Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Flou]

I just dont get the UE4. They dont need it.

Better that than Unity.

Some Skyrim-ish game with Unity? Absolutely not.

I don't think console crowd would react well to a Skyrim-ish game done with Unity. Wouldn't it just look bad compared to well every other Skyrim-ish game out there?
Obsidian still has people who worked on Alpha Protocol in the company, so they have experience working with the engine as well.

 

[Prime Junta]

I don't think console crowd would react well to a Skyrim-ish game done with Unity. Wouldn't it just look bad compared to well every other Skyrim-ish game out there?
Obsidian still has people who worked on Alpha Protocol in the company, so they have experience working with the engine as well.

Looks have nothing to do with the engine.

Performance does though, and I think that might be a problem if you tried to do do Skyrim in Unity.

 

[Roguey]

Looks have nothing to do with the engine.

Performance does though, and I think that might be a problem if you tried to do do Skyrim in Unity.

Performance affects how it looks (e.g. look how terrible the first Risen's console port looks and the downgrade they had to do for Risen 2 to keep all versions looking more or less equal).

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah UE4 was weird decision. I'd expect them to go with CryEngine instead, Armored Warfare people already have experience with that and they make bulk of the company.

Engine doesn't impact looks by itself, but constant engine hoping isn't doing anybody any good. People have to relearn the tools every time they move on a different project, which makes them work slower, which *does* impact the looks.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah UE4 was weird decision. I'd expect them to go with CryEngine instead, Armored Warfare people already have experience with that and they make bulk of the company.

Engine doesn't impact looks by itself, but constant engine hoping isn't doing anybody any good. People have to relearn the tools every time they move on a different project, which makes them work slower, which *does* impact the looks.

They did some training for UE4 with their Star Wars tech demo last year: http://www.pcgamer.com/obsidian-devs-recreate-star-wars-mos-eisley-spaceport-in-unreal-engine-4/

 

[Roguey]

Yeah UE4 was weird decision. I'd expect them to go with CryEngine instead, Armored Warfare people already have experience with that and they make bulk of the company.

Engine doesn't impact looks by itself, but constant engine hoping isn't doing anybody any good. People have to relearn the tools every time they move on a different project, which makes them work slower, which *does* impact the looks.

Perhaps their experience with CryEngine allowed them to realize that it wouldn't have been a good fit.

 

[Latelistener]

Yeah UE4 was weird decision. I'd expect them to go with CryEngine instead, Armored Warfare people already have experience with that and they make bulk of the company.

Engine doesn't impact looks by itself, but constant engine hoping isn't doing anybody any good. People have to relearn the tools every time they move on a different project, which makes them work slower, which *does* impact the looks.

Unreal Engine along with Unity are the only popular proprietary engines supported by their creators. It's only natural that they choose UE.
CryEngine is abandonware at this point. Even Star Citizen moved to Lumberyard, which I assume is sort of a fork of CryEngine, since Crytek sold Amazon everything.
Crytek itself is barely alive, it would be a miracle if they'll release their Hunt.

 

[Flou]

Yeah UE4 was weird decision. I'd expect them to go with CryEngine instead, Armored Warfare people already have experience with that and they make bulk of the company.

Engine doesn't impact looks by itself, but constant engine hoping isn't doing anybody any good. People have to relearn the tools every time they move on a different project, which makes them work slower, which *does* impact the looks.

They've done Alpha Protocol and that Star Wars Mos Eisley -demo on Unreal Engine so I don't think lack of experience comes into play. If anything they have a solid feel for both engines and went with the option they felt better worked for their needs now and in the future.

 

[Jenkem]

They are using UE4 because it is a first person shooter--"it will be enjoyed by Fallout [4] fans..."

 

[Quillon]

They are using UE4 because it is a first person shooter--"it will be enjoyed by Fallout [4] fans..."

Ofc it will be fpp or tpp/both; they don't give you money to make an AAA game with top down gameplay. Likely it'll be a shooter with an optional tactical mod(vats ) for combat which can be top down I guess. Boyarsky said something like this somewhere.

 

[Quillon]

Not exactly about the secret project but:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10425

If you, Tim and Jason were to make Fallout from scratch now (pretending it never happened), with all the experience you've accumulated since the 90s, how different do you suppose it would be from what it was?

One of the reasons we made it 2d and isometric in the first place was because I wanted a certain level of detail in the art, and the tech just wasn't up to doing that in full 3d. We considered first person for half a minute, but I shut that down purely from an art standpoint. Assuming we still wanted it to be turn based (my focus has always been the art and storytelling, I'm not a system designer), I would want first or third person exploration with the camera zooming out to a more tactical viewpoint for combat. I am still envious that we weren't the ones who got to make a Fallout game where you explored the wasteland from first person.

 

[Flou]

Andrew Dearing has joined Obsidian and is working as a Senior Sound Designer filling up one of the open positions posted on Obsidian's website. With Justin Bell, Adam Lehwald, Zachary Simon and intern Robert Thayer their audio department is getting bigger. Andrew worked on Alpha Protocol, Dungeon Siege 3 and Fallout: New Vegas on his previous "visit" at Obsidian

 

[Infinitron]

It's possible that they're mostly doing technical preproduction now and narrative stuff hasn't really started yet.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah, if's it's truly AAA game, it has to be FFP/TPP shooter made for consoles. Let's not kid ourselves here. Although it's quite strange that, in this day and age of everpresent sequelosis, an independent studio managed to secure AAA level funding for a new IP.

 

[Quillon]

It's possible that they're mostly doing technical preproduction now and narrative stuff hasn't really started yet.

When you account for Deadfire, Tyranny support, Pathfinder adv. teams from the current +-170 devs, about half the devs remain for this. That many still doing preprod after more than a year?

 

[Infinitron]

It's possible that they're mostly doing technical preproduction now and narrative stuff hasn't really started yet.

When you account for Deadfire, Tyranny support, Pathfinder adv. teams from the current +-170 devs, about half the devs remain for this. That many still doing preprod after more than a year?

Obsidian only completely came off Armored Warfare around February, it hasn't been that long that they had lots of people free.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

How will they fund this new Tim Cain / Boyarsky romp?
Publisher? Kickstarter? Or Internal?

 

[Fry]

What's the definition of "AAA funding" now? $20 million? $50 million? $100 million?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Probably in the 50ish range.

 

[Sentinel]

Keep your eyes peeled for any Obsidian writers on LinkedIn who you know who aren't working on PoE2.

We know Megan Starks, Paul Kirsch, Carrie Patel and Josh Sawyer are working on Pillars of Eternity. Eric is also working on Edér as a freelance.
Who does that leave? Robert Land (Sirin, Tyranny), Boyarsky and Matt MacLean?

 

[Rev]

What's the definition of "AAA funding" now? $20 million? $50 million? $100 million?

It depends on what you consider "AAA", but I think the Witchers, Andromeda, Dragon Age, Fallout, nuDeus Ex, Kingdom Come, etc. all cost at least 30-40 milions to make.
If you count as "AAA" even games like Elex or Vampyr then I guess the amount is less, but I wouldn't consider these kind of games "AAA".

 

[Prime Junta]

I wouldn't consider these kind of games "AAA"

Nobody does.

 

[Flou]

We know Megan Starks, Paul Kirsch, Carrie Patel and Josh Sawyer are working on Pillars of Eternity. Eric is also working on Edér as a freelance.
Who does that leave? Robert Land (Sirin, Tyranny), Boyarsky and Matt MacLean?

Robert Land doesn't work at Obsidian currently. He left a year ago and joined ArenaNet.

 

[Flou]

Keep your eyes peeled for any Obsidian writers on LinkedIn who you know who aren't working on PoE2.

We know Megan Starks, Paul Kirsch, Carrie Patel and Josh Sawyer are working on Pillars of Eternity. Eric is also working on Edér as a freelance.
Who does that leave? Robert Land (Sirin, Tyranny), Boyarsky and Matt MacLean?

Olivia Veras?

Working on Deadfire, unless she has been shifted off the project.

 

[LESS T_T]

Eurogamer got some details and screenshots of Stormlands: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...n-raid-obsidians-cancelled-xbox-one-exclusive

I made a separated thread for this: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...lusive-game-detailed-with-screenshots.118187/

And about general Obsidian topic:

Currently, however, Obsidian's hands are full, the 175-person studio occupied across four and a half projects: the Tyranny expansion, Pillars of Eternity 2, a small Pathfinder card game, a small idea the studio is "spinning up" and a considerable something else. And I'll tell you a bit more about that next week as well.

"A small idea"? Wonder if it is the urban fantasy thing Feargus has been said. And yeah, looks like some kind of announcement is coming up next week.