Update #57: Hello again for the first time...

[Darren Monahan]

Update by Brandon Adler, Producer

 

Hello, everyone. I'm Brandon Adler - Project Eternity's newest Producer and general schedule wrangler. I'm the dude that helps make sure the game's product is on time, on budget, and totally kickass.

 

I worked at Obsidian previously for over six years on projects like Neverwinter Nights 2 (base game, Mask of the Betrayer, and Storm of Zehir), Alpha Protocol, Dungeon Siege 3, and South Park. I came back to help make Project Eternity (which is about as close to my dream project as you can get) and I look forward to interacting with all of Project Eternity's passionate fanbase.

 

Rezzed

One new development is our very own Chris Avellone presented Project Eternity at Rezzed in Birmingham, UK. He showed off the approaches we’re taking with Project Eternity for the vertical slice and pipelines, and showcasing new concepts like the animat and Defiance Bay.

 

Concepting process for one of our creatures, the bronze-armored animats.

 

Animats are animated by the souls of ancient warriors that were extracted, purified, and bound into the armor.  Copper is an especially strong binder for soul energy, which is why bronze is used for the animats.  Copper is also often used in Engwythan (ancient residents of Eir Glanfath) architecture and magical items, including "skein steel", a fantastic alloy created with sinister soul magic.

 

Color concept and reanimation sequence of the animat.

 

If you are interested in watching Chris' full presentation at Rezzed you can see it here (some language mildly NSFW).

 

Vine

For those of you that are Obsidian fanatics, or Project Eternity fanatics, or just developer fanatics, some of our staff will be creating Vines (you know, those short looping videos that you can make with the Vine app?) and posting them on their personal Twitter accounts. Take a look.

 

Here are some examples:

 

What's in a name? - https://vine.co/v/hzmXvdr57VA

 

Office 360 - https://vine.co/v/hzmabYV2mlP

 

Around the Office - https://vine.co/v/hzA9pUt97de

 

Stronghold Fun - https://vine.co/v/hznBYZi37dV

 

WARNING: IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY POTENTIALLY RIDICULOUS VIDEOS DO NOT VISIT THESE TWITTER ACCOUNTS.

 

Josh Sawyer: https://twitter.com/jesawyer

 

Adam Brennecke: https://twitter.com/adam_brennecke

 

Brandon Adler: https://twitter.com/badler07

 

Avellone's Arcanum Playthrough

Chris has been prepping (and presenting) Eternity at Rezzed, once he’s back, you’ll get a new playthrough video in a future update.

 

Well, that's it for now. Over the next few weeks we will be talking about the vertical slice, the fulfillment system, and other goodies. So, stay tuned. As always, we love your feedback on our updates and game direction, so head over to the Project Eternity forums and let us know what you are thinking. Thanks for reading.

 

---

 

Kickin' it Forward: Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade

 

We're big fans of the World of Darkness, particularly the classic Vampire: The Masquerade setting from the 90's (and let's not forget the excellent Vampire Bloodlines cRPG!). Our friends at By Night Studios are putting out a new edition of the Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire: The Masquerade live action role-playing game, which fans of vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night might find interesting! They've recently hit their funding goal, but have some really cool stretch goals; break out your fangs and check it out!

[Pandamaniac]

Nice update, Mr. Adler, but for future reference Eternity updates are traditionally provided extremely late at night, not during normal business hours. Get it right next time

[Lephys]

Hooray for project-wrangling! 8D!

 

If everyone else on the team are all lengths of bamboo, you are the vine-rope that ties them all together into a fully functional gatling-defense-turret.

 

Hmm? What do you mean, "strange metaphor"? What else would you possibly be constructing out of bamboo and vine-ropes? u_u

 

And just because that wasn't enough like a joke, I'll include one now! 8D:

 

What do you do in an MMO that has Anicrafting?

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

You farm animats.

 

(Also, they could be a collection of welcome mats in the shape/image of adorable animals. They could even be FUZZY mats!)

 

I actually like the animats, by the way, for what it's worth, as well as that scrumptious-yet-crumblike omorsel of lore regarding soul-magic/infusion. But nothing -- NOTHING -- can extinguish my need to provide ferociously terrible humor. u_u

Edited June 25, 2013 by Lephys

[LadyCrimson]

What's in a name? - https://vine.co/v/hzmXvdr57VA

That's pretty much what my Super8 hand-animation movies looked like.

[Sensuki]

Welcome back. A rehiring and a 'promotion' - nice work
 

What format are you guys planning to use for Production? Sprints? or some other method?

[Elerond]

Do animats have their own mind or do they blindly follow orders of their creators? 

 

Also I am interested if one can bind soul energy to steel or are all magic armaments made from weaker metal alloys like bronze? 

[J.E. Sawyer]

Enchantments take a number of different forms, but steel is by far the most common metal used for making armor and weapons.  Skein steel doesn't actually bind the soul to the metal, but uses copper as a temporary element of the forging process to slowly draw a burning soul over the weapon.  By the time the process is complete, there's very little copper left in the weapon, but there are trace amounts that can reveal the macabre process used to create it.

[SunBroSolaire]

I'm the dude that helps make sure the game's product is on time, on budget, and totally kickass.

 

I worked at Obsidian previously for over six years on projects like [...] Alpha Protocol

 

Edited June 26, 2013 by SunBroSolaire

[Sensuki]

Just because I'm bored.

 

https://vine.co/v/hzA9pUt97de

 

Steve Weatherly, Tim Cain, Jorge Salgado, Polina Hristova, Kazunori Aruga, Sean Dunny, Hector Espinoza ?

[IndiraLightfoot]

This animat concept really tickles my fancy! It also makes me wish for "hippanimats" and "skielanimats", basically the same concept of an excellent warrior soul-grafted onto armour, but in this case armoured war horses and war dogs.

Edited June 26, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, I had already watched Chris' presentation so for me this update was absolutely useless. Good to know that we're going to hear something about the vertical slice and the fulfillment system in the next weeks, though.

[Sacred_Path]

Animats? Banish the thought. Why come up with "soul magic" when you're going with tech-magic anyway?

[Sedrefilos]

To be honest, I expected something a bit bigger than this (actually I was expecting something huge!) since there was no update last week and there was that presentation at rezzed and all that... but... oh, well...

[WorstUsernameEver]

Animats? Banish the thought. Why come up with "soul magic" when you're going with tech-magic anyway?

Did you miss the part where they explain that an animat is created by binding a soul to an armor? How is that "tech magic"?

[Chilloutman]

To be honest, I expected something a bit bigger than this (actually I was expecting something huge!) since there was no update last week and there was that presentation at rezzed and all that... but... oh, well...

 

Patience young padawan. Year of development ahead of us we have.

[Commitment Tissues]

Sigh, I've already seen the rezzed stuff. Hopefully the next update is more substantial.

 

I'm off to cut myself in the bathtub.

[Sacred_Path]

 

Animats? Banish the thought. Why come up with "soul magic" when you're going with tech-magic anyway?

Did you miss the part where they explain that an animat is created by binding a soul to an armor? How is that "tech magic"?

 

Binding a soul to create what is basically an automaton? That sounds like a dilution of the "soul" concept to me. If anything, with the potential of dipping into the soul powers of living beings, there was a chance to avoid "golems" and similar variations of animated objects.

[Malekith]

 

 

Animats? Banish the thought. Why come up with "soul magic" when you're going with tech-magic anyway?

Did you miss the part where they explain that an animat is created by binding a soul to an armor? How is that "tech magic"?

 

Binding a soul to create what is basically an automaton? That sounds like a dilution of the "soul" concept to me. If anything, with the potential of dipping into the soul powers of living beings, there was a chance to avoid "golems" and similar variations of animated objects.

 

Why? I mean, when we know that people souls have power and are the source of magic, doesn't make sense to use captured souls as batteries? It makes sense, i would do it if i was a wizard in that world.

Even in other settings like Dragon Age and Forgotten Realms binding a soul to an item or a golem or whatever gave special results, but in those cases is nonsensical .

In PE makes sense.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Malekith

[C2B]

Just because I'm bored.

 

https://vine.co/v/hzA9pUt97de

 

Steve Weatherly, Tim Cain, Jorge Salgado, Polina Hristova, Kazunori Aruga, Sean Dunny, Hector Espinoza ?

Yeah, I think so. Though, it's really hard to tell.

 

Also, hello back Brendan. Was sad when I noticed you got laid off. (If you're the guy I think you are)

Edited June 26, 2013 by C2B

[Prometheus]

To be honest, I expected something a bit bigger than this (actually I was expecting something huge!) since there was no update last week and there was that presentation at rezzed and all that... but... oh, well...

There was an update last week and the update last week was big, so I expected something like this.

[godsend1989]

I hope you dont give up on Bloodlines, the most atmospheric game i ever played along with Half Life 2 episodes, you guys are the best.

[Aoyagi]

Uh... I don't want to be nitpicking or anything, but horns on helmets (or shoulders, chest, back) don't really make sense. Unless the creator of animats was aware of the disadvantages and made them have horns for some reason. Certainly not for scaring people with, ectoplasm-person is scary on its own . The death concept looks pretty!

[Fashion Mage]

This update is like, total snoresville.

[milczyciel]

Avellone's Arcanum Playthrough

Chris has been prepping (and presenting) Eternity at Rezzed, once he’s back, you’ll get a new playthrough video in a future update.

 

Well, that's it for now. Over the next few weeks we will be talking [...] the fulfillment system, and other goodies. So, stay tuned. 

 

Yes and yesss... My prayers has been answered

 

PS

I loved Alpha Protocol

Edited June 26, 2013 by milczyciel

[Tagaziel]

I like the look of the animats. Is it me, or is Eternity going to play around with the FORGOTTEN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION trope as well? The inclusion of copper armour and designs that look and feel dated is a pretty awesome turn away from the usual LOOK AT HOW ADVANCED THESE ELVES WERE approach most fantasy games have.

 

I also dig the colour palette the more I look at it.