Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Adam Brennecke on Project Eternity

[DarkUnderlord]

Seriously, this just goes to show you the power of a bad first impression for those who are already prejudiced against something.

And vice versa it would seem.

 

[J_C]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

What? You conveniently forgot that Double Fine's KS success was in the news EVERYWHERE. The press was reporting on every milestone, they had a lot of interviews. Obsidian had a fraction of less than that.

It's funny how people's opinions change over the time. When the shallow stretch goals were announced, the naysayers were bashing Obsidian's project, and said that they won't gather much money. Now that it is clear that they are wrong, their latest reasoning is that they failed because they should have gathered much more money than they have done.

 

[Infinitron]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

What? You conveniently forgot that Double Fine's KS success was in the news EVERYWHERE. The press was reporting on every milestone, they had a lot of interviews. Obsidian had a fraction of that.

I don't know if it's a "fraction" - they do seem to be getting a LOT of press. But yes, probably less than DF. I would note that Wasteland 2 profited from DF's popularity because it ran in parallel with it for a period and so they were often both reported about in the same news articles.

 

[J_C]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

What? You conveniently forgot that Double Fine's KS success was in the news EVERYWHERE. The press was reporting on every milestone, they had a lot of interviews. Obsidian had a fraction of that.

I don't know if it's a "fraction" - they do seem to be getting a LOT of press.

They get press coverage fortunately, but it isn't close to what DF had. "Fraction" might not be the best choice of word, but still...

 

[Gakkone]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

Significantly more exposure than the guy who hosted the Game Developers Choice Awards twice? The guy who also happened to pretty much start the whole Kickstarter craze?

How many rpg Obsidian developers do you see in this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BAFTA2011_GameDevs.jpg?

 

[Infinitron]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

Significantly more exposure than the guy who hosted the Game Developers Choice Awards twice? The guy who also happened to pretty much start the whole Kickstarter craze?

How many rpg Obsidian developers do you see in this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BAFTA2011_GameDevs.jpg?

Fuck, they even have a Sir-Tech developer.

 

[Jarpie]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

What? You conveniently forgot that Double Fine's KS success was in the news EVERYWHERE. The press was reporting on every milestone, they had a lot of interviews. Obsidian had a fraction of less than that.

It's funny how people's opinions change over the time. When the shallow stretch goals were announced, the naysayers were bashing Obsidian's project, and said that they won't gather much money. Now that it is clear that they are wrong, their latest reasoning is that they failed because they should have gathered much more money than they have done.

And there are loads of absolutely fanatic Lucasarts fans and even more adventure game fans who were -very- eager to pledge for Tim Schafer who's much better known than MCA, Cain and Sawyer. Who's also revered almost as messiah of adventure games.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

What? You conveniently forgot that Double Fine's KS success was in the news EVERYWHERE. The press was reporting on every milestone, they had a lot of interviews. Obsidian had a fraction of that.

Google Search: "double fine adventure" kickstarter = 516,000 results (project finished in March)
Google Search: "project eternity" kickstarter = 686,000 results (project still going)

How are your fractions?

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Man this is too much. I love it. You know how long its been since we've all even had the opportunity to fight amongst each other about this much potentially good shit? Too funny.

 

[Kz3r0]

Yes, they had that false start with the missing/bad stretch goals, but since then it's been a fairly kick-ass campaign with nearly daily updates and plenty of MCA, Sawyer and Cain fanservice.

When I said this and suggested them to do what they are doing now I only received insults by the guys that are all so smug because they admit that they were wrong.
Sincerely, fuck you, Fallout:New Vegas sold more than five millions copies, how many millions sold inXile's games to date?
Without mentioning that in this campaign they are exploiting Bethesda's Fallout recognizability, as Fargo did, and Bioware's Baldur's Gate, in fact this is its spiritual successor.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, they had that false start with the missing/bad stretch goals, but since then it's been a fairly kick-ass campaign with nearly daily updates and plenty of MCA, Sawyer and Cain fanservice.

When I said this and suggested them to do what they are doing now I only received insults by the guys that are all so smug because they admit that they were wrong.
Sincerely, fuck you, Fallout:New Vegas sold more than five millions copies, how many millions sold inXile's games to date?
Without mentioning that in this campaign they are exploiting Bethesda's Fallout recognizability, as Fargo did, and Bioware's Baldur's Gate, in fact this is its spiritual successor.

 

[Gakkone]

Without mentioning that in this campaign they are exploiting Bethesda's Fallout recognizability, as Fargo did, and Bioware's Baldur's Gate, in fact this is its spiritual successor.

Well no shit?

How many New Vegas players do you think even know who made the game? Do you think even most of them went "Oh, this game I liked was made by Obsidian. I wonder what they're up to know, two years after it was released?"

I think the mass market should be left out of this completely.

 

[Kz3r0]

Without mentioning that in this campaign they are exploiting Bethesda's Fallout recognizability, as Fargo did, and Bioware's Baldur's Gate, in fact this is its spiritual successor.

Well no shit?

How many New Vegas players do you think even know who made the game? Do you think even most of them went "Oh, this game I liked was made by Obsidian. I wonder what they're up to know, two years after it was released?"

I think the mass market should be left out of this completely.

Yeah, that's why Baldur's Gate is the first title to appear in the Kickstarter's video and Planescape:Torment is the last.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, that's why Baldur's Gate is the first title to appear in the Kickstarter's video and Planescape:Torment is the last.

What? The first title to appear is Fallout 1 & 2. Baldur's Gate doesn't appear at all. What are you smoking?

Besides, it's customary in these kinds of "credits" scenes to give the last place to the most prestigious name. Last but not least.

 

[Cynic]

The fire burns ever stronger. As we breathe the sweet air and walk with the soft earth underfoot, the effortlessness of our existence belies our true nature. Something twisted and dark broods amongst the shadows of Codexia. A legend passed down since time immemorial speaks of a moment where two lost deities, once part of a greater pantheon, will return to the land in an orgy of blazing righteousness, tearing at the world's flesh and feasting on its innards.
The evening sky glows and pulsates with rage, gently shifting in a lustful dance, like magma before our eyes. The hearts of all men sing with not a song of beauty but a dirge filled with arrogance and zealotry.
It is coming. Can you not see it? Even the blind, the deaf, the stupid, must be prepared for the coming of the demon which does not die.

The next Codexian war is upon us.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

... or are you really telling me that P:E, made by a company who have significantly more exposure than Double Fine, is only getting as much funding as an adventure game?

Significantly more exposure than the guy who hosted the Game Developers Choice Awards twice? The guy who also happened to pretty much start the whole Kickstarter craze?

Now compare units sold.

Double Fine Productions:

• According to Schafer, as of March 6, 2012 the retail version Psychonauts had sold 400,000 copies
• Brütal Legend sold 1.1 million copies across all platforms (and its listed in Wikipedia's article on commercial failures).

Low sales saw the company focus on smaller games based on digital downloads.

Obsidian Entertainment:

• Neverwinter Nights 2, "somewhere near a million units, putting the game over the 980,000 copies sales prediction."
• Alpha Protocol "managed to move over 700,000 copies since its launch, in spite of itself".
• Fallout: New Vegas "flies off shelves with 5 million units sold"
• "South Park requires a relatively smaller investment than other titles due to its simple animation. That project's break-even point is also 2 million units, though the publisher believes it can sell well above that, THQ told Pachter."

Now compare units sold of the games they're basing their projects on.

According to their KickStarter:

Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.
[...]
While at Black Isle we worked with BioWare, the creators of the Infinity Engine, on the development of the Baldur's Gate series, and were responsible for the creation and development of the Infinity Engine-based Icewind Dale series and Planescape: Torment game. Also at Black Isle we created the first two titles in the award-winning Fallout series: Fallout and Fallout 2.

At Obsidian we have created great games like Fallout: New Vegas and have many amazing people who will work on Project Eternity, including Tim Cain (Fallout, Arcanum, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc.), Josh Sawyer (Icewind Dale 1 and 2, Fallout: New Vegas),​

Double Fine:

Tim’s Project Lead debut, point-and-click classic “Day of the Tentacle” (1993)​

One of those KickStarters is name dropping like there's no tomorrow. The other is actually talking about what's in the game.

How many rpg Obsidian developers do you see in this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BAFTA2011_GameDevs.jpg?

None, because Obsidian aren't good enough to win any awards.

 

[Kz3r0]

The fire burns ever stronger. As we breathe the sweet air and walk with the soft earth underfoot, the effortlessness of our existence belies our true nature. Something twisted and dark broods amongst the shadows of Codexia. A legend passed down since time immemorial speaks of a time where two lost deities, once part of a greater pantheon, will return to the land in an orgy of blazing righteousness, tearing at the world's flesh and feasting on its innards.
The evening sky glows and pulsates with rage, gently shifting in a lustful dance, like magma before our eyes. The hearts of all men sing with not a song of beauty but a dirge filled with arrogance and zealotry.
It is coming. Can you not see it? Even the blind, the deaf, the stupid, must be prepared for the coming of the demon which does not die.

The next Codexian war is upon us.

A holy land was promised to us, filled with the wonders of the planes, where multiple paths allowed us to fall out the constrictions of time thanks to the prime power of the elements, allowing us to reincarnate in different and meaningful ways through arcane existences defining our character, but what once was a shining path is now a misty way of incertitude and hesitations leading us to the heresy of the base biological matter.
Our messiah led us astray, our gods failed us.

 

[Infinitron]

Who gives a flying fuck about Double Fine?

DU, why don't you go back and look at Wasteland 2's Kickstarter updates and compare them with Project Eternity's? For god's sake, nostalgia filters aren't supposed to work on something that happened only half a year ago.

 

[Esquilax]

The KickStarter looks like it was down-right being run by amateurs who have been making it up as they go. This is after they've seen the success of Wasteland 2 (IE: How to do it right).

http://i.imgur.com/UbZLJ.png

It's not about how much funding Project: Eternity is getting, it's about how much funding it should be getting. Based on the strength of the names behind it, the number of disenfranchised BioWare fans, and the fact that it's being marketed as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, this game should be getting way more funding than it actually is.

As I've stated before, with the assets they have at their disposal, this project should be getting $5 million by the end of it. Obsidian could be doing better than this.

 

[Infinitron]

Esquilax
Could be, should be, would be. That's a bullshit argument. Nobody knows whether or not that money you think Obsidian "should be" getting actually exists.

The evidence simply doesn't support the notion that Obsidian's Kickstarter campaign is "bad" compared to Wasteland 2's. Again, look at the fucking updates.

Brian Fargo had entire weeks with no updates. Wasteland 2's Kickstarter campaign today would be considered utterly mediocre, especially the beginning.

 

[Kz3r0]

Esquilax
Could be, should be, would be. That's a bullshit argument. Nobody knows whether or not that money you think Obsidian "should be" getting actually exists.

The evidence simply doesn't support the notion that Obsidian's Kickstarter campaign is "bad" compared to Wasteland 2's. Again, look at the fucking updates.

Brian Fargo had entire weeks with no updates.

When Fargo launched his project the only millionaire projects were The Order of the Stick reprint run and Double Fine's adventure, when Obsidian launched its campaign were there ten more, so yeah, if they get as much as Schafer they are under-performing.

 

[Infinitron]

Esquilax
Could be, should be, would be. That's a bullshit argument. Nobody knows whether or not that money you think Obsidian "should be" getting actually exists.

The evidence simply doesn't support the notion that Obsidian's Kickstarter campaign is "bad" compared to Wasteland 2's. Again, look at the fucking updates.

Brian Fargo had entire weeks with no updates.

When Fargo launched his project the only millionaire projects were The Order of the Stick reprint run and Double Fine's adventure, when Obsidian launched its campaign were there ten more, so yeah, if they get as much as Schafer they are under-performing.

That doesn't even make any sense. The more projects there are, the more the public is fatigued from Kickstarters and the less they give to each new project. That's why Obsidian were so surprised at their own success.

 

[Kz3r0]

That doesn't even make any sense. The more projects there are, the more the public is fatigued from Kickstarters and the less they give to each new project. That's why Obsidian were so surprised at their own success.

The infamous Kickstarter fatigue, that managed to pile up hundreds of projects getting hundreds of thousand of dollars, because is not that we are talking about an expanding market here, we all know that every project is backed by Jack, Jean and their cousins.

 

[Infinitron]

That doesn't even make any sense. The more projects there are, the more the public is fatigued from Kickstarters and the less they give to each new project. That's why Obsidian were so surprised at their own success.

The infamous Kickstarter fatigue, that managed to pile up hundreds of projects getting hundreds of thousand of dollars, because is not that we are talking about an expanding market here, we all know that every project is backed by Jack, Jean and their cousins.

Call it fatigue, or call it the end of Kickstarter as a fad. All I know is that something like the Banner Saga would never make the money it did today.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Could be, should be, would be. That's a bullshit argument. Nobody knows whether or not that money you think Obsidian "should be" getting actually exists.

Based on the number of people at the Codex who've said they're not donating based solely on a few negative things I've been saying, I'd say there's a fair bit of it floating around.

DU, why don't you go back and look at Wasteland 2's Kickstarter updates and compare them with Project Eternity's?

'k

Wasteland 2:

Wasteland 2 is a sequel to the amazingly popular 1988 RPG Wasteland and the post-apocalyptic predecessor to the Fallout Series.

Wasteland 2 is the direct sequel to the first ever post-apocalyptic computer RPG. The original Wasteland was the inspiration for the FALLOUT series of games, and the first RPG to allow players to split parties for tactical considerations, to face players with moral choices, and to make them deal with the consequences of their actions. It was the first to provide far more than the one-key-for-one-lock style of puzzle solving. It was groundbreaking, which is why IGN named it one of the top 25 PC games of all time, Computer Gaming World named it the Adventure Game of the year in 1988, and it was short-listed for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution’s current “Art of the Computer Game” exhibition.

For Wasteland 2, we’re getting the band back together again!. Brian Fargo who Executive Produced both Wasteland and Fallout will be heading the team. Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole—the original game’s primary designers—are coming back to put the project together, and we’re rounding up as many of the other designers, like Ken St. Andre, as we can. On top of that, we’ll have music by Mark Morgan of Fallout 1 and 2 fame. The storyline for Wasteland 2 was written by Jason Anderson who was the co-creator of Fallout. We have also enlisted the help of the amazing concept artist, Andree Wallin to help craft the Wasteland 2 world.​

Which is actually information about the game, and designers are referred to in their relationship to what's relevant to the project they're developing (IE: They did Wasteland before), as opposed to throwing in as many names of things they worked on as possible.

Brian Fargo founded Interplay Productions (By Gamers, For Gamers) in 1983 where he went on to produce and finance some of the biggest RPG's made like Bard's Tale, Fallout 1 and 2, Stonekeep, Dragon Wars, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and more. Creating a new Wasteland will be a point of pride in the long history of games.​

Hmmm... Should we give more credit to Fargo for Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, or Obsidian?

Nuts and bolts time.

We’re going back to the original and building from there. No first person shooter, we’re going top down so you get a tactical feel for the situation. And we’re not ditching the party play to turn it into some hack-and-slash bloodfest. It’s turn based, tactical, with a storyline that will be deeper and broader.

We’re determined to keep the gritty, grim and satirical writing. We’re going to pitch those moral dilemmas at you. You’re going to be faced with the consequences of your actions.​

What's this? More game information?

Project: Eternity: Refer previous post

+

we are not only making a game, we are creating a whole new world. That means a new RPG system, entirely new art, new characters and animation and whole lot of lore and dialogue. We’ve also designed the game to have a flexible budget and scope, so if we reach our target budget goal, we have a list great stuff we can add into the mix through stretch goals.​

The rest of their post is filled with images of the reward tiers.