Pillars of Eternity

Since I know there are some fans of the old Infinity Engine games here, I thought I would bring Project Eternity to your attention.  It's a kickstarter project by Obsidian to make a new fantasy isometric RPG in the style of Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, and Arcanum.  Tim Cain, Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone are all involved.  It will be their own original IP, possibly the start of a new franchise.  There will be no license owners and no publishers to answer to.

Given that these guys are responsible for most of my favorite games, I am excited.  There hasn't been a lot of information released about the actual game yet, but if any team inspires faith in me, it's this team.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity

The Kickstarter just opened up this morning, and they've already raised over $340,000.

Here's an interview with Feargus Urquhart about it:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/109456-project-eternity-interview.html

And here's a Kotaku article with some interesting comments from Avellone:
http://kotaku.com/5942307/the-people-behind-fallout-and-planescape-are-making-an-rpg-that-sounds-fantastic

I think we are finally seeing a resurgence of isometric, tactical RPGs.

Thanks for the news, Kana. That is great I will keep an eye on this and please keep us updated.

I'd love to see an isometric RPG done with more modern graphics and such, so as to please those gamers born in the modern era, yet attracted to classic games. I.e., me. I'll keep a close eye on this.

Also, I'm kind of tempted to donate $10,000. Those are some epic rewards.

Go for it Dragon. Now if you have some loose change....

Just sat and watched the backing for about ten minutes. They are getting small amounts but a lot of them they have already almost reached the half way point of their goal.

Yes, I see they've broken the $500,000 mark, which is amazing considering it hasn't been open even for a day, yet. I hope other industry players like Bioware will take note.

Bioware, Bethesda look out. A new day is dawning. All I can say to EA is...ah, goodbye.

Just checked, Half way there. From what I have seen mostly small backers like me. $25, 65, maybe an occasional $100 but so far very steady. A lot of pledges in the $20 range.

First day over and over $650,000 pledged.

Wow that's great news. Thank you for the link Kana.

At noon EDT the pledges were up to 987j USD. A cople of the Devs have posted. I think they are a bit ovewhelmed by the response.

Project Eternity Forum No real game information here. Mostly I want this, I don't want that.

I haven't checked the forum this morning so don't know the arguments have progressed. A lot of the males want sexy eye candy but don't want romances. You guys explain it to me.

I swear if they make the females wear bikini armour I will protest. If they give me anowhine type romance forget it.

A lot of the males want sexy eye candy but not romances? Nakia, I couldn't explain that to you if I tried.

Sexy eye candy in an isometric game? That doesn't make much sense. It's not anything like a 3D game with mods for naked bodies and bouncing tits.

In that sort of game the importance of text would be more appropriate to have romance but not much "sexy eye candy" (except maybe for avatars).

I don't care for romances when they aren't subtle.

If my character simply has to be there to get the romance started it's not very satisfying. Romances should come from decisive choices and not be compulsory. I don't think Dragon Age Origins or Jade Empire handled them all that well. In many ways I preferred the way they worked in BG2 (Viconia or Jaheira for instance).

A lot of posters agree with you, Cara. Subtle and not forced. The romances for male characters were much better than the ones for female characters. Do men really think that women want wimpy, whining creeps like anomen (sp?)?

Looks like they will hit their goal with ease today. Of course people can still cancel the pledge up to the day of payment and some will. Hopefully people will keep donating to make up for the drop outs and give some stretch goal money.

Looks as if there will be guns, muskets, so the game is not set in medieval times. More the 17 th or 18 th century. Return of Arcanum?

Maybe it could be a setting like Fable's or Guild Wars 2's or something like that. Sort of an ending medieval or renaissance time period, with guns/magic still widely used, but guns being introduced into the world.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

I swear if they make the females wear bikini armour I will protest. If they give me anowhine type romance forget it.

Don't worry. There is a thread about that on Obsidian's forums (which appear to be down at the moment). Josh Sawyer himself responded and said that realistic armor was something that was important to him.

They're over $1 million now, with only $34,000 to reach their goal. I saw an article on Forbes speculating that this could be a turning point for the games industry.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/09/15/obsidian-raises-900000-for-project-eternity-in-one-day-on-kickstarter/

I just saw on the Kickstart Obsidium page that they are over their goal. I tis now 5:30 PM EDT so they did it in less than two days. This truly is a great day for developers. It does show that at least developers with some kind of proven record can remain independent from the clutches of Publishers. Not sure how new developers will fair.

Thanks for the info about the armour. I could care less what the guys do about the skimpy armour for their females as long as it is optional and I don't need to have it. Cara has a point about the isometric game and eye candy. These people are thinking in terms of 3D games.

I have had trouble accessing the Obsidium forum the last twenty four hours. I think they are getting heavier traffic than they anticipated.

Email received from Obsidian

Quote :

Project Eternity is going to be a reality because of you. We've hit our goal quicker than anyone expected, and the last day has been overwhelming. We are in the office discussing stretch goals right now! Stay tuned for another update today.

Stretch goals are out.
1.4 mil new race, class and companion.
1.6 mil a Mac version, new locations, items and quests
1.8 new race, class and companion
2 mil a customizable players house, store equipment and companions can hang out.
2.2 million, a new Region, a new Faction and another new Companion! And, dare we say it... ? LINUX!

Nothing about a console version. I don't know what making a console version entails other than dumping things down. Console players have Skyrim so and PC players got shafted there so I am not crying.

I gather it will be on Steam but they are looking into a DRM free version.

No word on a modding toolkit.

Well, our first game basher has arrived on the Obsidian forum. "I am withdrawing my pledge because Obsidian lied to us" Most statements are at best half truths or just things he doesn't like. Only five classes? Give me ten stupid classes. As far as I am concerned there are three classes in these games. Warrior, Mage, Stealth. What makes them good is the ability to customize then. Sword, blunt, archery or guns. Heavy or light armour. Mages can specialize in certain schools of magic. Stealth = assassin, thief, rogue.

Only five companions? You want an army? A house not a stronghold? They never promised a stronghold. That was suggested by a member.

I noticed a moderator and developer keeping an eye on the topic. It could get nasty.

Thanks for pointing this out to me - I would have missed the KickStarter otherwise.

Nakia, a console isometric RPG... That'd really have no place on consoles.

The naked lady thread got closed not because it got nasty but it went on for 16 pages. The moderator who closed it said they could continue if they wanted but saw no point to it. He also quoted Obsidian's policy of zero tolerance towards discrimination, gender, ethic, religion and so on.

Some posted a thread saying that they should get rid of straight men. That got closed and the moderator had a funny, to me, line about the tread being stupid and started by an idiot. My phrasing not his. I think I like the moderators there.

I also like the way the rules are written. Short to the point but hostile or unfriendly.

Thanks for the info, Dragon. Can you explain, briefly, why?

Damn - I wish their forums would load - I can't seem to get into them to read this stuff...

I think isometric-style party-based cRPGs don't work very well with a console controller. At least, I'm not aware of any game of this genre having ever been released on a console. There have been a few Diablo-style dungeon crawlers, but those control a bit differently. Basically, this genre is just tied too closely to the mouse and keyboard to be translated to consoles without a significant overhaul to the interface. The closest you can get is a compromise like DA:O, which really owed more to WoW than Baldur's Gate.

As for companions, I'm glad there will be relatively few. I guess the person who started that thread was hoping for a Baldur's Gate number of companions, but I'd prefer quality over quantity. Mask of the Betrayer only had 5 companions, and two of them were mutually exclusive (you had to pick one or the other), and that was one of the best cRPGs of the past decade.

The stand-out quality of Obsidian's games is their writing, so I'd rather they focus on making the companions as rich and interactive as possible.

Thanks, Kana, and I agree about the companions. I would rather have quality over all. I hope Obsidian focuses on quality rather than length or quanity.

I have gotten some nice "like" s for a couple of my posts. One in the thread "Obsidian why you lie to us." and another thread about including or not including tropes. Is that spelled correctly.

Since Obsidian did IWD II I am using my halfling avatar there. It is good to see her back again. She is a little squashed. Avatars are restricted to 64x64

I haven't been able to get into their forums for a while. It seems the response to this is definitely greater than they anticipated.