Development Info More on Obsidian's cancelled and unproduced projects at Eurogamer

[Flou]

Independent studio could have as many as 20+ projects in conceptual development with 1-3 people on each.

That doesn't mean significiant resources were dedicated to it or that it had anything to do with any layoffs which was the point AD was making.

It could be a very cool project and Jason's work on it could be awesome -- but that doesn't mean it had any impact on the arc of OEI's existence.

80% of the things game developers have worked on the public has never even heard about.

Most games are cancelled before they really get started. That's all.

I didn't mean it had a significant effect on Obsidian. Just wanted to point out at that Jason worked on his pitch for some time.

 

[MLMarkland]

Just wanted to point out at that Jason worked

 

[Nano]

Curiosity sated.

 

[Infinitron]

Anthony Davis badler MLMarkland FYI

 

[Sentinel]

I volunteered my time to help Obsidian close up some projects with the promise that I would get the rest of the rights to the story of BackSpace. That never happened.

wow, scumbag move tbh.

 

[Roguey]

wow, scumbag move tbh.

Feargus gives as much as he gets.

 

[MRY]

This reminds me of a sad/funny bit at the end of my tenure with TimeGate. Management proposed a competition where anyone could pitch game ideas, the CEO, President, and Design VP would review, and some number (five?) would then be concepted out, with one eventually being developed. Any that were rejected would get detailed feedback to help folks understand how game pitches should work, design approaches, etc., etc. The caveat being that the company got ownership of all the pitches, which is a pretty standard thing to prevent the submarine infringement claim that often comes when pitches are declined (i.e., ten years later studio independently comes up with similar idea, it's a big hit, original pitcher sues for infringement; happens with movies all the time).

Being young and naive, I pitched like three different ideas (each a ~10 single-spaced design doc). But TimeGate then didn't even review any of the pitches as best I can tell, never gave any feedback to me (or anyone else, I don't think?). As far as I know, those pitches all just got thrown away -- the idea was meant as a morale boost, not an idea theft, but the workload wound up too great to justify it or something. But from a legal standpoint, I've always figured I couldn't pursue those ideas any longer. It's really too bad, as they'd been things I'd been interested in for years, my favorite being a space-colony-gone-wrong King of Dragon Pass idea called Project Canaan (I think?). Now some random creditor owns the ideas, I guess.

 

[Anthony Davis]

This reminds me of a sad/funny bit at the end of my tenure with TimeGate. Management proposed a competition where anyone could pitch game ideas, the CEO, President, and Design VP would review, and some number (five?) would then be concepted out, with one eventually being developed. Any that were rejected would get detailed feedback to help folks understand how game pitches should work, design approaches, etc., etc. The caveat being that the company got ownership of all the pitches, which is a pretty standard thing to prevent the submarine infringement claim that often comes when pitches are declined (i.e., ten years later studio independently comes up with similar idea, it's a big hit, original pitcher sues for infringement; happens with movies all the time).

Being young and naive, I pitched like three different ideas (each a ~10 single-spaced design doc). But TimeGate then didn't even review any of the pitches as best I can tell, never gave any feedback to me (or anyone else, I don't think?). As far as I know, those pitches all just got thrown away -- the idea was meant as a morale boost, not an idea theft, but the workload wound up too great to justify it or something. But from a legal standpoint, I've always figured I couldn't pursue those ideas any longer. It's really too bad, as they'd been things I'd been interested in for years, my favorite being a space-colony-gone-wrong King of Dragon Pass idea called Project Canaan (I think?). Now some random creditor owns the ideas, I guess.

I remember that from my time at TimeGate too. That's how Minimum got started, and that mobile space game about orbiting planets. Not once were they interested in returning to Kohan, which was a shame.

You probably don't want to dox yourself here, but message me or something.

 

[Flou]

I volunteered my time to help Obsidian close up some projects with the promise that I would get the rest of the rights to the story of BackSpace. That never happened.

wow, scumbag move tbh.

Looking at the timeline, what would those projects actually be that he helped out to close up. Obsidian didn't ship anything in 2012 when Fader was fired due to Stormlands cancellation. If he helped out on some project pitches wasn't he kinda doing it to keep his job?

 

[Sentinel]

I volunteered my time to help Obsidian close up some projects with the promise that I would get the rest of the rights to the story of BackSpace. That never happened.

wow, scumbag move tbh.

Looking at the timeline, what would those projects actually be that he helped out to close up. Obsidian didn't ship anything in 2012 when Fader was fired due to Stormlands cancellation. If he helped out on some project pitches wasn't he kinda doing it to keep his job?

Seems like he was working under the promise of keeping the rights to his game pitch. One of the most important things that my dad taught me growing up was that, no matter what happens, if I give my word and promise something to someone, I ought to keep that promise. I've always done so and I avoid making promises as much as I can unless I'm certain I'm not going to disappoint. With that in mind, and assuming what is written in that e-mail is true, it kinda irks me that the dude got screwed over when he was promised something.

 

[Flou]

Seems like he was working under the promise of keeping the rights to his game pitch. One of the most important things that my dad taught me growing up was that, no matter what happens, if I give my word and promise something to someone, I ought to keep that promise. I've always done so and I avoid making promises as much as I can unless I'm certain I'm not going to disappoint. With that in mind, and assuming what is written in that e-mail is true, it kinda irks me that the dude got screwed over when he was promised something.

I agree. Promises are important to keep, but then again in my line of duty I get lied to bunch of times every fucking day I'm in contact with people.
I just think there's two sides to that story and it would seem weird that Fader wasn't interested in keeping his job if one of the pitches moved forward that he helped to "close up". Because other than those pitches, there was only South Park at Obsidian during that time and it wasn't even nearly close to being "closed up".

 

[Nano]

We still don't know what the shelved Project Rhode Island was. Maybe that should factor into the calculation.

And I'm not sure what you're on about him 'keeping his job' - he was laid off and then volunteered for them in an attempt to get all the rights to Backspace.

 

[Flou]

We still don't know what the shelved Project Rhode Island was. Maybe that should factor into the calculation.

And I'm not sure what you're on about him 'keeping his job' - he was laid off and then volunteered for them in an attempt to get all the rights to Backspace.

How would Project Rhode Island come into play in this scenario?

If that pitch he helped on, gets picked up by a publisher it means Obsidian needs to hire staff -> Fader most likely would get hired back along with many of the people affected by the Stormlands cancellation if he was available that is.
It's really not a surprise though that he didn't get the story rights. If you look at the state Obsidian was at that time. It's not a time they can hand out potential projects to former employees especially if they were using or thinking about using parts of Backspace in one of their pitches.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Of course. Heads should have rolled if Prey 2 passed and Arkane still hadn't been given a major AAA title. Why bother acquiring them if you aren't intending to give them these sort of projects? Sure, if you're EA you're doing it for it for shits and giggles, and so your HR department can enjoy their Friday bets on which newly redundant staff-member will cry first, but that's a fairly unique profit strategy.