First Person ARPGS!

[PotionDweller]

Hi there,

I'm an amateur solo dev working in Unreal and have been doing research on first person action RPGs because of my love of the old 90s/00s games like Arx Fatallis, Ultima Underworld, Morrowind, and other TES games, and my desire to replicate the feel I got from those games in my own project. I stumbled upon information about Obsidian working on Avowed while researching these perspectives of games today and figured I'd stop on by.

There isn't much available about the project right now from what I can tell online, but I am very interested and glad to see a studio working on a style I think is very underdone. I am sure there isn't much you can share right now because of NDAs, but I'd love to discuss these styles of games with fellow enthusiasts. I know there is an avowed section where discussion goes on specifically around it, but I felt this would be better under the Dev corner as I plan to discuss what I am working on to some extent with my game.

I guess my main question would be, what made Obsidian decide to make a first person RPG action adventure? I'm familiar with outer worlds and I know you have worked on games I have enjoyed greatly like Pillars of Eternity so it feels like the engine and enjoyment is there! I'm guessing you guys just felt the time was right?

For me, it has been far too long since I've played a new one. The last game I'd even consider to have elements of it was Kingdom Come Deliverance, which did what it did extremely well, but it didn't scratch my fantasy itch.

Right now my game is very simple, working with some C++ and blueprint coding I am trying to build a basic combat system where you take a fighter through a small dungeon in search of a mcguffin. I plan to get the combat down feeling right and then build up slowly from there. Inventory, leveling, weapon variety and then eventually introduce skills and magic along with classes, skills, and races. What's an RPG without some customization after all!?

Oh, if you guys do have any experience with making games Modding friendly and any advice I'd appreciate it! I know Unreal has a few plugins you can use, but any nuggets of wisdom from a dev are always helpful too!

 

I wish you guys the best of luck with yours and I look forward to seeing more about it. I'd love to pick your dev team's brain on decisions you're making - but I know that's likely not possible right now! (Maybe a post mortem someday?)

-PD

[Lorfean]

I'm pretty sure they were inspired by Skyrim when they chose to take the Eternity franchise in this direction, and a game in that vein is probably what you should expect. Obsidian also has a pretty successful history working on First Person RPG's, most recently with The Outer Worlds (as you mentioned), but more notably with Fallout: New Vegas, which many (including myself) consider far better than anything Bethesda has done with the franchise, and its popularity has only grown in the years since it was released.

I am also looking forward to Avowed and hope to hear and see more of it soon.