Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Ninjerk]

in the cold kentucky rain

 

[Duraframe300]

Medieval post apocalyptic. Evil has already destroyed the world.

"Evil has already destroyed the world " EA took over ?

They had a concept that was "What if evil won?" We'd get to play in a world like that. It sounds interesting on paper.

That was a concept pitched around seven years ago mentioned nearly four years ago. Doubt that its the first thing that comes to their mind.

 

[Abu Antar]

Medieval post apocalyptic. Evil has already destroyed the world.

"Evil has already destroyed the world " EA took over ?

They had a concept that was "What if evil won?" We'd get to play in a world like that. It sounds interesting on paper.

That was a concept pitched around seven years ago mentioned nearly four years ago. Doubt that its the first thing that comes to their mind.

But I want it.

 

[throwaway]

Wasn't KOTOR2 sort of that?

 

[Abu Antar]

Wasn't KOTOR2 sort of that?

I want a world where everyone's iehter a dick or a cunt and do their best to fuck each other over.

 

[LESS T_T]

Pathfinder card game coming soon, Pathfinder RPG in discussion

The first Pathfinder card game born out of a licensing deal with the developers behind South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2 will hit tablets in the "next few months," said Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart.

Discussion about what comes next for the Dungeons and Dragons spin-off franchise is already underway, he added.

"We've had a ton of ideas," Urquhart said. "Obviously we could do something like Pillars of Eternity. Obviously we could do something like Neverwinter Nights 2. We're going through all of those things to figure out what would be the best thing to do.

"I would say we're just starting to really figure it out, it's going to be awhile."

For now, fans of Pathfinder will have to make do with the upcoming tablet game based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Paizo created Pathfinder, which is based on the third edition of D&D's rules, after the launch of the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons in 2008. It has since become a competitor to D&D.

Pathfinder, which started out as a table-top fantasy role-playing game, released a card game set in its universe in 2013. That's what Obsidian's first Pathfinder game is based on.

It is meant to be a faithful port of the card game and will include the first box set. Initially, it will only support single player, but multiplayer will be added post-release. The studio also plans to release the game's many add-on packs.

The main reason the studio decided to start with a tablet game and not a full role-playing title is because they wanted to build up some experience working on tablets, Urquhart said.

"As a developer it's important we're able to do lots of things," he said. "We're thinking about how can we take traditional RPG stuff and put it on the tablet. No one has solved it really."

And the port of the card game stands to do quite well.

The tabletop game has sold 60,000 to 80,000 box sets, he said, and the average player invests $150 or more.

The team is currently looking for a publisher for the tablet game, which will hit Android and iOS and then come to PC.

Last summer, Obsidian announced a deal with Paizo, Inc to create games based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game universe.

In deciding on what to do next in the Pathfinder universe, Obsidian has to both discuss the possibilities with Paizo and come up with funding.

"Part of it has to do with how much we have going on and how it would get funded," Urquhart said. "That's going to be the big conversation with Paizo, what they want to see, what they want to do."

Urquhart said the team just knows they want to create a role-playing game in that universe.

He added that the studio of 170 people could easily work on developing both Pillars of Eternity and another role-playing game at the same time.

"I'm not particularly worried about that," he said. "We have enough people that could do those things."

Whatever they do, Urquhart said he and the team at Obsidian think Pathfinder has a long life ahead of it.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/4/7980129/pathfinder-rpg-video-game-obsidian-entertainment

"Obviously we could do something like Pillars of Eternity. Obviously we could do something like Neverwinter Nights 2. We're going through all of those things to figure out what would be the best thing to do.

Oh, come on.

There's another piece on South Park: http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/4/797...f-truth-dlc-unlikely-but-not-impossible-after

 

[Volrath]

If they end up doing a RtwP Pathfinder RPG I'll fucking kill them.

 

[Kem0sabe]

If they end up doing a RtwP Pathfinder RPG I'll fucking kill them.

Only way Obsidian will do TB is if it involves fart magic.

 

[Apexeon]

If they end up doing a RtwP Pathfinder RPG I'll fucking kill them.

Only way Obsidian will do TB is if it involves fart magic.

But that's like totally Kewl !

 

[Roguey]

170 employees? Awful lot of people for a studio that doesn't make much of anything.

 

[Apexeon]

170 employees? Awful lot of people for a studio that doesn't make much of anything.

Josh does all the work while the other 169 play pool and shoot hoops.

 

[naossano]

But MCA is barelly involved in the pool activity, as his way of playing pool is too much for the others.

 

[Duraframe300]

170 employees? Awful lot of people for a studio that doesn't make much of anything.

Armored Warfare (Which has become quite big. They (Obsidian) hired a guy recently specifically to amass and analyze player related data)
Skyforge
Pathfinder
Pillars of Eternity
Unannounced Brian Heins Project
Unannounced MCA project (Might be the same thing)

Not sure if I forgot something here

 

[toro]

170 employees? Awful lot of people for a studio that doesn't make much of anything.

Armored Warfare (Which has become quite big. They (Obsidian) hired a guy recently specifically to amass and analyze player related data)
Skyforge
Pathfinder
Pillars of Eternity
Unannounced Brian Heins Project
Unannounced MCA project (Might be the same thing)

Not sure if I forgot something here

Armored Warfare - My impression was that the developers are actually Russians and Obsidian is only "Westernizing" the game.
Skyforge - The same thing as above. Although in this case is clear that the actual developers are Russians.
Pathfinder - It's a card game and I'm not sure it is a done deal. Obsidian was looking for funding.

I don't think there are more than 40 people working on the stuff above.
Considering that Obsidian was hiring for a team of 20-60 I guess the only thing certain is that they are working on at least 2 big projects at the moment (one of them is PoE).

 

[Duraframe300]

170 employees? Awful lot of people for a studio that doesn't make much of anything.

Armored Warfare (Which has become quite big. They (Obsidian) hired a guy recently specifically to amass and analyze player related data)
Skyforge
Pathfinder
Pillars of Eternity
Unannounced Brian Heins Project
Unannounced MCA project (Might be the same thing)

Not sure if I forgot something here

Armored Warfare - My impression was that the developers are actually Russians and Obsidian is only "Westernizing" the game.
Skyforge - The same thing as above. Although in this case is clear that the actual developers are Russians.
Pathfinder - It's a card game and I'm not sure it is a done deal. Obsidian was looking for funding.

I don't think there are more than 40 people working on the stuff above.
Considering that Obsidian was hiring for a team of 20-60 I guess the only thing certain is that they are working on at least 2 big projects at the moment (one of them is PoE).

Armored Warfare - No, completly Obsidian developed.
Skyforge - Obsidian also works on quest/instance content as well as class design. Team itself is very small, but its planned to expand (mentioned as such multiple times by Eric DeMilt)
Pathfinder - No, they aren't. The card game is fully in production. The question of funding only applies for future games. As I mentioned previously the contract Obsidian has with Paizo isn't solely for the
digital card game, but for the entire license. The funding is also pure speculation as we have no idea what Paizo's cooking up in that regard.

Also Armored Warfare is most likely actually their biggest project at the moment.

 

[naossano]

Nothing new, IMO.
From what i read from interviews, develloppers always have several projects in mind, many of them get cancelled at some point.

 

[Untermensch]

You don't get to be an 10 year old successful independent developer if you make dumb decisions such as hiring a big group of people and then leaving them to twiddle their thumbs all day long.

 

[Duraframe300]

Scratch that Pathfinder comment. Didn't read the article correctly.

Apparently they are looking for a publisher on the card game which is kinda weird considering its been in development for half a year.

Asked Nathan Davis what that means here exactly.

 

[Drax]

You don't get to be an 10 year old successful independent developer if you make dumb decisions such as hiring a big group of people and then leaving them to twiddle their thumbs all day long.

If you are a 10 year old independent developer you are pretty ssuccessffull...

 

[Monocause]

Scratch that Pathfinder comment. Apparently they are looking for a publisher on the card game which is kinda weird considering its been in development for half a year.

It's not really weird, it's simply a gamble that's fairly common in the industry. The chances of securing a publishing deal are bigger when you've more to show, and i imagine if it's a card game it's not many assets required and a relatively small team working on it. Card games are simple games to make, even if they've a complex ruleset and/or a shitton of cards.

They might be even considering going the same route as that Might and Magic card game went - publish as free to play in collaboration with someone, make it microtransaction driven. In that case keeping it in development and reaching out for a deal makes perfect sense.

 

[Duraframe300]

Scratch that Pathfinder comment. Apparently they are looking for a publisher on the card game which is kinda weird considering its been in development for half a year.

It's not really weird, it's simply a gamble that's fairly common in the industry. The chances of securing a publishing deal are bigger when you've more to show, and i imagine if it's a card game it's not many assets required and a relatively small team working on it. Card games are simple games to make, even if they've a complex ruleset and/or a shitton of cards.

They might be even considering going the same route as that Might and Magic card game went - publish as free to play in collaboration with someone, make it microtransaction driven. In that case keeping it in development and reaching out for a deal makes perfect sense.

So, who paid for the development up to now (It's in production since august)? Even if its only a small team thats still quite a bit of salary.
Is it a similiar thing to Stick of Truth where Viacom paid for the first year and then loaded it off? Just on a smaller scale with Paizo this time?

 

[Ninjerk]

Scratch that Pathfinder comment. Didn't read the article correctly.

Apparently they are looking for a publisher on the card game which is kinda weird considering its been in development for half a year.

Asked Nathan Davis what that means here exactly.

CCP should publish it so they can get working with Obsidian on a WoD game in the meantime.

 

[Monocause]

So, who paid for the development up to now (It's in production since august)? Even if its only a small team thats still quite a bit of salary.

Why do you find it so unlikely that it's obsidian paying and funding? Six months for a small team, quite possibly working part time there on assets they can reuse elsewhere, and part time helping out on projects that currently bring food to the table? Obviously they have revenue and they have an investment budget; even though dev studios are pretty much indentured servants of the market it's not like they never have any money of their own.

 

[Jaesun]

They better be working on a TURN BASED Pathfinder game OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!

 

[Bleed the Man]

They better be working on a TURN BASED Pathfinder game OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!

I don't think right now they're working on it, but should be the logical way to go. They have the Eternity engine tools available to make a Eternity-like Pathfinder RPG, an entire niche that likes this games a lot like the kickstarters demostrated (which should interest a smaller publisher), and in order to not step into their own fantasy franchise, they make it turn based. They could also go for a more dungeon crawler rute ala Icewind Dale -but turn based- in order to separate it more from PoE

If they go the ARPG rute, or all I said minus the turn based (seriously, what would be the point of having two RTwP fantasy RPGs), it would be a bit