Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Ol' Willy]

"Species" word is fine. We still can say "inferior species"

 

[Bulo]

"Species" word is fine. We still can say "inferior species"

What about "superior sub-race"? Some halflings are just better than others.

 

[schaltbock]

beyond parody at this point

 

[Darth Canoli]

A pillars TTRPG ...



He really wants to salvage his droppings but i figured he'd be the type of going through his excrement before flushing the toilets, just in case he can accommodate his turds with some tomato sauce for diner...

 

[Infinitron]

We've got a whole thread for it here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/josh-sawyers-pillars-of-eternity-tabletop-rpg.132384/



https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/642424240941989888/hi-josh-im-a-3d-environment-artist-at-blizzard

Hi Josh, I'm a 3D environment artist at blizzard, and one of my favorite game, if not the one, is fallout new vegas. I have a question about landmarks. I remember you mentioning the landmark rule from new vegas and bethesda games, which is the ability to see 3 landmarks at any given time to always give the player, points of interests to explore. I was wondering how you can tackle something like this in a top down game, like pillars of eternity, since your camera technically can’t see far away.

That’s a great question. When were in the document and block-out phases of developing a Pillars/Deadfire level, one of my requirements for area designers was a screen grid placed over the map. This was an important step to help everyone understand scale and to understand what the player would see at any given point on the map.

This isn’t a real block-out/mock-up, but for the sake of illustrating what I’m talking about, I put some vague screen guidelines over this map from Gamepressure.

When I look at this map, I’m looking for any sections of open ground that cannot see edges of physical features on a normal screen view, at which point the player may become disoriented. I’m also looking for distinctive features that can help the player orient themselves: the two different tower ruins, the obelisk, the palm tree, the xaurip camp, the quicksand, the VTC camp, the edges of the oasis, and the entrance to the ruins themselves.

On interiors, we try to do the same thing, but also paying attention to things like differences in lighting, differences in prop decoration, and so on. Dungeons can be very disorienting and we intentionally avoided using minimaps or guide arrows on the main game view. This puts a heavier responsibility on us as designers to ensure that players can intuitively navigate through the space by using the physical features of that space.

Here is an example from Pillars 1. I don’t do much area design these days, but on Pillars 1, I did the documentation layout (but not actual block in or area design) for six exterior maps. This is Magran’s Fork, which was a “4x4″ – a term we have used since Infinity Engine days to define the number of screens that a map take up. For us, 1 screen = 1920x1080 pixels. At some point, Pillars 1′s lead area designer, Bobby Null, came up with a % to follow that, e.g. 3x3x50%, which indicated that 50% of the screenspace was empty – useful for dungeons with a lot of negative space.

This way of defining a map helps production and environment artists a lot when we’re scheduling work. Anyway, here’s my map:

While there are a few spots that are simply “open ground” (or light forest), I placed landmarks throughout the map to help with orientation. Note that at this point I was not designing content for the area, simply a physical layout. Area designers created the content much, much later. This process is atypical, as area designers usually define their own map layouts, but was necessary in this case because we had more environment art time than area designer time and I felt confident in my ability to do a solid wilderness area layout.

Here’s the actual map, again courtesy of Gamepressure:

While it is not 1:1, it’s quite close, and the artist added additional physical features to help further aid navigation.

The process isn’t foolproof, but it provides a solid foundation that allows for relatively easy navigation and re-traversal without requiring a mini-map, which was the goal.

As a side note, the Deadfire world map was not designed with the goal of making the player feel secure while exploring. Exploring while sailing in Deadfire requires the player to spend a fair amount of time in open water with no landmarks at all to guide their way. I intentionally developed and tweaked the layout of the map to induce a measure of insecurity and (mild!) anxiety when venturing out into open water. If the player was navigating into open water without a specific destination in mind, I wanted them to feel some unease about what could happen.

I’ve talked at length about things I did wrong with the sailing and ship combat mechanics, but I did like the sense of exploration in Deadfire and feel that I accomplished what I set out to (with some notable exceptions).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

sawyer spends all this time on nonsense because he has no idea how to design a good game

I'm still so very amused that this whole "race" nonsense basically came into being because allegedly liberal minds projected violent orcs as black people.

reminds me of the study that found white liberals treat minorities like children
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article222424675.html

 

[rusty_shackleford]

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/642424240941989888/hi-josh-im-a-3d-environment-artist-at-blizzard

overthinking: the post
average baldur's gate map is designed better than the average deadfire map

 

[purupuru]

So that's why the contents on Pillars' maps feel kinda too evenly spread out. Well it may be a matter of personal preference but I prefer the BG1 style where you sometimes just get a large patch of empty ground, it makes the world feel more natural. Also I don't think anyone could ever get lost or disoriented in an isometric game with automap. I mean come on, it's a 2-D rectangular map that you easily comb through, not a Daggerfall dungeon.

I wanted them to feel some unease about what could happen.

But WHAT could happen? The storms are highly telegraphed; an enemy ship might attack you if you use the wrong flag, but they are basically just easy loot and you can easily out run them if you don't feel like fighting; there is no shortage of food & water unless you purposefully fuck yourself up. I feel no unease at all traversing the uncharted waters of Deadfire, I just feel bored. Sunless Sea has randomly generated maps yet sailing in that game actually feels exciting due to tight resource management and deadly encounters, until you get burned out from permadeath and all the grind, that is.

 

[NerevarineKing]

sawyer spends all this time on nonsense because he has no idea how to design a good game

I'm still so very amused that this whole "race" nonsense basically came into being because allegedly liberal minds projected violent orcs as black people.

reminds me of the study that found white liberals treat minorities like children
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article222424675.html

It always seems kinda condescending when white people get mad for other people that don't actually care about the "issue".

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

Has anyone asked him why he’s a lesbian now?

 

[Tigranes]

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/642424240941989888/hi-josh-im-a-3d-environment-artist-at-blizzard

overthinking: the post
average baldur's gate map is designed better than the average deadfire map

This is an example of just bog standard, sensible tricks that you employ when you create something. Some massive butthurt projection going on when you think this is some special thing only Josh Sawyer would do because he was on Twitter too long or someshit. If Styg said the same thing you'd be saying this is really interesting trivia and it's nice that he talks about this stuff for the rest of us.

Interestingly, whether they meant to or not, BG1 maps would count more as an example of what Sawyer talks about at the end, where areas lacking frequent landmarks mean they convey a sense of getting lost & wandering. We all remember how BG1 and 2 felt quite different on this front - whether some thought it was more 'boring' to walk around nondescript forest a lot of the time, or it made for a better adventuring vibe.

 

[Nano]

That map doesn't mention Chase, which is very disrespectful.

 

[Shadenuat]

Yeah I prefer looking glass approach: make realistic location first, then think how player would travel it. This section breaking&landmarks at same distance from each other means locations generally have similar formulaic tempo to them.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Formulaic might work for civilization like villages and towns.

Town center, main street, bank, inn, that sort of stuff. Just because that's generally how we think, etc.

However the wilderness should not be formulaic at all. You should work towards avoiding feelings of repetitive actions from map to map unless it's intended to get you lost in a way.

Like a nation or state spanning conifer forest so huge the canopy blocks out stars at night, making getting your bearings nearly impossible. Then it would be completely understandable why it's foolish to leave established paths and roads.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Quillon]

ok josh :D

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The accident was hard on Josh.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Roguey]

ok josh

The senility's getting worse.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Once again Josh proves he's a faux tolkien linquist wanna be. Dar Ubermensch is horseshit, and he'll never be one.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

ok josh :D

'Taking a break'

Portrait of an autist who never works when he can post on social media instead

 

[copebot]

Race has always been the same as species, though.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Does the guy ever work or just post on social media?

 

[Sweeper]

Race has always been the same as species, though.

Is it though?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Race has always been the same as species, though.

Is it though?

Nope. Different races of the same species can have fertile offspring, different species - even if they can breed (e.g. a horse breeding with a donkey to produce a mule) - cannot have fertile offspring.