El usuario mindx2 de RPG Codex realizó una entrevista en la PAX East a los chicos de Obsidian, entre otros desarrolladores. Dejo la entrevista con Obsidian en el spoiler, pero recomiendo su lectura completa:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9818
También han hecho un AMA en Reddit, contestando a varias preguntas que mandaron:
http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/2zanll/obsidian_entertainment_ama_answers_are_here/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9818
Spoiler :
After that was over, David escorted me to the ÔÇ£Green RoomÔÇØ next to the presentation theater, and I waited for all the Obsidian groupies to get their pictures taken and their autographs signed (note: by the end of the interview I had done the same thing). Brandon and Adam wandered over to where I was sitting and we exchanged pleasantries. When David told them I was from the RPG Codex, they both laughed and went, ÔÇ£Ahhh!ÔÇØ. In a casual conversation, while we were waiting for the others to come over, I asked about the megadungeon and how much of a drain it had been on the game's budget. I told them that there were some people that were expecting a mini-Icewind Dale, based on how many levels had kept getting added during the Kickstarter. Adam assured me that it was definitely a big dungeon romp, and that he felt they had put enough resources into it so people wouldnÔÇÖt be disappointed. At that point, the other Obsidian guys approached, and we soon had the room to ourselves. As we gathered, Josh asked how the interview was going to flow. Would it be conducted free-for-all or turn-based? Chris said you get interview energy points, earning less if you offer a lackluster response. I must admit that I was pretty darn nervous being around these game development demigods. Tim Cain sat to my right, in the only other chair in the room, while everyone else sat on the floor in a circle. I pulled out my digital voice recorder and asked if they didnÔÇÖt mind if I recorded our conversation. There were no objections, so we began.
Chris actually asked me a question first. His question was whether Crooked Bee was a "taskmaster". I was surprised by that line of inquiry, but replied that the harshest thing I'd ever heard from her was a warning that the editors can be very harsh in their criticism of submitted articles. He looked at me with surprise and said, The Codex has editors?. I replied that it was nothing official, but that content gets critiqued by the moderators. Thats when he said, Ah, I didnt think the Codex was that professional Oh shit, did I just call the Codex unprofessional?! That wont be included will it?. I lied and assured him that they would never know, and began the interview proper, for which Josh told me they were well-prepared, because they'd read the entire PAX East questions thread on our forums.
![[Imagen: 12459_500.jpg]](http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery/12459_500.jpg)
My first question for the Obsidian guys was about what they see as the difference between publisher-funded games and Kickstarter-funded games, and what they've learned or done differently when comparing Pillars to their previous games. I asked them that since theyÔÇÖve gotten screwed in the past, what was their take on things this time around?
Adam Brennecke: In developing it from day one I knew that we werent going to have a publisher involved and that allowed us to reorganize how we do pre-production. I feel that pre-production is the most important part to a games development and you have to figure out your shit and make sure all your stuff is put together. So when you enter production youre just making the game at that point. A lot of times when working with a publisher you have to do a demo at the end of pre-production. A lot of times that can be very we call it the dog and pony show. You have to show stuff that isnt ready to be shown yet. Its very rough and packed together
mindx2:  you have to reach those milestones
Adam: . Yeah it might be a feature in you might do it in production but its not that important to do but its kind of a showy feature. Its not a fundamental building block feature. And one thing we did really well on Pillars is we developed a lot of our core tech and a lot of our core RPG low level systems ahead of time. During pre-production our vertical slice was pretty rough but we all knew, the owners, the leads knew it would be looking rough. That helped a lot. We put a lot of pressure on the team to make sure that we knew how to make the game in production. That was the most important thing that I think helped the development of the game.
mindx2: Not having a publisher breathing down your neck
Adam:  which is huge, just huge. We wouldnt have been able to make a game as huge as it is without a good pre-production.
mindx2: With the success this is looking like, have publishers seen that success? Does it even register on their radar? You can look at MMX or Larians Divinity: Original Sin that was a huge success
Chris Avellone: So the answer to that is that there are certain publishers that see that type and scope of a game to work really well with their portfolio. I think it took Kickstarter to show them that it is financially viable. So, yes we are actually having publishers approaching us to do similar types of games just because of Kickstarter.
mindx2: Speaking of KS, Peter Molyneux has been in the news lately and he went out and admitted that he went into KS not asking for enough money at the start. Is that what Pillars did?
Chris: That he didnÔÇÖt ask for enough to begin?
Adam: His initial asking goal.
Chris: One thing I like about Obsidian is the fact that when we actually do the Kickstarters we try and make sure we ask for the exact amount of money it would take to make the game. I know some people play the KS game and they ask for much lower goals hoping to get much higher because they think those high numbers will scare people off. I think one good thing is we all come from Black Isle and we know what the level of production is going to be needed to actually do the game. We actually did ask for the amount we needed.
Adam: I had to put together a little production plan beforehand.
Chris: That must have been so fun
Adam: Yeah (sarcastically), the 1.1 million we ask for I had to put together a production plan based on that budget and show it to Feargus.
Chris: And Tim [Cain] was the most expensive.
[laughter]
mindx2: ThatÔÇÖs what Paul Neurath [OtherSide Entertainment] told me. At the baseline he could make the game [Underworld Ascendant] but it would be a lean, no bells and whistles game.
Adam: and thats where all the stretch goals came from.
Brandon Adler: What was [our] base game?
Josh Sawyer: Base game was 5 classes, 3 races
Brandon: and it was all the base classes.
Josh: Yeah and just the human, elf and dwarf.
mindx2: So what were you expected out of the backer beta and what did you actually get out of it?
Josh: I was expected pretty close to what we got. Just a ton of feedback all over the place. On everything people cared about. It was mostly to look at what a mid-game feels like to have a big party which is why we started with 4 plus your main character. Diving in to see how the interface feels, how the classes feel, how the UI feels. Obviously, we got a lot of feedback and all that stuff. So we tried to iterate over time and hopefully improve that stuff
mindx2: and that leads into my next question- why did the mechanics change so wildly in the betas?
Josh: Ah because some of them fucking sucked.
[laughter]
Josh: I mean thats iteration. Its the middle of development so sometimes I design something and its just not a good mechanic and people play it and they're like I dont like this. Or even before people see it and we put it in and we realize that this isnt even fun. Like we had the Cipher that had to maintain this focus thing and you had this and you would hold it on someone. You would start using a power and it would just sort of stick on the character but to make it more powerful you would have your Cipher not do anything [else] and thats not fun. It sounds obvious now when I say it but at the time we were like that kind of sounds like a psionist is fucking shit up over time but it just wasnt fun. So we just tried to adjust things so that people [have fun], and theres a wide range of taste so
mindx2: Why did you never land on a world identifying name such as Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk? I mean, is everything after just going to be Pillars of Eternity 2, 3, etc.?
Tim Cain: I think its more evocative. I just remember when it was floating around and that came up. I remember there was a list of names that came out and it was what do you like? and I remember seeing Pillars and going this is very evocative. As opposed to well Forgotten Realms isnt really the name of an area.
mindx2: Alright, this next question is near and dear to the Codexs heart
Chris: The heart?
mindx2: Yes, we have heart.
Josh: Ahhh, yeah
mindx2: You wound me What do you think with all these other Kickstarters going turn-based do you think Obsidian might be locked into the RTwP style game?
Josh: I hope not. I want to make a turn-based game. I really want to make a turn-based game.
Chris: I donÔÇÖt think weÔÇÖre locked in. The only conditions are that the turn-based should support whatever the next franchise is and also if we ever do a game similar to Pillars we would want to leverage all the real-time systems that Josh and Tim have contributed to them. Because once that system is really solid and polished it would be a huge waste of time to recreate a new combat system when what theyÔÇÖve developed is already great.
mindx2: With Unity now going free what does that do as far as opening the game up to modding/modders?
Adam: I have no idea as it just went free this week? We havenÔÇÖt really thought about that. I havenÔÇÖt really looked into it a lot.
Josh: But thatÔÇÖs really cool.
Adam: Yeah, that is pretty cool. I donÔÇÖt think it changes a whole lot but the biggest obstacle for modders are going to be making the backgrounds. ItÔÇÖs just rough. WeÔÇÖll be pretty open on how the process goes but itÔÇÖs pretty complicated.
mindx2: Well talking about those backgrounds how many areas were you able to give a paint-over?
Brandon: IÔÇÖm not sure, we hit most of the main areas but there are a ton of side areas that we either thought were good as they were and didnÔÇÖt need a paint-over or we just didnÔÇÖt have time towards the end. But like a lot of our major scenes that the player will see got a lot of paint-overs. One good example is one area that we painted in all the water damage on the docks and things like that. So areas youÔÇÖre going to visit all the time got the treatment.
mindx2: There was a great surge of lore writing at the beginning of the project but IÔÇÖm curious how this continued during and after the KS.
Josh: I mostly just tried to flesh out the things that were necessary to support the story stuff that Eric Fenstermaker and Carrie [Patel] were doing and to support anything that they needed for writing companions. I didnt want to design a bunch of stuff or werent super relevant to the immediate game. I wanted to give it enough of a foundation that it felt like a believable place. If people had ideas for certain things for examples Bobby Null, one of our designers, he really wanted a Death Knight of some sort and Im like, OK man, I hadnt thought of that but lets think of how that would happen in this setting and figure how it fits into the lore."
mindx2: As the KS grew and you saw how much money you were going to get did that have any influence that you could expand this part more or that part more?
Josh: To be honest I barely had time to think about that. It happened so quickly that I was like, oh shit, IÔÇÖm going to have to develop a lot of this stuff very quickly.
mindx2: Did Ziets have any more involvement since the beginning?
Josh: No, he was involved very early on and we are still using a lot of his ideas, especially for the gods and things like that. As well as the lore for some of the cities and some of the regions in the game are based off his initial concepts. So we were able to use a lot of that stuff.
Chris: Like Josh said, he fleshed out a lot of the pantheon and did a really good job with that but heÔÇÖs really focused on the Torment successor right now with inXile but he really wanted to get back into area design.
mindx2: Mr. Cain, or as you are called, Sir Tim Cain now that youre back designing and with Obsidian I would love to you say, I would love to do a turn-based game!
Tim: I love turn-based games. This actually goes back to something Chris was saying, when I worked on South Park right when I arrived there it was a real-time game and one of the things I was asked was to make it turn-based. Its easy to turn real-time systems into turn-based ones, so Im just throwing that out there [as he looks towards the other team members].
[laughter]
Tim: Im familiar with a lot of these systems in Pillars and how to convert them. Again Im just saying that
mindx2: Did you play Divinity: Original Sin and what did you think about it?
Tim: I did not play Divinity yet.
Chris: Actually a week before this interview Tim was panicking that he hadnÔÇÖt played it yet.
Tim: I know, I just didnÔÇÖt have time!
mindx2: Anybody here play it?
Josh: IÔÇÖve played a few hours of it.
Brandon: IÔÇÖve played some hours of it.
mindx2: and what did you think of the turn-based combat system?
Josh: I thought it was pretty cool but I dont think I got far enough into it to really get deep into the mechanics. I thought the game was really cool overall. Its interesting because in some ways you would think it would be very similar to Pillars of Eternity but obviously being turn-based, the co-op with the way the personalities develop back and forth is a very interesting mechanic that they had. The environmental interactions
mindx2: which I was going to say that the environmental interaction is the one thing that really caught peoples eye and would work perfectly with a system built by Tim.
Tim: IÔÇÖll put it on my list of things IÔÇÖm behind on playing.
mindx2: Apart from the card game with Piazo anything else in the foreseeable future?
Chris: We have Armored Warfare, helping out with the Skyforge MMO and theres one other unannounced RPG am I forgetting anything?
[someone]: Expansion
mindx2: [towards Chris] Is the unannounced RPG your baby?
[At this point, there was some cross-talk while I was asking Avellone my question, and I clearly heard someone say ÔÇ£Is it one or two expansions?ÔÇØ, and someone else replied, "with an 's', right?". When I asked if there are two expansions, they tried to cover it up, but I wasn't buying it. I said that I had clearly heard an 's' after the word "expansion", but all I got in response was some uncomfortable laughter. Giving up, I repeated my original question to Chris.]
Chris: No itÔÇÖs not.
mindx2: What about a game in the style of Temple of Elemental Evil?
[laughter]
mindx2: Well think about it. This is the Codex so you know youÔÇÖre going to get these turn-based questions.
Tim: I own the ToEE code, not Atari. So who knows? Of course I dont own any of the art
Josh: Oh come on Tim, you can make all the art yourself
[laughter]
mindx2: Any other platform plans as that seems to be all the rage lately with going to different platforms?
Josh: [chuckling] I donÔÇÖt think this game is going to be on a console.
mindx2: Wasteland 2 is going onto consoles
Brandon: Cant you just submit it to Unity
[laughter]
Josh: I always thought it would be nice to see it on tablets but Adam actually got it running on a Windows 8 tablet a long time ago but we havent looked at it in a long time.
mindx2: What are your thoughts on TSIÔÇÖs new ÔÇ£GatewayÔÇØ system?
[blank stares from the group]
mindx2: Have you heard about that?
Josh: TSI is the SSI reboot right?
mindx2: Sure is, and they are hooking up with inXile and Harebrained Schemes to allow players to transfer characters to different games from these companies.
Tim: How would that work? They are two totally different systems
[laughter at TimÔÇÖs confused look]
mindx2: ThatÔÇÖs my question.
Brandon: I actually talked to someone over there about this. Unfortunately, they contacted us after we had already locked down our save game system so we werenÔÇÖt going to be able to go back in and change things. At the time they had mentioned that they wanted to maybe pull out certain types of data and information like a name or a class or maybe even a race. It might be generic enough to go between different [games].
mindx2: It was so vague in what they were talking about.
Brandon: It was a little they hadnt fully fleshed it out yet. So we had kind of talked about it that maybe we could do it in the future and figure something out but to be honest I havent really moved forward with any of this.
Chris: That does make some sense. Some people just always go from game to game being the dwarf fighter and that would work between Shadowrun and no, not Torment
Tim: The save game format is such that we could probably write a converter
Josh: Tim is on the tape!
Brandon: Did we say Tim has great ideas but weÔÇÖre going to have to see where that fits in the production schedule.
[laughter]
Tim: Im just saying
mindx2: another question before my time runs out and I still would like to get some pictures. In fact, I have two specific picture requests
Chris: Uh Oh!
Tim: HeÔÇÖs brought this pretty dress for Josh to wear.
[laughter]
mindx2: What games do you play today?
Chris: YouÔÇÖre not going to want to hear this but Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.
mindx2: YouÔÇÖre right; I donÔÇÖt want to hear that.
Josh: IÔÇÖm playing a lot of tabletop games lately especially Ars Magica and Burning Wheel. Also I started Shadowrun: Dragonfall, very nice. And anyone who sees me on Steam knows I still play Hitman: Blood Money all the time.
[laughter]
Josh: Its a nice, like if I have a twenty minutes its like ah, Ill let off some steam. Ive been trying to play a lot of tabletop games in the past year because I was away from it for awhile.
Adam: Ive been playing Hearthstone a lot and thats pretty much it. I play soccer and I get out. Im looking forward to Bloodborne.
Brandon: The latest thing I did was Rogue Legacy but that's just me mindlessly playing. The last real game that IÔÇÖve kind of completed was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter which is really cool. Pretty cool story and the environments were beautiful in that game and fun to play.
Tim: IÔÇÖm playing World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor because I have to see how the garrison system works. I just wanted to see it to compare it to our stronghold.
mindx2: Are you familiar with the Stasis game by Chris Bischoff?
["Oh yeah!" from the whole group]
mindx2: You guys have got to get together with that man and make a proper turn-based game!
Josh: I really loved his he did was Twin Elmes fan art inspired renderer which was really awesome and was inspirational for us when we were looking at the lighting stuff he was doing. We said, Thats a really cool look.
mindx2: Anything else you would like to share with the Codex nows your chance.
Chris: If anyone is unhappy with their Wasteland 2 signature box please send it back
[Laughter. I had given Chris a hard time right before we started talking that his signature on my W2 CollectorÔÇÖs box was rather lackluster and boring compared to some I had seen. He said he has threatened Feargus that he will never do an assembly line type signing again as he absolutely hated it just for that reason.]
![[Imagen: 12460_500.jpg]](http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery/12460_500.jpg)
Josh: So somebody asked on the Codex forum for you to ask me about why Might would affect things like crossbows and things like that or why everyone can engage and its actually for consistency and to help with the players learning curve because I think that can trip up people a lot in D&D is that theres a lot of hidden like that affects a lot of this stuff but not that. Like a subset of characters can do this stuff but not all characters can. I think that, especially when a player is building a character for the first time they dont know any of that stuff. That's all very hard to communicate quickly and I think the negatives of finding out Oh, by the way Might affects crossbow damage I think those negatives are far less than finding out Oh, I built a high Might character but it doesnt affect bow damage. This is something that happens in D&D where if you built your character wrong, you cant go back and fix it. So screw you. It's not realistic and I admit its not realistic but its done so that a person can build their character and feel confident that what they invested in is actually going to pay off in the game. Thats my hope anyway.
Adam: Yeah!
mindx2: Well then I have one more question for you then [to Josh], what do you think in Pillars of Eternity is the ÔÇ£funnestÔÇØ part?
Josh: Um, I think its really trying to build finding all the different ways to build your character and parties. Thats something that well, that runs through a lot of stuff. To be honest a lot of what people say is this isnt realistic or they dont like some aspect of it like weapons for example. Like why do daggers do so much damage or a hatchet do so much damage or whatever. Its done that way so that if you have an idea for a character thats kind of an oddball or something that character might actually suck or be terrible in D&D but I think its important for it to be pretty good in our game. And if people want to make this really oddball collection of characters theres going to be some things that are hard for them but I think its important for players to feel like they have that freedom to develop it. There are going to be trade-offs for it but as much as possible I want them
mindx2: So thatÔÇÖs where the balance thing comes into play?
Josh: Yeah.
mindx2: And do you think everything needs that balance? I mean whatÔÇÖs wrong with having a crappy build?
Josh: I think if its a non-viable build then thats garbage, like it just doesnt feel good. I think that if you want to build a sub-par character thats ok but I think its about a certain gulf like for example, if you build an 18 Charisma fighter in Baldurs Gate you just built a shitty fighter. Thats just a bad fighter
Chris: Especially in the first five minutes of the game and you find that 18 Charisma ring and you go
[laughter]
Josh: Yeah, if you build an 18 Resolve fighter in PoE thatÔÇÖs a very defensively oriented character that wonÔÇÖt get interrupted very much. Is that the same as an 18 Might character? No, but itÔÇÖs not about perfect balance, itÔÇÖs about relative balance and finding a way to play to that character's strengths. So itÔÇÖs never been about absolute perfect balance.
Chris: The worst role-playing game - PnP one - IÔÇÖve ever been in was when I actually made a character that I really wanted to role-play and the GM just goes, ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm sorry but your character is just not going to survive. ItÔÇÖs just not going to work in our group.ÔÇØ But I just wanted to role-play and I think Josh has been very cognizant about that for which I greatly appreciate that.
mindx2: Alright, where were we oh yeah, what do you want to tell the Codex?
Adam: I love you guys. I do lurk and read almost every forum post in the Pillars thread. Just so you guys know, IÔÇÖm reading.
mindx2: ItÔÇÖs one of our longest threads right now.
[laughter]
Chris: Do you guys keep metrics about that stuff?
mindx2: As many members of ours that have a hint of autism yes, Im sure there is
[lots of laughter on that one]
Brandon: IÔÇÖm not sure I have anything to say to them as IÔÇÖll go on there and talk to them. So if they have any specific questions they can just send me a PM on our forums and I can answer it there.
mindx2: The one brave soul who actually still posts on our forum
Brandon: Now, now granted I wont be answering everything!
Chris: YouÔÇÖre familiar with Anthony Davis, right?
mindx2: Oh yeah, Anthony is great!
Brandon: Sometimes Anthony writes something and Im like, Oh Anthony why?
Josh: We get so many alerts about that Anthony just posted on the Codex!
[laughter]
Tim: I still read, I still read the Codex. Ive been reading it ever since it was created. It remains one of the more possibly the most passionate, thats a good adjective passionate
Chris: Provocative.
[more laughter]
Tim:  passionate places about RPGs that exists.
mindx2: I think the Codex scares people and I think that is ridiculous.
Chris: Can I quote you on that? Well thats OK, people will think to me, Are you kidding?! You guys have killed people!
mindx2: but we hide the bodies very well. Seriously, if you go in there, you will probably be attacked but its almost a trial by fire ritual once you get past that
Chris: Actually the first six months after Fallout 2 the RPG Codex was the best training mechanism when you just need to calm down, pull the calluses off your soul and figure out what theyÔÇÖre saying rather than have hurt feelings. Sometimes itÔÇÖs a bit heartbreaking when you have a junior developer and they see feedback like that they obviously get very upset but that just means the calluses are forming. The training you guys actually provide is considered the hallmarks of our careers. You have actually trained me to be calm about these things. IÔÇÖm like, ÔÇ£Well, itÔÇÖs not as bad as the Codex so I really donÔÇÖt care what youÔÇÖre saying because youÔÇÖre not as bad as the Codex.ÔÇØ
Tim: WhatÔÇÖs funny is I was going to post something there about a year ago, I do have an account there, but I canÔÇÖt remember my password.
Chris: Neither can I!
mindx2: I will have them send it to you!
My time with the gentlemen from Obsidian had expired and the meeting wrapped up. I thanked each of them for taking the time out of their hectic schedules to speak with me. Before leaving, I asked for a few photos, and for Sawyer and Avellone to sign my CollectorÔÇÖs Edition of Fallout: New Vegas. WeÔÇÖll soon be able to find out how well the team did, as Pillars of Eternity is scheduled to be released less than two weeks from now, on March 26th. Oh, and here's one more photo I had to take before I left:
![[Imagen: 12461_500.jpg]](http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery/12461_500.jpg)
Chris actually asked me a question first. His question was whether Crooked Bee was a "taskmaster". I was surprised by that line of inquiry, but replied that the harshest thing I'd ever heard from her was a warning that the editors can be very harsh in their criticism of submitted articles. He looked at me with surprise and said, The Codex has editors?. I replied that it was nothing official, but that content gets critiqued by the moderators. Thats when he said, Ah, I didnt think the Codex was that professional Oh shit, did I just call the Codex unprofessional?! That wont be included will it?. I lied and assured him that they would never know, and began the interview proper, for which Josh told me they were well-prepared, because they'd read the entire PAX East questions thread on our forums.
My first question for the Obsidian guys was about what they see as the difference between publisher-funded games and Kickstarter-funded games, and what they've learned or done differently when comparing Pillars to their previous games. I asked them that since theyÔÇÖve gotten screwed in the past, what was their take on things this time around?
Adam Brennecke: In developing it from day one I knew that we werent going to have a publisher involved and that allowed us to reorganize how we do pre-production. I feel that pre-production is the most important part to a games development and you have to figure out your shit and make sure all your stuff is put together. So when you enter production youre just making the game at that point. A lot of times when working with a publisher you have to do a demo at the end of pre-production. A lot of times that can be very we call it the dog and pony show. You have to show stuff that isnt ready to be shown yet. Its very rough and packed together
mindx2:  you have to reach those milestones
Adam: . Yeah it might be a feature in you might do it in production but its not that important to do but its kind of a showy feature. Its not a fundamental building block feature. And one thing we did really well on Pillars is we developed a lot of our core tech and a lot of our core RPG low level systems ahead of time. During pre-production our vertical slice was pretty rough but we all knew, the owners, the leads knew it would be looking rough. That helped a lot. We put a lot of pressure on the team to make sure that we knew how to make the game in production. That was the most important thing that I think helped the development of the game.
mindx2: Not having a publisher breathing down your neck
Adam:  which is huge, just huge. We wouldnt have been able to make a game as huge as it is without a good pre-production.
mindx2: With the success this is looking like, have publishers seen that success? Does it even register on their radar? You can look at MMX or Larians Divinity: Original Sin that was a huge success
Chris Avellone: So the answer to that is that there are certain publishers that see that type and scope of a game to work really well with their portfolio. I think it took Kickstarter to show them that it is financially viable. So, yes we are actually having publishers approaching us to do similar types of games just because of Kickstarter.
mindx2: Speaking of KS, Peter Molyneux has been in the news lately and he went out and admitted that he went into KS not asking for enough money at the start. Is that what Pillars did?
Chris: That he didnÔÇÖt ask for enough to begin?
Adam: His initial asking goal.
Chris: One thing I like about Obsidian is the fact that when we actually do the Kickstarters we try and make sure we ask for the exact amount of money it would take to make the game. I know some people play the KS game and they ask for much lower goals hoping to get much higher because they think those high numbers will scare people off. I think one good thing is we all come from Black Isle and we know what the level of production is going to be needed to actually do the game. We actually did ask for the amount we needed.
Adam: I had to put together a little production plan beforehand.
Chris: That must have been so fun
Adam: Yeah (sarcastically), the 1.1 million we ask for I had to put together a production plan based on that budget and show it to Feargus.
Chris: And Tim [Cain] was the most expensive.
[laughter]
mindx2: ThatÔÇÖs what Paul Neurath [OtherSide Entertainment] told me. At the baseline he could make the game [Underworld Ascendant] but it would be a lean, no bells and whistles game.
Adam: and thats where all the stretch goals came from.
Brandon Adler: What was [our] base game?
Josh Sawyer: Base game was 5 classes, 3 races
Brandon: and it was all the base classes.
Josh: Yeah and just the human, elf and dwarf.
mindx2: So what were you expected out of the backer beta and what did you actually get out of it?
Josh: I was expected pretty close to what we got. Just a ton of feedback all over the place. On everything people cared about. It was mostly to look at what a mid-game feels like to have a big party which is why we started with 4 plus your main character. Diving in to see how the interface feels, how the classes feel, how the UI feels. Obviously, we got a lot of feedback and all that stuff. So we tried to iterate over time and hopefully improve that stuff
mindx2: and that leads into my next question- why did the mechanics change so wildly in the betas?
Josh: Ah because some of them fucking sucked.
[laughter]
Josh: I mean thats iteration. Its the middle of development so sometimes I design something and its just not a good mechanic and people play it and they're like I dont like this. Or even before people see it and we put it in and we realize that this isnt even fun. Like we had the Cipher that had to maintain this focus thing and you had this and you would hold it on someone. You would start using a power and it would just sort of stick on the character but to make it more powerful you would have your Cipher not do anything [else] and thats not fun. It sounds obvious now when I say it but at the time we were like that kind of sounds like a psionist is fucking shit up over time but it just wasnt fun. So we just tried to adjust things so that people [have fun], and theres a wide range of taste so
mindx2: Why did you never land on a world identifying name such as Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk? I mean, is everything after just going to be Pillars of Eternity 2, 3, etc.?
Tim Cain: I think its more evocative. I just remember when it was floating around and that came up. I remember there was a list of names that came out and it was what do you like? and I remember seeing Pillars and going this is very evocative. As opposed to well Forgotten Realms isnt really the name of an area.
mindx2: Alright, this next question is near and dear to the Codexs heart
Chris: The heart?
mindx2: Yes, we have heart.
Josh: Ahhh, yeah
mindx2: You wound me What do you think with all these other Kickstarters going turn-based do you think Obsidian might be locked into the RTwP style game?
Josh: I hope not. I want to make a turn-based game. I really want to make a turn-based game.
Chris: I donÔÇÖt think weÔÇÖre locked in. The only conditions are that the turn-based should support whatever the next franchise is and also if we ever do a game similar to Pillars we would want to leverage all the real-time systems that Josh and Tim have contributed to them. Because once that system is really solid and polished it would be a huge waste of time to recreate a new combat system when what theyÔÇÖve developed is already great.
mindx2: With Unity now going free what does that do as far as opening the game up to modding/modders?
Adam: I have no idea as it just went free this week? We havenÔÇÖt really thought about that. I havenÔÇÖt really looked into it a lot.
Josh: But thatÔÇÖs really cool.
Adam: Yeah, that is pretty cool. I donÔÇÖt think it changes a whole lot but the biggest obstacle for modders are going to be making the backgrounds. ItÔÇÖs just rough. WeÔÇÖll be pretty open on how the process goes but itÔÇÖs pretty complicated.
mindx2: Well talking about those backgrounds how many areas were you able to give a paint-over?
Brandon: IÔÇÖm not sure, we hit most of the main areas but there are a ton of side areas that we either thought were good as they were and didnÔÇÖt need a paint-over or we just didnÔÇÖt have time towards the end. But like a lot of our major scenes that the player will see got a lot of paint-overs. One good example is one area that we painted in all the water damage on the docks and things like that. So areas youÔÇÖre going to visit all the time got the treatment.
mindx2: There was a great surge of lore writing at the beginning of the project but IÔÇÖm curious how this continued during and after the KS.
Josh: I mostly just tried to flesh out the things that were necessary to support the story stuff that Eric Fenstermaker and Carrie [Patel] were doing and to support anything that they needed for writing companions. I didnt want to design a bunch of stuff or werent super relevant to the immediate game. I wanted to give it enough of a foundation that it felt like a believable place. If people had ideas for certain things for examples Bobby Null, one of our designers, he really wanted a Death Knight of some sort and Im like, OK man, I hadnt thought of that but lets think of how that would happen in this setting and figure how it fits into the lore."
mindx2: As the KS grew and you saw how much money you were going to get did that have any influence that you could expand this part more or that part more?
Josh: To be honest I barely had time to think about that. It happened so quickly that I was like, oh shit, IÔÇÖm going to have to develop a lot of this stuff very quickly.
mindx2: Did Ziets have any more involvement since the beginning?
Josh: No, he was involved very early on and we are still using a lot of his ideas, especially for the gods and things like that. As well as the lore for some of the cities and some of the regions in the game are based off his initial concepts. So we were able to use a lot of that stuff.
Chris: Like Josh said, he fleshed out a lot of the pantheon and did a really good job with that but heÔÇÖs really focused on the Torment successor right now with inXile but he really wanted to get back into area design.
mindx2: Mr. Cain, or as you are called, Sir Tim Cain now that youre back designing and with Obsidian I would love to you say, I would love to do a turn-based game!
Tim: I love turn-based games. This actually goes back to something Chris was saying, when I worked on South Park right when I arrived there it was a real-time game and one of the things I was asked was to make it turn-based. Its easy to turn real-time systems into turn-based ones, so Im just throwing that out there [as he looks towards the other team members].
[laughter]
Tim: Im familiar with a lot of these systems in Pillars and how to convert them. Again Im just saying that
mindx2: Did you play Divinity: Original Sin and what did you think about it?
Tim: I did not play Divinity yet.
Chris: Actually a week before this interview Tim was panicking that he hadnÔÇÖt played it yet.
Tim: I know, I just didnÔÇÖt have time!
mindx2: Anybody here play it?
Josh: IÔÇÖve played a few hours of it.
Brandon: IÔÇÖve played some hours of it.
mindx2: and what did you think of the turn-based combat system?
Josh: I thought it was pretty cool but I dont think I got far enough into it to really get deep into the mechanics. I thought the game was really cool overall. Its interesting because in some ways you would think it would be very similar to Pillars of Eternity but obviously being turn-based, the co-op with the way the personalities develop back and forth is a very interesting mechanic that they had. The environmental interactions
mindx2: which I was going to say that the environmental interaction is the one thing that really caught peoples eye and would work perfectly with a system built by Tim.
Tim: IÔÇÖll put it on my list of things IÔÇÖm behind on playing.
mindx2: Apart from the card game with Piazo anything else in the foreseeable future?
Chris: We have Armored Warfare, helping out with the Skyforge MMO and theres one other unannounced RPG am I forgetting anything?
[someone]: Expansion
mindx2: [towards Chris] Is the unannounced RPG your baby?
[At this point, there was some cross-talk while I was asking Avellone my question, and I clearly heard someone say ÔÇ£Is it one or two expansions?ÔÇØ, and someone else replied, "with an 's', right?". When I asked if there are two expansions, they tried to cover it up, but I wasn't buying it. I said that I had clearly heard an 's' after the word "expansion", but all I got in response was some uncomfortable laughter. Giving up, I repeated my original question to Chris.]
Chris: No itÔÇÖs not.
mindx2: What about a game in the style of Temple of Elemental Evil?
[laughter]
mindx2: Well think about it. This is the Codex so you know youÔÇÖre going to get these turn-based questions.
Tim: I own the ToEE code, not Atari. So who knows? Of course I dont own any of the art
Josh: Oh come on Tim, you can make all the art yourself
[laughter]
mindx2: Any other platform plans as that seems to be all the rage lately with going to different platforms?
Josh: [chuckling] I donÔÇÖt think this game is going to be on a console.
mindx2: Wasteland 2 is going onto consoles
Brandon: Cant you just submit it to Unity
[laughter]
Josh: I always thought it would be nice to see it on tablets but Adam actually got it running on a Windows 8 tablet a long time ago but we havent looked at it in a long time.
mindx2: What are your thoughts on TSIÔÇÖs new ÔÇ£GatewayÔÇØ system?
[blank stares from the group]
mindx2: Have you heard about that?
Josh: TSI is the SSI reboot right?
mindx2: Sure is, and they are hooking up with inXile and Harebrained Schemes to allow players to transfer characters to different games from these companies.
Tim: How would that work? They are two totally different systems
[laughter at TimÔÇÖs confused look]
mindx2: ThatÔÇÖs my question.
Brandon: I actually talked to someone over there about this. Unfortunately, they contacted us after we had already locked down our save game system so we werenÔÇÖt going to be able to go back in and change things. At the time they had mentioned that they wanted to maybe pull out certain types of data and information like a name or a class or maybe even a race. It might be generic enough to go between different [games].
mindx2: It was so vague in what they were talking about.
Brandon: It was a little they hadnt fully fleshed it out yet. So we had kind of talked about it that maybe we could do it in the future and figure something out but to be honest I havent really moved forward with any of this.
Chris: That does make some sense. Some people just always go from game to game being the dwarf fighter and that would work between Shadowrun and no, not Torment
Tim: The save game format is such that we could probably write a converter
Josh: Tim is on the tape!
Brandon: Did we say Tim has great ideas but weÔÇÖre going to have to see where that fits in the production schedule.
[laughter]
Tim: Im just saying
mindx2: another question before my time runs out and I still would like to get some pictures. In fact, I have two specific picture requests
Chris: Uh Oh!
Tim: HeÔÇÖs brought this pretty dress for Josh to wear.
[laughter]
mindx2: What games do you play today?
Chris: YouÔÇÖre not going to want to hear this but Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.
mindx2: YouÔÇÖre right; I donÔÇÖt want to hear that.
Josh: IÔÇÖm playing a lot of tabletop games lately especially Ars Magica and Burning Wheel. Also I started Shadowrun: Dragonfall, very nice. And anyone who sees me on Steam knows I still play Hitman: Blood Money all the time.
[laughter]
Josh: Its a nice, like if I have a twenty minutes its like ah, Ill let off some steam. Ive been trying to play a lot of tabletop games in the past year because I was away from it for awhile.
Adam: Ive been playing Hearthstone a lot and thats pretty much it. I play soccer and I get out. Im looking forward to Bloodborne.
Brandon: The latest thing I did was Rogue Legacy but that's just me mindlessly playing. The last real game that IÔÇÖve kind of completed was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter which is really cool. Pretty cool story and the environments were beautiful in that game and fun to play.
Tim: IÔÇÖm playing World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor because I have to see how the garrison system works. I just wanted to see it to compare it to our stronghold.
mindx2: Are you familiar with the Stasis game by Chris Bischoff?
["Oh yeah!" from the whole group]
mindx2: You guys have got to get together with that man and make a proper turn-based game!
Josh: I really loved his he did was Twin Elmes fan art inspired renderer which was really awesome and was inspirational for us when we were looking at the lighting stuff he was doing. We said, Thats a really cool look.
mindx2: Anything else you would like to share with the Codex nows your chance.
Chris: If anyone is unhappy with their Wasteland 2 signature box please send it back
[Laughter. I had given Chris a hard time right before we started talking that his signature on my W2 CollectorÔÇÖs box was rather lackluster and boring compared to some I had seen. He said he has threatened Feargus that he will never do an assembly line type signing again as he absolutely hated it just for that reason.]
Josh: So somebody asked on the Codex forum for you to ask me about why Might would affect things like crossbows and things like that or why everyone can engage and its actually for consistency and to help with the players learning curve because I think that can trip up people a lot in D&D is that theres a lot of hidden like that affects a lot of this stuff but not that. Like a subset of characters can do this stuff but not all characters can. I think that, especially when a player is building a character for the first time they dont know any of that stuff. That's all very hard to communicate quickly and I think the negatives of finding out Oh, by the way Might affects crossbow damage I think those negatives are far less than finding out Oh, I built a high Might character but it doesnt affect bow damage. This is something that happens in D&D where if you built your character wrong, you cant go back and fix it. So screw you. It's not realistic and I admit its not realistic but its done so that a person can build their character and feel confident that what they invested in is actually going to pay off in the game. Thats my hope anyway.
Adam: Yeah!
mindx2: Well then I have one more question for you then [to Josh], what do you think in Pillars of Eternity is the ÔÇ£funnestÔÇØ part?
Josh: Um, I think its really trying to build finding all the different ways to build your character and parties. Thats something that well, that runs through a lot of stuff. To be honest a lot of what people say is this isnt realistic or they dont like some aspect of it like weapons for example. Like why do daggers do so much damage or a hatchet do so much damage or whatever. Its done that way so that if you have an idea for a character thats kind of an oddball or something that character might actually suck or be terrible in D&D but I think its important for it to be pretty good in our game. And if people want to make this really oddball collection of characters theres going to be some things that are hard for them but I think its important for players to feel like they have that freedom to develop it. There are going to be trade-offs for it but as much as possible I want them
mindx2: So thatÔÇÖs where the balance thing comes into play?
Josh: Yeah.
mindx2: And do you think everything needs that balance? I mean whatÔÇÖs wrong with having a crappy build?
Josh: I think if its a non-viable build then thats garbage, like it just doesnt feel good. I think that if you want to build a sub-par character thats ok but I think its about a certain gulf like for example, if you build an 18 Charisma fighter in Baldurs Gate you just built a shitty fighter. Thats just a bad fighter
Chris: Especially in the first five minutes of the game and you find that 18 Charisma ring and you go
[laughter]
Josh: Yeah, if you build an 18 Resolve fighter in PoE thatÔÇÖs a very defensively oriented character that wonÔÇÖt get interrupted very much. Is that the same as an 18 Might character? No, but itÔÇÖs not about perfect balance, itÔÇÖs about relative balance and finding a way to play to that character's strengths. So itÔÇÖs never been about absolute perfect balance.
Chris: The worst role-playing game - PnP one - IÔÇÖve ever been in was when I actually made a character that I really wanted to role-play and the GM just goes, ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm sorry but your character is just not going to survive. ItÔÇÖs just not going to work in our group.ÔÇØ But I just wanted to role-play and I think Josh has been very cognizant about that for which I greatly appreciate that.
mindx2: Alright, where were we oh yeah, what do you want to tell the Codex?
Adam: I love you guys. I do lurk and read almost every forum post in the Pillars thread. Just so you guys know, IÔÇÖm reading.
mindx2: ItÔÇÖs one of our longest threads right now.
[laughter]
Chris: Do you guys keep metrics about that stuff?
mindx2: As many members of ours that have a hint of autism yes, Im sure there is
[lots of laughter on that one]
Brandon: IÔÇÖm not sure I have anything to say to them as IÔÇÖll go on there and talk to them. So if they have any specific questions they can just send me a PM on our forums and I can answer it there.
mindx2: The one brave soul who actually still posts on our forum
Brandon: Now, now granted I wont be answering everything!
Chris: YouÔÇÖre familiar with Anthony Davis, right?
mindx2: Oh yeah, Anthony is great!
Brandon: Sometimes Anthony writes something and Im like, Oh Anthony why?
Josh: We get so many alerts about that Anthony just posted on the Codex!
[laughter]
Tim: I still read, I still read the Codex. Ive been reading it ever since it was created. It remains one of the more possibly the most passionate, thats a good adjective passionate
Chris: Provocative.
[more laughter]
Tim:  passionate places about RPGs that exists.
mindx2: I think the Codex scares people and I think that is ridiculous.
Chris: Can I quote you on that? Well thats OK, people will think to me, Are you kidding?! You guys have killed people!
mindx2: but we hide the bodies very well. Seriously, if you go in there, you will probably be attacked but its almost a trial by fire ritual once you get past that
Chris: Actually the first six months after Fallout 2 the RPG Codex was the best training mechanism when you just need to calm down, pull the calluses off your soul and figure out what theyÔÇÖre saying rather than have hurt feelings. Sometimes itÔÇÖs a bit heartbreaking when you have a junior developer and they see feedback like that they obviously get very upset but that just means the calluses are forming. The training you guys actually provide is considered the hallmarks of our careers. You have actually trained me to be calm about these things. IÔÇÖm like, ÔÇ£Well, itÔÇÖs not as bad as the Codex so I really donÔÇÖt care what youÔÇÖre saying because youÔÇÖre not as bad as the Codex.ÔÇØ
Tim: WhatÔÇÖs funny is I was going to post something there about a year ago, I do have an account there, but I canÔÇÖt remember my password.
Chris: Neither can I!
mindx2: I will have them send it to you!
My time with the gentlemen from Obsidian had expired and the meeting wrapped up. I thanked each of them for taking the time out of their hectic schedules to speak with me. Before leaving, I asked for a few photos, and for Sawyer and Avellone to sign my CollectorÔÇÖs Edition of Fallout: New Vegas. WeÔÇÖll soon be able to find out how well the team did, as Pillars of Eternity is scheduled to be released less than two weeks from now, on March 26th. Oh, and here's one more photo I had to take before I left:
También han hecho un AMA en Reddit, contestando a varias preguntas que mandaron:
http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/2zanll/obsidian_entertainment_ama_answers_are_here/
![[Imagen: e25ee221-9c1b-425a-aecd-f2bf61713f08_zps81f030c7.jpg]](http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww182/Miquel93/e25ee221-9c1b-425a-aecd-f2bf61713f08_zps81f030c7.jpg)