What Is the Design Methodology Behind Pentiment?
It was a goal of Obsidian taking into account the genre, subject, and art style that this game should be one that can be enjoyed by players of all skill level. The primary focus is in the story and navigating the life of Andreas.
The controls are simple, there aren’t any tense moments of choice that need fast reactions, and the puzzles are all relatively simple. The puzzles included are for the purpose of enhancing the story and how Andreas will interact with the world, and not as a challenge for the player.
In talking about how
Pentiment is a scaled-down project than what they’ve previously been working on, Kennedy mentioned that the team was the perfect size for what they were going for. The ability to be fast and flexible around allocating tasks to create what’s such a unique game has been a big benefit.
Pentiment had also begun just before covid began, but being such a small team allowed them to remain agile.
Puzzles serve to immerse you in the story, not challenge your wit
Sawyer did mention that while this was a project that he’d been wanting to make for a while, the Microsoft acquisition was the point where he believed he’d have a chance to make it a reality, and part of that was also the benefit of Game Pass. He explained that with the reach they were wanting to get and the flexibility that Microsoft could offer them, now was a perfect time. He mused that there could have been attempts at crowdfunding a project like this in the past, but it wasn’t truly achievable until Game Pass as a platform made sense for it.
Talking about lessons that the team has learned through the development of
Pentiment, Sawyer said that what they take away from this experience will really come down to the reaction that those who play the game have. There are a number of things that Sawyer is hoping that fans walk away from the experience enjoying such as focusing on a single central character and their story arc. While you can still make a log of changes with Andreas, it’s been a more focused writing experience for Sawyer which he has enjoyed and wants to make more content around.
When musing on aspects of
Pentiment that he enjoyed through development and of ideas he might carry forward to future projects, Sawyer noted, "Some of [what we hope to carry forward to future projects] will come down to how people react to [
Pentiment]." before chuckling to himself.
Thinking of the narrative structure of
Pentiment, he did also comment, "This is the first game I've worked on personally where there's a single central character in the narrative [...] but it's about a pre-defined character and their [...] story arc." He immediately followed up by reassuring those of us watching that this isn't for him to say that he’ll never want to work on games where an ensemble cast is a focus, but he’s enjoyed this experience. Kennedy added on with her own favored experiences through development and how the pacing has allowed art elements to be added that might not have been able to with a more traditional Obsidian Entertainment title.
