Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Roguey]

Hot from Glassdoor:

Worst Place To Work
Feb 2, 2022 - Senior Environment Artist in Irvine, CA

Pros

The really like story based RPGs and are okay at them

Cons

The don't focus on anything other than story. The art department is kind of a joke and they don't focus on making a game great there. Instead the keep saying that story is everything and really everything should be important. I feel like they are so behind on tech, art and real game-play that they are doomed to fail. I couldn't stay there anymore. The art directors there, I feel, have given up on making great art or are are just extremely toxic.

Advice to Management

Look at the big picture and make better games.

That art director being terrible isn't new, I recall other reviews complaining about him in the past. Still, Agenda Acknowledged, artist.

 

[Quillon]

Even codexers don't shit on Obs that harshly lol

 

[Nano]

That art director being terrible isn't new, I recall other reviews complaining about him in the past. Still, Agenda Acknowledged, artist.

Which? I'm seeing Rob Nesler, Dan Alpert, and Matt Hansen on Linkedin. The third guy's the only one who isn't a Troika or Interplay veteran.

Then again, the Obsidian owners are Interplay veterans too so I guess it doesn't count for much anymore. People get old and jaded.

 

[Butter]

The don't focus on anything other than story. The art department is kind of a joke and they don't focus on making a game great there. Instead the keep saying that story is everything

It's pretty damning that they can't even get the one thing they focus on correct. This person was probably working on Avowed, and it means it's going to be worse than anyone imagines.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

are are just extremely toxic.

people who use the word toxic this way should be ignored fyi

 

[Wunderbar]

are are just extremely toxic.

people who use the word toxic this way should be ignored fyi

maybe their head artist spews poison idk

 

[purupuru]

I always thought the pillars games had tasteful art direction, especially White March and Deadfire.
Seriously, did anyone ever criticize nu-Obsidian's games' art design? I don't recall such criticism even on codex, where we are more than happy to criticize everything about Obsidian.

 

[Wunderbar]

Seriously, did anyone ever criticize nu-Obsidian's games' art design?

TOW's art direction looks dire.

 

[purupuru]

Seriously, did anyone ever criticize nu-Obsidian's games' art design?

TOW's art direction looks dire.

I wanted to mention TOW in my original post, but I couldn't make up my mind whether I should blame the art direction or the boring setting itself. In terms of environmental design, I think Groundbreaker is a decent sci-fi/industrial hub, and the colony towns' design do suffer from the setting since the buildings are all supposed to be some ready-made corporate product.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

are are just extremely toxic.

people who use the word toxic this way should be ignored fyi

maybe their head artist spews poison idk

That would just make them poisonous.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

That art director being terrible isn't new, I recall other reviews complaining about him in the past. Still, Agenda Acknowledged, artist.

Which? I'm seeing Rob Nesler, Dan Alpert, and Matt Hansen on Linkedin. The third guy's the only one who isn't a Troika or Interplay veteran.

Then again, the Obsidian owners are Interplay veterans too so I guess it doesn't count for much anymore. People get old and jaded.

I believe Rob has been implied to be a company man and general beneficiary of nepotism.

But frankly, after Pillars and Deadfire, implying OES's problems lie with its art department comes off as histrionic pearl-clutching; art design is the only thing both of those games absolutely nailed.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I don't have enough context to judge whether the glassdoor guy is some sort of degenerate misunderstood genius who likes Horizon Zero West and is feeling kept down by "conservative" art directors, or has a personal axe to grind for some other reason, or is indeed right to say they are behind on art.

 

[Quillon]

Seriously, did anyone ever criticize nu-Obsidian's games' art design?

TOW's art direction looks dire.

I wanted to mention TOW in my original post, but I couldn't make up my mind whether I should blame the art direction or the boring setting itself. In terms of environmental design, I think Groundbreaker is a decent sci-fi/industrial hub, and the colony towns' design do suffer from the setting since the buildings are all supposed to be some ready-made corporate product.

eye melting color palette
awful armor design across the board
spacer's choice weapons are good rest is..eh with a few inconsistent designs like that Dead-eye assault rifle looking like it doesn't belong in this game and too plane looking heavy weapons
also wtf was that awful looking melee weapon with which they promoted a DLC with? I'd be embarrassed adding something like that in the game, some genius* decided to put it in the spotlight
environment art is better than the rest, its clear they spent most of their resources on byzantine's areas
too many samey looking indoor areas outside of byzantine, tho "same prefabs everywhere" is prolly lore-consistent but doesn't make the game any favors

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Microsoft has all three of the founders of Trokia. They own Arcanum now. I kind of hope they just split them off from Obsidian and inXile, form a new Trokia around them, and let them do Arcanum and their own Fallout or whatever. Just from a branding point of view it seems like it'd be a good idea.

What is Senile Sawyer on about? Ziggurat Interactive owns Darklands (listed as publisher on GOG and they own the trademark).

My only guess is he thinks Activision owns it because of the MicroProse stuff and Civilization: Call to Power from 1999. But MicroProse got bought up by Hasbro's old game studio, and Hasbro sold off their video game division to Infogrames who bought up the Atari name, became new Atari, (I think there were two Atari's for a bit) and sold off some (or maybe all) of MicroProse stuff at some point in the mid 2000s seeing as how Take-Two has X-COM, Civilization, and Pirates! now.

Was like a smaller version of what's happening now.

 

[Roguey]

Which? I'm seeing Rob Nesler, Dan Alpert, and Matt Hansen on Linkedin. The third guy's the only one who isn't a Troika or Interplay veteran.

Then again, the Obsidian owners are Interplay veterans too so I guess it doesn't count for much anymore. People get old and jaded.

Glassdoor reminder

Entrenched studio art director who doesn't want to further the look/tech at the studio, develop true pipelines for each of the art departments, or understands modern AAA studio art direction. - Highly political environment. - Art directors who don't listen. - A studio art director who is toxic. - Project art directors who cannot give clear direction. - Project art directors who only want to work with their friends.

Get rid of the toxic studio art director. He is literally keeping things from moving forward in the art department. He only jumps on new tech when a studio manager comes in as says, "Houdini is important to Microsoft games future." Otherwise he has said no to Houdini for years! - Find art directors who understand the art and technology from the ground up. Your art directors are a joke and really have no idea what makes a AAA look like a AAA.

No need to wait for a black guy, this guy needs to go back to the woods already.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Outerworlds is one of the ugliest games I've ever played in terms of actual art & style.
Most of the environments look like pastel colored puke and all the people are offensively ugly.

 

[Riddler]

are are just extremely toxic.

people who use the word toxic this way should be ignored fyi

maybe their head artist spews poison idk

That would just make them poisonous.

Venomous?

 

[purupuru]

I remember one of Sawyer's tweet about their art department.
It's like "'How did you make such and such look good in Deadfire, what tech did you use?' 'Eh, good taste and color composition?'"
So I can believe there is kind of an anti-tech sentiment in the studio, which might not be a bad thing for simple isometric games like pillars, but could definitely be a problem when they want to do AAA 3D games and don't have the proper pipelines.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

pillows is just prerendered 3d though, and it does look really good
similarly, the only thing dungeon siege 3 had going for it was looking good

maybe the art team has changed in recent years considering outerworlds though

 

[Orduss]

Matt Hansen was the Art Director for the DLCs of POE II. I think we can say that he did a pretty good job, maybe his methodology will be a problem for Avowed but I don’t think reviews on Glassdoor are the best indicators. This kind of reviews can also be heavily biased, especially the latest one which allows itself to judge the entire work of Obsidian, I know that the Codex does not like Obsidian but in my eyes it looks very much like a particularly salty opinion.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

similarly, the only thing dungeon siege 3 had going for it was looking good

Story/writing of DS3 is actually pretty good too. Overall underrated game.

 

[S.torch]

People who think tech has anything to do with a game looking good certainly should be looked down upon.

 

[Roguey]

pillows is just prerendered 3d though, and it does look really good
similarly, the only thing dungeon siege 3 had going for it was looking good

maybe the art team has changed in recent years considering outerworlds though

Justin Cherry was in charge of the art in DS3 (and Mask of the Betrayer) and he's long gone.

 

[ADL]

People who think tech has anything to do with a game looking good certainly should be looked down upon.

I agree with the sentiment in 2D but rendering technologies in 3D is far more important. Think matte paintings in early sci-fi films versus 90s/early 2000s CGI. Art direction only goes so far when you're dealing with technical limitations and visual artifacting.

 

[Ging_Sama]

Isn't Obsidian hired lot of tools & tech artist for support the art team need ? Even combat designer ?

While working on Avowed, Gaw apparently drove the development of a tile-based system that allows for varied and fast interior space creation which may suggest procedurally generated areas in the RPG. Gaw also collaborated with programmers and artists to iterate on the tile-based system in order to accurately manage asset metadata needed to control the Avowed tool.

https://www.compsmag.com/news/obsidians-avowed-could-be-closer-than-you-think/