Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[tuluse]

I want an RPG with world design by Tim Cain, Jason Anderson and Leonard Boyarsky.

Spoiler

mechanics done by JE Sawyer

 

[agris]

I wonder if they would KS a Fallout-esque TB post-apoc RPG. I'm sure they could save some production time using the environment tools developed for PE.

 

[tuluse]

I wonder if they would KS a Fallout-esque TB post-apoc RPG. I'm sure they could save some production time using the environment tools developed for PE.

I'm pretty sure they don't want to step on InXile's toes like that.

This is supposition, but I don't think Obsidian is interested in making a turn based game either.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I only hope for an Arcanum-like, if not straigh-up Arcanum.

With Tim Cain as lead. Not gonna happen, though.

 

[agris]

I wonder if they would KS a Fallout-esque TB post-apoc RPG. I'm sure they could save some production time using the environment tools developed for PE.

I'm pretty sure they don't want to step on InXile's toes like that.

This is supposition, but I don't think Obsidian is interested in making a turn based game either.

Yea I agree. A man can dream though, can't he?

Incidentally, why don't you think they're interested in TB?

 

[tuluse]

Yea I agree. A man can dream though, can't he?

Incidentally, why don't you think they're interested in TB?

After watching InXile pull in 3 million and HBS pull in 2 million with turn based RPG kickstarters, they went with RTwP.

I haven't heard one statement from anyone big at Obsidian about making a turnbased game ever. The only one they have made was South Park and I don't even know how much say they had in that decision.

 

[Infinitron]

It's not that they don't want to make a turn-based game, I think.

But they've invested money in developing a RTwP engine (which is much harder to do well than turn-based), and with all the other turn-based RPGs out now, "oldschool RTwP" seems like it's destined to become Obsidian's niche.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I've never played a fantasy game with TB combat.

Honestly, I can't see how TB would work with swords and other close proximity weapons.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I've never played a fantasy game with TB combat.

Honestly, I can't see how TB would work with swords and other close proximity weapons.

 

[Athelas]

After watching InXile pull in 3 million and HBS pull in 2 million with turn based RPG kickstarters, they went with RTwP.

I'm not sure if the type of battle system is that much of a draw for these Kickstarter RPG's. It seems to be all about the setting, story and role-playing.

I haven't heard one statement from anyone big at Obsidian about making a turnbased game ever. The only one they have made was South Park and I don't even know how much say they had in that decision.

IIRC it was the South Park creators, who are big fans of the jRPG-style turn-based combat.

 

[tuluse]

I'm not sure if the type of battle system is that much of a draw for these Kickstarter RPG's. It seems to be all about the setting, story and role-playing.

You're probably right which is another reason why I think Obsidian went with what they want to do.

 

[agris]

Yea I agree. A man can dream though, can't he?

Incidentally, why don't you think they're interested in TB?

After watching InXile pull in 3 million and HBS pull in 2 million with turn based RPG kickstarters, they went with RTwP.

I haven't heard one statement from anyone big at Obsidian about making a turnbased game ever. The only one they have made was South Park and I don't even know how much say they had in that decision.

That's true, but I think that has more to do with their pitch: an IE games inspired RPG without RtwP is a harder sell than one with it. TB in that pitch would be incongruous. RtwP comes part and parcel with their premise. Of course you're right, outside of SP:SoT they haven't done anything TB. But I think the studio is more eager to take on a challenge, whether it be the setting or mechanics, than you're giving them credit for. Total speculation on my part, but Obsidian appear to revel in taking on challenges.

The studio desperately needs it's own IP (>1 preferable, I'm sure) as a stable foundation to work from, if they want to maintain a workforce similar to what they have now whose levels aren't beholden to the whim of publisher contracts and cycles.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I've never played a fantasy game with TB combat.

Honestly, I can't see how TB would work with swords and other close proximity weapons.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

It's not that they don't want to make a turn-based game, I think.

But they've invested money in developing a RTwP engine (which is much harder to do well than turn-based), and with all the other turn-based RPGs out now, "oldschool RTwP" seems like it's destined to become Obsidian's niche.

How many Obsidian folks have worked on a (non South Park) turn based game since Fallout 2? The Troika expats had ToEE under their belts, but other than that it seems like its been RT since 1998. It seems like their personnel have a ton of RTwP experience but not much TB experience. I don't think Sawyer has ever done a non RT game. So even if they wanted to do TB, it seems like RTwP is a safer bet for a successful design as its much more familiar to their people. A RTwP engine may be harder to do well, but badly designed TB combat is probably more painful than bad RTwP combat. At least with bad RTwP combat you can just put it on easy and let your party go crazy while you get a sandwich.

 

[Sensuki]

Constant Gaw is Lead Level Designer on it, but is putting double duty on Pillars.

Got a source for that so it can be added to the wiki?

Also for some reason the wiki still has Brian Menze as working on Pillars. AFAIK he never did?

 

[Duraframe300]

Constant Gaw is Lead Level Designer on it, but is putting double duty on Pillars.

Got a source for that so it can be added to the wiki?

Also for some reason the wiki still has Brian Menze as working on Pillars. AFAIK he never did?

Brian Menze does a lot of things at the studio, I wouldn't be so sure he has never contributed *something* or isn't now (Now that South Park is finished) (After all he probably has the biggest seniority on the Art team at Obs.)

But yeah, its wrong as we know so far.

Constant Gaw source is his Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/vie...667145,VSRPtargetId:10688071,VSRPcmpt:primary

 

[Sensuki]

TBH IMO They would probably move him to an AAA project. Because his stuff is good eye candy for Publishers.

 

[Duraframe300]

TBH IMO They would probably move him to an AAA project. Because his stuff is good eye candy for Publishers.

Possibly, though Menze can probably pretty much decide what he works on.

So who knows.

 

[Hormalakh]

I specifically asked about Brian Menze from their art director, Nesler, a while ago (during their first update with art) and he said that Menze would do some work on Pillars. Unless that changed, I think he is still doing some work, and I doubt he'd be floating.

As for a game that they should kickstart, I really want them to do a classless game sort of with the stuff that Sawyer was talking about (his dream game). He might piss some people off, but he's a damn good game system designer.

 

[Sensuki]

When Polina did her update (which was in the #50s) she said that it was just her and Kaz, and then re-iterated that in a later post. Who knows who moved over after South Park though.

 

[Duraframe300]

When Polina did her update (which was in the #50s) she said that it was just her and Kaz, and then re-iterated that in a later post. Who knows who moved over after South Park though.

Menze does A LOT of stuff aside from concept art. Much more than you'd guess from looking at credits alone.

Alvin Nelson told me as much back when I had a question about Menze. (Why he never seems to be Lead despite working so long with the team)

 

[Roguey]

I haven't heard one statement from anyone big at Obsidian about making a turnbased game ever.

I wouldn't presume to say that I could create a game as revolutionary as Fallout, but it has always been my personal goal to advance the RPG genre. Whether we're making top-down games, first-person games, real-time games, or (hopefully, someday) turn-based games, the idea that we should continue doing something primarily because that's the way it's been done before is backwards-looking.

If it's a good mechanic that makes sense, we should continue using it. If it doesn't, we shouldn't. A lot of RPG "sensibilities" are rooted in tabletop mechanics that don't even make any sense when put into a computer environment where the player can save and reload at will.

RPG fans always talk about how much better it used to be and how devs are forced to make action RPGs etc etc. If given the chance, though, do you think you would even want to create an old-school turn-based, isometric RPG?

Yes. That would be awesome. I still play tabletop RPGs where one battle takes 2+ hours. I wouldn't even care about the scope/size of the team as long as it could have really solid tactical combat and strategic character/party building.

RIP the usability for spring.me, can't blame Josh for abandoning it. And of course Josh doesn't control Obsidian's direction.

 

[tuluse]

Josh Sawyer holding onto the incline. Now if he can just convince the rest of Obsidian.

 

[jdinatale]

20 years ago today, this young man graduated high school. Who could have foretold that he would change the face of role-playing forever?

 

[dukeofwhales]

Sometimes this forum weirds me out, and it's almost always when they're talking about Obsidian staff. I can't imagine what it must be like to work there and read this stuff.