Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Fry]

The whole "poor Avellone was being marginalized at Obsidian" theory is contradicted by the fact he hasn't taken a full time job with another company. I'm sure he had office politics issues like anyone, but maybe just take him at his word... he left because he's got family problems, and he genuinely enjoys the flexibility of freelancing.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Take someone at their word? Egads! Are you mad man?

 

[HoboForEternity]

is freelancing a cushy job? since most of the jobs are abroad is he really work at home, chatting with skype to his client in his pajamas?

 

[Fry]

He probably does an initial meet & greet for larger jobs if the company pays for his travel costs, but why would a writer need to be in the office?

 

[AN4RCHID]

I hope this new game is anything but fucking Star Wars.

 

[LESS T_T]

Almost Everything we know about Project Indiana so far:

• Tim Cain is Project Director and Leonard Boyarsky is one of the leads. (Boyarsky joined Obsidian in April 2016)
  • Chris L'Etoile (ex-Bioware writer who did major role on Mass Effect 1/2) joined Obsidian in May as senior narrative designer, and likely working on this
• It's multiplatform action RPG and bigger (in terms of budget and team size) than PoE 2
• It's a brand new IP owned by Obsidian. Not Star Wars, not Fallout, not a sequel of anything. Setting is being built from the ground up by Cain/Boyarsky and co.
  
• They have a publisher/partner for this one
• It's using Unreal Engine 4. Obsidian has been made prototypes with UE4 at least from 2015, and one of them, Star Wars Mos Eisley recreation (non-game), released to public in September 2016
  
• Cain's late RPG philosophy: "Building a Better RPG: Seven Mistakes to Avoid"
• Boyarsky: "I'm happy to say that I'm currently working on my dream game"

Speculation

• Probably not set in usual fantasy setting. Steampunk? Post-apoc? Sci-fi?
  • Cain's Facebook post in 2014: "I'm thinking about science games again."
  • He also posted somewhat Steampunk-ish photos, but he deleted his Facebook account
• Many of Armored Warfare developers moved to Indiana team, especially 3D artists

Did I miss something?

 

[Quillon]

+Speculation

Tim Cain @Reboot: "If you loved Fallout, you're gonna love this game. Its got a lot of Fallout and Arcanum style & humor."

People have been overlooking the "&" in the sentence above, passing it off as about the humor only: "Fallout & Arcanum style humor".

 

[Flou]

From Nathan Davis's LinkedIn:

GAME DIRECTOR
>Pathfinder Adventures (iOS, Android, PC)
- Pitched and received the green light for Obsidian’s first completely self-financed game.
- Lead team as both a designer and producer for the digital version of the award winning Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.
- Designed and developed all gameplay systems including interface, tutorials, monetization features, and new cards.
- Budgeted, scheduled and hired development team.
- Implemented cards, characters, and adventures using Unity 5.0 and wrote most of the dialogue.

Not sure if this is exactly new information, at least I can't remember reading about this. So anyways it appears Obsidian used some of that Pillars of Eternity money on the Pathfinder Card Game. They better give some of that money to Sawyer's medieval game next!

 

[FreeKaner]

I will kill a man for a modern-style RPG with focus on factions and character development.

 

[Quillon]

I'll hold him for you & kill a woman too so they'd not call us sexist murderers.

 

[Latelistener]

I'd rather see a dystopian RPG with redpill writing / mature themes, and Deus Ex level of gameplay.
That's not going to happen though.
Game dev is a downward spiral. Writing today is probably even worse than dumbed down gameplay.

 

[PlanHex]

Did I miss something?

Publisher is likely not Paradox per this bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCQGVPqISk0#t=60m3s
Although the fact that it's AAA also makes that clear I guess

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah the publisher isn't Paradox.

 

[Lahey]

No, I haven't worked with Paradox at all. That's the Tyranny team who you're talking about? (questioner affirms). No, I haven't worked with them at all.

*Leon dodges the inquiry and takes no damage*.

 

[Rutteger]

Boyarsky seems to prefer first or third person perspective for environmental exploration. Sounds like it may have considerable funding (possibly AAA?) from a publisher meaning it's probably an action rpg. So... first or third person action rpg in a setting with "a lot of Fallout and Arcanum style & humor". Obsidian seems to have a lot of street cred now that the "New Vegas is better/deeper than FO3/4" sentiment is a bit more mainstream. Maybe a publisher is giving them a chance to make a similar style game?

 

[Zed]

Yeah the publisher isn't Paradox.

it's paradox/white wolf cuz the game is vtm

 

[Latelistener]

Parker's opinions are pure decline, I can see why Avellone doesn't like the guy much.

By the way, was the dev responsible for this deanonymized?

The Executive Producer for the game, Chris Parker (also an owner of the company), seemed to think he was the world’s greatest designer ever, and created all these absolutely shitty systems and wouldn’t listen to any of the real designers or devs about things that just didn’t work.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Almost Everything we know about Project Indiana so far:

• Tim Cain is Project Director and Leonard Boyarsky is one of the leads. (Boyarsky joined Obsidian in April 2016)
  • Chris L'Etoile (ex-Bioware writer who did major role on Mass Effect 1/2) joined Obsidian in May as senior narrative designer, and likely working on this
• It's multiplatform action RPG and bigger (in terms of budget and team size) than PoE 2
• It's a brand new IP owned by Obsidian. Not Star Wars, not Fallout, not a sequel of anything. Setting is being built from the ground up by Cain/Boyarsky and co.
  
• They have a publisher/partner for this one
• It's using Unreal Engine 4. Obsidian has been made prototypes with UE4 at least from 2015, and one of them, Star Wars Mos Eisley recreation (non-game), released to public in September 2016
  
• Cain's late RPG philosophy: "Building a Better RPG: Seven Mistakes to Avoid"
• Boyarsky: "I'm happy to say that I'm currently working on my dream game"

Speculation

• Probably not set in usual fantasy setting. Steampunk? Post-apoc? Sci-fi?
  • Cain's Facebook post in 2014: "I'm thinking about science games again."
  • He also posted somewhat Steampunk-ish photos, but he deleted his Facebook account
• Many of Armored Warfare developers moved to Indiana team, especially 3D artists

Did I miss something?

Creepily accurate.

 

[Infinitron]

Creepily accurate.

Including the speculation?

 

[vonAchdorf]

The others are facts, so the only thing which could be "creepily accurate" is the speculation :D

 

[Anthony Davis]

Creepily accurate.

Including the speculation?

I didn't even notice the speculation heading. Uh, let me see.

Setting is sort of one of these.
Yes, Tim said that.
I have no idea about that - I don't do the facebooks, but he does love Arcanum and those photos probably had more to do with that.
Yes, many team members from AW went to Indiana, but you can get that from Linkedin.

 

[Quillon]

Sort of = in space, steampunk is the most compatible so there, I knew it

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

So it's a time travel game about Victorian era explorer who teleports into the future and fights pace Nazis in post-apocalyptic Earth. 100% confirmed.

 

[Alienman]

I think you will play as a sentient tank in a steampunk world.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

So it's a time travel game about Victorian era explorer who teleports into the future and fights pace Nazis in post-apocalyptic Earth. 100% confirmed.