Grape_You_In_the_Mouth
Arcane
Hey everyone, I'm trudging through the beginning Kickstarter comments for Project Eternity/Pillars of Eternity and making a crude txt file of the dialogue between backers and Feargus Urquhart. I'll edit this post as I go but if you want to search for yourself, try this:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...rnity/comments?cursor=1404308#comment-1404307 and use the top or bottom button to get more. You can change the comment number at the end of the link to start far earlier/later in the comment line. I haven't tried looking at the source html code to see if maybe all the comments are in there already but I doubt it as it seems to load data every time you press a button for more comments.
I search for "Obsidian Entertainment on Sept" to go to the next sage Feargus comment.
For Science,
Grape_You_in_the_Mouth
=======================================================
Sept 20th (Roughly)
Sept 19th (Roughly)
Sept 18th (Roughly)
Sept 17th & 16th
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...rnity/comments?cursor=1404308#comment-1404307 and use the top or bottom button to get more. You can change the comment number at the end of the link to start far earlier/later in the comment line. I haven't tried looking at the source html code to see if maybe all the comments are in there already but I doubt it as it seems to load data every time you press a button for more comments.
I search for "Obsidian Entertainment on Sept" to go to the next sage Feargus comment.
For Science,
Grape_You_in_the_Mouth
=======================================================
Sept 20th (Roughly)
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
I'm off to bed everyone. I will be on a bit more during the day tomorrow. Josh should have another good
update as well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Wow, no jokes about the trunk of the car from Fallout 2, huh? I am getting old. So @Pofski, what I'm talking
about is that how we implemented the car you could get in Fallout 2 was that it was actually treated like a
companion. However, it's programming told it that it wasn't too follow you other than to park on the map
that you just loaded into. The actual part of it that as the companion was the trunk (boot). Unfortunately,
there were situations where it wouldn't get the message that it shouldn't follow you. So, you are happily
going down into a Vault and right behind you is your the trusty trunk (boot) of your car.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Someone is going to jump in with a joke about the trunk from the car aren't they?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
I do have one rule here in the Obsidian Kickstarter Comment/Chat - "you" must be used instead of "u".
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@QuiZZer That box won't be sold at retail, so we will just be putting in our cost.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Bjorn The best way to get a job at a developer is to call them up and ask if they are looking or could you
talk to someone about getting a job as a insert department (artist, designer, programmer, producer, QA,
audio, animation). There is a very good chance that someone will talk to you or at least they will e-mail
you.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Bjorn It depends. If we are looking for someone in a position that requires experience - then yes. But, we
hire a lot of people out of college and while they are in college. I am having lunch with someone on Friday
gong to college locally to see about having him come work for us.
Bjørn Flindt Temte on September 20, 2012
@OE: How does one go about getting a job with you guys? Is it the classical 5+ years of experience, must
have worked on a metacritic 85+ AAA game?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Pofski You are very welcome. And, always feel you can ask us questions. Most people in the game industry
are actually very approachable.
Pofski -Phoenix of the Obsidian Order on September 20, 2012
@Obsidian
Seeing as this will probably be the one and only chance I will ever get to directly speak to somebody who
developed such wonderfull games, I would just like to say thank you.
They where wonderfull and will for years and years to come still give me fantastic memories.
I know you guys will not disappoint.
Again, thank you.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Balzeron We talked about it a lot and he just didn't feel it fit.
Baneling1 128.small
Balzeron on September 20, 2012
@Andrea
They're also working out a digital release with gog.com (Good Old Gaming), and there might be more in the
future, but who knows.
@Feargus
How could Steve be against the vault boy? They're glorious and hilarious, I used to keep a vault boy bobble
head in my office in Iraq.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet So, Steve and I talked for a long time. I thought at one point we had come to a compromise, but
he felt different the next morning (which I can understand) and we had to agree to disagree. That meant
pulling GURPs and the rest, as they say, is history.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet So, Steve and I talked for a long time. I thought at one point we had come to a compromise, but
he felt different the next morning (which I can understand) and we had to agree to disagree. That meant
pulling GURPs and the rest, as they say, is history.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet It ended up being a couple of things. Steve did not like the violence of the opening movie where
one of the soldiers in power armor executes someone - he felt it was too reminiscent of a photo from
Vietnam. I didn't disagree with him, since that was what we were trying to do there. The second thing he
didn't like was the Pip Boy / Vault Boy / Monopoly Character. He felt it didn't fit GURPS. While we (Tim,
Brian and I) we could potentially compromise on the shooting, we just didn't understand about the Vault Boy.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet Well I was the guy doing the negotiation with Steve Jackson. So I might have some insight.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
There's a question
I keep seeing that Fallout ended up not using GURPS because it was "too violent" to be licensed then I've
seen things that say that's not the case. Does anyone have a clear, 100% answer to what happened to make
that fall through?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Kelly Thanks for the suggestion, it's a good one.
Kelly Costanza, OOoE's Faceless Lord on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
I hope I'm not the only person here to remember Freedom Force. Well, with the second Freedom Force I kinda
sketchily remember it being closer of a sub-cultural non store release, kinda close to it being a Pre-
Kickstarter self-publishing deal. The special bonus you got for ordering from the guys directly so they
could produce more copies for mainstream was a signed bit of original concept art / character studies by the
original concept artist.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of the undead hero that was a cross between Ghost Rider and Rorschach from
Watchmen, and the concept art had old character sketches of variant (rejected) masks. I still have it framed
as one of my most precious possessions.
Since you have a game that will have a LOT of concept art for world building, race evolution, and character
design, perhaps you could offer a new tier including the gift of some authentic mid-process design art? It
would be possible to ship these in normal manilla envelopes with a cardboard backing, so it would save on
shipping costs, and be no where near as fragile or hard to get as a miniature. It also has a richer history
if a date and quick note on the sketch's purpose / nature was included, either on a contained card or a
corner of the sketch itself.
It would be like an art book, except one page each for a hundred people. Though a hard cover art book may
also be nice, but more expensive to produce and ship.
I'm sure you guys already have an idea of how many concept design sketches your art department produces over
the course of an IE game and it's design, so you could offer it as a limited offering tier.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Or that Fallout was almost called Aftermath?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Looking at Blackspace and M.O.R.E - might go board/card game again - I'm a sucker for those.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
I've been trying to back a project a day as thanks for all the support we have been getting. Anybody have a
suggestion for today?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Anaeme Chaining them to their desks helps a lot. I think that a lot of us have worked together for so long
because we love making Role-Playing Games and it's always been important to me to tell people the truth.
When your people trust you, they stay with you.
Anaeme on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
As mentioned in your video, Obsidian has managed to accumulate top talent over the years. The big question
for me is how have you managed to keep them for so long without other companies trying to poach them?
The also are highly motivated it seems
Johnny Vraek on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
Any talk with the developers about multi-player? I bring it up because I'm interested in the result,
personally it doesn't matter as long as the single player experience is the focus.
Fb profile picture.small
Vervain: Obsidian Order Warlord Prince on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
You should do it the way that the Reaper guys did their tiers. Pay whatever shipping is highest, your tiers'
shipping or the seperate shipping for the item.
That or list two prices, $20 for the $65 and above or $25 for the digital tiers. Obviously my pricing is
just an example.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Sylrissa Pressure taken. And it should be, you are all trusting us to do something awesome and it's our
responsibility to do that. Ok, that sounded a little preachy - but you all know what I mean
Sylrissa Tormented Siren on September 20, 2012
I don't want this done any sooner then when it is finished, "it'll be out when it's done, and not before"
springs to mind.
Maybe I'm going little overboard, but I would hope that this game will become some beloved to be some childs
IWD/BG or planescape: torment in the future. Just as those games were for us growing up.
No pressure OE <3
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Well one of my long time friends from high school, who might have been he lead designer on a game
you probably all loved has been making card and board games for the last 10 years or so......
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
So we can expect a board game as well?
Andrew We definitely appreciate that.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Andrew That's a good point. We could have one price for Digital Tiers and another for not. Well then there
is International Shipping on top of that.... Maybe I need a publisher.
Vervain: Obsidian Order Warlord Prince on September 20, 2012
@Feargus. First of all, your name is awesome. Definitely not one you see very often.
I think offering a customised art print as part of a backer reward would be pretty cool. Basically picking a
race, subrace and class that will be offered in the game and getting a piece of art based on it, signed or
otherwise. At least, I know I'd like it, especially if it was to be a part of the $500 tier that I'm already
paying for.
Seriously though, art prints/posters are amazing, relatively cheap to produce and are a massive pull for a
lot of backers. Just ask Doublefine and Stoic.
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
@Feargus,
One thing that can get people to increase their pledge amounts a lot is add-ons. Do you guys have plans for
more? I've seen some campaigns with up to 3 t-shirt designs where people could add-on a shirt or shirts.
I've seen card decks as add-ons, mini figs, posters, print versions of books (rather than pdfs), dice
sets... Perhaps you could offer the cloth map as an add-on, and/or the patch (or patches).
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
@Feargus,
One thing that can get people to increase their pledge amounts a lot is add-ons. Do you guys have plans for
more? I've seen some campaigns with up to 3 t-shirt designs where people could add-on a shirt or shirts.
I've seen card decks as add-ons, mini figs, posters, print versions of books (rather than pdfs), dice
sets... Perhaps you could offer the cloth map as an add-on, and/or the patch (or patches).
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Absolutely. After Kickstarter and the game is farther into development, we really want to look at
what we can do with the world.
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
Bioware published some Dragon Age novels when they originally launched their game. Have you ever thought
about merchandising Project Eternity to some extent?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet Wheel of Time.... We do have a relationship with Red Eagle Games, however we are not actively
working on a game for them. While we have talked a lot in the last three years or so, no work has every been
done.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@OE
This is a little off of the usual. But what about the Wheel of Time game? According to The Wiki you'll be
finishing South Park and you still have Wheel of Time going on next year. Is that even still a thing? If yes
is that goign to cause any problems with staffing for three games?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Anaeme The quick answer is I don't think so. We want to have about 18 months as of now to finish the game
and we don't want to rush it.
Anaeme on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
Is it possible the game can show up earlier than 2014?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Don't worry about it all. Anything on the internet is fair game.
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
I feel partly responsible asking Feargus the question about publishers. It seems to be blown way out of
proportion.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet What I said was true, but, to be honest, I'm not sure what I want people to take away from it.
Should Kickstarter not allow publishers to use it - no, that's not really fair. And, I think that any great
project which could be funded by Kickstarter should be funded.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet I wasn't expecting it to make it's way to the whole internet.
I'm off to bed everyone. I will be on a bit more during the day tomorrow. Josh should have another good
update as well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Wow, no jokes about the trunk of the car from Fallout 2, huh? I am getting old. So @Pofski, what I'm talking
about is that how we implemented the car you could get in Fallout 2 was that it was actually treated like a
companion. However, it's programming told it that it wasn't too follow you other than to park on the map
that you just loaded into. The actual part of it that as the companion was the trunk (boot). Unfortunately,
there were situations where it wouldn't get the message that it shouldn't follow you. So, you are happily
going down into a Vault and right behind you is your the trusty trunk (boot) of your car.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Someone is going to jump in with a joke about the trunk from the car aren't they?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
I do have one rule here in the Obsidian Kickstarter Comment/Chat - "you" must be used instead of "u".
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@QuiZZer That box won't be sold at retail, so we will just be putting in our cost.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Bjorn The best way to get a job at a developer is to call them up and ask if they are looking or could you
talk to someone about getting a job as a insert department (artist, designer, programmer, producer, QA,
audio, animation). There is a very good chance that someone will talk to you or at least they will e-mail
you.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Bjorn It depends. If we are looking for someone in a position that requires experience - then yes. But, we
hire a lot of people out of college and while they are in college. I am having lunch with someone on Friday
gong to college locally to see about having him come work for us.
Bjørn Flindt Temte on September 20, 2012
@OE: How does one go about getting a job with you guys? Is it the classical 5+ years of experience, must
have worked on a metacritic 85+ AAA game?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Pofski You are very welcome. And, always feel you can ask us questions. Most people in the game industry
are actually very approachable.
Pofski -Phoenix of the Obsidian Order on September 20, 2012
@Obsidian
Seeing as this will probably be the one and only chance I will ever get to directly speak to somebody who
developed such wonderfull games, I would just like to say thank you.
They where wonderfull and will for years and years to come still give me fantastic memories.
I know you guys will not disappoint.
Again, thank you.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Balzeron We talked about it a lot and he just didn't feel it fit.
Baneling1 128.small
Balzeron on September 20, 2012
@Andrea
They're also working out a digital release with gog.com (Good Old Gaming), and there might be more in the
future, but who knows.
@Feargus
How could Steve be against the vault boy? They're glorious and hilarious, I used to keep a vault boy bobble
head in my office in Iraq.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet So, Steve and I talked for a long time. I thought at one point we had come to a compromise, but
he felt different the next morning (which I can understand) and we had to agree to disagree. That meant
pulling GURPs and the rest, as they say, is history.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet So, Steve and I talked for a long time. I thought at one point we had come to a compromise, but
he felt different the next morning (which I can understand) and we had to agree to disagree. That meant
pulling GURPs and the rest, as they say, is history.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet It ended up being a couple of things. Steve did not like the violence of the opening movie where
one of the soldiers in power armor executes someone - he felt it was too reminiscent of a photo from
Vietnam. I didn't disagree with him, since that was what we were trying to do there. The second thing he
didn't like was the Pip Boy / Vault Boy / Monopoly Character. He felt it didn't fit GURPS. While we (Tim,
Brian and I) we could potentially compromise on the shooting, we just didn't understand about the Vault Boy.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet Well I was the guy doing the negotiation with Steve Jackson. So I might have some insight.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
There's a question
I keep seeing that Fallout ended up not using GURPS because it was "too violent" to be licensed then I've
seen things that say that's not the case. Does anyone have a clear, 100% answer to what happened to make
that fall through?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Kelly Thanks for the suggestion, it's a good one.
Kelly Costanza, OOoE's Faceless Lord on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
I hope I'm not the only person here to remember Freedom Force. Well, with the second Freedom Force I kinda
sketchily remember it being closer of a sub-cultural non store release, kinda close to it being a Pre-
Kickstarter self-publishing deal. The special bonus you got for ordering from the guys directly so they
could produce more copies for mainstream was a signed bit of original concept art / character studies by the
original concept artist.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of the undead hero that was a cross between Ghost Rider and Rorschach from
Watchmen, and the concept art had old character sketches of variant (rejected) masks. I still have it framed
as one of my most precious possessions.
Since you have a game that will have a LOT of concept art for world building, race evolution, and character
design, perhaps you could offer a new tier including the gift of some authentic mid-process design art? It
would be possible to ship these in normal manilla envelopes with a cardboard backing, so it would save on
shipping costs, and be no where near as fragile or hard to get as a miniature. It also has a richer history
if a date and quick note on the sketch's purpose / nature was included, either on a contained card or a
corner of the sketch itself.
It would be like an art book, except one page each for a hundred people. Though a hard cover art book may
also be nice, but more expensive to produce and ship.
I'm sure you guys already have an idea of how many concept design sketches your art department produces over
the course of an IE game and it's design, so you could offer it as a limited offering tier.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Or that Fallout was almost called Aftermath?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Looking at Blackspace and M.O.R.E - might go board/card game again - I'm a sucker for those.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
I've been trying to back a project a day as thanks for all the support we have been getting. Anybody have a
suggestion for today?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Anaeme Chaining them to their desks helps a lot. I think that a lot of us have worked together for so long
because we love making Role-Playing Games and it's always been important to me to tell people the truth.
When your people trust you, they stay with you.
Anaeme on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
As mentioned in your video, Obsidian has managed to accumulate top talent over the years. The big question
for me is how have you managed to keep them for so long without other companies trying to poach them?
The also are highly motivated it seems
Johnny Vraek on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
Any talk with the developers about multi-player? I bring it up because I'm interested in the result,
personally it doesn't matter as long as the single player experience is the focus.
Fb profile picture.small
Vervain: Obsidian Order Warlord Prince on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
You should do it the way that the Reaper guys did their tiers. Pay whatever shipping is highest, your tiers'
shipping or the seperate shipping for the item.
That or list two prices, $20 for the $65 and above or $25 for the digital tiers. Obviously my pricing is
just an example.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Sylrissa Pressure taken.
And it should be, you are all trusting us to do something awesome and it's ourresponsibility to do that. Ok, that sounded a little preachy - but you all know what I mean
Sylrissa Tormented Siren on September 20, 2012
I don't want this done any sooner then when it is finished, "it'll be out when it's done, and not before"
springs to mind.
Maybe I'm going little overboard, but I would hope that this game will become some beloved to be some childs
IWD/BG or planescape: torment in the future. Just as those games were for us growing up.
No pressure OE <3
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Well one of my long time friends from high school, who might have been he lead designer on a game
you probably all loved has been making card and board games for the last 10 years or so......
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
So we can expect a board game as well?
Andrew We definitely appreciate that.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Andrew That's a good point. We could have one price for Digital Tiers and another for not. Well then there
is International Shipping on top of that.... Maybe I need a publisher.
Vervain: Obsidian Order Warlord Prince on September 20, 2012
@Feargus. First of all, your name is awesome. Definitely not one you see very often.
I think offering a customised art print as part of a backer reward would be pretty cool. Basically picking a
race, subrace and class that will be offered in the game and getting a piece of art based on it, signed or
otherwise. At least, I know I'd like it, especially if it was to be a part of the $500 tier that I'm already
paying for.
Seriously though, art prints/posters are amazing, relatively cheap to produce and are a massive pull for a
lot of backers. Just ask Doublefine and Stoic.
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
@Feargus,
One thing that can get people to increase their pledge amounts a lot is add-ons. Do you guys have plans for
more? I've seen some campaigns with up to 3 t-shirt designs where people could add-on a shirt or shirts.
I've seen card decks as add-ons, mini figs, posters, print versions of books (rather than pdfs), dice
sets... Perhaps you could offer the cloth map as an add-on, and/or the patch (or patches).
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
@Feargus,
One thing that can get people to increase their pledge amounts a lot is add-ons. Do you guys have plans for
more? I've seen some campaigns with up to 3 t-shirt designs where people could add-on a shirt or shirts.
I've seen card decks as add-ons, mini figs, posters, print versions of books (rather than pdfs), dice
sets... Perhaps you could offer the cloth map as an add-on, and/or the patch (or patches).
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Absolutely. After Kickstarter and the game is farther into development, we really want to look at
what we can do with the world.
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
@Feargus
Bioware published some Dragon Age novels when they originally launched their game. Have you ever thought
about merchandising Project Eternity to some extent?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet Wheel of Time.... We do have a relationship with Red Eagle Games, however we are not actively
working on a game for them. While we have talked a lot in the last three years or so, no work has every been
done.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@OE
This is a little off of the usual. But what about the Wheel of Time game? According to The Wiki you'll be
finishing South Park and you still have Wheel of Time going on next year. Is that even still a thing? If yes
is that goign to cause any problems with staffing for three games?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Anaeme The quick answer is I don't think so. We want to have about 18 months as of now to finish the game
and we don't want to rush it.
Anaeme on September 20, 2012
@ Feargus
Is it possible the game can show up earlier than 2014?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Steven Don't worry about it all. Anything on the internet is fair game.
Steven Cameron on September 20, 2012
I feel partly responsible asking Feargus the question about publishers. It seems to be blown way out of
proportion.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet What I said was true, but, to be honest, I'm not sure what I want people to take away from it.
Should Kickstarter not allow publishers to use it - no, that's not really fair. And, I think that any great
project which could be funded by Kickstarter should be funded.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet I wasn't expecting it to make it's way to the whole internet.
Sept 19th (Roughly)
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Damien We will be earning money from sales of the game at the time, so on top of already planning to make
sure we will have people to update the game - we will have sales to support it as well.
Damien on September 20, 2012
You rock Obsidian. NWN2 is one of my wife & I's favourite games.
Anyway, a question: Once the game is released will you still be supporting the game with patches for bug
fixes? Patching would cost money to implement, I assume, so where would that money come from if the
Kickstarter funds are used up?
Have a great day all.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Raedwulf Understood. We are trying to figure it out.
Raedwulf, the grave robber on September 20, 2012
@Obsidian
Well, translating isn't cheap. On the other hand, you will loose funds from backers or would-be-backers who
do not speak english very well.
For example, I'll probably reduce my pledge if we do not get local language support just because the
additional digital download copies become worthless for me, as neither family nor friends speak english
well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Kramerica We are amazingly happy. We loved making games like that and having the chance to do it again is
awesome. As for a second wind for the company / industry - I think this is helping create a second model.
It's not a model that will replace the making of all games, but one that will allow the making of games like
this.
Kramerica on September 20, 2012
How does Obsidian feel about the positive reception for this project?
Is it like a second wind for the company and for the industry?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Andrew That is a pretty cool graphic and we have been checking out Bones and Dwarven Armies (?) as well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Ailia You might have read our minds.
Ailia on September 20, 2012
A digital beta tier below $140 would probably get quite a few people to pledge more.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Bruce While I can't go into details, we have a solution. We just can't announce it.
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
Hey Feargus,
Any word yet on DRM-free support for Mac people? A Humble Store, perhaps?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Hurri I spent about 3.5 hours with the journalist. He is thinking of splitting it into three or four
interviews. I don't have an ETA yet, but it sounded like he wanted to get it up soon.
Hurri on September 20, 2012
@OE How did that first in-person Press interview go? Can we expect to see it online soon? (If I didn't miss
it)
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet I have been getting a lot of questions as well and, unfortunately, I don't have answers yet.
Translating potentially 400K words is not something that is going to come cheap.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@OE
I've seen a lot of questions today about multi-language support, do you have any more information about that
yet?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Rodatam Absolutely and we should have something up soon. I'll be honest, re-working the stretch goals has
been a real challenge. We've look at lot at Reaper: Bones and saw what they did - but we don't have 931
miniatures to give away, so it makes our stretch goals harder. I think we are coming up with some great
ideas that we will be able to share soon.
Rodatam on September 20, 2012
Hello Feargus and good night!!
You guys should do a graphical version of the stretch goals and how close we are to achieving them, like the
guys at planetary annihilation did, people will get even more engaged with that =]
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Laurent We are thinking about an AMA early next week. We have a lot of stuff planned over the next few days
and want to make sure we keep some semblance of order.
Laurent Dumont on September 19, 2012
You guys should consider an Obsidian AMA on Reddit. Could easily reach the front page and bring a ton of
exposure.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Hopefully I won't get quoted for what I say tonight!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Hi Everyone, Feargus here, getting in here late tonight and probably only around an hour. I'll be here a lot
more tomorrow (or rather on Sep 20).
======================================
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Letting everyone know we will be a little silent in the comments section for the next few hours.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
We could talk about BOOYAH!
LordCrash - OD | OOoE | WoOS on September 19, 2012
Stop talking about ouya! This comment section should be about PE!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Goodnight everyone, need to be up in 6AM (5 hours from now) to do a little coordination with an
announcement. Should be a fun day tomorrow! Oh, and we are going to have the first person from the press to
visit us in person to talk about Project Eternity. Thanks for all the support!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Floyd I agree. My worry is where does the FTC start to get involved.
Nameless Knightshark on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
It would help if we'd have a similar system as Kickstarter, or even an upgrade to Kickstarter. But i see the
legal issues of course. The point would be that gamers would be the investors. I feel much more comfortable
making risk investments with some smaller part of my savings in a particular game that in some stocks. It's
simply a question of competence.Sure, this is not suitable to raise AAA funds, but it could double the
kickstarter money if say 1000 backers invest $1000+.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
John Exactly the model that Josh is going for - well the latter and not the former.
John Zammit on September 19, 2012
@Obsidian:
Sorry if this has been asked already but can you make sure there are some options in terms of healers. I am
specifically thinking of Dragon Age where there was only really one obvious option for a healer if you
didn't make your main character one and she could be killed off before you got them in your party (as a mate
of mine did). Have you considered a more distributed healer model where healing is more a responsibility on
a per character basis as opposed to a specific class role?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Floyd I think there is a possibility there, however the atmosphere for VC has been pretty bad over the last
few years. Also, games still feel like voodoo to a lot of people. I do think it will get better.
Nameless Knightshark on September 19, 2012
@ Obsidian/Feargus
A quick question. So we have the two models, publishers and kickstarter. What about the intermediate case to
fund slighly bigger projects, say $10M+. Aren't there possibilities to get additional funding via something
like venture capital where i can invest money and participate in the economic success/failure of the game?
This could make much sense for projects which target audience consists mainly of employed persons.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Peter That would be $123.6M please.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
And a nice new Latest News header on the main page.
Peter on September 19, 2012
@Obsidian: Can we get 50 factions in the game then?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Charles Factions and shades of gray - that's what it is all about.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Ross You got me tonight - Feargus. We are really not sure about the modding side of things yet. We will try
to have more information out about that before the end of the campaign.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Dablue We are thinking more like BG2, with the caveat that exploration is important so we are making sure
the areas have plenty of open-ness about them.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Wes I have to admit that I have totally forgotten what Dimension Door did in IWD. And I'm the guy who
converted almost all the spells in IWD to the 3E versions for IWD2.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Anaeme For a developer, it means you are not only working to make a game - which is hard. But, you have to
be able to work through all of the politics of your publisher. I know somethings have been said publicly by
us about Bethesda, however they are not political. They are still human, but they work very hard to make
games the focus and not the rest of the BS.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Anaeme That's a whole host of questions. The best way I can answer it is that in actuality, almost everyone
I know at publisher is a great person. Heck, I was at a publisher for almost 12 years. The challenge for the
publishers is that they have a bunch of different departments that all have different goals and as a whole
they have a huge overhead (hundreds / thousands of people and office space) that they have to pay for every
day. So, that creates infighting and the success of one group comes at the expense of another.
Anaeme on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
Is there a chance the game will show up earlier than 2014?
What will it take to make that happen - Stretch Goal?
Goon.small
Anaeme on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
What is the most difficult issue developers have to deal with when Publishers are in the picture?
Imposed deadlines?
Creative independence?
Refusal to pay developers?
What is the most problematic issue
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@fredgiblet I think they were trying, honestly, to be able to do something with us and they felt that was
the easiest way to do it. They would then not need to go get budget approved and deal with the challenge of
that. What I don't think they did was to think about our side of it and what they were really asking.
fredgiblet on September 19, 2012
@OE
Do you think they honestly thought is was a good deal for you or do you think they were hoping you were
dumb?
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Steven As for games like this, I think they will consider it, however so many of them support traditional
distribution and sales forces that it's hard for them to consider games that would only ship digitally. It
then gets pushed to their digital divisions, who have very small budgets (less than $500K).
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Steven We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a
Kickstarter. I said to them "So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the
Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don't get to keep the brand we
make and we only get a portion of the profits" They said, "Yes".
Steven Cameron on September 19, 2012
I meant to clarify, publishers don't mind losing money if devs go direct to Kickstarter, since they wouldn't
have funded these games anyway. Which doesn't seem to make business sense if they could make money from thse
games.
Steven Cameron on September 19, 2012
@ Feargus
With the popularity of Project Eternity, Wasteland 2, Double-Fine, etc. Do you think Publishers might look
at making games like these or are they too far gone?
It seems the publishers aim at multi-platform games which includes the console market. These Kickstarter
projects show there's a huge interest with PC gaming. Or is this market just too niche for the Publishers to
look at, so they're not concerned at losing money with these games?
@Damien We will be earning money from sales of the game at the time, so on top of already planning to make
sure we will have people to update the game - we will have sales to support it as well.
Damien on September 20, 2012
You rock Obsidian. NWN2 is one of my wife & I's favourite games.
Anyway, a question: Once the game is released will you still be supporting the game with patches for bug
fixes? Patching would cost money to implement, I assume, so where would that money come from if the
Kickstarter funds are used up?
Have a great day all.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Raedwulf Understood. We are trying to figure it out.
Raedwulf, the grave robber on September 20, 2012
@Obsidian
Well, translating isn't cheap. On the other hand, you will loose funds from backers or would-be-backers who
do not speak english very well.
For example, I'll probably reduce my pledge if we do not get local language support just because the
additional digital download copies become worthless for me, as neither family nor friends speak english
well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Kramerica We are amazingly happy. We loved making games like that and having the chance to do it again is
awesome. As for a second wind for the company / industry - I think this is helping create a second model.
It's not a model that will replace the making of all games, but one that will allow the making of games like
this.
Kramerica on September 20, 2012
How does Obsidian feel about the positive reception for this project?
Is it like a second wind for the company and for the industry?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
Andrew That is a pretty cool graphic and we have been checking out Bones and Dwarven Armies (?) as well.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Ailia You might have read our minds.
Ailia on September 20, 2012
A digital beta tier below $140 would probably get quite a few people to pledge more.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Bruce While I can't go into details, we have a solution. We just can't announce it.
BruceP - Sheriff of Phoenix Rising on September 20, 2012
Hey Feargus,
Any word yet on DRM-free support for Mac people? A Humble Store, perhaps?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Hurri I spent about 3.5 hours with the journalist. He is thinking of splitting it into three or four
interviews. I don't have an ETA yet, but it sounded like he wanted to get it up soon.
Hurri on September 20, 2012
@OE How did that first in-person Press interview go? Can we expect to see it online soon? (If I didn't miss
it)
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@fredgiblet I have been getting a lot of questions as well and, unfortunately, I don't have answers yet.
Translating potentially 400K words is not something that is going to come cheap.
fredgiblet on September 20, 2012
@OE
I've seen a lot of questions today about multi-language support, do you have any more information about that
yet?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 20, 2012
@Rodatam Absolutely and we should have something up soon. I'll be honest, re-working the stretch goals has
been a real challenge. We've look at lot at Reaper: Bones and saw what they did - but we don't have 931
miniatures to give away, so it makes our stretch goals harder. I think we are coming up with some great
ideas that we will be able to share soon.
Rodatam on September 20, 2012
Hello Feargus and good night!!
You guys should do a graphical version of the stretch goals and how close we are to achieving them, like the
guys at planetary annihilation did, people will get even more engaged with that =]
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Laurent We are thinking about an AMA early next week. We have a lot of stuff planned over the next few days
and want to make sure we keep some semblance of order.
Laurent Dumont on September 19, 2012
You guys should consider an Obsidian AMA on Reddit. Could easily reach the front page and bring a ton of
exposure.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Hopefully I won't get quoted for what I say tonight!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Hi Everyone, Feargus here, getting in here late tonight and probably only around an hour. I'll be here a lot
more tomorrow (or rather on Sep 20).
======================================
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Letting everyone know we will be a little silent in the comments section for the next few hours.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
We could talk about BOOYAH!
LordCrash - OD | OOoE | WoOS on September 19, 2012
Stop talking about ouya! This comment section should be about PE!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Goodnight everyone, need to be up in 6AM (5 hours from now) to do a little coordination with an
announcement. Should be a fun day tomorrow! Oh, and we are going to have the first person from the press to
visit us in person to talk about Project Eternity. Thanks for all the support!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Floyd I agree. My worry is where does the FTC start to get involved.
Nameless Knightshark on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
It would help if we'd have a similar system as Kickstarter, or even an upgrade to Kickstarter. But i see the
legal issues of course. The point would be that gamers would be the investors. I feel much more comfortable
making risk investments with some smaller part of my savings in a particular game that in some stocks. It's
simply a question of competence.Sure, this is not suitable to raise AAA funds, but it could double the
kickstarter money if say 1000 backers invest $1000+.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
John Exactly the model that Josh is going for - well the latter and not the former.
John Zammit on September 19, 2012
@Obsidian:
Sorry if this has been asked already but can you make sure there are some options in terms of healers. I am
specifically thinking of Dragon Age where there was only really one obvious option for a healer if you
didn't make your main character one and she could be killed off before you got them in your party (as a mate
of mine did). Have you considered a more distributed healer model where healing is more a responsibility on
a per character basis as opposed to a specific class role?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Floyd I think there is a possibility there, however the atmosphere for VC has been pretty bad over the last
few years. Also, games still feel like voodoo to a lot of people. I do think it will get better.
Nameless Knightshark on September 19, 2012
@ Obsidian/Feargus
A quick question. So we have the two models, publishers and kickstarter. What about the intermediate case to
fund slighly bigger projects, say $10M+. Aren't there possibilities to get additional funding via something
like venture capital where i can invest money and participate in the economic success/failure of the game?
This could make much sense for projects which target audience consists mainly of employed persons.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Peter That would be $123.6M please.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
And a nice new Latest News header on the main page.
Peter on September 19, 2012
@Obsidian: Can we get 50 factions in the game then?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Charles Factions and shades of gray - that's what it is all about.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Ross You got me tonight - Feargus. We are really not sure about the modding side of things yet. We will try
to have more information out about that before the end of the campaign.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Dablue We are thinking more like BG2, with the caveat that exploration is important so we are making sure
the areas have plenty of open-ness about them.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Wes I have to admit that I have totally forgotten what Dimension Door did in IWD. And I'm the guy who
converted almost all the spells in IWD to the 3E versions for IWD2.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Anaeme For a developer, it means you are not only working to make a game - which is hard. But, you have to
be able to work through all of the politics of your publisher. I know somethings have been said publicly by
us about Bethesda, however they are not political. They are still human, but they work very hard to make
games the focus and not the rest of the BS.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Anaeme That's a whole host of questions. The best way I can answer it is that in actuality, almost everyone
I know at publisher is a great person. Heck, I was at a publisher for almost 12 years. The challenge for the
publishers is that they have a bunch of different departments that all have different goals and as a whole
they have a huge overhead (hundreds / thousands of people and office space) that they have to pay for every
day. So, that creates infighting and the success of one group comes at the expense of another.
Anaeme on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
Is there a chance the game will show up earlier than 2014?
What will it take to make that happen - Stretch Goal?
Goon.small
Anaeme on September 19, 2012
@Feargus
What is the most difficult issue developers have to deal with when Publishers are in the picture?
Imposed deadlines?
Creative independence?
Refusal to pay developers?
What is the most problematic issue
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@fredgiblet I think they were trying, honestly, to be able to do something with us and they felt that was
the easiest way to do it. They would then not need to go get budget approved and deal with the challenge of
that. What I don't think they did was to think about our side of it and what they were really asking.
fredgiblet on September 19, 2012
@OE
Do you think they honestly thought is was a good deal for you or do you think they were hoping you were
dumb?
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Steven As for games like this, I think they will consider it, however so many of them support traditional
distribution and sales forces that it's hard for them to consider games that would only ship digitally. It
then gets pushed to their digital divisions, who have very small budgets (less than $500K).
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
Steven We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a
Kickstarter. I said to them "So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the
Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don't get to keep the brand we
make and we only get a portion of the profits" They said, "Yes".
Steven Cameron on September 19, 2012
I meant to clarify, publishers don't mind losing money if devs go direct to Kickstarter, since they wouldn't
have funded these games anyway. Which doesn't seem to make business sense if they could make money from thse
games.
Steven Cameron on September 19, 2012
@ Feargus
With the popularity of Project Eternity, Wasteland 2, Double-Fine, etc. Do you think Publishers might look
at making games like these or are they too far gone?
It seems the publishers aim at multi-platform games which includes the console market. These Kickstarter
projects show there's a huge interest with PC gaming. Or is this market just too niche for the Publishers to
look at, so they're not concerned at losing money with these games?
Sept 18th (Roughly)
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Lukasz Absolutely on the price, we have gotten a lot of requests in messages about having a medium priced
digital tier ($55-ish) and a higher one (~$80-ish). Actually we've gotten requests for ones over $100 as
well. Trying to listen and figure out how to make them all make sense and be worth it.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Raufgar Socks?
Raufgar on September 18, 2012
@Calvin, your comment, funny as it was, brings to mind The Golden Pantaloons and other weird misc items that
we can pick up in the BG series.
@Feargus, can we reasonably expect to see some outlandish, over the top items to grace our Inventory Screens
in PE? I vote for socks. You can never go wrong with a good pair of socks :D
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
matthew The Bioware Edmonton studio is very much alive and there are still people there from back in the
BG1 and BG2 days.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Dablue Special histories are what we did in the IWD games, in particular, where we wrote unique histories
for the cool, more unique items that you can find in the game.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad I can tell you personally what I think of romances. I like them when they are subtle and, this may
sound strange, but when I can ignore them. That's personal preference.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad Sorry!!! Totally meant to respond and got sidetracked. Rob (Art Director) just sent me over some new
header art for updates. So romances. We are talking about them and seeing how we want to handle them. That's
not a great answer I know. I do think that if we get another writer on board that we are talking right now
(maybe an announcement soon on that) we will be able to talk about them more.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Anaeme We spent a good amount of time talking about how we want to do a stretch goals. We really hope to
have something up in the next day or two. However, we have a ton of updates planned on top of that
throughout the week - we just zeroed in on the schedule.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@fredgiblet Too early to tel, but we are story guys, so I'm sure there will be at least some flair in there.
fredgiblet on September 18, 2012
@OE
It's probably to early to tell at this point, but are you planning on making the collector's book a
straightforward info dump, or more story-like like the manual to Arcanum? The manual for Arcanum was
awesome.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
If I miss your question (I'm bouncing between things) don't hesitate to send a message.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
We have spent a lot of time talking about being careful with adding in-game elements to the higher tiers and
leaving them out of the lower tiers. For instance, we had thought about recording twice the voice sets we
planned and then offering those in the CE. Regular versions would get the original amount. A lot of people
at OE felt that would be frowned on.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Sam Our goal would be more sublime with evil. I don't know if I've every actually used sublime and meant it
before. Josh and Avellone are great writers and believe in portraying evil in an interesting way rather
than the knocking grandma down and taking her money rather than helping across the street way. However,
there can be a place for that here and there as well.
@Ronnie Keller - Totally get you and the "role" part of Role Playing is about getting to be someone you are
not. So I think we will have your getting to play evil handled.
Ronnie - Vanguard of the Obsidian Order (deleted) on September 18, 2012
@Feargus
I didn`t mean being bad in a psychopatic kind of way. Being able to be taking-over-the-world-evil would be
fine with me. Playing good characters is rewarding, but sometimes it`s nice to be the opposite. Then it`s
real roleplaying.
Roxane Tourigny on September 18, 2012
Well, getting away from the publishers seems to be a very harmful process especially in the butt area, isn't
it?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Angus The games are pretty different. Skyrim is really a first person RPG that feels a little like GTA. The
IE games are more about tactical combat and story. Now when it comes to lots of characters and deep RPG
systems - they have more in common.
Angus S on September 18, 2012
@Feargus as i have never played any of the games you guys have said you guys have made (i know they are
great games though) is this game along the lines of a kinda skyrim feel??? or is there another direction you
guys are trying to take
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Adam We would love to make multiple games and we are pretty sure that the first PE game will be a success.
So, what we will probably do is launch another Kickstarter after PE is finished to fund the sequel. Getting
to move away from publishers is, well, it's hard to explain...
Dwarven%20avatar17.small
Adam Ridgway on September 18, 2012
@Feargus,
I loved how BG was really an epic story stretched over two games and two expansions. I also loved being able
to take my character from the goblin clubbing longbeard to the daemon destroying dwarven annihilator he was
by the end of Throne of Bhaal.
Is that something you would consider replicating for Eternity? i.e multiple games
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Ronnie Keller - Absolutely on the endings, we love doing them that way. As for really evil - that's hard to
answer. I don't know if we will go to cutting up children and storing them in your freezer level - but we
will let you be pretty not nice person.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
If I could ask a question for everyone. We are working on a Digital Only Tier that is between the $65 and
$100 mark. Anyone have any suggestions for things to add in there? [This wouldn't be the only one]
Ronnie - Vanguard of the Obsidian Order (deleted) on September 18, 2012
@Feargus
Will it be possible to play a really evil character and to finish the game with him? Most of the times
because of storytelling it is not possible to play the real bad guys. Will there be many different endings
for the game?
And please finish the game in an epic BG2 like way. I love to read about the rest of the lives about my
characters.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@fredgiblet We were looking at their page earlier and Tim Cain has some friends at Uber, who he was chatting
back and forth with today.
fredgiblet on September 18, 2012
@OE
There's been a few people asking for PA-style multi-key pledges
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad Josh was the guy who got the whole deity system put into NWN2, so it's important to him.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Thank you everyone. You are awesome!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
40K Backers! Rollin, rollin, rollin!
@Lukasz Absolutely on the price, we have gotten a lot of requests in messages about having a medium priced
digital tier ($55-ish) and a higher one (~$80-ish). Actually we've gotten requests for ones over $100 as
well. Trying to listen and figure out how to make them all make sense and be worth it.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Raufgar Socks?
Raufgar on September 18, 2012
@Calvin, your comment, funny as it was, brings to mind The Golden Pantaloons and other weird misc items that
we can pick up in the BG series.
@Feargus, can we reasonably expect to see some outlandish, over the top items to grace our Inventory Screens
in PE? I vote for socks. You can never go wrong with a good pair of socks :D
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
matthew The Bioware Edmonton studio is very much alive and there are still people there from back in the
BG1 and BG2 days.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 19, 2012
@Dablue Special histories are what we did in the IWD games, in particular, where we wrote unique histories
for the cool, more unique items that you can find in the game.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad I can tell you personally what I think of romances. I like them when they are subtle and, this may
sound strange, but when I can ignore them. That's personal preference.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad Sorry!!! Totally meant to respond and got sidetracked. Rob (Art Director) just sent me over some new
header art for updates. So romances. We are talking about them and seeing how we want to handle them. That's
not a great answer I know. I do think that if we get another writer on board that we are talking right now
(maybe an announcement soon on that) we will be able to talk about them more.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Anaeme
We spent a good amount of time talking about how we want to do a stretch goals. We really hope tohave something up in the next day or two. However, we have a ton of updates planned on top of that
throughout the week - we just zeroed in on the schedule.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@fredgiblet Too early to tel, but we are story guys, so I'm sure there will be at least some flair in there.
fredgiblet on September 18, 2012
@OE
It's probably to early to tell at this point, but are you planning on making the collector's book a
straightforward info dump, or more story-like like the manual to Arcanum? The manual for Arcanum was
awesome.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
If I miss your question (I'm bouncing between things) don't hesitate to send a message.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
We have spent a lot of time talking about being careful with adding in-game elements to the higher tiers and
leaving them out of the lower tiers. For instance, we had thought about recording twice the voice sets we
planned and then offering those in the CE. Regular versions would get the original amount. A lot of people
at OE felt that would be frowned on.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Sam Our goal would be more sublime with evil. I don't know if I've every actually used sublime and meant it
before.
Josh and Avellone are great writers and believe in portraying evil in an interesting way ratherthan the knocking grandma down and taking her money rather than helping across the street way. However,
there can be a place for that here and there as well.
@Ronnie Keller - Totally get you and the "role" part of Role Playing is about getting to be someone you are
not. So I think we will have your getting to play evil handled.
Ronnie - Vanguard of the Obsidian Order (deleted) on September 18, 2012
@Feargus
I didn`t mean being bad in a psychopatic kind of way. Being able to be taking-over-the-world-evil would be
fine with me. Playing good characters is rewarding, but sometimes it`s nice to be the opposite. Then it`s
real roleplaying.
Roxane Tourigny on September 18, 2012
Well, getting away from the publishers seems to be a very harmful process especially in the butt area, isn't
it?
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Angus The games are pretty different. Skyrim is really a first person RPG that feels a little like GTA. The
IE games are more about tactical combat and story. Now when it comes to lots of characters and deep RPG
systems - they have more in common.
Angus S on September 18, 2012
@Feargus as i have never played any of the games you guys have said you guys have made (i know they are
great games though) is this game along the lines of a kinda skyrim feel??? or is there another direction you
guys are trying to take
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Adam We would love to make multiple games and we are pretty sure that the first PE game will be a success.
So, what we will probably do is launch another Kickstarter after PE is finished to fund the sequel. Getting
to move away from publishers is, well, it's hard to explain...
Dwarven%20avatar17.small
Adam Ridgway on September 18, 2012
@Feargus,
I loved how BG was really an epic story stretched over two games and two expansions. I also loved being able
to take my character from the goblin clubbing longbeard to the daemon destroying dwarven annihilator he was
by the end of Throne of Bhaal.
Is that something you would consider replicating for Eternity? i.e multiple games
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Ronnie Keller - Absolutely on the endings, we love doing them that way. As for really evil - that's hard to
answer. I don't know if we will go to cutting up children and storing them in your freezer level - but we
will let you be pretty not nice person.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
If I could ask a question for everyone. We are working on a Digital Only Tier that is between the $65 and
$100 mark. Anyone have any suggestions for things to add in there? [This wouldn't be the only one]
Ronnie - Vanguard of the Obsidian Order (deleted) on September 18, 2012
@Feargus
Will it be possible to play a really evil character and to finish the game with him? Most of the times
because of storytelling it is not possible to play the real bad guys. Will there be many different endings
for the game?
And please finish the game in an epic BG2 like way. I love to read about the rest of the lives about my
characters.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@fredgiblet We were looking at their page earlier and Tim Cain has some friends at Uber, who he was chatting
back and forth with today.
fredgiblet on September 18, 2012
@OE
There's been a few people asking for PA-style multi-key pledges
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
@Chad Josh was the guy who got the whole deity system put into NWN2, so it's important to him.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
Thank you everyone. You are awesome!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 18, 2012
40K Backers! Rollin, rollin, rollin!
Sept 17th & 16th
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Bruce Nope, sorry - nothing on the engine just yet.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@elaner I've known the CDProjekt guys for a long time - so I'm biased. More seriously, and this is going to
sound lame, but I really do just like RPGs. Witcher 1 and 2 were good, but I also enjoyed the Mass Effects
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
doshu My preference is to always have a moving world - but one without time limits like the one in Fallout
1. Oh the 150 day limit ( think that was what it was). Someone's great idea that wasn't exactly communicated
to everyone.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Anaeme We have been talking about it for about two and a half years. I talk a bit about it in the
Gamebanshee interview, where Jon asked me why we didn't make a more traditional RPG instead of all the big
console games. I didn't have a great answer for him and it got me thinking. From there we started tossing
ideas around. Then when Double Fine and inXile did so well, we thought - why not us?
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
Hi everyone - I will try to answer questions as they come up. However, I'm working to get through all the
private messages as well. And, also getting through my InBox of 600 e-mails. I know, poor Feargus. What I
wanted to say is, if you don't get your questions answered, please send a message.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
To be honest it has been a while since I've played WoW. I do jump back in every once in a while though. More
recently I finished Mass Effect 3 about a month ago, been playing a bit more Skyrim (trying a mage) and
played a few hours of Dragon's Dogma weekend before last.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
On the dwarves comments - I'm actually one of the traditionalists. That's me speaking personally. I usually
always play dwarves - D&D, WoW, LotR (PnP), etc...
Dwarven%20avatar17.small
Adam Ridgway on September 17, 2012
And canes and tops hats, if possible.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
Orcs and monocles huh?
==============================================
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
I'm off to bed, but we will have more updates tomorrow. And, more details when I can wring them out of the
designers. Thanks again for all the support! -Feargus
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Dablue Hoping to release more specific info soon. I'm only the CEO and telling designers to release things
isn't always in my power.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Indoclone That's the plan - all the way.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Indoclone That's the plan - all the way.
Indoclone on September 17, 2012
@Obsidian, I owned all your games despite the bad and good reviews. This time there is no publisher to blame
if the game comes out mediocre, so please proof those reviewers wrong. Make us proud as old school RPG
supporters.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
I think you'll find that this game will get tested very well. We control the testing this time around and we
are not going to ship until the game is solid.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
@SFG - Hard to explain in a comment, but I'll try. A port of the game depends on the what the technology you
are using already supports. It still means interface art, testing and a bunch of other things - but if the
technology is already there it is much more incremental. A new race can be very complicated, for instance
something like a gnome which doesn't use a human ratio of proportions can cause a lot of work - all new
animations, all new art and you have to deal with things like whether you make a whole new set of weapons
that work correctly for them. A short bow might work fine for larger people, but a short bow for a gnome
might not. Things like that.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Thanks for all the support everyone. After answering messages for the past seven hours, I am going to get
some food. Possibly even pudding.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Free pudding?
Crabby on September 16, 2012
I demand free healthcare.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Pudding is good.
fredgiblet on September 16, 2012
@Chad
Yodeling nude while smearing myself with pudding IS my best behavior!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Hi everyone - I've been going through all the messages people have been sending. Great to see everyone's
thoughts and we have been talking a lot more about the stretch goals as well.
@Bruce Nope, sorry - nothing on the engine just yet.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@elaner I've known the CDProjekt guys for a long time - so I'm biased. More seriously, and this is going to
sound lame, but I really do just like RPGs. Witcher 1 and 2 were good, but I also enjoyed the Mass Effects
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
doshu My preference is to always have a moving world - but one without time limits like the one in Fallout
1. Oh the 150 day limit ( think that was what it was). Someone's great idea that wasn't exactly communicated
to everyone.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Anaeme We have been talking about it for about two and a half years. I talk a bit about it in the
Gamebanshee interview, where Jon asked me why we didn't make a more traditional RPG instead of all the big
console games. I didn't have a great answer for him and it got me thinking. From there we started tossing
ideas around. Then when Double Fine and inXile did so well, we thought - why not us?
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
Hi everyone - I will try to answer questions as they come up. However, I'm working to get through all the
private messages as well. And, also getting through my InBox of 600 e-mails. I know, poor Feargus.
What Iwanted to say is, if you don't get your questions answered, please send a message.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
To be honest it has been a while since I've played WoW. I do jump back in every once in a while though. More
recently I finished Mass Effect 3 about a month ago, been playing a bit more Skyrim (trying a mage) and
played a few hours of Dragon's Dogma weekend before last.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
On the dwarves comments - I'm actually one of the traditionalists. That's me speaking personally. I usually
always play dwarves - D&D, WoW, LotR (PnP), etc...
Dwarven%20avatar17.small
Adam Ridgway on September 17, 2012
And canes and tops hats, if possible.
Obsidian logo ks.small
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
Orcs and monocles huh?
==============================================
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
I'm off to bed, but we will have more updates tomorrow. And, more details when I can wring them out of the
designers.
Thanks again for all the support! -FeargusCreator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Dablue Hoping to release more specific info soon. I'm only the CEO and telling designers to release things
isn't always in my power.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Indoclone That's the plan - all the way.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
@Indoclone That's the plan - all the way.
Indoclone on September 17, 2012
@Obsidian, I owned all your games despite the bad and good reviews. This time there is no publisher to blame
if the game comes out mediocre, so please proof those reviewers wrong. Make us proud as old school RPG
supporters.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 17, 2012
I think you'll find that this game will get tested very well. We control the testing this time around and we
are not going to ship until the game is solid.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
@SFG - Hard to explain in a comment, but I'll try. A port of the game depends on the what the technology you
are using already supports. It still means interface art, testing and a bunch of other things - but if the
technology is already there it is much more incremental. A new race can be very complicated, for instance
something like a gnome which doesn't use a human ratio of proportions can cause a lot of work - all new
animations, all new art and you have to deal with things like whether you make a whole new set of weapons
that work correctly for them. A short bow might work fine for larger people, but a short bow for a gnome
might not. Things like that.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Thanks for all the support everyone. After answering messages for the past seven hours, I am going to get
some food. Possibly even pudding.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Free pudding?
Crabby on September 16, 2012
I demand free healthcare.
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Pudding is good.
fredgiblet on September 16, 2012
@Chad
Yodeling nude while smearing myself with pudding IS my best behavior!
Creator Obsidian Entertainment on September 16, 2012
Hi everyone - I've been going through all the messages people have been sending. Great to see everyone's
thoughts and we have been talking a lot more about the stretch goals as well.
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