The Black Hound

[MasterPrudent]

So I was watching the stream today and I noticed a certain dialogue option in the Gilded Vale Inn. Hmmm...

 

For those of you who aren't deeply into Black Isle lore The Black Hound was a Forgotten Realms DnD game that Josh Sawyer was the lead on before it was cancelled. He wrote about it here: http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/the-black-hound-what-its-deal-was.html

Edited January 15, 2015 by MasterPrudent

[Sanquiz]

The inn is called

"The Black Hound"

[MasterPrudent]

Oh so it is.    I wonder if it was a backer designed inn or if it's the devs themselves nodding towards their old project.

[Leferd]

*summons Ramza*

 

"JEFFERSON"

[Sleet]

Look forward to other potential Easter eggs in game. 

[Leferd]

Inside the Black Hound Inn, they included a nice touch with a stained glass window with the concepted box art for The Black Hound.

 

 

 

Jefferson Lives!

[ramza]

*summons Ramza*

 

"JEFFERSON"

 

Who dares call my name?

[Flayeriv]

That's kind of awesome.

I look forward to seeing a compiled list of easter eggs and finding them all in game.

[Leferd]

 

*summons Ramza*

"JEFFERSON"

 

 

Who dares call my name?

Dang. It worked! Do I get three wishes?

[ramza]

 

 

*summons Ramza*

"JEFFERSON"

 

Who dares call my name?

Dang. It worked! Do I get three wishes?

 

 

Nope, you get 3 curses instead

[Lephys]

Can he at least choose the curses via wishes?

[Cantousent]

Inside the Black Hound Inn, they included a nice touch with a stained glass window with the concepted box art for The Black Hound.

 

 

 

Jefferson Lives!

This was so sweet, it hurt, Leferd.  rat bastard!  For a while, I had some of the screenshots BIS posted on my computer.  I went to look for them the other day and I couldn't find them.

[ramza]

I must have some archives on the Black Hound project somewhere in one of my USB keys if you are interested. There was only one screenshot though. All the rest was concept art, which you can find on Vance Kovacs' website.

[Cantousent]

I thought there were more. I seem to recall a graveyard with some large sepulcher and... skeletons? I dunno. It's hard to look at old Black Hound stuff because I really thought the ideas behind the game were great and then I want to see it made, which is now impossible. The idea that the PC wasn't some great hero or there to save the world, but just happened to witness something that marked him and he spends the rest of the game trying to deal with this situation that came at him completely out of the blue. No preconceived notions about him being heroic or evil. No save the world chosen one story line. Just this guy and a highly personal problem that, if I recall correctly, started to become larger than just *his* problem. I *want* that story, and we're never going to get it the way it was set up for BG3. So it's just self inflicted torture to keep following it. It's like watching the food channel show a great recipe for your favorite dish only to realize you're having peanut butter sandwiches on stale bread for dinner that night.

[Bryy]

Oh so it is.    I wonder if it was a backer designed inn or if it's the devs themselves nodding towards their old project.

Honestly, could be either.

[Bobby Null]

Oh so it is.    I wonder if it was a backer designed inn or if it's the devs themselves nodding towards their old project.

 

The story behind the Black Hound Inn is a little strange. It was designated to be a backer inn. During production we informed the inn backers to fill out their design ideas and get them back to us. Several producers followed up with these backers. It generally took several weeks, sometimes longer, to get all the designs back in. I personally called a few of them myself to try to expedite the process. 

 

We had a mysterious backer that never got back to us. Email, phone calls, nothing. At one point I left the backer my personal cell phone and urged him to get back to us as time was running out. Still nothing. We were a little baffled and hoped everything was ok with this backer but ultimately had to move on.

 

At that point we already had a basic blockout for the inn located in Gilded Vale. Without spoiling anything, we kind of worked the real life situation into some lore about the inn, but it still needed a name. Olivia Veras, the designer for Gilded Vale,  came to Josh and I saying some of the designers wanted to call the inn the Black Hound. I liked the idea and so did Josh. Not sure who's idea it was for the stained glass art (probably Josh), but it looks great in game.

[bronzepoem]

 

Oh so it is.    I wonder if it was a backer designed inn or if it's the devs themselves nodding towards their old project.

 

The story behind the Black Hound Inn is a little strange. It was designated to be a backer inn. During production we informed the inn backers to fill out their design ideas and get them back to us. Several producers followed up with these backers. It generally took several weeks, sometimes longer, to get all the designs back in. I personally called a few of them myself to try to expedite the process. 

 

We had a mysterious backer that never got back to us. Email, phone calls, nothing. At one point I left the backer my personal cell phone and urged him to get back to us as time was running out. Still nothing. We were a little baffled and hoped everything was ok with this backer but ultimately had to move on.

 

At that point we already had a basic blockout for the inn located in Gilded Vale. Without spoiling anything, we kind of worked the real life situation into some lore about the inn, but it still needed a name. Olivia Veras, the designer for Gilded Vale,  came to Josh and I saying some of the designers wanted to call the inn the Black Hound. I liked the idea and so did Josh. Not sure who's idea it was for the stained glass art (probably Josh), but it looks great in game.

 

The guy who didn't finish the item design is still alive

I think I can finish it within 1 month, for the expansion. Don't abandon me~

[Stun]

By the way, for the curious, here is the one screenshot that was ever released for the Cancelled BG3 Black hound:

 

[bigsun123]

The idea that the PC wasn't some great hero or there to save the world, but just happened to witness something that marked him and he spends the rest of the game trying to deal with this situation that came at him completely out of the blue. No preconceived notions about him being heroic or evil. No save the world chosen one story line. Just this guy and a highly personal problem that, if I recall correctly, started to become larger than just *his* problem. I *want* that story, and we're never going to get it the way it was set up for BG3.

It's funny you describe the premise of BG3 like that, because from the Pillars Wiki:

 

The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance. Burdened with the consequences of this event, the player has to investigate what has happened in order to free themselves from the restless forces that follow and haunt them wherever they go.

 

Obviously I don't know the story of this game, but cancelled titles don't always die completely. One example that Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone worked on is Fallout: Van Buren.  From the article:

 

"One of the more significant elements of the plot and back story of Van Buren was to be the war between the NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel. One of the main designers, Chris Avellone mentioned that aspects from Van Buren would appear in Fallout: New Vegas such as the NCR- BoS war and a companion from Van Buren, Joshua Graham appears in heavily modified form, as does an antagonistic faction known as Caesar's Legion."

 

Good ideas and stories can often be adapted, and since the games weren't released we may never know what was borrowed or referenced.  I'm sure Obsidian will do a good job with this one though.

[Karkarov]

Good ideas and stories can often be adapted, and since the games weren't released we may never know what was borrowed or referenced.  I'm sure Obsidian will do a good job with this one though.

I was about the post the same thing, the basic premise of the Black Hound is basically the same premise as Eternity.... so maybe we did get that story after all?  Also that stained glass is very nice, great style to it and I have been really happy with similar small details you see in game like paintings and shields and such.  They are all very nicely detailed.

 

As for that backer..... seriously they dropped that much money then never responded?  Insane.

[Cantousent]

 

The idea that the PC wasn't some great hero or there to save the world, but just happened to witness something that marked him and he spends the rest of the game trying to deal with this situation that came at him completely out of the blue. No preconceived notions about him being heroic or evil. No save the world chosen one story line. Just this guy and a highly personal problem that, if I recall correctly, started to become larger than just *his* problem. I *want* that story, and we're never going to get it the way it was set up for BG3.

It's funny you describe the premise of BG3 like that, because from the Pillars Wiki:

 

The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance. Burdened with the consequences of this event, the player has to investigate what has happened in order to free themselves from the restless forces that follow and haunt them wherever they go.

 

Obviously I don't know the story of this game, but cancelled titles don't always die completely. One example that Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone worked on is Fallout: Van Buren.  From the article:

 

"One of the more significant elements of the plot and back story of Van Buren was to be the war between the NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel. One of the main designers, Chris Avellone mentioned that aspects from Van Buren would appear in Fallout: New Vegas such as the NCR- BoS war and a companion from Van Buren, Joshua Graham appears in heavily modified form, as does an antagonistic faction known as Caesar's Legion."

 

Good ideas and stories can often be adapted, and since the games weren't released we may never know what was borrowed or referenced.  I'm sure Obsidian will do a good job with this one though.

 

Oh my goodness! When I first read this, I thought it was some sort of Black Hound wiki. I wasn't dismissive. I just figured that one of the people who followed the game at that time had put together a wiki and was citing what Sawyer had said about it at the time. In rereading it, I see that it's the Pillars wiki. That's... that's just awesome! I'm so happy to hear this news. I haven't been following as much as I could because I don't want to get spoiled too terribly much, but if I'm going to see something beforehand, *this* is something I'm happy to see. Thanks, man!

[apolloooo]

woah, its spirit now live on to pillars of eternity

[ramza]

 

Good ideas and stories can often be adapted, and since the games weren't released we may never know what was borrowed or referenced.  I'm sure Obsidian will do a good job with this one though.

I was about the post the same thing, the basic premise of the Black Hound is basically the same premise as Eternity.... so maybe we did get that story after all?  Also that stained glass is very nice, great style to it and I have been really happy with similar small details you see in game like paintings and shields and such.  They are all very nicely detailed.

 

As for that backer..... seriously they dropped that much money then never responded?  Insane.

 

 

And if pillars of eternity does well, who knows, maybe Josh will decide to make another game with the same engine but with TBH scenario

[Abel]

 

Oh so it is.    I wonder if it was a backer designed inn or if it's the devs themselves nodding towards their old project.

 

The story behind the Black Hound Inn is a little strange. It was designated to be a backer inn. During production we informed the inn backers to fill out their design ideas and get them back to us. Several producers followed up with these backers. It generally took several weeks, sometimes longer, to get all the designs back in. I personally called a few of them myself to try to expedite the process. 

 

We had a mysterious backer that never got back to us. Email, phone calls, nothing. At one point I left the backer my personal cell phone and urged him to get back to us as time was running out. Still nothing. We were a little baffled and hoped everything was ok with this backer but ultimately had to move on.

 

At that point we already had a basic blockout for the inn located in Gilded Vale. Without spoiling anything, we kind of worked the real life situation into some lore about the inn, but it still needed a name. Olivia Veras, the designer for Gilded Vale,  came to Josh and I saying some of the designers wanted to call the inn the Black Hound. I liked the idea and so did Josh. Not sure who's idea it was for the stained glass art (probably Josh), but it looks great in game.

 

 

It's because of this kind of thing i like the KS model. Without it, we would have never known about such details or anecdotes. Thx.

[Leferd]

 

 

Good ideas and stories can often be adapted, and since the games weren't released we may never know what was borrowed or referenced.  I'm sure Obsidian will do a good job with this one though.

 

I was about the post the same thing, the basic premise of the Black Hound is basically the same premise as Eternity.... so maybe we did get that story after all?  Also that stained glass is very nice, great style to it and I have been really happy with similar small details you see in game like paintings and shields and such.  They are all very nicely detailed.

 

As for that backer..... seriously they dropped that much money then never responded?  Insane.

 

And if pillars of eternity does well, who knows, maybe Josh will decide to make another game with the same engine but with TBH scenario

We'll probably be regaled of the tale of The Black Hound at the inn. Who knows, there may be some plot foreshadowing included as a bit of an allegory of sorts.