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Glassdoor Reviews

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
- Great devs, you’ll love your core team minus a director or two and most of the company owners
I wonder who the minus part could be referring to...

If this is an ex-AW guy, then the project director he's hating on is Richard Taylor, another guy who's been hogging a much-desired "project director" position (he also did Dungeon Siege III).

Yes, but the irony is that I got the impression that the recent changes regarding this issue (e.g., puting Patel as a lead narrative) were motivated by this kind of absurd feedback.

Occam's razor suggests she received that position because she's the most experienced Pillars of Eternity writer they have on the project. Nothing shady there.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,165
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I thought Patel wrote the Council of Stars quest.

If so, she is the natural pick for lead narrative designer, as that is the sort of thing Pillars of Eternity should be about.
 
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
1,301
Grab the Codex by the pussy
The more detailed list is on Obsidian's forum:
  • Josh Sawyer - Game Director and Lead Narrative Designer
  • Carrie Patel - Narrative Designer
  • Paul Kirsch - Narrative Designer
  • Megan Starks - Narrative Designer
  • Kate Dollarhyde - Junior Narrative Designer
  • Eric Fenstermaker - Narrative Design / Contract Writer
  • Tony Evans - Writer
  • Bobby Null - Lead Designer
  • Dave Williams - Lead System Designer
  • Jorge Salgado - Area Designer
  • Jeff Husges - Area designer
  • Nick Carver - Junior Designer
  • Matthew Perez - Designer
  • Olivia Veras - Designer (Area Design and Writer)
  • John Cotto - Designer ( Area? Intern?)
  • Brian Heins - Senior Designer
  • Robert Nesler - Art Director
  • Dimitri Berman - Lead Character Artist
  • James Chea - Character Artist
  • Ian Randall - Junior Character Artist
  • Sean Dunny - Lead Environment Artist
  • Demi Warren - Environment Artist
  • April Giron - Environment Artist
  • Hector Ezpinoza - Environment Artist
  • Kelvin Nakamura - Environment Artist
  • Kazunori Aruga - Lead Artist
  • Lindsey Laney - Artist
  • Mitch Loidolt - Artist
  • Aaron Dubois - Senior VFX Artist
  • John Lewis - VFX Artist
  • James Melili - Effects/VFX Artist
  • Matt Hansen - 2D Artist
  • Br Guthrie - Concept Artist
  • Shon Stewart - Lead Animator
  • Antonio Govela - Senior Animator
  • Amor Santos - Gameplay Animator
  • Nina Huynh - Technical Animator
  • Seth McCaughey - Senior Animator
  • Zachary Spurlock - Junior Animator
  • Adam Brennecke - Executive Producer & Lead Programmer
  • Roby Atadero - Programming
  • Brian Macintosh - Programming
  • Kyle Swaim - Senior Tools Programmer
  • Tim Truesdale - Senior Graphics Programmer
  • Justin Britch - Lead Producer
  • Katrina Garsten - Associate Producer
  • Alec Frey - Associate Producer
  • Justin Bell - Audio Director
  • Zachary Simon - Sound Designer
  • Adam Lehwald - Junior Sound Designer
  • Robert Thayer - Audio Design Intern
  • Andy Artz - Quality Assurance Engineer
  • Kevin Bellardi - Quality Assurance Analyst
  • Steven King - Quality Assurance Lead
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,761
That's PoE 1? Regardless, you can't promote people that aren't around anymore. Fence Marker isn't there.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
If so, she is the natural pick for lead narrative designer, as that is the sort of thing Pillars of Eternity should be about.
I don't disagree as long as she or anyone else at Obsidian never ever write Durance. I looked at the banters she wrote for him between the barbarian and the rogue for the White March and it was awful. She didn't get his voice at all, and Fenstermaker and Sawyer thinking that was "good enough" is proof that no one there should be allowed to touch an Avellone character, they just can't do it.

Edit: I had forgotten that Fenstermaker wrote all of Durance's banters and interjections in the base game which I enjoyed quite a bit (interesting to note: that's largely where all the humor comes from, Avellone's Durance is really dour), however my point still stands considering he's not a full-time employee and he still rubberstamped Patel in the White March.

The other main writers are Carrie Patel and Olivia Veras.

Olivia pulls double duty as an area designer, so she already has more than enough to do as is. Plus while Kana wasn't bad, he wasn't exactly great either.

Additionally, you two are having a misunderstanding. Fenstermaker is a contracted writer, he isn't an official full time Obsidian employee. No time for being a lead, just Eder.
 
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Cross

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Messages
2,983
- Great devs, you’ll love your core team minus a director or two and most of the company owners
I wonder who the minus part could be referring to...

If this is an ex-AW guy, then the project director he's hating on is Richard Taylor, another guy who's been hogging a much-desired "project director" position (he also did Dungeon Siege III).
Obsidian quit working on Armored Warfare more than a year ago, and the time for disgruntled employee reviews would have been then. That particular review is from 23 March 2018, just a few weeks ago. Gee, I wonder if Obsidian currently has a game that's about to release and would be letting go of unneeded staff as development winds down.

Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised you would leap to Sawyer's defense so desperately.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
Obsidian quit working on Armored Warfare more than a year ago, and the time for disgruntled employee reviews would have been then. That particular review is from 23 March 2018, just a few weeks ago. Gee, I wonder if Obsidian currently has a game that's about to release and would be letting go of unneeded staff as development winds down.

Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised you would leap to Sawyer's defense so desperately.
It is way too early for Deadfire layoffs. They're crunching away.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
I thought the whole point of planned DLC was so the studio wouldn't lay off all the staff the instant the game was done
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
Not to mention that, as an Obsidian game, Deadfire is going to need all hands on deck for several months after release for the patches
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
Feeling pretty confident all the "wah they won't listen to MY ideas and they ignore MY talent and MY genius and instead promote their idiot friends *stomps feet*" is just Millennial whining. Josh once mentioned at badgame that Obsidian once hired a Millennial who hit every single stereotype on the checklist, so there's probably more where he came from.

t. Millennial of course
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
The more detailed list is on Obsidian's forum:

This is just the PoE2 team - Obsidian has many more people. Most are working on Cain & Boyarsky's game, a few others on stuff we don't know about yet.

That very recent layoff might indeed be due to the PoE2 team winding down somewhat, but really it could be anything or anybody.
 

badler

Obsidian Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jun 3, 2014
Messages
127
Obviously, I can't really talk about these kinds of things without getting myself in trouble. So... no.

That said, I found it interesting that one of the reviews used my move from production into design as some type of knock against the company. I can guarantee that person never actually asked me why I made the switch. I'm pretty sure nobody else has moved out of production and into another role.
 

Keppo

Arbiter
Joined
May 15, 2015
Messages
385
Location
Internet
Glassdoor is cancer. Even if some of these reviews are from actual developers, they are still probably 50/50 with troll reviews, u cant except objective review from bitter worker who was kicked out, or left... Its never Black and White situation, and there is bigger possibility that bitter worker will want to shit on previous company on internet anonimously, than dev who left on good terms who dont care about writing positive reviews on internet about his previous company. So you dont have even good comparison. Developers can easily find out about company with few phones with actual people, non anonymous faggots, its not big industry.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,165
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Nah, it's Urquhart and Parker, made all too public during the Project Eternity livestream.

Wouldn't be surprised if Fergie puts a lot of blame on him for Avellone's departure. He would be partially correct.
Parker was primarily responsible for the mess that was Alpha Protocol. If he still call the shots, he is causing a lot of problems.

That's a pathetic amount of cuckoldry/self-serving-give-me-a-job-because-I'm-a-woman crap in the Obsidian reviews. As well as so many people jealous that Josh Sawyer gets to be project director/lead designer so many times. :smug:.
Yes, but the irony is that I got the impression that the recent changes regarding this issue (e.g., puting Patel as a lead narrative) are motivated by this kind of absurd feedback. I think that Sawyer recent change of tone about traditional design was also motivated about the moronic "abandon the 90s design and get on with the times" criticism.

Fairly understandable. Infinity Engine + other 90s RPGs died out partly because people were sick of them (sure, hundreds of thousands of people weren't -- the same 250k people who went and bought Arcanum or the Throne of Bhaal). Josh Sawyer was sick of making them (Icewind Dale II was sort of his final word on the subject) as were most of the other developers (including Tim Cain) to varying extents.

As currently constituted, this style of game makes it extremely difficult to balance combat driven gameplay (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale) with interactive role playing driven gameplay (Planescape: Torment). Combat systems will always override role playing systems or the reverse, rendering each other superficial.
 
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Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
Patron
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
3,152
Location
Jamrock District
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Obviously, I can't really talk about these kinds of things without getting myself in trouble. So... no.

That said, I found it interesting that one of the reviews used my move from production into design as some type of knock against the company. I can guarantee that person never actually asked me why I made the switch. I'm pretty sure nobody else has moved out of production and into another role.

When the Obsidian story is made into a major motion picture or prestige cable drama, do you think Dan Harmon would make a good Feargus (imagine him without the beard)?

gettyimages-546723370-1e10c047-ca05-40a6-95e0-115164201d9e.jpg
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
Fairly understandable. Infinity Engine + other 90s RPGs died out partly because people were sick of them (sure, hundreds of thousands of people weren't -- the same 250k people who went and bought Arcanum or the Throne of Bhaal). Josh Sawyer was sick of making them (Icewind Dale II was sort of his final word on the subject) as were most of the other developers (including Tim Cain) to varying extents.

Josh didn't want to make yet another linear combat crawl, but he was disappointed that The Black Hound and then Fallout 3 were canceled. It wasn't that sales decreased on these things, but as Josh put it back in 2010

It is hard for me to penetrate the inscrutable minds of publishers, but I'll give it a shot. Many publishers are publicly traded. They are primarily interested in two categories of games, both of which generate a large return on investment (ROI): big budget/big sellers and shovelware. ROI is what matters, because ultimately they answer to a sea of faceless, uncaring investors who want their $4/share investment to turn into $100/share in two quarters. Absolutely everything else is subordinate to that. Everything.

The "lovingly-crafted mid-budget niche game" doesn't fit into most publisher strategies. For the same reasons that they are considered niche games, they must be marketed in a different way, pitched to retailers in a different way, and most publishers don't want to deal with it.

The exceptions to this trend may include digital distribution only, since retailers/cost of goods are out of the picture, and platforms where the hardware is relatively low tech (cell phones/Nintendo DS/Sony PSP, etc.).
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
Obviously, I can't really talk about these kinds of things without getting myself in trouble. So... no.

That said, I found it interesting that one of the reviews used my move from production into design as some type of knock against the company. I can guarantee that person never actually asked me why I made the switch. I'm pretty sure nobody else has moved out of production and into another role.
Personally I was joking, Infinitron or someone did the "mention your name with a link to get your attention" thing, and I thought it was funny in context. Obviously it would be insane to actually expect you to seriously comment on it
 

Fedora Master

Arcane
Patron
Edgy
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
27,819
Turns out numales and dangerhairs don't make good coworkers.
 

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