Nathaniel Chapman leaving Obsidian

[Undecaf]

No argument there.

[funcroc]

OT: ex-Obsidian designer Tony Evans' LI profile updated

[sorophx]

So much for Obsidian being a dream company to work for.

as far as I know, Blizzard is *far* from a dream company. from the people who worked there it seems it's hell

[funcroc]

Nathaniel Chapman's formspring

 

George Ziets said that he thinks one of Dungeon Siege III problems was that not everyone was working "on the same title", so to speak. Do you agree? George Ziets is a pretty cool chap, but I don't hate you either. Good job with that Blizzard gig btw.

 

lol thanks. I think that's part of the issue. I think the funadmental issue was that the game was developed at a pretty breakneck pace and there was little time to *get* people on the same page. I think it's pretty normal for people on a game team to not necessarily all "get it". Preproduction time, when there's enough of it, gets used partly to build the sense of the game among the team.

 

And to clarify, the pace of the game's development was the typical resources issue. It was a very ambitious project considering what we started with and where we wanted to end up.

 

Speaking of which, I don't think the biggest problem with DS3 was necessarily any of that. I think the biggest problem was that core, critical aspects of the game (camera, the multiplayer gameplay model, and the visual presentation of conversations) didn't have the polish or technical work necessary to make them competitive. That was the thing that ultimately got the game the scores it did and prevented people from getting as excited about it as they otherwise would have.

 

What games did you work on at Obsidian and are you allowed to say what you worked on/are working on at Blizzard?

 

I worked on Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, Dungeon Siege 3 and a couple of cancelled/unannounced projects.

 

I am currently working on Mists of Pandaria (the next WoW expansion).

 

You didn't work on it. But, was/is South Park given enough development time from what you've seen?

 

I don't have much first hand knowledge, but I personally have high hopes. Obviously anything can and probably will happen, but I think there are a variety of circumstances with the development and business of the project that would help it get the time and polish it needs.