Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Gargaune]

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

Obsidian was only able to make something like The Outer Worlds for that kind of money and that was with Leonard and Tim, the Czech advantage is too strong.

It's not a very useful figure here because the $36 million includes marketing, which won't scale. I recall something like $15-20 million development being bandied about back in the day, but no idea where or how solid it was. For what little it's worth, the most cursory skim of average programmer salaries would suggest a roughly 3-to-1 ratio for Prague versus Irvine, but I have no inclination to break down for different departments, positions and so on. And I haven't seen any speculation on Avowed's development costs yet.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI.

I have good news! UI is so fucking cheap to make compared to the assets of AAA games, they could easily afford to make multiple types of UI and let the player customize it to his own liking. If they weren't managed by absolute retards that think modeling a single fucking tree is more important than the entire UI design for their game.

 

[Yosharian]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Skaeuo-whatnow

What the fuck

 

[Harthwain]

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI. Other people like more crowded UI. For eg, for some AAA studios, the UI bellow is great.

...except the real UI for Elden Ring looks like this:

Spoiler

Which is fairly minimalistic.

 

[Yosharian]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I didn't say Skyrim's UI wasn't bad, it was very bad but it has less problems than Oblivion's UI in my opinion

Oblivion's user interface is heavily consolized, designed to be easier for those using controllers, while displaying far less information and being far less convenient on PCs than Morrowind's UI; Skyrim's user interface is dysfunctional and a bad joke:

 

[Yosharian]

Don't worry, modders fixed it a long time ago

 

[Harthwain]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

It doesn't read that way to me, since he shows this as an example of a very "busy" UI that some AAA studios like.

 

[Yosharian]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

It doesn't read that way to me, since he shows this as an example of a very "busy" UI that some AAA studios like.

...are you serious

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Most of those modern UIs are designed to be navigated with a game pad and then just ported to PC as is.

 

[Harthwain]

...are you serious

Why?

 

[Paul_cz]

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

This number is nonsense made up by czech Forbes, the actual budget was around 15-20 incl. marketing (but marketing was tiny portion of it).
KCD2 will have around two-three times bigger budget, around 50-60 mil (more than twice as many inhouse devs, inflation, bigger marketing budget).

Regarding UI, recent post about it from Dan Vávra:

If I'm happy about something, it's about this reaction of a Polish YouTuber (and not only him) to our new interface, inventory and the entire UI. Because I consider UI to be a very important thing, in all the games I've made, I'm the author of the design, often I also did its graphics. For KCD2, I wanted us to remake it completely in 3D with realtime lighting and keep the original principles from KCD1 that worked. It is inspired by wooden Gothic altars and the old town clock. And multiple people worked on it for 6 years. We really tinkered with every detail and with every pixel. The only thing we failed to implement is the 3D map. Which makes me annoyed, but we just couldn't make it in time.
After all that work, which is not always appreciated by everyone and at all stages of implementation, and when you really have to defend some decisions very hard because a lot of people on the team doubt them or even protest against them, then you are in doubt how customers will accept it. If anyone even notices that it took so much work. If it made sense to bother.
So it's quite a pleasure when someone sees it and their first impression is that they literally exclaim enthusiastically:
"OH FUCK! GOOD! THIS IS IT! THAT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! GOOD! AND IT'S STILL BY CANDLELIGHT! THAT'S WELL DONE! THAT LOOKS COOL!"

 

[Wesp5]

Which is fairly minimalistic.

I believe minimalistic is okay, if the style fits to the game. Bloodlines for example still has an artful inferface because it's a fantasy game! I'm right now playing a retro game based on the Eduke32 engine called "AMC Squad" and they have different UIs for each of the 15 character you can play as, which is a little bit confusing .

 

[Maxie]

I didn't say Skyrim's UI wasn't bad, it was very bad but it has less problems than Oblivion's UI in my opinion

Oblivion's user interface is heavily consolized, designed to be easier for those using controllers, while displaying far less information and being far less convenient on PCs than Morrowind's UI; Skyrim's user interface is dysfunctional and a bad joke:

skyrim's menu displays the exact same amount of info, if not more

 

[Alienman]

Fucking loved this Winamp skin

Very Johnny Quest-esque and Matrix-like

I still use Winamp. It's one of those tools that never gets old. Like IrfranView.

Spoiler

Edit:
On UI elements, I hate floating UI, like health bars that move around, quest objectives that guide you to the exact place. But what I dislike the most above everything else, even a soulless UI, is hitmarkers. It's such an obnoxious and retarded addition to games. It also kills all tension, since you are told that you made a kill, like say when doing a tricky shot.

 

[Hace El Oso]

Regarding UI, recent post about it from Dan Vávra:

After all that work, which is not always appreciated by everyone and at all stages of implementation, and when you really have to defend some decisions very hard because a lot of people on the team doubt them or even protest against them, then you are in doubt how customers will accept it. If anyone even notices that it took so much work. If it made sense to bother.
So it's quite a pleasure when someone sees it and their first impression is that they literally exclaim enthusiastically

What an admirable, craftsman’s attitude.
His retirement will be a real loss.

 

[Gargaune]

This number is nonsense made up by czech Forbes, the actual budget was around 15-20 incl. marketing (but marketing was tiny portion of it).

Really, that's with marketing? I recall the first I heard about KCD's production budget was $11m, then later it was suggested to be higher and the same 15-20m figure stuck with me for some reason, but I thought that didn't include advertising. In any case, what I was saying is that it might not have all been down to salary disparity, it seemed than even adjusting for that, Warhorse were just a lot more productive.

 

[Roguey]

And I haven't seen any speculation on Avowed's development costs yet.

I did earlier in the thread. It cost twice as much as Outer Worlds did, minimum.

 

[Gargaune]

I did earlier in the thread. It cost twice as much as Outer Worlds did, minimum.

And how much was The Outer Worlds, the 30-40m you suggested earlier? With or without marketing? I tried asking Copilot but it said "lol dunno" and then asked what I was wearing.

 

[Roguey]

And how much was The Outer Worlds, the 30-40m you suggested earlier? With or without marketing? I tried asking Copilot but it said "lol dunno" and then asked what I was wearing.

That was the production budget.

 

[Pink Eye]

That never gets old. Speaking of which, I like how Witchfire has better UI than whatever the fuck Avowed is going for:

Minimalist and not obnoxious.

 

[damager]

That never gets old. Speaking of which, I like how Witchfire has better UI than whatever the fuck Avowed is going for:


Minimalist and not obnoxious.

Interesting. Is this game worth playing?

 

[Drakortha]

Is that Baldur's Gate 3?

 

[Pink Eye]

Is this game worth playing?

Tricky question. It's a good game but it's still unfinished as fuck. There's only two maps - it's been in Early Access for a long time. There's another third map but it doesn't really count as a map since it's so small in size. I've been following this game's development for years now and it is slow, very, slow.

 

[damager]

The gay mans antler on its head tells me it must be some kind of Dragon Age abomination