how long does a pillars game take to develop?

[Nemesis7884]

I am wondering, i think the most ressource intense item when developing a game - afaik is creating the assets.... This should be slightly less expensive i assume with such a game since the environment is painted and the graphics fidelity isnt "incredibly" high (nor has it to be)...moreover the assets are probably already there - at least to some extent...

 

How long do you think the development of pillars 2 will take? It took around 2.5 Years for pillars one? So i guess Pillars 2 will take less time? Maybe we might see it until end of 2017? Would be very nice to get an obsidian rpg every year )

[TheisEjsing]

Josh spoke several times about development time and deadlines during the kickstarter videoes. they're not that long and worth a watch. Find them on Obsidians youtube channel. I personally don't think we will see another Pillars game before 2018, that seems to be the deal. But hey, it took them 15 years since BG 2 to make another great cRPG, so I bet we'll manage the wait.

Edited August 2, 2016 by TheisEjsing

[Tigranes]

I doubt it will be 2017. Proper RPGs can be done in 12-18 months but only at a price, 24-36+ is more common, and since people always demand that sequels are bigger in every conceivable way... but it's not a flat sum, since a lot depends on how long you spend on preproduction (when only a few people work on it), when you ramp it up, and how many people are working on it when it's ramped up, etc.

[demeisen]

since people always demand that sequels are bigger in every conceivable way...

 

True... and a demand that's sunk many a sequel, IMHO.  Either they end up stretched too thin, or they blow up into development hell.

 

Personally I hope for PoE2 they shoot for something similar in scope to PoE1.  New story, new part of the world to explore, tweaking and improving as they go... but bigger?  Meh.

[Nemesis7884]

well sure, but dont forget the most effort takes asset creation which should be a smaller task for the second game... wasnt fallout new vegas done in 12-18 months?

 

well im gonna dream....

 

tyranny late 16

tyranny expansion 1 early 17, 2 mid 17

pillars 2 late 17

 

) ) )

Edited August 2, 2016 by Nemesis7884

[Tigranes]

FNV was a big rush job that somehow came through, and is also a case of unusually extensive asset recycling. 

 

I'd be perfectly happy to let them recycle 90% of assets and focus on gameplay/etc, but consumers tend to whine when that happens, creating pressure to make stuff look fancier.

 

FNV was also publisher funded; if POE2 is funded internally, then like POE1, it won't be able to afford large teams.

[PIP-Clownboy]

FNV was a big rush job that somehow came through, and is also a case of unusually extensive asset recycling. 

 

I'd be perfectly happy to let them recycle 90% of assets and focus on gameplay/etc, but consumers tend to whine when that happens, creating pressure to make stuff look fancier.

 

FNV was also publisher funded; if POE2 is funded internally, then like POE1, it won't be able to afford large teams.

 

Wouldn't Paradox most likely be on board for the sequel? POE did quite well for a kickstarter PC only game with no multiplayer. Otherwise we would have seen some crowdfunding or early access by now. 

 

I'd expect a larger team for poe2.

Edited August 4, 2016 by PIP-Clownboy

[Tigranes]

Paradox did not play a traditional publisher role for POE, only distribution and QA. We don't know what role it has in POE2. 

 

Besides which, the whole point of POE crowdfunding was to try and set an independent model where Obsidian takes the profits from each game and uses it to fund new games. If you have a traditional publisher, they pay for development, then take all the profits - meaning you then need to bend over to another publisher to not go bankrupt the day after your game sells 80 million copies.

 

We could still see a kickstarter for POE2, maybe, maybe not. We know for a fact that it's not far enough along to be Early Access. 

 

Smart money would be on POE2 having a similar or slightly larger team, but nobody should be dreaming that it's going to have 100 members on it during crunch time or something.

[Ganrich]

I think I remember an interview with Feargus Urquhart where he stated that PoE2 would most likely stay a crowdfunded title. I expect it will be done through Fig instead of Kickstarter, though.

 

My personal guess is they will start murmuring about it after Tyranny launches. Heck, I would use Tyranny's launch as a jumping point for spreading word about the upcoming crowdfunding campaign. However, it depends on when Tyranny launches.

[PIP-Clownboy]

Would not back if they used fig, so hopefully not. I know Pdox didn't have a traditional publisher role on POE, but they seem much closer to Obsidian at this point and time. 

 

Was never expecting a 100 man dev team for poe2, but certainly a much larger one than POE. Don't see why they wouldn't want to capitalize on the initial success of a new IP and expand on that. Fans are going to want a game on the scale of BG2 and not a low effort cash grab like Blackguards 2. 

[demeisen]

​

 

Was never expecting a 100 man dev team for poe2, but certainly a much larger one than POE.

 

​Why should it be a much larger team than PoE1 though?  PoE1 (even before WM) was easily a 100+ hour game with 3 major chapters, several different cultures, many voice acted NPCs, and a whole bunch of different places to see.  I honestly wouldn't want the game to be much bigger than it was.

​

Aside from length, there's also schedule to consider.  I wouldn't want the PoE2 team to be worked to the bone for the whole development process: they should get to have lives outside work.  On the other side of that coin: they get to start with the PoE1 engine and a bunch of existing spell effects, art assets, unit tests, and so forth when making PoE2.  PoE1 had to invent everything, including the basics of combat mechanics and movement.  Only Ob really knows the details, but from the outside, it feels like a similar sized game could be made with a similar sized team without oppressive schedules.

​

I dunno... when budgets and teams get too big, games tend to lose their soul, partly because they have to pander to the ADD crowd and appeal to the LCD so they can sell a bazillion copies to recoup dev costs.  PoE1 feels to me like about the upper limit before you start getting those bland AAA-studio efforts.  Give me a single PoE, Grimrock2, or even Terraria any day over a hundred mindless "RPGs" like Oblivion or Skyrim.  PoE1 had a soul.  I think not trying to bite off more than you can chew helps with that.

​

​

[anameforobsidian]

I would be surprised if it came before 2018 for two business reasons: they are probably wary of over-exposing the IP; they probably don't want to compete with Torment: Tides of Numenera.  I don't think they're as desperate for money anymore.

 

There are also artistic reasons to spend time now that they'er not as desperate for money (AFAIK).  They could use the time to pay a programmer, artist, and Josh to upgrade the engine to Unity 5; adding mod support and possibly lowering load times.  They could also hack away at the system, making changes to the system itself, like adding interrupts, prone attacks, sword and pistol style, and making speed readable.  That certainly looks like what they're doing based on Josh's twitter.

[Tigranes]

Would not back if they used fig, so hopefully not. I know Pdox didn't have a traditional publisher role on POE, but they seem much closer to Obsidian at this point and time. 

 

Was never expecting a 100 man dev team for poe2, but certainly a much larger one than POE. Don't see why they wouldn't want to capitalize on the initial success of a new IP and expand on that. Fans are going to want a game on the scale of BG2 and not a low effort cash grab like Blackguards 2. 

 

Because (1) big teams cost a metric bucketton of money, and no, selling several hundred thousand copies with good reviews doesn't mean they have no money worries, far from it; (2) it's not a linear equation, bigger teams changes everything about how your pipeline works and the game that results from it. Extreme example is Assassin's Creed where they have to coordinate hundreds of team members across 3+ continents, instead of a dozen guys in an office hashing things out and iterating quickly. You get different kinds of games from those different processes. 

 

BG2 was an extreme anomaly that we should be surprised came out as big and as good as it did, really. People use it as an example all the time but that's not really reasonable. 

 

I expect the scope of the game will be a bit larger than POE (if only because so many people think a sequel has to be), and the kind of pipeline they're doing with Tyranny basically guarantees it won't be a rushed repackaged thing, but I wouldn't hope for Shadows of Amn, with anybody. 

[Abel]

I don't expect it before 2018 either. For all the reasons that were given in this thread. And i may say bull****, but i have the vague idea that they have to do something about the engine, too. They said that while crafting pillars, they had to learn about unity. I think that, maybe, many bugs that have poisoned Pillars of Eternity 1 are somehow the result of this. Pillars 1 is extremely complex. With all the effects, bonuses, rules about stacking, suppressing and so on... It's a mess. I'm surprised that there are no more bugs as of today. But at the same time, maybe reworking some parts of the engine they made with Unity could help making things smoother with Pillars 2, now that developing Pillars 1 gave them some more clues about how to do things with Unity. And i don't think this is something to rush. This would spare a lot of work later on.

 

But i'm not a programmer, and maybe i just say nonsenses.

[Nemesis7884]

not sure about the "overexposing issue" if the next installment comes 2 or 3 years after the first... i think we can talk about overexposing once we reach call of duty levels...

 

If they want to stay a crowdfunded title do you think they will opt for another kickstarter campaign? Im pretty sure they would have 0 problems reaching their goal... They did go another route with tyranny tough.

[Sethanon]

I think it could go out in 2017.

There were 25 months between BG1 and BG2, so it would be similar

And between them, Icewind Dale came out (here it could be Tyranny)

 

They could recycle lots of objects from PoE1, but I hope at least buildings will stay unique, just like now. Now, there isnt same house in Defiance Bay, unlike Baldurs Gate, where you can find lots of exactly same buildings, with exactly same interier.

 

I would be ok with PoE 2 crowdfunded through Kickstarter and released in second half of 2017.

 

And bigger than PoE  ? No need, it is very long game now.

[Tigranes]

I think it could go out in 2017.

There were 25 months between BG1 and BG2, so it would be similar

And between them, Icewind Dale came out (here it could be Tyranny)

 

They could recycle lots of objects from PoE1, but I hope at least buildings will stay unique, just like now. Now, there isnt same house in Defiance Bay, unlike Baldurs Gate, where you can find lots of exactly same buildings, with exactly same interier.

 

I would be ok with PoE 2 crowdfunded through Kickstarter and released in second half of 2017.

 

And bigger than PoE  ? No need, it is very long game now.

 

Icewind Dale was made by Black Isle, BG1/2 were made by Bioware. And as I say, BG2 is an extremely unusual case in the history of gaming.

 

In any case, I'd prefer the game comes out later and is a good game, rather than a rushed one.

[Loren Tyr]

To be honest, does it matter? It'll be done when it's done, and it'll certainly be quite a while from now (and there are various other interesting releases in the meantime). Doesn't seem much point in speculating about it now. 

[Faerunner]

I'm guessing about two to three years. Preferably the latter to ensure quality.

 

I hope they build on the strengths of the first game instead of blasting the foundation and building a shoddy continuation from the ground up. (DA2.)