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Development Info Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter Update #73: Eric Fenstermaker speaks!

Infinitron

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Tags: Eric Fenstermaker; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

In this week's Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter update, lead narrative designer Eric Fenstermaker finally gets to take center stage. It seems that the man was well chosen for the role, because the update is of large, almost Torment-esque proportions. Here's a small part of it, in which Eric describes the process of companion design:

Companions may be my favorite things about RPGs. Long after you've finished the game, looking back, if they're done well, they feel like old friends. Lately we have been ramping up our companion writing. (We really did have a discussion about one of those designs today, and did some iteration on it.) As such, I've been giving a lot of thought of late as to what our goals should be in creating the companions for Pillars of Eternity, and I thought they'd be worth sharing with the people we're designing them for. These are a few of the benchmarks I want us to try to hit:

Interactively Dynamic

It's common in most types of fiction for major characters (or the protagonist at the very least) to follow an arc, in which their character begins a certain way and ends up being changed by the events of the story, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But for a video game, that's not really taking advantage of the medium. This is a story about the player's character, told by the player's actions. It stands to reason that the ways in which a companion would change should be dependent on what the player does.

So we have an arc for each of our companions, but each arc has multiple potential endpoints, in just the same way that the plot has multiple endings. Which endpoint the arc ends up at will be, in one way or another, determined by what the player does - whether it's something they say or an action they take or some other choice they make. This was an approach we last took in Fallout: New Vegas and I thought it was something to definitely keep.

Unique, Varied, Relatable Ambassadors

Chris Avellone touched on this in a previous update, and it remains a core goal for us. Pillars of Eternity takes place in a brand new setting. Most players won't know their boreal dwarf chanters from their hearth orlan ciphers. Getting to know companions that run the gamut of races, classes, and cultures will help the setting come alive and hopefully become a place players will find themselves wanting to stay awhile. Each companion, in a sense, becomes an ambassador for his or her race, culture, and class.

And we only have so many companions. So they can't all be snarky elves (or can they?) - they need different characterizations, different voices, different struggles. As a designer, you never know what's going to strike a nerve with a given player. Rarely for our games is there a universal favorite companion - almost always there seems to be an even distribution for how many players like each character. In some ways that's maddening, because how do you adjust for that, but it's also one of the best things about writing companions - as long as you write a character that is authentic in its humanity, somewhere, somebody is going to identify with it, and that will be the character they enjoyed spending time with the most. By varying widely the particulars of each companion's persona and struggles, the hope is that while not everybody will necessarily love every companion, most will find at least one that means something to them.

Lanterns to the Themes

"Why should the player care?" is a question we try to ask ourselves for all aspects of the narrative. When it comes to plot, the question is answered by its themes - they make the plot about something more than a physical struggle.

But again, our narrative is interactive. The themes shouldn't be predetermined morals. There should be many facets to them, and it should fall to the player, not the designer, to decide what his or her perspective winds up being on the theme. To take a well-worn example, if the theme is about the struggle of good vs. evil (don't worry, it's not), the ending shouldn't simply assert that good always triumphs over evil. It should ask the player what he or she believes, given everything they've learned on their journey. Maybe they even surprise themselves with their choice.

That's where companions come in. If we're designing them well, their struggles should tie into the themes on some level. And the resolution they come to, which, because of the interactive dynamism discussed above, is influenced by the player, gives them a distinct perspective on the theme. The goal is that in the process of helping the companions resolve their conflicts, we give the player something to think about for what that might mean in the context of his or her own character, and in the long run, that gives the themes personal meaning when it comes time to resolve them for the player character.

I'd be interested to hear, what do all of you think? Not so much specific characterizations, but more, what are the abstract qualities that make you enjoy and remember a companion? (e.g. They made you laugh, they seemed like a real person, their quest was engrossing, etc.)
Watch out, Eric, you ask for advice like that and at least half the audience will describe Minsc and Boo. Other than that, there's the usual introductions, a tongue-in-cheek description of Eric's work day, and also a nice bit of lore about the Eternity setting's undead. Oh, and also the news that the development team will be doing an AMA on Reddit later today, at 17:30 PST. Might be worth checking out if you're still awake then.
 

set

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imo all companions should be elves, wouldn't minsc've been better as an elf?
 

throwaway

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Tim Cain said:
I worked on a game in the 90's that I actually had my name removed from its credits. Good luck finding that one, though.

And I really like how Arcanum turned out. Is that one post-IE enough?
 

set

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Sounds like a challenge, Tim Cain.

You know the internet never loses to a challenge.
 

Xeon

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Man, The AMA seems a little stale[?*]. Some good stuff but not many good questions or reception. They should have given people 1 or 2 days notice. Zed is pretty great.

Good update!!

Edited*
 

Arkeus

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I've been replaying IE games for the past few months in my spare time. Some things that stood out:

  • The big setpiece combats in BG2 were really engrossing. I found myself clearly underpowered against a shadow dragon, a lich, etc., and I'd have to reload maybe a dozen or more times in some cases, but that feeling of "Almost had it! One more try!" kept me going, and the wealth of strategies you could choose from made those fights all the more addicting.

  • Obviously they didn't have much in the way of high fidelity cutscenes back then to sell their narrative. But I was very impressed at the way Torment was able to leverage prose to help convey the visuals. Made their characters so much more memorable. That's something we'll be bringing back with Eternity.

Pleased that he is replaying the IE games as that speaks well of their effort.
 

Kem0sabe

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This is how you do updates inxile, i want more personal life schedules of developers? i want to know how many lines does Fargo need to do to start his day all chirpy like.
 

AbounI

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The screen from this update is coming from an already seen area
pillars-of-eternity-ss-1-720x409.jpg
 

Duraframe300

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I've been replaying IE games for the past few months in my spare time. Some things that stood out:

  • The big setpiece combats in BG2 were really engrossing. I found myself clearly underpowered against a shadow dragon, a lich, etc., and I'd have to reload maybe a dozen or more times in some cases, but that feeling of "Almost had it! One more try!" kept me going, and the wealth of strategies you could choose from made those fights all the more addicting.

  • Obviously they didn't have much in the way of high fidelity cutscenes back then to sell their narrative. But I was very impressed at the way Torment was able to leverage prose to help convey the visuals. Made their characters so much more memorable. That's something we'll be bringing back with Eternity.

Pleased that he is replaying the IE games as that speaks well of their effort.

He also has a different perspective on those games compared to like Sawyer or Avellone as he never worked on them.
 

hexer

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This area would be perfect if it weren't for those filler crates. Hopefully, the area's mapper wasn't lazy and they're all over the place with a good reason.
 

Scruffy

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Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
I'm Eric Fenstermaker and I'm the lead narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity. Before this I held the same position on South Park: The Stick of Truth, so if the dialogue in Eternity ends up being a long string of obscenities and fart jokes, you know who to blame.

AHAHAHAHAHAH HILARIOUS

I know we suggested last week that I was going to give you a lore update, but I thought, this is a crowdfunded project. Why not completely fail to deliver on what was promised and instead give our backers something no one asked for?

AHAHAHHAHAH STOP IT, YOU'RE KILLING ME

Most of this is somewhat based on real events - at least as much as American Hustle.

I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR DOG
 

aratuk

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This area would be perfect if it weren't for those filler crates. Hopefully, the area's mapper wasn't lazy and they're all over the place with a good reason.

Crates really were/are used as furniture, in places where today you'd see mass-produced particle board. Also more common before durable cardboard boxes were a thing. Doesn't explain what they're doing in the street, though, unless your neighborhood is full of scattered rocking chairs and end tables.
 

himmy

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This area would be perfect if it weren't for those filler crates. Hopefully, the area's mapper wasn't lazy and they're all over the place with a good reason.


They are what was left behind from the attempt of fleeing the town when the undead came. The population put everything in crates and was waiting outside the house for a cart to come they could hire to get the fuck out of town, but the undead got there too early and they were forced to abandon their earthly possessions and flee only with their lives, if that, and live in a refugee camp outside the elfish border for two years.

Source: I've been following the Syrian conflict.
 

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I like the update and actually think it is pretty funny. Maybe not laugh out loud funny, but amusing and the humour does not come out as forced.
 

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I like the update and actually think it is pretty funny. Maybe not laugh out loud funny, but amusing and the humour does not come out as forced.

i prefer my humor to be of a more cerebral nature
 
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So thankfully one of Obsidian employees have slipped something he should not :

[Question ]
Student in UCI's Informatics program, here. You have a number of talented Unity engineers on your team, I'm sure. What resources did you guys use when you were first starting out with Unity (whether at Obsidian or elsewhere) that you found were particularly helpful? I want to dedicate some real time to familiarizing myself with the engine this coming summer; suggestions on where to start would be incredible! Thanks!


[Answer]At the beginning of the project Adam, myself, and Jay Fong (who as since moved to another project) were all sitting near each other trying to make different things happen. We watched tutorial videos and got our hands dirty trying to make something happen. I would mess around with things like movement/pathfinding, Jay investigated graphics, and Adam handled assets and other logistics. We shared our discoveries and learned by doing.

The best way to learn this sort of thing is to take on a small project, even if it's just one of the Unity example projects, and try to change stuff. There's a ton of great tutorial videos out there, you can do it for sure!
Edit: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfong He is a programmer. Game he is involved in possibly was in prototype phase when he moved in (Lead Programmer). So it may be something mentioned by MCA, when he spoke about producers approaching Obsidian. Maybe SW game? He was a LP in Kotor II.


Could not be South Park because it was in middle development in the given timeframe (between ks and now), could not be Unannounced Project because it is also in a work for at least a year. Is it this kickstarter TBA in March or something else? Him having some experience in ks games pitching makes it more possible.

About projects in a studio:

[Question ]How many projects are you currently working on?



[Answer] Cain: Just this one! I'm 100% PoE [new kickstarter is not Arcanum II]

Brennecke : Just this one. We have other projects going on at the studio, but most, if not all, the developers work on one project at a time. (Besides Dave... poor Dave.)

New kickstarter is not Arcanum II. No sense in doing A II without Cain, especially when you can assign him there. So, sadly he is not going to be a lead designer on another project, like some had hopped :(
 
Last edited:

Infinitron

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Don't make hasty assumptions. Just because Cain isn't working on anything else now doesn't mean he won't do so in two months.

As for Fong's other project, I don't see why it couldn't also be the unannounced AAA project. So what if they've been working on it for a year? (have they?) Duraframe300
 
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Arcanum rights belong to Activision. Its a license locked in a prisoner's dilemma where

(1) nobody with money will buy it because it had bad sales

(2) Activision won't sell it cheaply because they don't want to risk a rival making it into something that sells well

(3) the indies who would be willing to make something cool with it cant afford it


The triangle of the lost licenses.
 
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Don't make hasty assumptions. Just because Cain isn't working on anything else now doesn't mean he won't do so in two months.

As for Fong's other project, I don't see why it couldn't also be the unannounced AAA project. So what if they've been working on it for a year? (have they?) Duraframe300

New ks will be announced in March. I think it won't take long from announcing to getting it on ks. If so, then this project must be in early preproduction (ToN was for a few months before ks). It's needed in order to:
  • be 100% sure that it is a project Obsidian wants to make
  • know what features should be a part of the pitch
  • have concept arts and mockup screen
  • can describe game world, mechanics
  • know what to put as stretch goals
All of this needs a Lead Designer. Lead Designer will be a guide during a ks pitch. So the LD must be already assigned.

As for Fong: he was the Lead Programmer on SL and AP. It's more possible he will retain his position on the project he was assigned on. If he is assigned to U AAA then it mean the game lost it's previous LP. Possible, but I think it's more possible that there is a new project needing experienced LP which will suck some of SP production team.
 

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