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Obsidian General Discussion Thread

Quillon

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Dec 15, 2016
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Cross-posting for posterity, but back in July, JES gave a one-hour talk to The Chinese Room. The video is unlisted, I had to dig around in their newsletter archives to find it. :M



Last month we launched TCR Talks - a series of conversations with games industry specialists that are interested in the medium from a cultural perspective. These talks are hosted internally to the staff of The Chinese Room and wider Sumo Digital family, but you, our dear newsletter readers, are receiving exclusive access to these talks!

This month we had the privilege to have a conversation with the legendary Josh Sawyer - Design Director at Obsidian Entertainment. The hour flew by as we spoke about the state of the industry, why it's important for people in games to have interests outside of games, about the chase for fidelity in games, and what is the role of games in shaping the world around us.


Just listened to it on the background. He wants to do a game like Alpha Brotocol, not necessarily with Sega/same IP to get into geopolitics with it. He wants to do less blank-slate main character RPG after playing Disco. He doesn't think many people would call Disco NOT an RPG :D he doesn't think Diablo is an RPG. Then there was a whole section in the middle about agenda driven indie games that he's frustrated the market saturation is hinderering such games' reach :P
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Just listened to it on the background. He wants to do a game like Alpha Brotocol, not necessarily with Sega/same IP to get into geopolitics with it. He wants to do less blank-slate main character RPG after playing Disco. He doesn't think many people would call Disco NOT an RPG :D he doesn't think Diablo is an RPG. Then there was a whole section in the middle about agenda driven indie games that he's frustrated the market saturation is hinderering such games' reach :P

What was the thing about the colonial mindset he hated? I just clicked at a random section, but can't be bothered to listen to the whole thing.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,296
Just listened to it on the background. He wants to do a game like Alpha Brotocol, not necessarily with Sega/same IP to get into geopolitics with it. He wants to do less blank-slate main character RPG after playing Disco. He doesn't think many people would call Disco NOT an RPG :D he doesn't think Diablo is an RPG. Then there was a whole section in the middle about agenda driven indie games that he's frustrated the market saturation is hinderering such games' reach :P

What was the thing about the colonial mindset he hated? I just clicked at a random section, but can't be bothered to listen to the whole thing.

He's surprised at some player's thinking its the right thing to dominate native culture with colonial factions in Deadfire(or some players justifying Legion in NV).

Tho I'm not sure if he's talking for both colonial factions or just Rautai or did he expect most people to choose Huana?
 

Sannom

Augur
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
951
Has Sawyer been working on anything after Deadfire?
He's the one who pushed for the early inclusing of the hunting rifle in The Outer Worlds, he's working on the PoE TTRPG in his spare time and he's apparently the project director on another game, about which we know little but which we are presuming to be a smaller RPG set in a historical setting featuring little to no combat gameplay.
 

Bohrain

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Non-blank slate character can work, but it's the kind of deal where it amplifies the skill of the writer or the lack of it. There is nothing worse than having to larp as the kind of character you absolutely don't want to be. The Fallout 4 experience is the worst of it.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
From last week: https://anchor.fm/thegamedevshow/ep...gus-Urquhart---Obsidian-Entertainment-e19bdb4

What do Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds all have in common? Well that's simple, it's @Feargus Urquhart

Rarely is an individual as synonymous with a genre as Feargus Urquhart, Co-founder of Obsidian, is with RPGs.

This week on The Game Dev Show, Feargus takes us through his story, all the way from Interplay to founding Black Isle, and the eventual creation of Obsidian.

We also dive deep on isometric RPGs, D&D, character creation, game design!

 
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
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What do Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds all have in common? Well that's simple, it's @Feargus Urquhart

And that's why all those games are so much different. Because the CEO doesn't count that much, it's the devs who made those games into what they are.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,296
From last week: https://anchor.fm/thegamedevshow/ep...gus-Urquhart---Obsidian-Entertainment-e19bdb4

What do Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds all have in common? Well that's simple, it's @Feargus Urquhart

Rarely is an individual as synonymous with a genre as Feargus Urquhart, Co-founder of Obsidian, is with RPGs.

This week on The Game Dev Show, Feargus takes us through his story, all the way from Interplay to founding Black Isle, and the eventual creation of Obsidian.

We also dive deep on isometric RPGs, D&D, character creation, game design!



20:00 onwards tho, no hard feelings towards MCA :M:D
 

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