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Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter


aVENGER_(RR)

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Project Eternity

 

Project Eternity is an isometric, party-based RPG set in a new fantasy world developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

 

Obsidian Entertainment and our legendary game designers Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, and Josh Sawyer are excited to bring you a new role-playing game for the PC. Project Eternity (working title) pays homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.

 

Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.

 

Kickstarter page

Gamebanshee interview

Kotaku interview

 

Looks like the Obsidian developers are finally getting a chance to create a RPG that they always wanted to make. It's essentially a spiritual successor of the Infinity Engine games. Sounds extremely promising.

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Sadly, in this day and age, very few (if any) publishers would back this kind of game (PC only, isometric with 2D backgrounds and 3D characters, original IP, mature themes, limited voice acting etc. ). The big wigs assume that such projects simply wouldn't cut it on today's AAA game market.

 

Crowdfunding takes the edge off and allows the developers to make the game that they want to, without having someone breathing down their neck and questioning every non-mainstream design decision. Also, Obsidian already announced that they intend to make this into a franchise if the first installment does well, so the subsequent games might have a bigger budget.

 

BTW, for what's it's worth, Eternity already gathered over 400k, and that's in less than 5 hours after the Kickstarter announcement was made.

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With the kind of things we're seeing stripped out of RPGs funded by major distributors, like the copy-pasted levels of DA2 or the raw idiocy of ME3's ending, I'm much happier with the notion of a team being funded by the people who want the game, since the major design request they have will be to make it good.

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I have no problem with crowdfounding, more often than not anygiven game that is being develop has some money craver making the big decisions, of course u have a whole team with a chief developer, but above him u have the guys with the money that want more money and thus, they hand a big paper sheet with all that the "will be big game" need to have in order to be a big seller (or that's the intention anyway). AAA's like modern warfare to say one, have big money inversted on to double it or triple it, for them is a bussines after all, and as a bussines, money is what counts. Sad to say, but true.

 

If some guys that love games (make them and play them), find a way to create not only the kind of game they're dreaming of, but the ppl is waiting for, I say that's just right.

 

So a BIG YES from me to a crowdfounding

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While that's all true, you're saying a big company like Obsidian can't afford a 1 mio investment? They could easily self-publish without crowdfunding (I have no gripe with crowdfunding per-se). In the end it looks to me like they don't really believe in their supposed labour of love and that's what is disappointing about it.

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I think they could have probably funded the game themselves, but that would have been a fairly risky venture. If it didn't sell as well as planned, Obsidian would probably go broke.

 

With crowdfunding, they also get a pretty accurate estimate about how many people would buy this kind of game. This can be used as a benchmark for future endeavors too. In any case, it is less dangerous than pooling the majority of the company's resources into a single project and risking bankruptcy.

 

P.S.

 

The Kickstarter for Project Eternity has reached over 850k in less than 24 hours! That's pretty amazing. If the trend continues, they will probably be fully funded by the end of the weekend.

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Also these guys are seasoned professionals, so while many of the Kickstarter projects that pop up often fizzle into obscurity, it is much more likely we will actually see this being developed. They will probably hit their target figure before the weekend is through...or even by the end of today...

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And it's officially funded! Obsidian has managed to raise 1.1 million dollars in just one and a half days.

 

If they create some good stretch goals (i.e. modding toolkit, Linux and Mac versions, bigger gameworld, foreign language localization... etc.) there's a good chance that they will gather at least 3 million by the end of the Kickstarter.

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FYI, Josh Sawyer just posted a big update outlining the basic premise of the game. A lot of interesting stuff there, here are a few tidbits:

 

  • 6 person party confirmed (PC + 5 companions, as seen in the IE games)
  • companions are optional (you can solo the game if you are so inclined)
  • party formations are in (again IE style) and you can even customize them
  • three classic races humans, elves and dwarves + subraces are in (more will come with additional funding)
  • main story focused on the protagonist (like Planescape Torment)

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Sure sounds that way, but the fact that they went the crowdfunding route completely disappoints me.

What...? Excuse me but how in the bloody nine hells does this disappoint you? They're taking the publishers out of the equation which can only mean good things when it comes to creative control. Its not even a question of a bigger budget because this game would not be funded with the traditional module.

 

What would you suggest they do?

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Fund at least part of it themselves (f.e. like charity drives) and/or not use pretty ridiculous (stretch) goals?

 

I partially agree with lynx and I'll say the same thing I said over at SHS. Obsidian has spent the last nearly 10 years bragging about how they are a AAA studio with AAA games. It's great that they are making this game and it's sure to be fun but it seems a bit hypocritical for a supposed AAA studio to turn around and claim they are just a regular ol' indie studio...one of the good guys...our pals...etc etc etc.

 

It's very possible they have invested some of their own money into this - I honestly haven't been following the backers themselves that closely. :)

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I think they could have probably funded the game themselves, but that would have been a fairly risky venture. If it didn't sell as well as planned, Obsidian would probably go broke.

 

@theacefes/lynx

What aVENGER_(RR) said. If publishers won't fund such games nowadays, there's only the indie route left. Moreover, all this talk about funding it themselves leaves out several facts, those being:

- not every studio is Blizzard or Valve

- Obsidian had to lay off 20-30 staff recently, due to a project cancellation

 

I partially agree with lynx and I'll say the same thing I said over at SHS. Obsidian has spent the last nearly 10 years bragging about how they are a AAA studio with AAA games. It's great that they are making this game and it's sure to be fun but it seems a bit hypocritical for a supposed AAA studio to turn around and claim they are just a regular ol' indie studio...one of the good guys...our pals...etc etc etc.

 

Just because you're a studio producing AAA games under contract doesn't mean that you've got enough money lying around to establish a new ip - costly - or do it with gameplay perceived by big name publishers to be a deadend/unprofitable.

 

And just in case someone mentions that Obsidian's games are buggier than those from other developers:

- QA is the job of publishers and due to Obsidian always doing contract work they've always got the short end of the stick. Especially if a publisher decides, that he absolutely has to change the deadline from sometime next year to the holiday season, just to grab the perceived benefits of the customer's christmas spending sprees (Lucas Arts with KOTOR 2).

- Every game has bugs, but some developers have enough perceived customer credibility that those bugs are looked at through rose-tinted glasses. Be it Blizzards's supposedly bug-free games which still manage to get into double-figure numbers for patches, or Bioware with all those unfixed bugs present in every game of them (BG1&2, ME1,2 and probably 3).

 

This kickstarter is in a way Obsidian's crossroads. They finally get the opportunity to prove everyone of their detractors wrong if they manage to deliver a nearly bug-free game. That only applies to those who haven't played Dungeon Siege 3, as that game already had that.

Additionally, they get the opportunity to create their very own game, with all intellectual property rights belonging to them, which would strengthen their position in future contract negotiations and furthermore enable them to be more independent of publishers.

If it doesn't pan out they've got a problem with their fans and very likely future publisher negotiations.

 

10th

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