he did a few things for Napoleon, but is fully integrated into the Shogun II AI development from the start.

 

[mondblut]

Game development should be about having a coherent design vision, implementing it regardless of focus group bullshit, crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentation of their women.

Just like Qwinn or Tessera.

Qwinn.

 

[ksjav]

Yeah I just realised. Should have known that Bethesda would be far too arrogant to hire someone that dared to try and 'improve' their 'masterpiece'.

Actually, they did hire the guy who did 'Morrowind Enhanced' to work on oblivion's combat.

 

[ChristofferC]

Jon Shafer went from being a Civ3 modder to being the lead designer of Civ5 over the course of a few years.