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Infinitron

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    A Special Announcement From Obsidian

    in Obsidian General

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    2 hours ago, Janmanden said:

    Would be nice if Micrsoft would be able to round up all of the former Troika members and add them too and put them all together, InXile, Troika and Obsidian. It could be amaaaazing!!! 🤪😍:banana:
     

    All three Troika founders currently work for Obsidian and inXile.

    The Outer Worlds August Preview Bonanza

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    Full interview with Brian Heins: https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-outer-worlds/interview

    Quote

    Here are the most absurd ways to play The Outer Worlds
    We chat to Obsidian’s senior designer about the silliest ways to play the game and its ties to today’s world

    the-outer-worlds-melee-build-900x506.jpg

    Everybody deals with the hopelessness and futility of existence in their own way. In a world flirting ever more coquettishly with authoritarianism and nationalism, it’s difficult to know what to do when it feels like you have very little say to resist it. Really, there’s only one thing you can do: laugh. With that in mind, when it comes to late October, I will cope with what may well be a no-deal Brexit by insulating myself with the chortle-a-minute riot that is Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds.

    In an hour of The Outer Worlds gameplay, I’ve detected the nihilistic humour of the Fallout games, but also moments of unapologetic silliness. That said, there’s also satire in spades. This is a universe in thrall to gargantuan megacorporations that own you from cradle to grave and beyond as they terraform planets into uninhabitable hellholes for profit.

    However, it hasn’t all been fun and games. The Outer Worlds’ Epic exclusivity has elicited strong feelings, most notably from former Obsidian writer Chris Avellone. Shortly after my hands-on with the game, I spoke to Obsidian’s senior designer, Brian Heins, about crunch, the most ridiculous ways you can play the game, and The Outer Worlds’ relationship with today’s turbulent world.

    PCGN: The Outer Worlds’ flexibility is made manifest in the numerous builds you can create. What’s the maddest one you’ve seen?

    Brian Heins: We did a UI revision, so you can’t do it currently, but someone actually went through character creation and gave himself the minimum possible on every single attribute – worst possible attribute scores, worst possible skill scores – and they never levelled their character up. They just kept going through the game to see how far they could get as the worst person in the colony, so that was entertaining to see them try.

    In what way? What happened to them?

    Because they had the lowest intelligence they got all the ‘dumb’ dialogue options. It was entertaining because they embraced the idea that they were just bad at everything. An NPC would say ‘can you do this farming’ and they’d be like ‘probably not, but I’ll give it a try’!

    Could they complete the game?

    They could, absolutely. But it was definitely challenging. At the time the game wasn’t completeable, but they got as far as they possibly could.

    Given the various alliances in The Outer Worlds, all of whom you have a reputation with, what’s the trickiest situation in which a player has found themselves?

    One of our producers on the game – his gameplay style is he doesn’t talk to anybody, he just shoots them. So, walking through town, he starts opening fire and killing people, just to see if you can play the game that way. And you can, but it’s a very lonely game! Everyone who could be a companion, he kills before they can do anything. Every quest giver, he kills, and you can complete the game entirely that way, but it is definitely much more challenging experience.

    the-outer-worlds-npc-dialogue-900x506.jp

    Some players try to play all sides, try to avoid making a choice between people who are opposing each other. But not everybody can be pleased, especially when you’re helping out their enemy. Then it came to the point where they actually need to make a decision that…

    …will piss someone off.

    Exactly. There’s a certain type of person that doesn’t want to make anybody angry. But there are also certain people that are just happy to work with you as long as you’re not working with their enemy.

    Spoiler

    There are two main endings. Can you keep playing after that?

    No. When the game completes you’re shown how your choices ripple through the future of the colony.

    Presumably there’s a time at which you can save before this?

    We’ve created a save game right before you make the final choice, it says ‘hey, now you’re ending the game’, so you can always load that again and play more if you want to.

    the-outer-worlds-town-900x506.jpg

    To me this is a game with real satirical bite. Could the world be more ripe for something like The Outer Worlds than right now?

    I don’t know! I mean, obviously we weren’t very aware of the times and the culture as we were making the game, but yeah, with the corporate, financial situation the way it is, businesses the way they are – I think it’s very interesting that over the past couple of years comedy shows and sites are less like comedy and more like reality. I see an article from The Onion and I’m not altogether sure if it’s actually satire or just reporting.

    I think with the humour of the game we’re taking the idea of corporate bureaucracy culture and extrapolating it to an extreme, but it’s still a relatable extreme because it’s all based in the situation we’re in as a society, definitely.

    Over the course of the past two or three years, have your writers produced something that seemed ridiculous, but then became something like reality?

    I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but I definitely know that people have talked about ideas that seem like ‘oh, that’s crazy, that would never happen’, and we have seen similar things, but not exactly that. Things like this business making this decision, or this PR spin that’s so obviously an attempt to pretend something’s not a problem when it is a problem.

    the-outer-worlds-enemies-900x506.jpg

    I think that’s one of the things that makes the humour relatable – while you may not have intended a specific comparison, people will be able to derive their own comparisons from the humour of the situation, whether it’s a crappy customer service phone call that you’ve had to deal with, or trying to get an insurance agency to approve payment on something.

    Do you think people will look back on The Outer Worlds as an important title given its cultural context?

    It’s always hard for us to tell because we’re so close to it. I would love it if that was the case. I think that comes when a game resonates more than just within the year it was released, or something that people can play again and again and get something out of it.

    On the one hand I would enjoy making something that continues to resonate with people. On the other I would love it if we change as a society, where that’s no longer relevant to people.

    Then arguably there’d be no Outer Worlds?

    It’s true.

    the-outer-worlds-aliens-900x506.jpg

    What’s been Obsidian’s approach to crunch in relation to The Outer Worlds?

    Obsidian is not a crunch studio, which is one of the things that keeps people staying there for a long time. We’ve had situations where, to meet a deadline for a week or so, they ask people to come in and put in extra time, but it’s always a request. And people who choose not to, or can’t because of family commitments or whatever, it’s fine, it’s not an issue at all.

    There really hasn’t been a crunch or a death march or anything like that with the studio for quite a long time – as far as I can remember, anyway. That’s definitely one of the things that as a studio we’re very committed to. We’d rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside of the industry.

    The Outer Worlds is an Epic exclusive, which has caused some controversy, most notably from Chris Avellone. How do you respond to that?

    So ultimately the choice of where the game is published is Private Division’s decision. We really didn’t have any say in that matter at all. I didn’t actually see Chris’s comments.

    the-outer-worlds-weapons-900x506.jpg

    Do those conversations filter through to the team as the game’s being made? Does it have any impact – perhaps on morale?

    People have questions about why the decision was made. We had a team meeting where Feargus [Urquhart, Obsidian CEO] let us know what the decision was, why it was made, that sort of thing. Most of the team just wanted [to know] ‘does it affect the release date?’ and that kind of stuff, and the answer was no, so ultimately it hasn’t had an impact on the team with respect to getting the game done. We’re aware that some people have pretty strong feelings about it one way or another, and we’re just focused on making the game as good as we can.

    Obviously it’s important for you and the team for as many people to play the game as possible. Is The Outer Worlds being on Xbox Game Pass important for that?

    Xbox, PS4, Windows PC store, Game Pass, and the Epic store: there’s a lot of ways for players to purchase the game and enjoy it. Definitely I think Game Pass is a great option for players. We’ll see how it works out, but I’m hoping that, because a lot of people can get very intimidated by the scope of RPGs, being able to drop in and try it out to see if it’s their type of game – for however long it’s available on Game Pass – [is a good thing]. Then they can purchase it if they enjoy playing beyond that.

    How do the writers strike a tonal balance between satire and fun with political topics that some players might resist?

    So that’s one of those things that comes through iteration. Whenever we work on an area there are a few story points that Leonard and Tim want to make sure get hit by the writers. They’ll do a first pass, then play it through and give feedback.

    Sometimes people will write a joke that’s just not landing. Some of it honestly is in delivery from the voice acting. Generally when we do an audio pass we do text-to-speech auto generation, which is very flat and monotone, and a lot of the things people laugh at now were just not funny when it was just text-to-speech.

    As we were doing the VO for the narrative the writers were giving them the feedback, like what they intended to be funny, what the punchline was supposed to be, but the actual voice actors’ delivery brought a lot of life to the characters.

     

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    Obsidian is hiring Unity programmers - new isometric game?

    in Obsidian General

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    https://www.obsidian.net/jobs/open-positions/programming/1130-unity-programmer

    Quote

    Unity Programmer

    Obsidian is looking for experienced Unity Programmers to join our team of game developers.

    Our ideal candidate has a strong work ethic, outstanding problem-solving skills, the ability to deliver on time, and works well in a team environment.  If you are a Unity aficionado who is passionate about creating rich and compelling player experiences, this role may be a perfect fit for you.

    Responsibilities

    [*]Work closely with designers and artists on the implementation of gameplay systems
    [*]Analyze and improve performance across all target platforms
    [*]Debug and fix crashes, concurrency issues, and platform-specific problems
    [*]Research and propose improvements to processes and pipelines


    Requirements

    [*]An avid gamer with a passion for making games
    [*]Prior experience with credits on at least one commercially released title using Unity
    [*]Excellent communication and team skills
    [*]Strong math skills
    [*]Proficiency in C#
    [*]Excellent problem-solving, performance analysis and debugging skills
    [*]Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science or Engineering


    Obsidian Entertainment is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

    Simply apply via e-mail: jobs@obsidian.net

    Please put the job you are applying to in the subject line

    Please, no phone calls or drop-ins. We only accept emailed applications

    • Like 1

    New Two-Factor Authentication Feature

    in Obsidian General

    Posted

    On 5/1/2019 at 6:47 AM, The Guildmaster said:

    Hi all, we put some changes up that should increase the length now by days instead of hours.  Let us know if you're still seeing the sign-in form too often! Thanks, everyone!

    Still seeing it more often than I'd like. It should be once a month, not once a week. These aren't high security bank accounts.

    • Like 1

    The Outer Worlds August Preview Bonanza

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    The Outer Worlds on the Microsoft Store - Win32 or UWP?

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    Microsoft recently announced that they plan to start supporting standard Win32 desktop applications on the Microsoft Store, and not just UWP applications.

    https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/30/microsoft-approach-to-pc-gaming/

    Quote

    Supporting Win32 Games on Windows 10

    We want creators to be inspired to bring their best content to Windows 10, and we want Windows 10 to be the place where gamers come to discover their next favorite PC game. We recognize that Win32 is the app format that game developers love to use and gamers love to play, so we are excited to share that we will be enabling full support for native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store on Windows. This will unlock more options for developers and gamers alike, allowing for the customization and control they’ve come to expect from the open Windows gaming ecosystem.

    So that raises the question, will the version of The Outer Worlds available on the Microsoft Store be a Win32 app? It would be easier for Obsidian to maintain the same version of the game on all stores, after all.

    The Outer Worlds Release Date and Pre-orders Announced!

    in The Outer Worlds: Announcements & News

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    On 6/22/2019 at 11:20 AM, Katarack21 said:

    Would also like to know the answer to this question.

    Finally got a response from Private Division:

    Quote

    Thanks for reaching out.

    When you pre-order The Outer Worlds from our Private Division store, you will be receiving an Epic Game store key. We hope this clarifies any confusion. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

     

    Is Obsidian publicly undercutting The Outer Worlds' game director, Leonard Boyarsky?

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    48 minutes ago, 213374U said:

     

    I realize that you are interpreting it that way. Overt "insubordination" in a country with at-will employment is at best foolhardy, so I'm going to guess that you're simply reading too much into a fairly innocuous comment instead of assuming that junior devs would happily kiss their jobs goodbye over... a matter of perspective.

    Or do you know something we don't?

     

    I guess it's fairly likely that we're basically talking about a bunch of whiny juniors who are dutifully doing their jobs, resentfully muttering "Well, it's a politically charged anti-capitalist game to me" under their breaths while not actually creating anything that Leonard would disapprove of.

    But, impressions matter.

    Is Obsidian publicly undercutting The Outer Worlds' game director, Leonard Boyarsky?

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    Forget the specific issue of politics. Do you realize that it's easy to interpret that tweet (which has been endorsed by senior Obsidian personnel!) as a declaration of insubordination? "We have a different intent than our game director - and we're acting on that intent by making a different game than what he envisions." It's extremely unprofessional to use that word, "intent". Intent implies action. She could have said "views" instead.

    Is Obsidian publicly undercutting The Outer Worlds' game director, Leonard Boyarsky?

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    In a recent interview, Leonard Boyarky said this: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/obsidian-says-it-doesnt-want-outer-worlds-to-be-a-politically-charged-game/

    Quote

    Obsidian says it doesn’t want Outer Worlds to be ‘a politically-charged game’
    CO-DIRECTOR SAYS HE’S BEEN ‘VERY CAREFUL’ NOT TO ‘LECTURE’ PLAYERS

    Obsidian’s creative director, Leonard Boyarsky has said the studio doesn’t want to create a “politically-charged” game with The Outer Worlds.

    The sci-fi RPG, which recently won the Game Critics E3 2019 award for Best Original Game, is being co-directed by original Fallout creators Boyarsky and long-time partner Tim Cain.

    The game is set in a future world where megacorporations have begun colonizing and terraforming alien planets. As such, its plot heavily references the ‘dark side’ of capitalism.

    However, co-director Boyarsky said the studio has been “very careful” not to “lecture” players with the themes featured in the game, telling VGC it’s “the last thing we want to do.”

    He said: “I like money: I’m not against capitalism and in a lot of ways I’m happy with our society. But of course there are a lot of ways in which it could be improved.

    “We started development in April 2016 and a couple of things happened [in world politics] between then and now that nobody expected. We weren’t expecting that.

    Boyarsky said The Outer Worlds’ story is less a critique of modern capitalism and more about “power and how power is used against people who don’t have it.”

    He said: “It can be insidious; the way which people control the stories you tell about the world. If you let other people control that narrative, then they can control you to a certain degree. That can be any form of government: if it wasn’t capitalism it could be something else.”

    Boyarsky added that he’s tried to balance these themes with the humorous tone his previous games are known for.

    “I don’t want people to think this is a really hard, politically-charged game: it’s supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be humorous,” he said.

    “Having grown up in America and been through the onslaught of consumer culture, we’re very familiar with that and like to poke fun at it.

    “But like how with [2001 RPG] Arcanum when we were dealing with racial issues, the story always comes down to balance of power, how people get power and how they use it. We’ve been very careful, I’ve been very careful.

    “There are people in this game who have philosophies that I don’t agree with and I take pains to make those people very likeable, very sensible and very believable. Then there are people in the game who say things I agree with, who are perhaps not very nice to hang out with.

    “So we don’t want to set up strawman or anything and say, ‘look how horrible this is!’ It’s really about looking at all aspects of issues. The last thing we want to do is make a game that people feel is lecturing them.”

    The Outer World team’s stance echoes that of Ubisoft, which recently moved to explain why its teams balance apolitical views in games informed by highly politicised real-world events.

    Ubisoft wants its games to educate players so they can “formulate their own ideas”, it said.

    The Outer Worlds release date is October 25, 2019 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4and PC.

    In the same interview, co-director Boyarsky explained how The Outer Worlds’ endings work.

     

    Predictably, this sent the culture warriors on Twitter and ResetEra into a tizzy. Then yesterday, Obsidian concept artist Hannah Kennedy tweeted this:

    Let's take a closer look at that tweet:

    1562372390910.png

    Well, well.

    • Like 1

    Attributes

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted · Edited by Infinitron

    On 7/3/2019 at 9:00 PM, Michael_Galt said:

    Yet we don't even have a character creation screen or explanation of the combat system, attributes, minigames (if there are any), etc.  I'm not whining about this, I just find it odd.  I feel like they are not going to meet the date they set for release, given how relatively little has been shared.

    There are no minigames.

    I think you're discounting the amount of information that has been revealed, but do remember that this is not a crowdfunded game. Obsidian don't have to produce crunch-filled updates for their hardcore enthusiast backers. Attribute infodumps aren't exactly prime marketing material and with most mass market titles you don't find out too much about that stuff until the game is out. It's a Bethesda-esque first person action-RPG - you've seen one, you've seen a bunch.

    Attributes

    in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, Michael_Galt said:

    Interesting - thanks!  No idea what "temperment" is... as an attribute.  Normally that is some sort of thing that you "earn" based on your actions, decisions and statements.  I can't see how you would "put points" into having a certain temperment. 

    And I find it somewhat odd that so little has been revealed, but it is supposed to release in October.  Does anyone else think that is overly ambitious and it is likely going to get delayed?  I mean, Wasteland 3 has revealed more, and they pushed their date from late 2019 (basically the same time) to April 2020... which is probably a bad idea, what with Cyberpunk 2077 coming out then as well (they should probably wait until June or something).

    Eh, I actually think a lot has been revealed about this game. You might even say pretty much everything except for the character creation and attributes.

    Note that the wiki page is based on a glimpse of the game's user interface we saw back in March. It's possible that the attributes have changed since then.

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