Josh Sawyer GDC Next 10 Talk

[Sensuki]

Josh Sawyer's GDC Next talk was today a few hours ago. Unfortunately the recording of the session is behind an attendees only paywall (I think it was like $700 a ticket).
 
There wasn't much activity on twitter, a couple of people posted about the inclusion of casual options, a few photos were taken and one guy thought Josh's natural tone of voice sounds like he is bored .
 
Anyway thought I'd create a thread so if anyone finds any info / Josh puts up the powerpoint we can discuss it in this thread, so far there's only these.

 

"The questing in Project Eternity is going to be insane. Get ready to read, kiddos. Or don't. Because they're giving you casuals options too."

 

""A lot of the people playing games are not good at them. That's okay. It's our job to help them." - Josh Sawyer, Obsidian #gdcnext"

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sensuki

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

[ManifestedISO]

 

""A lot of the people playing games are not good at them. That's okay. It's our job to help them." - Josh Sawyer, Obsidian #gdcnext"

 

 

Woulda been cool if he said, "That's okay. It's not our job to help them."

[Sensuki]

TBH I think it's fine as long as it doesn't impact the overall design of the game for those that are competent (which in most games, it does).

 

Eternity has expert mode, higher difficulty modes and a mostly old-school design, the only thing I am worried about is not being able to turn off target numbers for rolls.

[Lephys]

Hehe. I kinda sympathize with him, because he says things in such a manner that people could easily take them the wrong way.

 

Like that; "Are you saying that the consumer base SUCKS AT GAMES?!". Then other people chime in with "Are you saying you should just design games to hand-hold everyone?!"

 

Reminds me of the way I think/word things. Except, you know... minus 500% of the words.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Lephys

[Amberion]

I like to think I'm an above-average gamer, but even I would agree I'm not 'good' at games. I'm merely okay.

[Lephys]

I'm pretty "good" at games, but by that I mean that I play pretty much all kinds of video games I can get my hands on, from PC to various console controllers, and it all comes pretty intuitively to me. I get into them very easily without really trying too hard. Have ever since I was 4.

 

But, yeah, I'm not "good" at games in the "Give me a controller and a new shooter and I'll make graceful, leaping headshots 24/7" or anything.

 

But, I'm very, very familiar with the "that looks like loads of fun, but I feel like I'm going to be no good at it" thing, as I've seen that in oodles of people growing up. I don't think all people just naturally get a quick feel for the way controls and systems come together in the midst of narrative/lore. I can see how things can be pretty intimidating, and the more you can help someone get into all that, the better.

 

There are plenty of games I've played that have been quite inviting, despite still being tricky and challenging, while others have made me think "Man... if I weren't so used to all this stuff, I would NEVER attempt this game. I'd've given up in a heartbeat..."

[Falkon Swiftblade]

I saw josh post a few hours ago he was trying to upload the file (powerpoint?) to his dropbox, not sure if he thought to upload the pdf instead, that would be a way smaller file. But then we wouldn't get the music and video clips and stuff. Hopefully it'll be shared.

[Sacred_Path]

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that. Lots of interactive branching dialogue? Hell yes.

 

(I'm aware the latter involves reading)

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sacred_Path

[Silent Winter]

Whereas I find this pic interesting - love seeing how the different passes make up the scene

 

Thanks for posting these pics/info

[Messier-31]

 

Planescapetormenty?

[SophosTheWise]

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that. 

 

I'm an avid reader and kind of an enthusiast when it comes to literature. Also, I'm not easily impressed by writing. It seems I would incline to agree. But the problem with your statement is, that it hinders development of good gaming narratives. If people in the beginning of games with stories would've said "Ah, shucks, I don't want stories in my game!" we would've never had, say, Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs which were absolutely stellar in writing. They have to be the most literary games I've ever played and I loved them dearly.

 

 

I saw josh post a few hours ago he was trying to upload the file (powerpoint?) to his dropbox, not sure if he thought to upload the pdf instead, that would be a way smaller file. But then we wouldn't get the music and video clips and stuff. Hopefully it'll be shared.

 

Probably in form of the next update.

Edited November 7, 2013 by SophosTheWise

[Sacred_Path]

 

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that.

 

I'm an avid reader and kind of an enthusiast when it comes to literature. Also, I'm not easily impressed by writing. It seems I would incline to agree. But the problem with your statement is, that it hinders development of good gaming narratives. If people in the beginning of games with stories would've said "Ah, shucks, I don't want stories in my game!" we would've never had, say, Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs which were absolutely stellar in writing. They have to be the most literary games I've ever played and I loved them dearly.

 

"Reading" sounds unspecific and that irks me. It reminds me of verbose, everyone's-a-walking-encyclopedia-of-banalities Planescape.

[SophosTheWise]

 

 

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that.

 

I'm an avid reader and kind of an enthusiast when it comes to literature. Also, I'm not easily impressed by writing. It seems I would incline to agree. But the problem with your statement is, that it hinders development of good gaming narratives. If people in the beginning of games with stories would've said "Ah, shucks, I don't want stories in my game!" we would've never had, say, Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs which were absolutely stellar in writing. They have to be the most literary games I've ever played and I loved them dearly.

 

"Reading" sounds unspecific and that irks me. It reminds me of verbose, everyone's-a-walking-encyclopedia-of-banalities Planescape.

 

 

That, on the other hand, is true. I wouldn't say Torment was full of banalities, at least not in the context of other computer and videogames. I think Torment introduced players to some interesting albeit not very deep philosophical questions, and I think those players were never in a "philosophy" target group. So there's that.

But I really hope we will not see "quality" writing in the vein of R.A. Salvatore. 

[Sacred_Path]

 

 

 

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that.

 

I'm an avid reader and kind of an enthusiast when it comes to literature. Also, I'm not easily impressed by writing. It seems I would incline to agree. But the problem with your statement is, that it hinders development of good gaming narratives. If people in the beginning of games with stories would've said "Ah, shucks, I don't want stories in my game!" we would've never had, say, Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs which were absolutely stellar in writing. They have to be the most literary games I've ever played and I loved them dearly.

 

"Reading" sounds unspecific and that irks me. It reminds me of verbose, everyone's-a-walking-encyclopedia-of-banalities Planescape.

 

 

That, on the other hand, is true. I wouldn't say Torment was full of banalities, at least not in the context of other computer and videogames. I think Torment introduced players to some interesting albeit not very deep philosophical questions, and I think those players were never in a "philosophy" target group. So there's that.

But I really hope we will not see "quality" writing in the vein of R.A. Salvatore.

 

Someone in the market square whining about trees for several pages worth of monologue is pretty banal IMO. Avoiding things like that is what seperates an accomplished writer/ team of writers from your average blogger.

[Messier-31]

I say it's not text to read because of verbose banalities, but because of descriptions. These descriptions, like "your interlocutor shrugs and looks away from you" are there thanks to the fact that you cannot see that kind of expression in an isometric game. I like it, it brings back memories of pen-and-paper roleplays.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Messier-31

[Sacred_Path]

Giving out text in short bursts like that would be welcome. Passively enduring walls of text is not. It's like a Bioware game otherwise - it doesn't matter if you lose the player due to cutscenes or monologue.

[Sensuki]

The amount of text in Eternity has already been discussed many times, as has the information dump stuff.

 

Josh Sawyer prefers a drier, more natural style of dialogue, so the dialogue of characters will be more realistic.

 

Chris Avellone has given many talks on what he didn't like about Planescape Torment and the info dumps and huge walls of text was one of them.

 

If you talk to any NPC in Eternity they are not going to give you a history/exposition dump just for the sake of it, you'll probably have to ask them specifically about that information and even then it will be skewed by their point of view.

 

If there are any long text stringents they will likely be split up into separate dialogue pieces (via the continue button, I assume).

 

You can probably expect something along the lines of Baldur's Gate 2, in Obsidian's writing style for amount and style of text. George Ziets has also been known to quote that as well.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sensuki

[Sacred_Path]

Why emphasize the reading part then? Anyways.

[Sensuki]

It's a GDC Talk to mostly people unfamiliar with Eternity, and every bullet point that Josh talks about is something that is a lot different than most games

 

• Their method of creating 2D areas to explore - with their cool dynamic lighting & effects tech
• Scripted Interaction screens - something not seen for quite some time in an RPG
• Text - Eternity will have a lot of text, and will be partially voice acted rather than full-voice or no voice - these days it's usually one or the other so (omg) you will have to read the text.
• Eternity will be challenging, but Josh wants to promote transparency so that it's easier for the average person to figure things out
• Eternity will have lots of options for the hardcore, and the casual.

 

I had to do a powerpoint explaining IPv6 Tunneling to a bunch of Science students and lecturers who had no idea how computer networking worked (because at my University IT and Science is under the same department), so I had dummie pictures of like an ocean (IPv4) and two pacific islands (IPv6) ... that kind of stuff is good in powerpoints, then people unfamiliar understand.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sensuki

[IndiraLightfoot]

Sensuki: Thanks for putting together all these great tidbits of info!

[Enoch]

""A lot of the people playing games are not good at them. That's okay. It's our job to help them." - Josh Sawyer, Obsidian #gdcnext"

 

My grandfather really enjoys fantasy CRPGs.  The early Wizardrys and Might & Magics; the Gold Box games; the IE games, etc.  He's not a stupid man, but the details of game rules systems are not a strongpoint.  I still have nightmares about looking over his party when he told me how impossible he was finding some of the late stages of Icewind Dale.  Several characters using weapons they weren't proficient with; a cleric with a WIS that limited him to 4th-level spells; carrying the wrong ammunition for his ranged weapons, etc.

 

I would very much like to give him a copy of Eternity, and I hope that the game would be a little less easy to screw up, mechanics-wise. 

[C2B]

 

 

 

Lots of reading? BS. I turn to books for that.

 

 

I'm an avid reader and kind of an enthusiast when it comes to literature. Also, I'm not easily impressed by writing. It seems I would incline to agree. But the problem with your statement is, that it hinders development of good gaming narratives. If people in the beginning of games with stories would've said "Ah, shucks, I don't want stories in my game!" we would've never had, say, Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs which were absolutely stellar in writing. They have to be the most literary games I've ever played and I loved them dearly.

"Reading" sounds unspecific and that irks me. It reminds me of verbose, everyone's-a-walking-encyclopedia-of-banalities Planescape.

 

That, on the other hand, is true. I wouldn't say Torment was full of banalities, at least not in the context of other computer and videogames. I think Torment introduced players to some interesting albeit not very deep philosophical questions, and I think those players were never in a "philosophy" target group. So there's that.

But I really hope we will not see "quality" writing in the vein of R.A. Salvatore.

Ehhhh, I do at least expect something above Salvatore.

[Nonek]

Ehhhh, I do at least expect something above Salvatore.

 

That's fairly much all multicellular lifeforms.

 

Edit: I'm all for massive reams of text, packed with exposition, absolutely adore them.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Nonek

[PrimeJunta]

@Sacred_Path: trying a bit too hard to be edgy, methinks.