Hey there. I'm the new guy. I haven't been sucked into a new RPG as much as this one at least as far back as New Vegas, probably more like the original Baldur's Gate, when it was breaking all new grounds in 1998. I'm ashamed to not have backed this also (I have yet to back a game). Yet I'm hoping that this will mark the beginning of something new, not just a one-off.
For me it's never been a case of 2d or 3d. They're both technologies, tools. It is the artist and what he's doing with it that matters. Speaking of which, Neverwinter Nights look didn't suffer of the basic 3d technology of its time as much as of the art direction -- in my opinion anyways. 3D has some inherent advantages that 2D can't cope with, and vice versa. It depends on the game and experience though. I enjoyed New Vegas immensely, Bloodlines even by 2015 standards is almost absurdly packed with vision and scope, and I would have loved to see the canceled Aliens RPG to see the light of day. Speaking of which, as some of you have pointed out, indeed there was a push for 3D at the turn of the millenium. It's not merely 2d that has been slowly fading though, it is more specialized games in general. Back in 1997, something (as crude looking for today's eyes) as Fallout could still happily sit on the same shelf as the likes of Jedi Knight. Budgets for the most expensive games hadn't yet exploded (Wing Commander and Interactive Movies featuring Hollywood's B cast aside), titles didn't need to break the million units sold point to barely break even.
In more recent years that changed a little though. New models of distribution opened up, as did new ways of funding a game. What is exciting to me about the latest Kickstarter ressurgance isn't so much that it is happening. It is who has actually been involved. It's not like these games had died out in the first place, it's just that they didn't have an audience that would warrant triple A budgets or attract triple A publishers. Thus it was small indie outlets filling the gaps. From small garage teams like in the 1980s to smaller publishers who specialize on niches. Here in Germany you have actually publishers who very much focus on PC adventure games -- and doing reasonably well enough even though they sell significantly less than your average PC RPG (a game selling 50,000 units is considered a major hit pretty much -- and though not as complex in development as a fully-fledged RPG, they all feature fully professional voice overs throughout, and production values up to this: http://www.kingart-games.de/bout2/). They all have competition now. As now you're getting the most creative heads in the industry taking note -- and scaling back a little. If your game doesn't cost 20 millions+ to make and market, you don't have to ship a million plus units in the first place to turn a profit. Thus Tim Schafer's first new adventure game ever since the utterly brilliant Grim Fandango will be released soon (though it reportedly went hugely overbudget). Brian Fargo appears to have embarked on a quest to do sequels or spiritual follow-ups to just about anyone's favourite cult RPGs. And Obsidian have just released the fantastic Pillars Of Eternity. Thank you to the backers, thank you to Josh, Faergus, Josh, Adam, Eric and the entire team for making this a reality.
There is a little uncertainty about Kickstarter, probably, and that is because of the people. It very much relies on them: If they don't trust you anymore, the backing might fade. That is why I'm hoping for traditional publishers to take note too, Obsidian's connections to Paradox sound like a great fit. In the Road To Eternity video, it became apparent that Obsidian had trouble finding such a publisher for games like this. Yet there are publishers out there who very much focus on PC games, interestingly even Sega, who canned the Aliens RPG for reasons the public will likely never know. Take a look at their portfolio: their biggest franchises are Total War (totally PC) and Football Manager, a series selling a million copies each year despite not sporting much of any kind of graphics to begin with (correspondingly, it is always to be found amongst Steam's most played titles at any time of the day). Here's hoping and off to the Endless Paths now. )