Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[dutchwench]

It's not stalking, it's just [Tracking] - a skill Sawyer featured prominently in several interactions in Icewind Dale, mind you.

 

[luj1]

Commendable if true, but how and why do you know this?

You don't wanna know tbh

 

[Diggfinger]

Yet somehow it never works out for him in practice.

It always works out for him in terms of his games being good.

that's why his only project in 6 years was a Java game about history.

The game that has 95% positive rating on Steam with 6k reviews. Was that supposed to be an insult?

Its a good... 'game'

just not much gameplay to speak of

 

[MjKorz]

just not much gameplay to speak of

Then its design philosophy is perfectly in line with one of the 'dex's top 3 RPGs - Planet Escape: Tournament.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Artyoan]

I wouldn't want, or wouldn't put emphasis on, romances. The pressure to do so would be overwhelming though. Seems to pick up a large progressive and obsessive audience that otherwise won't be interested. Also, the free form, low balance nature of Larian games would drive him insane. He would maintain a tighter grip to prevent breaking the game, for better or worse.

Even if we enjoy making fun of him, all of us would be interested to see what he would come up with.

 

[luj1]

"I feel like I'm kind of out of touch with that audience."

Until he becomes a lead again lol

then it's "ok bro let's please everyone" time

 

[Tyranicon]

All mainstream devs are super out of touch with what current audiences want. That's why you see these abominations in the industry today.

Ah yes, Avowed is totally betting the farm on romances with a fish man and an ugly ferretwoman who tells you how sexy and pansexual she is on first click.






.... oh fuck that's exactly what they're doing isn't it? What the fuck is wrong with this dev generation?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[luj1]

 

[Bulo]

As per usual, Josh is right. The "I should be able to go anywhere I choose and do anything I want" attitude is how you get to a game like Skyrim

 

[Butter]

It's not like you can't go north at the start of New Vegas. You just can't do it without any friction. Bethesda fans don't like friction in their games.

 

[Tyranicon]

World with dangerous areas > world that has flat difficulty with level-scaling.

Pretty elementary stuff in RPG world at this point.

 

[santino27]

All mainstream devs are super out of touch with what current audiences want. That's why you see these abominations in the industry today.

Ah yes, Avowed is totally betting the farm on romances with a fish man and an ugly ferretwoman who tells you how sexy and pansexual she is on first click.






.... oh fuck that's exactly what they're doing isn't it? What the fuck is wrong with this dev generation?

View attachment 53886

Avowed doesn't have player romances, because much like everything else, they were deemed too ambitious to do. Which is probably one of the rare times where their 'do less, and then warn everyone to further lower expectations' approach has actually worked on our behalf.

 

[mediocrepoet]

World with dangerous areas > world that has flat difficulty with level-scaling.

Pretty elementary stuff in RPG world at this point.

You know, this should be true and yet...

 

[Drakortha]

As per usual, Josh is right. The "I should be able to go anywhere I choose and do anything I want" attitude is how you get to a game like Skyrim

But without it, we won't get to see Todd walk out onto a stage and give us his classic "be who you want, do what you want" sales pitch.

 

[Bad Sector]

Bethesda fans don't like friction in their games.

Explains the physics bugs.

World with dangerous areas > world that has flat difficulty with level-scaling.

I think few people liked that approach even here, but personally i liked the way ELEX's world is designed in terms of difficulty: instead of having clearly separated "easy" (or whatever is "easy" in ELEX anyway) and "hard" areas, you get a somewhat random spread of difficulty with stupidly hard monsters placed right next to easy ones - this creates a sense of uncertainty about if what you'll encounter next. It isn't completely random, just not predictable enough (like "easy near starting areas, hard out of the beaten path" and other similar tropes) to keep you on your toes.

 

[PanickedTushkano]

Very in character.

 

[Sweeper]

Very in character.

After decades of trying he finally figured it out, the only way to create a perfectly balanced game is to to do away with the need for balance by making an adventure game instead of an RPG.

 

[luj1]

Sawyer was never obsessed with balance, he was obsessed with accessibility

Probably it stems from some tabletop trauma of his

 

[Infinitron]

 

[ropetight]

Still active on tumblr...
Does he do Yahoo Answers too?

 

[Harthwain]

As per usual, Josh is right. The "I should be able to go anywhere I choose and do anything I want" attitude is how you get to a game like Skyrim

Technically this is also true for Morrowind. Although in Morrowind it is possible for enemies to be stronger than you so that can keep you in check for a bit. You should also mention Oblivion as it introduced "enemies scale with you" mechanic, which helped the "I should be able to go anywhere I choose and do anything I want". Skyrim, for all its faults, is a bit better in this aspect than Oblivion was.

 

[Gahbreeil]

Can someone call Mr. Sawyer over to this thread? I had some Qs I need As for.

 

[Infinitron]

Which one of you sent this?