Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Chainsaw Gutsfuck]

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

Part about the secret project being post-apocalyptic.

Pure speculation of course, but Tim said that it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans, and now Feargus is replaying F:NV for inspiration. I'd say that at least hints that it's a post-apo.

Pretty sure he means that it will be enjoyed by fallout fans because it shares a similar design philosophy (C&C, multiple solutions etc).

 

[Fairfax]

Well it increasingly looks like it's a post-apo, and that Paradox is involved. Did White Wolf had a post-apo IP?

They made apocalyptic scenario books, but not sure about post-apocalyptic.

 

[Iznaliu]

There could be two secret projects in the works.

 

[Quillon]

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

Part about the secret project being post-apocalyptic.

Pure speculation of course, but Tim said that it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans, and now Feargus is replaying F:NV for inspiration. I'd say that at least hints that it's a post-apo.

Pretty sure he means that it will be enjoyed by fallout fans because it shares a similar design philosophy (C&C, multiple solutions etc).

Pretty sure you can interpret it however you want. "C&C, multiple solutions etc" is expected no matter the sub-genre tho.

 

[Rev]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

How do you it's gonna be an Obsidian-owned IP? If it's financed by a publisher as it seems, the IP could fall in the hands of said publisher.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

How do you it's gonna be an Obsidian-owned IP? If it's financed by a publisher as it seems, the IP could fall in the hands of said publisher.

Sources.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Journey to the center of Arcanum!

 

[Jenkem]

Nu-Obsidian IP probably about a Mexican Tranny that travels a world based on Berkely, CA punchin' "nazis" with meaningful C&C like do you want two fingers or a whole fist up your ass...

special pre-order weapon: Josh Sawyer's bike lock.

 

[Sentinel]

Please keep posting m8. Always get a laugh out of these.

 

[Chainsaw Gutsfuck]

Pretty sure you can interpret it however you want. "C&C, multiple solutions etc" is expected no matter the sub-genre tho.

He said that it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans, therefore it safe to assume that it will have the Troika style of design. I remember them saying the same about VTMB as well (that it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans), which has a lot of differences with Fallout, but in terms of C&C and multiple solutions they are similar.

On the other hand, there is zero evidence of whether the game is going to be post-apocalyptic or not.

 

[Quillon]

On the other hand, there is zero evidence of whether the game is going to be post-apocalyptic or not.

Yep "it will be enjoyed by fallout fans" suggests a medieval high fantasy game.

What sub-genre would you have thought of if he had said "it will be enjoyed by baldur's gate fans"?

 

[Infinitron]

Arcanum is enjoyed by Fallout fans.

 

[Roguey]

Last time I checked, Obsidian begged Activision either to let them license or outright buy Arcanum and was told no to both.

 

[Quillon]

You just can't fault anyone for thinking it could be post apoc more than anything else after that quote.

 

[Chainsaw Gutsfuck]

On the other hand, there is zero evidence of whether the game is going to be post-apocalyptic or not.

Yep "it will be enjoyed by fallout fans" suggests a medieval high fantasy game.

What sub-genre would you have thought of if he had said "it will be enjoyed by baldur's gate fans"?

As I said, they also stated about VTMB that it will be enjoyed by fallout fans. It wouldn't surprise me if they claimed the same for Arcanum as well, or even TOEE.

Baldur's Gate is different, because all the IE-style games use different flavors of fantasy settings.

 

[Infinitron]

Last time I checked, Obsidian begged Activision either to let them license or outright buy Arcanum and was told no to both.

No, what I mean is that describing something as "it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans" doesn't mean it'll be post-apocalyptic.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

That alone doesn't, but I'd imagine Feargus isn't replaying F:NV to remind himself how to do elf romances well.

 

[PlanHex]

Didn't he also say it would be enjoyed by Arcanum-fans? It's a steam-punk setting confirmed

 

[ciox]

But we already know it's a new IP. A new IP with "Fallout and Arcanum style and humor", according to Tim Cain.

I don't think there's been that much Alpha Protocol talk in the blitz, personally.

Why do I get the feeling this will be something cool and familiar like Fallout at the base but with a zany layer of dumb shit on top to make it different, basically looking like Horizon Zero Dawn / LawBreakers.

 

[Rev]

Why do I get the feeling this will be something cool and familiar like Fallout at the base but with a zany layer of dumb shit on top to make it different, basically looking like Horizon Zero Dawn / LawBreakers.

Maybe Tim Cain's words about geometric shapes in the character progression have something to do with it.

 

[Flou]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

How do you it's gonna be an Obsidian-owned IP? If it's financed by a publisher as it seems, the IP could fall in the hands of said publisher.

Sources.

What else do your sources tell you?

 

[Infinitron]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

How do you it's gonna be an Obsidian-owned IP? If it's financed by a publisher as it seems, the IP could fall in the hands of said publisher.

Sources.

What else do your sources tell you?

Nothing much else. No, I don't know what the game is going to be. But it's going to be a big thing for Obsidian.

 

[Flou]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

How do you it's gonna be an Obsidian-owned IP? If it's financed by a publisher as it seems, the IP could fall in the hands of said publisher.

Sources.

What else do your sources tell you?

Nothing much else. No, I don't know what the game is going to be. But it's going to be a big thing for Obsidian.

By big you must mean "Huuuuuge, believe me".

 

[Citizen]

I'd kill for a turn-based isometric full party control/creation DnD 3.5 game in Arcanum setting.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well then this part from the 2016 interview was a hint or sign or someting: https://www.gamepressure.com/e.asp?ID=720

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.

How do you think, what makes the publishers change their attitude? Is it because independent studios have much more to say these days?

Well, there’s not a lot of us. There’s like 10 of us, those bigger independent studios of 200–300 people. I actually don’t know how many exactly, but let’s say there’s 10. And if we’re all saying “no” and they need games, then it’s just market. If you want to make a big role-playing game right now, there’s not many people to go to. What we say nowadays is: “We’re going to make a game with this IP”. We would love to make a Fallout: New Vegas-style game or something like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or The Witcher; we’d love to make a game like that. But if we can’t own the IP, we will make it Eternity-style, because we can usually find the money for that. And we’re not mean about it, we’re not discrespectful. If we’re going to go through the pain of making a huge game, then there has to be a reward for it.