Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Palomides]

"I am not proud of any of the games I've worked on, so it's not that surprising that people conclude I'm incompetent from looking at my work." - J. E. Sawyer

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Did he actually say that?

 

[Sannom]

No.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well it sounds like something he'd say as a way to say why the games he made were bad.

 

[Roguey]

Did he actually say that?

Yes.

No.

You are mistaken! https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-icewind-dale-series-thread.54564/page-16#post-2412491

But it was 2006. It's possible, though not likely, he's been proud of something since then.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Gordian Nutt]

Yes.



You are mistaken! https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-icewind-dale-series-thread.54564/page-16#post-2412491

But it was 2006. It's possible, though not likely, he's been proud of something since then.

You acting as librarian is very helpful (not a joke and not an insult)

This is good to read thank you

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well there you go. He did say it. Why is this shitlord still in the industry?

 

[Ol' Willy]

In the case of a Molotov cocktail, I would probably just refer to it as a “fire bomb” or something similar. Given the typical composition of a Molotov cocktail (gasoline, alcohol, oil, modern thickening agents, etc.), you’re already dealing with a setting that’s extremely 20th+ century Earth-like and you may want to think carefully about how similar or different your setting is and how things should be named. If you’re dealing with an alternate history where timelines diverged before Molotov-Ribbentrop, maybe the weapon exists but it’s named after someone else entirely because Molotov never rose to prominence.

Molotovs were first used in Spanish Civil war, and then on Khalkhin Gol, though.

 

[Efe]

Byzantium had primitive molotovs did it not?

 

[Hace El Oso]

Byzantium had primitive molotovs did it not?

Nothing primitive about Greek fire.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Well there you go. He did say it. Why is this shitlord still in the industry?

He's aging his way into irrelevancy slowly but steadily - the way it seems to work is they don't even realize it's happening until the next gen of millenial whatevers attack them for being out of touch... which they are.

The fact he's retreated to a smaller project is a lowering of ambition, but to be fair, I don't think Sawyer wanted to be "ambitious," he just wants to be loud and heard and express his coda of how to remove any aspect of fun from design in a cold, clinical, pedantic way.

It's so weird he's like the only member of the studio we even hear from, yet he's doing arguably the least % of work on their projects.

 

[Stavrophore]

Byzantium had primitive molotovs did it not?

Byzantium ships had literally a pressure tank that mixed the naphta with compressed air and ejected that on other ships. That's not primitive at all. It was ahead of its time.

 

[Infinitron]

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/637854046208786432/youve-mentioned-that-you-had-some-issues-with

xtoad asked:

You've mentioned that you had some issues with Cyperpunk 2077, specifically with the UI/UX and some of the RPG systems. Would you like to elaborate on those ?

I need to actually play around with the inventory and other interfaces in CP2077 more to do a full critique of them, but I think there are two root problems from which most other UI/UX issues stem:

1) Inconsistent and/or unexpected control mapping for keyboard and mouse, which feels like a consequence of designing and playing with controllers exclusively/dominantly until late in development. M3 and keystrokes are not the same as 3rd and 4th face buttons on a controller, but controls have to go somewhere.

2) Overloaded controls. Sometimes designers develop controls to give equal access to every interaction at a given point. That’s usually not good, because every interaction doesn’t have equal importance, frequency, or even similar use cases. When you force the controls to support every interaction you could possibly want to do at a single point, the mapping gets complicated, crowded, and unwieldy.

I need to play more with the RPG systems as well, but I don’t like sifting through half a dozen variants of the same pistol or scope mod that differ in DPS or ADS time by single digit percentages or literally hundredths of a second, respectively. It’s inconsequential noise. If it doesn’t make any perceptible difference to the action economy or the utility of how I use the gear, it doesn’t matter to me and the process is just tedious.

Yes, I understand this is how many looter shooters work and also how The Outer Worlds works. It’s not gameplay I personally find enjoyable or interesting.

It looks like the perks get more useful / interesting later on, but when base level perks are giving things like 3% increases to damage, it falls into the same pit of “this makes no difference in gameplay”. This is exacerbated by the fact that the pace at which you will upgrade or swap out weapons is much faster than the pace at which you gain perks.

You have a rifle that does 100 DPS. You take a perk that increases damage from cover by 10%, so that goes up to 110 DPS. Unless the per-shot damage increase from the perk results in fewer bullets to take out an enemy, that is completely imperceptible. Then, after taking that perk, you upgrade to a different weapon, which becomes your new baseline inclusive with the perk. So if you take another perk that increases damage by 10 or 15% under certain circumstances, you’re not comparing its efficacy to the old rifle, before you took the first perk. The delta will feel the same, i.e. inconsequential, especially if enemies gain HP at a rate that matches your progression.

All of this amounts to a linear “ramp” incline where your numbers go up but the feeling of efficacy/”time to kill” is largely the same and you’re not usually gaining any new mechanics or different ways to engage with the content. I prefer less frequent, more impactful upgrades that do not directly overlap with how content (i.e., enemies) progresses.

Visually, it’s like two staircases going up, one for your stats/abilities, one for the monsters. The monsters’ steps don’t overlap with your steps, so there will be points where you upgrade and just clobber the hell out of enemies for a while until you hit the next monster step. Then you struggle for a while before you step up, repeating the cycle.

Classic AD&D has this feeling, as does Fallout 1. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t want to emulate from those classic games, but I still really feel they have a better sense of progression, especially in the 4-12 level range.

That said, I’m only 7ish hours in and I need to play a lot more to do a fair and thorough critique of everything.

 

[Butter]

Josh doesn't like hyper-granular stat boosts, eh?

 

[Infinitron]

Not in a single character action-RPG, at least.

 

[Nano]

Yes, I understand this is how many looter shooters work and also how The Outer Worlds works. It’s not gameplay I personally find enjoyable or interesting.

Josh must've given Tim and Leon his feedback about this. Did they just ignore it, then?

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

There have been hints that TOW was relatively insulated from Josh considering his role as studio design director. Whether or not that’s true and if so why is a matter of speculation.

 

[purupuru]

It seems that he did learn something from pillars' mistake, his next game is going to be great.

 

[vortex]

It seems that he did learn something from pillars' mistake, his next game is going to be great.

I think next game won't be anything like pillars since he implied different type of game.

 

[Bulo]

I'm surprised he didn't bring up the fact that you have to enter 3 inputs in a row to sell a stack of useless items, of which you accrue an entire inventory's full—arguably a worse offense than the fact that the rest of the game can be accurately reduced to "The Witcher 3 With Guns".

 

[just]

jesus christ i wonder how long will the post be when he's 40h in

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Didn't even read it. I think Obsidian is just done as a company unfortunately. We've got to go somewhere else for our RPGs. Sawyer is just one example, but Outer Worlds is another and the final nail in the coffin I think.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Roguey]

It seems that he did learn something from pillars' mistake, his next game is going to be great.

He's been on the "I hate meaningless upgrades in RPGs" train since 2011 when he did "The Evolution of RPG Mechanics: From Die Rolls to Hit Volumes" talk at GDC.