Urthor
Prophet
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
- Messages
- 1,875
...beta was so unstable, it left a sour first taste.
By September 2014, it had dawned on most of the Pillars of Eternity team that shipping that year would be difficult. It wasn’t just the backer beta; the whole game needed more work. Obsidian needed to polish, to optimize, to spend more time zapping bugs and making sure that every area of the game felt both interesting and fun to play. “Everyone’s looking at each other: ‘No. We’re not even near this. We’re just not there yet,’” said Justin Bell, the audio director. “You have to be able to play from the beginning of the game all the way to the end and feel like it’s a total experience, and that just was not even close to being the case.” Adam Brennecke and Josh Sawyer asked Feargus Urquhart for a meeting.
Over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, one of Urquhart’s favorite haunts, Brennecke and Sawyer explained that trying to release the game in November would be a disaster. The team needed more time.
Yes, they were out of Kickstarter money and would now have to dip into Obsidian’s own funds, but for a game like Pillars of Eternity—Obsidian’s most important game to date—the extra investment felt necessary. Urquhart argued against it, but Brennecke and Sawyer were persistent. In their minds, the choice was already made.
“Feargus sat Josh and me down,” Brennecke said. “He said, ‘If this game does not come out in March, you guys are both gone after this project.’” Recalling the pressure, Brennecke could only laugh. “OK, we’ll get it done.”
Schreier, Jason. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made
tl;dr I could write more but book quote says it best. Fergus and the Cheesecake factory is not an association that surprises me in the slightest given his shape.