Interview Feargus Urquhart talks about Tyranny, Bloodlines 2 and Obsidian's Future at Gamepressure

[Kz3r0]

Kz3r0 didn't I win the removal of your dumbfuck tag in one of the UT99 comps?

Are you sure?

 

[Sensuki]

I just checked the threads, I was going to do it for CUTS #3 but not enough people showed up so we didn't run it sozm8 false alarm

 

[Lurker King]

If I had Cain & Boyarsky working for me, I 'd ask them to rethink their priorities and do everything they did when they were actually creative. I would encourage them to wear smelly t-shirts, letting empty cokes and pizza boxes on the table, sleeping on the floor or having whatever other crazy habits they had when they were passionate about game development.

 

[ArchAngel]

If I had Cain & Boyarsky working for me, I 'd ask them to rethink their priorities and do everything they did when they were actually creative. I would encourage them to wear smelly t-shirts, letting empty cokes and pizza boxes on the table, sleeping on the floor or having whatever other crazy habits they had when they were passionate about game development.

That would probably require more than that. Getting rid of wives and children would be step #1. Family obligations sucks out all the creativity and will out of a person.

 

[Lurker King]

Yep. So they need to hire nannies, secretaries and shit. I don't care. Just give me good games.

 

[vivec]

Remember about ten years ago or so when a bunch of people on the Codex had the mistaken impression that Obsidian wanted to make Black Isle style games and were reluctantly accepting all those console action contracts because they were the only things being offered.

I'm glad Pillars of Eternity and this interview have firmly driven a stake into that idea.

Cultural appropriation detected.

It was Wasteland 2 that did it. It started it all. Whether it was a bad game or not, it was the origin of the current state of affairs where isometric, RPGs even can exist as their own genre. And for the record, W2>Poe. Deal with it. Stop trying to change to history.

 

[Roguey]

Cultural appropriation detected.

It was Wasteland 2 that did it. It started it all. Whether it was a bad game or not, it was the origin of the current state of affairs where isometric, RPGs even can exist as their own genre. And for the record, W2>Poe. Deal with it. Stop trying to change to history.

Surely you meant to respond to someone else because I don't see how this has anything to do with what I was saying.

 

[Sensuki]

I think what he's trying to say is that WL2 killed the Kickstarter bubble ?

Either that or he's misunderstood you and is trying to say that WL2 started it (for RPGs) iono

 

[vivec]

yep. Misunderstanding. Sorry.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Happily, in the meantime a large percentage of Codexers have accepted Fallout: New Vegas-style games as an equally desirable form of RPG.

Right, that started with FNV. It's not like there's huge overlap between Codexers that champion New Vegas and those that put several hundred hours (just to see how much shit it is of course) into Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim and (now) Fallout 4.

Console trash hiking sim, now featuring actual story and C&C, what a goddamn masterpiece.

 

[Athelas]

Console trash hiking sim, now featuring actual story and C&C, what a goddamn masterpiece.

You were probably being sarcastic, but that is pretty much a summary of the blurb accompanying its placement in the Codex top 10 RPG's of all time:

Broseph: The Codex seems split on this game; either you love it to death and praise it as a true successor to the original Fallout games, or you declare it a mediocre but well-intentioned attempt at resurrecting the franchise in a shoddy game engine. I am firmly in the former camp. For all its flaws, the amount of replay value New Vegas offers compared to other RPGs is nearly unparalleled. In most RPGs with factions, you're given the option of doing quest X for faction A or quest Y for faction B. Not so in this game. Almost every quest has multiple resolutions and methods of dealing with it based on your character build, and I especially liked donning a disguise and doing quests within an organization to weaken them from the inside. This is the kind of stuff I always dreamed about experiencing in a computer RPG, but most have never delivered in the way of reactivity as much as this. New Vegas slightly suffers from the loot hoarding, hiking simulator FPS gameplay it inherited from Fallout 3, but it's the best we could have hoped for as a true Fallout sequel in 2010.

undecaf: Fallout: New Vegas bravely continues the narrative legacy of Fallout and Fallout 2, and it could be, and has been, argued that in some respects it even outdoes them. In particular, the choices and consequences the game presents are - at times - some of the best offered in recent years in the RPG genre, and it also allows for a delightful amount of satisfying role-playing options.

On the less positive side, the game also continues the technical and mechanical legacy of Fallout 3 (which I won't mention twice here). While there are clear improvement everywhere, all across the board, the game's potential and scope are unfortunately marred by the oxidated technology and uninspired gameplay inherited from its chronologically closest predecessor.

 

[Lurker King]

Right, that started with FNV. It's not like there's huge overlap between Codexers that champion New Vegas and those that put several hundred hours (just to see how much shit it is of course) into Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim and (now) Fallout 4.

Console trash hiking sim, now featuring actual story and C&C, what a goddamn masterpiece.

Don't forget to add to the list VtM:B! :D

 

[oldmanpaco]

Happily, in the meantime a large percentage of Codexers have accepted Fallout: New Vegas-style games as an equally desirable form of RPG.

Right, that started with FNV. It's not like there's huge overlap between Codexers that champion New Vegas and those that put several hundred hours (just to see how much shit it is of course) into Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim and (now) Fallout 4.

Console trash hiking sim, now featuring actual story and C&C, what a goddamn masterpiece.

I don't know. FO3 and Oblivion were utter shit and FO4 sounds like utter shit. But I kind of liked modded Skyrim. Not a deep experience but not the worst thing I ever bought for 75% off on steam.

 

[Grotesque]

and if I'm looking for storyfaggotry I'm not interested in playing a Fallout game anyway.

Kind sir, would you fancy some cumm in your shawarma?

 

[Fairfax]

So what I haven’t figured out necessarily is how do we deal with that worry of a publisher. Because the minute something goes wrong, they get very worried – which I can understand – but things going wrong… well, they go wrong all the time, you know? And how do we solve that problem? If there’s one thing I have a problem with when it comes to publishers is that we’ve been making games for a really long time and we want to own our IP. When we make something, we want to own it.

I totally understand the risk – publishers give me a lot of money, and they want to make a lot of money back. But I can put a team together that in total has like 500 years of game development experience – how do you value that? It has to be valued more than just by a small royalty stream when the game is super successful. Not just successful, but super successful. So that’s my other thing. And I do think that publishers are getting into a place where they are okay with that now. They’re getting into a place where there can be more conversations about us continuing to own the IP, which is great.

I don't see where he gets the impression that publishers are more open to letting the devs keep their IPs nowadays. It seems to be the opposite, with the big publishers releasing fewer games every year.
It's not like it didn't happen in the past either, it's just that Obsidian never managed to get that kind of deal. Bioware kept Jade Empire and Mass Effect, and that was more than a decade ago. Why did the doctors succeed where Feargus & co didn't? Were the publishers reluctant or did Obsidian's partners fail at negotiating better deals?

Also, I don't see a reference to Bethesda in the last part. Their deal was a bonus in case they got the 85 Metascore, not a royalties. He's probably talking about a common type of deal; perhaps DS3 and/or Alpha Protocol.

When Josh Sawyer took over Stormlands, he said something like: “Now, let’s really flesh it out”, and lots of things changed about it.

This is interesting. Implies that he wasn't leading the project when it started. Some fine irony if Sawyer is the one responsible for the events that followed.

 

[Morality Games]

I don't see where he gets the impression that publishers are more open to letting the devs keep their IPs nowadays. It seems to be the opposite, with the big publishers releasing fewer games every year.

He's referring to companies like Sega, Paradox, or more to the point Deep Silver. Remember that below EA, Ubisoft, and Activision you have dozens of small-to-medium sized publishers that are scraping the boots of the giants for market share. In the indie/crowdfunding climate, those guys are willing to abdicate most of the financial risk for a vastly reduced profit.

It's not like it didn't happen in the past either, it's just that Obsidian never managed to get that kind of deal. Bioware kept Jade Empire and Mass Effect, and that was more than a decade ago. Why did the doctors succeed where Feargus & co didn't? Were the publishers reluctant or did Obsidian's partners fail at negotiating better deals?

Those weren't deals, though. Bioware paid for the development of Jade Empire through a thrifty combination of using technology and assets LucasArts paid them to develop for Kotor (but Bioware got to retain ownership of) and whatever other ways the doctors could cook up money -- quite possibly they dipped into their own executive pockets. Jade Empire made enough of a profit they were able to start developing Mass Effect and Dragon Age, which got the attention of EA.

 

[Roguey]

Jade Empire bombed, that's why they never made a sequel. They were able to survive it.

 

[Paul_cz]

I just want them to work on proper 3D Unreal Engine 4 powered Vampire Bloodlines faithful sequel. That's all I am asking. Come on ffs.

 

[Fairfax]

He's referring to companies like Sega, Paradox, or more to the point Deep Silver. Remember that below EA, Ubisoft, and Activision you have dozens of small-to-medium sized publishers that are scraping the boots of the giants for market share. In the indie/crowdfunding climate, those guys are willing to abdicate most of the financial risk for a vastly reduced profit.

But where are they doing what he said? Paradox owns Tyranny, SEGA is barely publishing games from external studios, and I think Deep Silver owns most of the stuff they've been releasing.
I agree that it's happening in the "indie" scene, but Feargus was saying that publishers are more open to deals where the developer keeps the IP.

Those weren't deals, though. Bioware paid for the development of Jade Empire through a thrifty combination of using technology and assets LucasArts paid them to develop for Kotor (but Bioware got to retain ownership of) and whatever other ways the doctors could cook up money -- quite possibly they dipped into their own executive pockets. Jade Empire made enough of a profit they were able to start developing Mass Effect and Dragon Age, which got the attention of EA.

Jade Empire didn't pay for Dragon Age or Mass Effect, both were already in development way before JE was released. JE was announced in 2003, a year after they signed with Microsoft. DA was in development since 2002, and the EA deal only happened in 2007. ME's development started in 2004 IIRC, right after KOTOR's release.
Microsoft published both JE and ME in exchange for exclusivity on consoles, while BioWare kept the IP.

Can't blame Feargus for avoiding these situations nowadays, but no one can't blame the publishers for not taking the risk either. Obsidian's record doesn't help, which is not a problem that BioWare ever had.
When considering giving Obsidian tens of millions to make a new IP, it's perfectly reasonable to be concerned. Execs don't like uncertaintity, and if there's a hint it could be another AP or DS3 instead of the next FNV, they call it off.

Jade Empire bombed, that's why they never made a sequel. They were able to survive it.

They did work on a sequel for a while. And it didn't sell much, but it was very well received by the press. As fas as the publisher is concerned, that's much better than an expensive bomb with mixed reception like Alpha Protocol.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't see where he gets the impression that publishers are more open to letting the devs keep their IPs nowadays. It seems to be the opposite, with the big publishers releasing fewer games every year.

Try emailing Feargus and asking him.

But maybe what he meant by "getting into a place where there can be more conversations" is "we have money now and can partially fund the game ourselves, so we can make deals where we keep the IP".

 

[JustMyOnion]

I don't see where he gets the impression that publishers are more open to letting the devs keep their IPs nowadays.

It may appear this way simply because there aren't any independent Westwoods, Dices and id softwares to buy up anymore. Even the destroyer of worlds, EA, has been sticking mostly to its own IPs for about three years now, whereas the much laxer Paradox have been releasing like crazy, so that may be where that impression comes from.

 

[hpstg]

I don't see where he gets the impression that publishers are more open to letting the devs keep their IPs nowadays.

It may appear this way simply because there aren't any independent Westwoods, Dices and id softwares to buy up anymore. Even the destroyer of worlds, EA, has been sticking mostly to its own IPs for about three years now, whereas the much laxer Paradox have been releasing like crazy, so that may be where that impression comes from.

Meanwhile 2k has to make time just to be able to count all the money they make. They are suspiciously low profile for the amount of dough they move.

 

[l3loodAngel]

Not a deep experience but not the worst thing I ever bought for 75% off on steam.

Should be your custom tag.

 

[KevinV12000]

I’d love to make a sequel of Alpha Protocol. It’s a great game; that’s a game that was hugely inspired in some parts, and kind of mediocre in other parts.

If for nothing else, I love good ol' F.U. for this. Alpha Protocol is not only a great game, it's one of the most under-rated games in computer gaming history. I mean, I'm sorry the FPS fans were under the mistaken impression it was a shooter and not an RPG. I can see where "the espionage RPG" line in the title could have thrown them. But, damn: from Alan Parker to Yancy Westbridge, Marburg, Brayko, Heck, Sean "Fuck Yeah!" Darcy, there just aren't better characters in any other CRPG in recent decades.

It's...Arcanum 2

Fuck Yeah!

 

[Roguey]

I mean, I'm sorry the FPS fans were under the mistaken impression it was a shooter and not an RPG.

It was a bad third person shooter with role playing.