Gamers.de Interview with Sawyer + Gamasutra Top 10 Devs 2012

[C2B]

Gamers.de Josh Sawyer Interview

 

http://www.gamers.de...osh-sawyer.html

 

Points:

 

- Race, Culture, Class and Gender can influence the story later on, but there won't be seperate origins

- languages play a big role in the world of eternity.

- before they settled on "project eternity" for the project name it was shortly called "project broadsword"

 

 

 

Obsidian got a place in Gamasutra's Top 10 developers of 2012

 

http://www.gamasutra...hp#.UMthvmfXuuI

Obsidian Entertainment

 

If Double Fine paved the dusty road between game players and game developers, it was Obsidian that turned it into a two-way street.

 

Double Fine proved that crowdfunding game development is viable, but it was Obsidian that made its fans feel like they were part of the team. Through constant updates, fan forums, and a constant back and forth feedback loop, the team's "Project Eternity" feels like a crowd-developed game.

 

More importantly, Obsidian represents a developer quickly adapting and thriving in what is a rapidly changing game development world. The studio had been struggling with bad deals and draining triple-A work, but thanks to crowdfunding, it may have reinvented itself while playing to its core strengths.

 

If the studio is able to sustain with Project Eternity, and even have a follow-up developed in a similar way, it will have proven that a decently-sized studio can survive and thrive by independently making the games it wants to make, for fans that want to play them.

Edited December 14, 2012 by C2B

[Monte Carlo]

As and when one of our German-speaking friends can translate properly and post I for one would be grateful. Danke!

[Sacred_Path]

Transcript of the interesting bits of the gamers.de interview:

 

How will character creation work? Will we be able to change the looks of our character? Will there be traits and perks, like in Fallout?

 

Character models in Project: Eternity will be about the same size as those in the Infinity Engine games. You can customize the appearance of your character, i.e. haircut, hair colour, facial hair, skin colour and nuances of your clothes' colour. Of course you will have the option to change the looks of your armour, weapons and other items. [?]

 

We want to give players the option to greatly customize the abilities of their characters. There will be numerous options for all classes.

 

The setting to me sounds like a "New World" scenario. Will we board ships at certain stages in the game to reach new continents?

 

We haven't chosen all game locations yet. Dyrwood is being called a "new world" by the colonists. Sea voyages play an important role in this part of the world.

 

Speaking of romances. Relationships first made an appearance in Baldur's Gate (although sporadically), and to some extent in Planescape: Torment. Will there be romances in P:E?

 

At this point we aren't focusing on romances. I'd only implement them if they fit the game well. Once we do the writing for the characters we'll see if romances are appropriate.

 

One of the last stretch goals was a stronghold. Will strongholds differ according to character class, like in Baldur's Gate 2?

 

The stronghold will be independent of the character's class. We'll allow players to enlarge and customize their stronghold. It will also serve as a quest hub.

 

NPC personalities was one of the strong points of the IE games. What about P:E? Will there be DnD style alignments? Will characters have resentments towards each other, or will they even have romances?

 

P:E doesn't have any moral mechanics. We're using a reputation system (like in Fallout: New Vegas). Factions and communities in the game will have differing views of the player. We think this system is more intuitive. The player can experiment with different factions without having the feeling of being judged by the game's designers.

 

It's very important to us to have companions and other NPC's react to the main character.

 

What about companions recruited through the Adventurer's Hall? Will they to some extent react to the player's decisions or will they be entirely faceless puppets like in Icewind Dale?

 

Characters created in the Adventurer's Hall will have neutral personalities. The companions created for P:E OTOH have high reactivity and individual agendas.

 

Speaking of Icewind Dale, I've always liked the option to import characters. Will I be able to restart the game with my lvl 60 dwarf?

 

We're hoping that P:E is only the first in a series of games. Should we get the chance to develop one or several successors, we'll try to give players the option of importing their characters into these games. We haven't decided on a "new game +" function yet.

 

Will there be different starting vignettes, like in Temple of Elemental Evil? Will they differ according to alignment, race etc.?

 

The first part of the game is the same for all player characters, but culture, class, race and gender can have an influence on the story. The backstory of the protagonist isn't relevant to the plot, but the player's decisions after arriving in Dyrwood will carry the most weight.

 

There was a feature in Planescape that fascinated me; it was the ability to speak with the dead. Since you've mentioned different dialects in the game, do you have any ideas about wether acquiring proficiency in a foreign language will be required of the player to make progress in a new area?

 

You will very likely have to talk to "lost souls", decrypt uncommon dialects and translate forgotten languages. One of the rarer dialects in Dyrwood is Hylspeak, an archaic variant of the common Aedyr language. Many associate Hylspeak with memories of a past life. Superstitious people will therefore often react negatively to hearing this dialect.

 

How much of the text will be voiced? Will you go the same route as in Baldur's Gate where there are only few important speakers or will the game be fully voiced like Skyrim or Gothic?

 

We prefer "partial voice overs". This gives us more flexibility in writing dialogue and saves time and money. Key characters will have voice overs, but they will be short even for these characters.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Sacred_Path

[Monte Carlo]

Thanks S_P!

[Monte Carlo]

Sea voyages play an important role in this part of the world.

 

This is a good thing and must be applauded.

[WorstUsernameEver]

No need to have one of our German-sèeaking friends translate it, since the English text is already available on the site. They specify that it's the original version, btw, so there shouldn't be mistranslation/misinterpretation problems.

[jivex5k]

I like everything they said except for the indecision about game+.

I don't see a reason to not include it, those who don't like it can simply ignore it.

[Sacred_Path]

No need to have one of our German-sèeaking friends translate it, since the English text is already available on the site. They specify that it's the original version, btw, so there shouldn't be mistranslation/misinterpretation problems.

 

well, at least that clears up the part about weapons and armor. Sawyer simply said you can change your gear, not alter your gear's colours.

[Stun]

I like everything they said except for the indecision about game+.

I don't see a reason to not include it, those who don't like it can simply ignore it.

The only problem I see with being able to import your 30th level character into a new playthrough (like you could in the Icewind Dales) is that the PE campaign uses defined, named NPCs that you can find in the world and recruit into your party. Which means you'll probably find yourself in a situation where your main character is level 30, while the rest of your party is, like, Level 2. lol That can wreak all sorts of havok on both the story and the gameplay, regardless of the difficulty setting.

 

Of course even that's not a problem if you're 1) soloing; or 2) just going the Adventurer's Hall route with a full party of characters that you made (and then imported into a new playthrough)

 

But, like you say, there's always the "those that don't like it can simply not do it" counter/equilizer.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Stun

[Lephys]

well, at least that clears up the part about weapons and armor. Sawyer simply said you can change your gear, not alter your gear's colours.

 

Well, he did say "change the looks of your armour, weapons, and other items." Color could be included. *le shrug*

[Tamerlane]

Sea voyages play an important role in this part of the world.

 

This is a good thing and must be applauded.

I can't get on a boat in an RPG and not expect a giant sea monster battle.

 

I blame Shining Force.

[Ieo]

Transcript of the interesting bits of the gamers.de interview:

 

How will character creation work? Will we be able to change the looks of our character? Will there be traits and perks, like in Fallout?

 

Character models in Project: Eternity will be about the same size as those in the Infinity Engine games. You can customize the appearance of your character, i.e. haircut, hair colour, facial hair, skin colour and nuances of your clothes' colour. Of course you will have the option to change the looks of your armour, weapons and other items. [?]

 

We want to give players the option to greatly customize the abilities of their characters. There will be numerous options for all classes.

 

I'm really curious how this is going to balance out against custom portraits:

 

We have to walk a fine line with how much detail you can see in the face. In the IE games, you could reasonably project anything you imagined onto your "paper doll" because the face was a tinted mass of pixels. We want to allow you to use any portraits you want in PE, but if the paper doll detail clashes significantly with the portrait, there's trouble. We'll have to see what that means in practical terms, but it is certainly in our thoughts.

 

Hm, otherwise..... A soul-speech skill? How interestiiinnnnng.

[mstark]

I like everything they said except for the indecision about game+.

I don't see a reason to not include it, those who don't like it can simply ignore it.

The only problem I see with being able to import your 30th level character into a new playthrough (like you could in the Icewind Dales) is that the PE campaign uses defined, named NPCs that you can find in the world and recruit into your party. Which means you'll probably find yourself in a situation where your main character is level 30, while the rest of your party is, like, Level 2. lol That can wreak all sorts of havok on both the story and the gameplay, regardless of the difficulty setting.

 

Of course even that's not a problem if you're 1) soloing; or 2) just going the Adventurer's Hall route with a full party of characters that you made (and then imported into a new playthrough)

 

But, like you say, there's always the "those that don't like it can simply not do it" counter/equilizer.

The Baldur's Gate games allowed you to do exactly this, I found it fun for about 5 minutes to run around with my lvl 40 thief in Irenicus' dungeon after leaving my lvl 8 companions behind. The IE games all supported "importing" any character into a new game, it wasn't really a NG+ feature, but a convenience that could be abused by importing max level, uber equipped, characters. Edited December 14, 2012 by mstark

[Sacred_Path]

well, at least that clears up the part about weapons and armor. Sawyer simply said you can change your gear, not alter your gear's colours.

 

Well, he did say "change the looks of your armour, weapons, and other items." Color could be included. *le shrug*

 

What he said was:

Of course, you will also be able to change your armor, weapons, and other pieces of gear.

Nothing about appearances, except that we are left to guess as to how much (or how well) the gear will be represented on your ingame character graphics. [/anal]

[Lephys]

Oh. I was going by the direct quote of your previous post, with the transcript in it. Maybe it's a typo?

 

Character models in Project: Eternity will be about the same size as those in the Infinity Engine games. You can customize the appearance of your character, i.e. haircut, hair colour, facial hair, skin colour and nuances of your clothes' colour. Of course you will have the option to change the looks of your armour, weapons and other items. [?]

[Sacred_Path]

Oh. I was going by the direct quote of your previous post, with the transcript in it. Maybe it's a typo?

 

Nah, that's a translation of their German translation. I was p. sure they'd got something wrong, hence the question mark.

[rjshae]

Transcript of the interesting bits of the gamers.de interview:

 

How will character creation work? Will we be able to change the looks of our character? Will there be traits and perks, like in Fallout?

 

Character models in Project: Eternity will be about the same size as those in the Infinity Engine games. You can customize the appearance of your character, i.e. haircut, hair colour, facial hair, skin colour and nuances of your clothes' colour. Of course you will have the option to change the looks of your armour, weapons and other items. [?]

 

We want to give players the option to greatly customize the abilities of their characters. There will be numerous options for all classes.

 

I'm really curious how this is going to balance out against custom portraits:

Well, we did have character customization in the IE games combined with static portraits. But it might be interesting if they allow us to have... tintable portraits! Not sure how the artists would feel about that though; they may blow some fuses.

[Lephys]

Nah, that's a translation of their German translation. I was p. sure they'd got something wrong, hence the question mark.

 

Ohhhhh. I'm sorry about that, haha. A) I can't access the site the original's on while at work, and B) I thought that question mark was one of those little mouse-over context-search objects from the original source that carried over from copy-paste or something.

 

Yeah, "change" COULD possibly encompass aesthetics, but it doesn't necessarily do so, so you are most correct. My bad.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Sea voyages play an important role in this part of the world.

 

This is a good thing and must be applauded.

I can't get on a boat in an RPG and not expect a giant sea monster battle.

 

I blame Shining Force.

 

Now a Kraken would be an awesome monster to face.

 

Damn Shining Force.

[Lephys]

I can't get on a boat in an RPG and not expect a giant sea monster battle.

 

I blame Shining Force.

 

Now a Kraken would be an awesome monster to face.

 

Damn Shining Force.

 

Legendary craftable item: The Kraken Leash.

 

I do love me some sea-faring. ^_^ Assassin's Creed 3's naval bits are pretty awesome. I know it's not the same as Shining Force nostalgia, but there's just something about ships...