Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Fairfax]

Everyone did due to an anonymous post by an Obsidian employee in a random comment section complaining about Parker and wishing Aliens was still on track

Everyone as in everyone in Codex or mainstream too? I thought he just made a good guess and found it funny

It wasn't posted on the codex but as said in a random comment section of a review? I think. Multiple people reported on it, inside and outside the codex.

It was posted as a comment on Joystiq's AP review.

There was a ton of work put into this game. The problem is that is was a ton of undirected work, or work on things that were just stupid. 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. And you can't exactly argue with one of the owners of the company when he doesn't want to listen. He basically took over the game and dictated exactly how everything would work (or not work, as the case may be). The other producers realized this early on and just gave up, leaving Parker to micromanage all the designers and programmers directly.

Sega also was a factor, because they kept changing the design requirements (yes they had heavy influence there), which never gave the producers and designers time to actually decide on one set of features to make and polish. The blame is still mostly Obsidian's because the execution was absolutely terrible, and it was obvious 2 years ago that this game should have been scrapped. Instead, though, they focused on adding still more features and never fixed the ones they already had. That is a recipe for tons of bugs and no polish... as is obvious.

This game was just an absolute failure of production, and it's no wonder that so many of the developers left the company, even after the 40% staff layoffs. I am still happy about some of Obsidian's other current projects, New Vegas included, because they are going pretty well. Their big unannounced project is looking great and is already much better than AP ever was, and that may end up being the game that everyone was looking for with AP.

Sega should have canceled AP instead of Aliens...

 

[Quillon]

So there was a 40% lay off even before Stormlands... and people praise Obs for surviving all these years, guess if it had good management that kept the talent aboard they'd be the greatest studio on the planet instead they just survived.

 

[Nano]

Aliens getting canceled was for the best. I doubt it would've contributed anything of note to the CRPG genre like Alpha Protocol did with its narrative C&C, and there's no way it would've been anywhere near as good as FNV.

 

[Roguey]

Aliens getting canceled was for the best. I doubt it would've contributed anything of note to the CRPG genre like Alpha Protocol did with its narrative C&C, and there's no way it would've been anywhere near as good as FNV.

It probably would have been lousy, but it did have some unique aspects. Dialogue wouldn't "pause" the game world, meaning that it was possible to get interrupted by roaming aliens during conversations. It would have also had permadeath and the potential to get facehugged. It'd certainly be unique for being a combat and conversation game where there are no safe havens with shops and NPCs and such.

 

[2house2fly]

Fallout 4 does the thing where conversation doesn't pause the game world, leading to many hilarious and immersive videos of conversations getting interrupted by a sudden explosion of super mutants

 

[Beastro]

It would have also had permadeath and the potential to get facehugged.

I dunno how well that would work with the meta knowledge around the setting. Either people start force attacking their own guys to kill them and prevent a bursting at the wrong moment because we all know it's a phenomenon after nearly 40 years, Xeno's act Alien 3 around infected PCs making them into shock troops you use to make use of the Xeno's refusal to attack their own kind incubating, or you try to restrict what the players can do about it that would limit other things in the game (Like removing friendly fire to prevent the first option).

I could only see that mechanic working in a completely new setting where it isn't expected (which would then eventually become known and avoided), or in a game like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress where the charm of things like that happening to your guys makes you stay your hand and let it play out for the fun of it.

 

[Duraframe300]

Aliens getting canceled was for the best. I doubt it would've contributed anything of note to the CRPG genre like Alpha Protocol did with its narrative C&C, and there's no way it would've been anywhere near as good as FNV.

I like AP THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MUCH, but I'd still have liked the Aliens game. Would have been better than Colonial Marines in any case.

 

[Roguey]

It would have also had permadeath and the potential to get facehugged.

I dunno how well that would work with the meta knowledge around the setting. Either people start force attacking their own guys to kill them and prevent a bursting at the wrong moment because we all know it's a phenomenon after nearly 40 years, Xeno's act Alien 3 around infected PCs making them into shock troops you use to make use of the Xeno's refusal to attack their own kind incubating, or you try to restrict what the players can do about it that would limit other things in the game (Like removing friendly fire to prevent the first option).

I could only see that mechanic working in a completely new setting where it isn't expected (which would then eventually become known and avoided), or in a game like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress where the charm of things like that happening to your guys makes you stay your hand and let it play out for the fun of it.

You also had the option of putting them into stasis to prevent them from bursting. And like the other Onyx engine games, there was no quicksaving.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Isn't Josh done with PoE games? maybe him or the guy that did Stick of Truth.

I kinda hope its Josh, kinda want to see what he'll make if its not PoE like and hopefully maybe AAA like.

I hope it is Josh as well. You know Josh loves his rape and erotic themes, and so early into the acquisition and hurting for exclusives, microsoft will not interfere. The game will likely have some of the kinkiest quests seen in an RPG in decades.

 

[Immortal]

Isn't Josh done with PoE games? maybe him or the guy that did Stick of Truth.

I kinda hope its Josh, kinda want to see what he'll make if its not PoE like and hopefully maybe AAA like.

This ride never ends..

I wonder what Josh will do now that he's not constrained by a publisher and can make the game he real- Whew.. That PoE was a doozy.. well now I wanna see what Josh will make if it's not like PoE at all though??

 

[Quillon]

I wonder what Josh will do now that he's not constrained by a publisher and can make the game he real- Whew.. That PoE was a doozy.. well now I wanna see what Josh will make if it's not like PoE at all though??

Since he's not directly working on anything, he must have been pushing for the historical RPG. My advice to Josh is instead of trying to convince them with small game for gamepass etc. he should go big & make them believe he'll make Skyrim:

Not that I want this game from him but the dude is obsessed.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Sawyer is their most reliable hitmaker, I doubt they gave first big MS project to anyone else.

"Fuck You Suck My Dick: Josh Sawyer's AAA Historical RPG" is just a matter of time.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Ars Magica: The Videogame

 

[2house2fly]

Sawyer is their most reliable hitmaker, I doubt they gave first big MS project to anyone else.

"Fuck You Suck My Dick: Josh Sawyer's AAA Historical RPG" is just a matter of time.

I think PoE2 probably wiped out his "hitmaker" status

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sawyer is their most reliable hitmaker, I doubt they gave first big MS project to anyone else.

"Fuck You Suck My Dick: Josh Sawyer's AAA Historical RPG" is just a matter of time.

I think PoE2 probably wiped out his "hitmaker" status

It wasn't really his fault though. The times had changed from 2014 to 2018.

 

[AwesomeButton]

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Far_from_Home

I've been thinking recently - if Deadfire's graphics were on par with it's writing, the game would look like LEGO racers and wouldn't have sold 500 copies. Instead we get those people walking around pretending they made a meaningful contribuition or something of any quality, riding on the back of artists and programmers.

If anything in PoE or Deadfire is severely underwhelming it's the writing.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

I like the writing, it's like a really good Harry Potter book!

 

[AwesomeButton]

I like the writing, it's like a really good Harry Potter book!

Exactly.

 

[Viata]

The question now is: what is a really bad Harry Potter book?

 

[AwesomeButton]

BTW, no offence to you Alex, I liked both BoW and FS - not in terms of characters, they were just as shit as throughout the rest of the game - but in terms of atmosphere, plot and pacing.

 

[Tigranes]

I wonder what Josh will do now that he's not constrained by a publisher and can make the game he real- Whew.. That PoE was a doozy.. well now I wanna see what Josh will make if it's not like PoE at all though??

Since he's not directly working on anything, he must have been pushing for the historical RPG. My advice to Josh is instead of trying to convince them with small game for gamepass etc. he should go big & make them believe he'll make Skyrim:

Not that I want this game from him but the dude is obsessed.

I would totally support Josh Sawyer telling Microsoft he will make Skyrim, getting 200 million and then producing a Darklands/KCD clone, utterly regardless of whether the game is any good

 

[AwesomeButton]

If it meets the sales expectations MS would have for a Skyrim clone marketed by them, I doubt they would object.

 

[santino27]

If it meets the sales expectations MS would have for a Skyrim clone marketed by them, I doubt they would object.

Sure, but the chances of that are nil.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Well, you can achieve a lot by having Microsoft market a first-person perspective (low-)fantasy RPG, but yeah, the times of Skyrim sales are gone. But I'm sure they don't have expectations for "literally Skyrim's sales numbers" at MS.

Maybe The Outer Worlds is thought of as a project which is to break the new ground, establish expertise at Obsidian in the technology. It's not a coincidence that Tim is a lead. As he has joked in the past, he is the "engine guy". I'm sure that by all means they will try to put out at least another RPG with unreal tech. And this RPG being fantasy fits the scheme that all big publishers are going for - have a Sci-Fi setting, and a fantasy setting, and churn out new games in either setting at regular intervals. EA do it, Ubisoft do it... even Paradox Interactive do it.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

The question now is: what is a really bad Harry Potter book?

The Crimes of Grindelwald, except for

Spoiler

the flashback to Hogwarts