So who are the writers of Avowed?

[Adridactelo]

I was trying to find out who might be writing for the game and it seems that all Obsidian's narrative designers are already involved in other projects.

Josh Sawyer - Not involved.
Carrie Patel - Directing TOW DLC.
Kate Dollarhyde - Working on Josh's project.
Paul Kirsch - TOW DLC.
Conor Walsh - TOW DLC.
Kelsey Beachum - TOW DLC.
Nitai Poddar - No one knows (probably TOW second DLC).
Megan Stark - No one knows (probably TOW second DLC)

The only person we know is Lucien Soulban, who was hired 5 months ago as Lead Narrative Designer from Ubisoft, but I doubt he is the only one writing for Avowed.

[Almaar]

The Outer Worlds expansion is coming out September 9th so most of the work it's already done. 

But don't believe that Avowed will be finished and released soon. My bet is for 2022

Edited July 24, 2020 by Almaar

[Guest]

Too much to hope that Fenstermaker comes out of retirement for this?

[Adridactelo]

59 minutes ago, Almaar said:

The Outer Worlds expansion is coming out September 9th so most of the work it's already done. 

But don't believe that Avowed will be finished and released soon. My bet is for 2022

Yes, but Avowed has been in development since mid-2018. I don't think they've been two years without someone planning the game's main story or some basic themes.

But you may be right. The game seems far off.

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, Adridactelo said:

Yes, but Avowed has been in development since mid-2018.

Obsidian was acquired by Microsoft in late 2018. While it's possible that the game was pitched to MS before the buy-out, it's doubtful (though possible) that any work was started until early 2019. Keep in mind that teams were still working on Deadfire and The Outer Worlds, so earnest pre-development work may have even been dependent upon hiring new talent.

So, best case scenarios is that they're 18-19 months into development. I've seen several numbers thrown out regarding the number of years it took Bethesda to develop skyrim, but none were less than 4. So 2022 feels like a pretty safe bet to me.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Achilles

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Almaar said:

The Outer Worlds expansion is coming out September 9th so most of the work it's already done. 

Yeah, but there is still another one. But with how much time passed between OW release and DLCs it’s difficult to say when narrative team was/will be done with those. 

I don’t expect Avowed anytime soon. Essentially we have seen the same amount as Elder Scrolls6. 

[Adridactelo]

36 minutes ago, Achilles said:

Obsidian was acquired by Microsoft in late 2018. While it's possible that the game was pitched to MS before the buy-out, it's doubtful (though possible) that any work was started until early 2019. Keep in mind that teams were still working on Deadfire and The Outer Worlds, so earnest pre-development work may have even been dependent upon hiring new talent.

So, best case scenarios is that they're 18-19 months into development. I've seen several numbers thrown out regarding the number of years it took Bethesda to develop skyrim, but none were less than 4. So 2022 feels like a pretty safe bet to me.

I think you are right.

I was relying on the comments from a Gamespot video about TOW saying that Programming Director (Mark DeGeorge) had been moved to a new project in mid-2018.

Was hoping that the big chunk of Obsidian would be working on this project already but yeah, I am with you that Avowed looks like a 2022 game.

Do we know who is the Lead Desginer? The ones I know:

Chris Parker - Game Director
Jorge Salgado - Lead Area Designer (?)
Lucien Soulban - Lead Narrative Designer
Maxwell Matzenbacher - Senior Combat Designer.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Adridactelo said:

Do we know who is the Lead Desginer? The ones I know:

Chris Parker - Game Director
Jorge Salgado - Lead Area Designer (?)
Lucien Soulban - Lead Narrative Designer
Maxwell Matzenbacher - Senior Combat Designer.

Carrie Patel was promoted to Game Director for an "unannounced project" in November 2019. My bet is that it's her.

[C2B]

5 minutes ago, Achilles said:

Carrie Patel was promoted to Game Director for an "unannounced project" in November 2019. My bet is that it's her.

It isn't. She's directing the TOW DLC as the very OP of this thread mentions.

 

[kanisatha]

5 minutes ago, Achilles said:

Carrie Patel was promoted to Game Director for an "unannounced project" in November 2019. My bet is that it's her.

And I actually prefer Carrie Patel over Sawyer in this role (I know, shocking!)

[kanisatha]

Just now, kanisatha said:

And I actually prefer Carrie Patel over Sawyer in this role (I know, shocking!)

 

1 minute ago, C2B said:

It isn't. She's directing the TOW DLC as the very OP of this thread mentions.

 

Aww. Too bad.

[Adridactelo]

47 minutes ago, C2B said:

It isn't. She's directing the TOW DLC as the very OP of this thread mentions.

 

Thats right. Patel could join the project after finishing Peril on Gorgon as I think Brandon Adler may be directing the second expansion. I would love to see her working on this.

Megan Stark was moved to another project right after finishing TOW and I think she is not involved on Peril on Gorgon so she may be writing for Avowed (?).

[Taevyr]

According to his website, Paul Kirsch is one of the Narrative Designers on Avowed. Which makes me cautiously optimistic, considering his work on Deadfire and Tyranny that we know of.

[Flouride]

12 hours ago, Adridactelo said:

Do we know who is the Lead Desginer? The ones I know:

Chris Parker - Game Director
Jorge Salgado - Lead Area Designer (?)
Lucien Soulban - Lead Narrative Designer
Maxwell Matzenbacher - Senior Combat Designer.

James Chea - Senior Character Artist

Daniel Platt - Senior 3D Artist

Pearl Ko - UX Designer

Edited July 25, 2020 by Flouride

[Adridactelo]

4 hours ago, Taevyr said:

According to his website, Paul Kirsch is one of the Narrative Designers on Avowed. Which makes me cautiously optimistic, considering his work on Deadfire and Tyranny that we know of.

Oh, I thought I was working on Peril of Gorgon. That's great.
 

 

48 minutes ago, Flouride said:

James Chea - Senior Character Artist

Daniel Platt - Senior 3D Artist

Pearl Ko - UX Designer

Robert Nesler - Art Director.
Dimitri Berman - Lead Character Artist.
Can Etiskol - Senior Character Artist.
Jason Diaz - Animation Director (?).
Derek Zivolich - Character Animator.
Eric Feinberg - Character Animator.
Amor Santos - Senior Animator.

Ones that I find interesting:

Paul Burg - Senior Programmer. It has been in Obsidian for over a year and does not appear on TOW's credits. He developed the system for world interactions and population management in RDR2.
Joseph L. Rubino - He was hired a few weeks ago as a Cinematic Director. It's interesting because he posted that he was responsible for the Forza Motorsport Trailer but didn't mention if he was working on Avowed.
Martin Smith - Senior System Designer. He was Senior Designer on SWTOR for more than 6 years.

[Flouride]

I think it is safe to assume that Rubino is working on Avowed. Obsidian doesn't really have many members in the cinematics department, so it's more than likely that all of them will be working on the game in some capacity.

[Adridactelo]

17 minutes ago, Flouride said:

I think it is safe to assume that Rubino is working on Avowed. Obsidian doesn't really have many members in the cinematics department, so it's more than likely that all of them will be working on the game in some capacity.

You could be right.

I think he worked on the dialogue camera system in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Wonder if Avowed will switch to a more dynamic system (visually speaking) than the seen in TOW. Maybe something closer to what we've seen in Cyberpunk 2077 where dialogues are like first-person cinematics.

[Flouride]

You can also add Scott V. Gilmore as Senior Audio Designer to the list of devs working on this.

[Adridactelo]

Gabriel Paramo - Senior Gameplay Programmer. Worked on Killer Instinct and Strider.
Hoya Lee - Senior Lighting Artist. Previously worked on Destiny 2 and Modern Warfare.
Jeff Chung - Senior Software Engineer.
Zoe Nicole-Aprodite Smith - Junior Character Artist.

From Zoe's artstation:

 

[Adridactelo]

Bumping the thread because Megan Starks confirmed she's still working on TOW (surely writing the second DLC).
 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Adridactelo

[Flouride]

Few additions:

Kimie Kim-Mizutani - UI Artist

Seth May - Area Designer

Kayd Hendricks - Senior Area Designer

[Anthonyrex]

What's George Ziets up to these days?

[Flouride]

2 minutes ago, Anthonyrex said:

What's George Ziets up to these days?

I believe he started his own studio.

[Adridactelo]

Some more:

Kevin M. Lee - Senior System Designer (I'm not completely sure on this one)
Nick Carver - Senior Technical Designer.
Kyle Koenig - System Designer.

Bobby Hernandez - Lead Concept Artist.
Schwinn Masavisut - Concept Artist.
MaKayla Hensley - Junior VFX Artist.

[Flouride]

Compiled a list of all the people mentioned here:

Chris Parker - Game Director

Lucien Soulban - Lead Narrative Designer
Paul Kirsch - Narrative Designer

Jorge Salgado - Lead Area Designer (?)
Kayd Hendricks - Senior Area Designer
Seth May - Area Designer

Maxwell Matzenbacher - Senior Combat Designer

Martin Smith - Senior System Designer
Kevin M. Lee - Senior System Designer (I'm not completely sure on this one)
Kyle Koenig - System Designer

Nick Carver - Senior Technical Designer

Robert Nesler - Art Director
Dimitri Berman - Lead Character Artist
James Chea - Senior Character Artist
Can Etiskol - Senior Character Artist
Zoe Nicole-Aprodite Smith - Junior Character Artist
Daniel Platt - Senior 3D Artist

Bobby Hernandez - Lead Concept Artist
Schwinn Masavisut - Concept Artist

Hoya Lee - Senior Lighting Artist

MaKayla Hensley - Junior VFX Artist

Jason Diaz - Animation Director (?)
Derek Zivolich - Character Animator
Eric Feinberg - Character Animator
Amor Santos - Senior Animator

Paul Burg - Senior Programmer (He developed the system for world interactions and population management in RDR2)
Gabriel Paramo - Senior Gameplay Programmer
Jeff Chung - Senior Software Engineer

Joseph L. Rubino - Cinematic Director

Scott V. Gilmore - Senior Audio Designer

Pearl Ko - UX Designer
Kimie Kim-Mizutani - UI Artist