Avellone asks for your kickstarter ideas

[Humodour]

"Avellone asks for your kickstarter ideas" and that was that. no word on if this will be a go or not.

 

Oh, it will be a go. I will destroy you.

[Nepenthe]

Kickstart these rich developers? I thought they all owned huge mansions in Orange County.

I'll kickstart their Porsches by peeing in their gas tanks..

I own a 102 year-old farmhouse in Wisconsin and an 8 year-old Volkswagen. VW was founded by Ferdinand Porsche so maybe that counts.

Well, the Pi

[Junai]

Kickstart these rich developers? I thought they all owned huge mansions in Orange County.

I'll kickstart their Porsches by peeing in their gas tanks..

I own a 102 year-old farmhouse in Wisconsin and an 8 year-old Volkswagen. VW was founded by Ferdinand Porsche so maybe that counts.

Rich people.. Buying such nice rustic vintage properties for their own leisure!

 

Seriously, I hope you get a good kickstarter project going, so there won't be any more cancellations.

Edited March 24, 2012 by Junai

[Nonek]

Come noble developers, let your dreams be given form and we shall gift them with wings that they might fly free and bear us all to the realms of infinite adventure.

[funcroc]

From MCA's twitter

 

Q: No news about the possible Obsidian kickstarter project? My money is ready since your announcement.

 

Avellone: No news yet except we're still working on it.

[zero_or_more]

If kickstarter is a way to get rich, I'll kickstart a vaporware. Who's with me?

[Amentep]

If kickstarter is a way to get rich, I'll kickstart a vaporware. Who's with me?

 

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP: FUNDS TRAPPED IN NIGERIA - The Game

[zero_or_more]

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP: FUNDS TRAPPED IN NIGERIA - The Game

 

Lol - nice.

[meomao]

I would love Obsidian to explore some fresh and grand ideas without the pressure of a publisher. A game concept I would love them to develop would be an hurban fantasy RPG with action and adventure elements. Imagine something like Neil Gaiman's American Gods meets Grand Theft Auto, with less shooting and more branching. A spiritual successor to Vampire Bloodlines...

 

Unfortunately I don't believe that Kickstarter is the right place to fund such a project. So, what about an IWD3?

Edited April 8, 2012 by meomao

[Aedelric]

Their are only two things I want to see Obsidian do.

 

One is Alpha Protocol II, I loved the origional even when it was released. (I always ignore critics, they know nothing.)

 

Second is Icewind Dale III, it is the game that got me into RPG's.

 

I know both are unlikely, but they are the only game I want to see and Obsidian are the only company that could do either right.

[Flouride]

Looking at the reception that Legend of Grimrock got made me wonder why hasn't anyone else done a old school game like that? The team had 4 people in it and they've made fairly good game. I would love to see a Dungeon Master like Kickstarter game from Obsidian with their own twist to the genre.

[Tigranes]

We know Obsidian is very interested in a spiritual successor to AP; that they have occasionally toyed with the idea of IWD3; and that Avellone personally is thinking of a spiritual successor to Planescape. So, all things are possible.

 

I don't know what an AP2 would look like on a Kickstarter budget, though.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, Avellone has already said that it's impossible with Kickstarter right now. I think it would be a shame if they didn't try to implement some of the mechanics and ideas of that title in their next ones though, Kickstarter or not. Dossiers were soo good, and so were AP's perks

[Sannom]

We know Obsidian is very interested in a spiritual successor to AP; that they have occasionally toyed with the idea of IWD3; and that Avellone personally is thinking of a spiritual successor to Planescape. So, all things are possible.

 

I don't know what an AP2 would look like on a Kickstarter budget, though.

 

I don't think an AP2 would look good on a kickstarter budget, it's one of those titles where the latest 'shiny things' are very important : nice graphics, animation, voice-acting, etc.

 

I wouldn't mind a successor to Torment, myself. How should they go to improve the original, though? More options to pass the non-dialog parts, instead of having just combat? Should they keep pure ability-checks, or should Avellone try to apply his ideas about 'Sense Motives' in that game? Make the reading/possession of books important in order for the characters to know more about some subjects?

[Tigranes]

There's plenty of stuff. They never got to really go beyond Sigil due to budget constraints; while I think the combat was fun in its own way, it was pretty poor; and obviously the story wouldn't be a continuation of TNO (can we talk about BG3/T2/etc WITHOUT someone asking for the millionth time BUT THE STORY IS OVER?). I'd like to see Planescape's quirky races, items, belief-is-power, etc. play a bigger role in creating some unique abilities and gameplay options; stuff like Morte's Litany of Curses is really only a cosmetic sheen.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Using a license would be just too problematic for Kickstarter I think, and cut Obsidian's profit margin quite a bit.. definitely NOT what they need right now. So yeah, I would be against them going D&D.

[Nonek]

I'm in hearty agreement Sir Worst. We've seen in Arcanum what wonders Mr Cain can craft when his imagination is given free reign, an original creative collaboration between himself and Messr's Sawyer and Avellone has the possibility to shame Sheherazade in terms of its enrapturement. I am frugally putting to one side my coppers to support such a project.

[Humanoid]

^ Given the budgetary limitations though, I'd rather not see an attempt to create a completely new set of gameplay mechanics which aren't guaranteed to be used again for future projects. Would much rather see the use of mostly established nuts and bolts under the hood and focus the effort on content creation. Question then is what balanced and proven game system can be had for zero-to-minimal cost?

[Tigranes]

Wonder what the budget would be for an Onyx game. A '2D' Onyx game, like SP.

[Auxilius]

They own the engine and already have the programmers to use it so technically, it would only cost the salaries of the said programmers. I think.

 

On another subject, I'm also agreeing with WUE here. While it's cool to see Chris getting pumped for a new Planescape game, securing the rights of the license from Wizards of the Coast/Atari would cost too much money, money I'd rather see spent on more missions, more characters and more world-building, especially since Tim Cain is now at Obsidian.

Besides, it is the opportunity to create a brand new world and craft a new blessed name in the current WRPG world. Chris, if you read us, see what can make you (and us) Dream.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Auxilius

[Nonek]

^ Given the budgetary limitations though, I'd rather not see an attempt to create a completely new set of gameplay mechanics which aren't guaranteed to be used again for future projects. Would much rather see the use of mostly established nuts and bolts under the hood and focus the effort on content creation. Question then is what balanced and proven game system can be had for zero-to-minimal cost?

 

One would assume they'd take advantage of their in house engine, whatever gripes people may have had with the latest Dungeon Siege iteration, the engine performed admirably.

 

As for rule systems, personally i'd prefer a classless mechanism somewhat like unto Fallout but with a much more restrictive level cap. Something that necessitates the creation of either a jack of all trades or a master of a select few.

[Zoraptor]

Said it elsewhere but I think the best approach would be generally Fallout style- 'isometric' (probably proper 3d though as it's more flexible), classless, focusing on the stuff Obsidian does well like skills and storyline/ convos. That would be adaptable to a lot of different types of play- TB/ RTWP/ PB/ RT are all plausible- and it would have good scaleability for graphics and the like, for budget flexibility depending on how much could be raised.

 

I don't think additional programmers would be the big cost though, it would be additional designers/ artists as more areas are added or graphical fidelity is improved. Most of the programming (presumably, assuming Onyx were used) would be geared towards integrating gamesystems and the like, and that would have to be done pretty much whatever budget were being looked at or attained. The main exception would potentially be things like releasing dev tools or a sdk which really is in genuine bonus territory.

 

Question then is what balanced and proven game system can be had for zero-to-minimal cost?

D20? Don't actually know what it's status is to be honest, but it has been used previous and is/was free?

 

Given the history of the people at Obsidian I wouldn't imagine it would to too hard for them to come up with a good custom rule set in fairly quick order though, were it necessary.

[Pop]

They've got T. Cain and Sawyer, who are both hardcore rules guys. I'm sure they'll come up with something.

[Jaesun]

Sawyer should just remake Darklands... but give it a different name since I doubt the could get the rights to that game.

[Tale]

Sawyer should just remake Darklands... but give it a different name since I doubt the could get the rights to that game.

Who was it that was wanting to do a setting described as Lord of the Rings if Sauron won? Was that Sawyer?