And now a sneek peek at the Making of PoE Documentary

[frabron]

kk is poo, at least in german. you'd want 1m sales instead

[Forlorn Hope]

Excellent.

[lordkim]

Oscar worthy !!

[pseudonymous]

 

Oh, it's just that one guy thanked me for his job and it brought me to my ****ing kness. I still don't know how to properly process that.

 

So yeah, I get upset when people say Obsidian wasn't in bad shape, or imply this is PR, or get pissed off when devs mention DLC in a Kickstarter, or talk about how money shouldn't matter (even after you donated to a sometimes multi-million dollar project), or ask for a refund after they find out that making games is a job, or pull pledges after the devs reveal a stretch goal for female PCs, or that they ask for refunds because the dev supports female inclusion in the industry. They often forget that game creators are real people and not magical fun-time pixies that don't exist within the same plane as mortals. 

 

 

 

 

It's interesting how adept Feargus is at saying "**** publishers for screwing us over and then downrating us for the layoffs caused like it's our fault" euphemistically. He's buzzing around it like a moth around a lamplight, but never actually getting there. Obsidian still needs good relationships with publishers, they managed to stay mid-sized after the 2012 layoffs, so it's noticeable how carefully he words his opinions -- contrast this with how Brian Fargo does it, who forwent** the traditional funding model, and openly badmouths publishers. On a related note, I'm curious if Fargo'll ever regret doing so; burning bridges in business is a real thing.

Relations between companies don't work the same way as relations between people though. He can say "f**k publishers" and strike a deal with EA tomorrow if both parties are interested. It's not like he's offending anyone.

 

Which Brian did exactly that by making WL2 for Microsoft & Sony.

 

Which Brian did when he said he was going to put Wasteland 2 on Origin.

 

 

What?

[damage991]

 

 

translated to PoE 77k original backers -> 924k sales?  

 

We'll see...

there will be more than 1kk sales.

 

924k being just 76k shy of 1 million I bet they'd be happy with that!  That said I hope there are more!

[cresentdark]

Well if this ones takes off than CRPGs will make a full turn around because I bet you other game developers be like hey lets jump on the bandwagon that's what happened with minecraft and a few sandbox games I seen the cycle repeat itself a few times.

[Gamgee]

Make a backer vote to release the full video to the public. The documentary would be great free press, and it's very touching.

 

As a backer I say YES!

 

I had no idea things were so bad at Obsidian. If I hadn't backed Dead State in at 100 and Plannetary Annihilation at 110 I could have sent more your way. PA still doesn't have any of the physical rewards I was promised.

[Stun]

God, I love those offices. You guys have such a friggin' amazing set-up. It's really clean and efficient.

And the Exit signs are....green? That's bizarro.

 

Anyway, is there any chance whatsoever that we get to see the rest of this documentary before the game comes out? Because if it all gets here at the same time as the game then...you know... I'll be playing the game instead.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Stun

[Stun]

translated to PoE 77k original backers -> 924k sales?

Count on it.

[ManifestedISO]

 

And the Exit signs are....green? That's bizarro.

 

Green means go, this way, home.  

[Falkon Swiftblade]

These guys are def going to do more than a 1m in sales. Unless the game is a total bollocks, it's a sure win. It is a little scary how late in the game it is and they're still fudging balancing issues. Hopefully it doesn't end up like Kingdoms of Amalur which was a TON of fun, but you maxed out way before the end of the game and the game was way too easy after about level 18. Well even on Hard I never died after ~20 when 40 was the cap. So lesson here devs is make sure you play the game fairly at all levels and adjust using realistic stuff we'll have and not cheater dev toy's that we won't have access to  

[Flow]

These guys are def going to do more than a 1m in sales. Unless the game is a total bollocks, it's a sure win. It is a little scary how late in the game it is and they're still fudging balancing issues. Hopefully it doesn't end up like Kingdoms of Amalur which was a TON of fun, but you maxed out way before the end of the game and the game was way too easy after about level 18. Well even on Hard I never died after ~20 when 40 was the cap. So lesson here devs is make sure you play the game fairly at all levels and adjust using realistic stuff we'll have and not cheater dev toy's that we won't have access to

 

Eh... a million is a lot for a smallish game without a real advertising budget. I believe it took Divinity: OS about three months to hit 500,000 units sold with probably comparable word of mouth and very favorable press coverage. I'm hopeful, but I honestly have no idea how the general gaming public is going to react to PoE.

[Rumsteak]

It's interesting how adept Feargus is at saying "**** publishers for screwing us over and then downrating us for the layoffs caused like it's our fault" euphemistically. He's buzzing around it like a moth around a lamplight, but never actually getting there.

 

Indeed:

 

 

[...] cause it was obviously our fault, cause that's the thing right, it's like "well we're the company that had to go through the pain, so we are the ones that must have failed"

 

Nicely put. 

[Falkon Swiftblade]

I think the difference is that obsidian has been around for more than a decade and has lots of game's they've done. So their target audience is much larger. Plus we have twitch guys or youtube guys and the codex guy's etc all with minions of followers. Not to mention mass international appeal. There's folks in Russia googoo over pillars. I'm not saying they'll hit it overnight, but I def think they'll be well on there way sooner than later.

[Ineth]

 

Snazzy breakroom, amiri--OH MY GOD WE ALMOST LOST OBSIDIAN

 

Right?  I had no idea the stakes were so high.  I thought it was just a cool game idea not a hail mary.

 

 

Same here.

 

Though I'm glad they didn't drag this whole situation out during the kickstarter to try and elicit pity donations, like a certain other developer did (because that was just awkward).

 

[Terror K]

My guess for the cancelled project would be the Wheel of Time game. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Obsidian had a licence to make one based on the Robert Jordan series, but that it was canned.

[Katarack21]

Make a backer vote to release the full video to the public. The documentary would be great free press, and it's very touching.

 

As a backer I say YES!

 

I had no idea things were so bad at Obsidian. If I hadn't backed Dead State in at 100 and Plannetary Annihilation at 110 I could have sent more your way. PA still doesn't have any of the physical rewards I was promised.

I like this idea. I'm a backer who was very interested in the documentary from the beginning; this inside look at how close things came is a really touching and direct message about the realities of game publishing. This could really work well with publicity for the game and for Obsidian as a whole.

[guizhang]

looking forward to the rest of the documentary. wasn't aware how bad the situation at obsidian was before kickstarter

[Terror K]

It could become part of GOG's already growing collection of movies. For just a couple of bucks anybody could see it if Obsidian let it go up there too.

[morhilane]

I think the difference is that obsidian has been around for more than a decade and has lots of game's they've done. So their target audience is much larger. Plus we have twitch guys or youtube guys and the codex guy's etc all with minions of followers. Not to mention mass international appeal. There's folks in Russia googoo over pillars. I'm not saying they'll hit it overnight, but I def think they'll be well on there way sooner than later.

 

Larian is older than Obsidian. The first Divinity game released in 2002, but their first game as a studio was released in 1998 though. Obsidian was funded in 2003.

 

Larian's problem in term of international brand popularity is that their publishers were idiots who believed only Germans and Russians played cRGPs. It's pass tense because they (ctv entertainment and dtp entertainment) filled for insolvency in the last few years (2010 and 2012).

[Falkon Swiftblade]

 

I think the difference is that obsidian has been around for more than a decade and has lots of game's they've done. So their target audience is much larger. Plus we have twitch guys or youtube guys and the codex guy's etc all with minions of followers. Not to mention mass international appeal. There's folks in Russia googoo over pillars. I'm not saying they'll hit it overnight, but I def think they'll be well on there way sooner than later.

 

Larian is older than Obsidian. The first Divinity game released in 2002, but their first game as a studio was released in 1998 though. Obsidian was funded in 2003.

 

Larian's problem in term of international brand popularity is that their publishers were idiots who believed only Germans and Russians played cRGPs. It's pass tense because they (ctv entertainment and dtp entertainment) filled for insolvency in the last few years (2010 and 2012).

 

 

Well "obsidian" may not have been established before Lorian, but Fallout came out in 1997 and Tim Cain and several other guys from interplay came over from there as part of obsidian and have their own following as well as black isle, so there's a bigger portfolio of games that folks know. However, even divinity having just came out will bring in new folks that may have missed the boat the first time so they probably did obsidian a favor by growing the audience

[Rhuac]

My guess for the cancelled project would be the Wheel of Time game. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Obsidian had a licence to make one based on the Robert Jordan series, but that it was canned.

 

The Wheel of Time! Now that would be a game i would like to see, especially from Obsidian. Reading through the books was some journey, must say..

[C2B]

My guess for the cancelled project would be the Wheel of Time game. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Obsidian had a licence to make one based on the Robert Jordan series, but that it was canned.

It wasn't.

[Amentep]

 

My guess for the cancelled project would be the Wheel of Time game. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Obsidian had a licence to make one based on the Robert Jordan series, but that it was canned.

It wasn't.

 

IIRC the WoT project was never even funded, they'd just agreed to work on it with the WoT license owners, correct?

[Leferd]

It was a project involving space truckers and cup holders according to Anthony Davis.

 

Which sounds pretty rad to be honest.