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Sea Otter posted:Also, while Feargus refers "we", how many of his employees want to work on AAA games? I read some of them complaining of spending their time on bug-fixing due to the added layers rather than more creative tasks and inflexibility in changing writing after voice-recording process. My understanding from previous interviews was that what they wanted didn't really come into it. Either they get occasional AAA work, or they have layoffs. People can always leave if they hate AAA development that much.
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Apr 27, 2014 14:37
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coffeetable posted:As an aside, Feargus mentions it'd take $15m minimum to turn out a AAA game, which is equivalent to ~700,000 full-price $35 sales of PE at a 60% profit margin. Some interesting comparison points: first that PE has ~120,000 backers already according to another Feargus interview (up from 75,000 in the Kickstarter), which suggests that 700k sales might be in reach, and second that The Witcher 2 had ~250,000 digital sales in it's first six months, which suggests 700k sales would be incredible. Them getting all the money they need to do a AAA release probably won't happen, but the more money they get, the better the position they will be in at the bargaining table when they meet with a publisher.
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Apr 27, 2014 15:16
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coffeetable posted:As an aside, Feargus mentions it'd take $15m minimum to turn out a AAA game, which is equivalent to ~700,000 full-price $35 sales of PE at a 60% profit margin. Some interesting comparison points: first that PE has ~120,000 backers already according to another Feargus interview (up from 75,000 in the Kickstarter), which suggests that 700k sales might be in reach, and second that The Witcher 2 had ~250,000 digital sales in it's first six months, which suggests 700k sales would be incredible. So what you're saying is we have to pitch in and buy as many copies of this for our non-goon friends as possible, gotcha. Way ahead of you.
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Apr 27, 2014 15:22
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ElrondHubbard posted:Them getting all the money they need to do a AAA release probably won't happen, but the more money they get, the better the position they will be in at the bargaining table when they meet with a publisher. CottonWolf posted:My understanding from previous interviews was that what they wanted didn't really come into it. Either they get occasional AAA work, or they have layoffs. People can always leave if they hate AAA development that much.
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Apr 27, 2014 15:41
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A sci fi open world game by Obsidian would be great stuff. Just don't use a lovely engine 
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Apr 27, 2014 15:51
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Sea Otter posted:I hope that's what they managed to get from Paradox. My impression of the Paradox deal is Paradox are not providing any funding for development and they're not getting any say in the development. They're just getting the rights to sell physical copies of the game, and will make their money from a cut of those sales.
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Apr 27, 2014 16:00
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coffeetable posted:My impression of the Paradox deal is Paradox are not providing any funding for development and they're not getting any say in the development. They're just getting the rights to sell physical copies of the game, and will make their money from a cut of those sales.
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Apr 27, 2014 16:26
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Sea Otter posted:Yeah. They haven't revealed the info since it's confidential but my "impression" is something similar. In any case, Obsidian seem to have managed to keep the IP and their own development process. I thought it was clarified in no uncertain words that Paradox is basically there to manufacture and sell boxed copies for them in Europe.
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Apr 27, 2014 17:59
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That and handle other physical fulfillments, PR, and similar publisher things. It's still completely our IP and product to develop.
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Apr 27, 2014 18:27
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Sorry, just going back to that article again - the Skyrim style game they were making in their Project Eternity universe isn't intended to be a AAA 3D first person game funded by someone else, but a similar Infinity Engine style game using their tech that is open-world in the vein of Skyrim. They talk about it in This old RockpaperShotgun interview quote:“What I’m trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC – forget console for now – with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity? Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?”
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Apr 27, 2014 19:08
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Not so sure:quote:Where do you see Obsidian in five years?
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Apr 27, 2014 19:10
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coffeetable posted:As an aside, Feargus mentions it'd take $15m minimum to turn out a AAA game, which is equivalent to ~700,000 full-price $35 sales of PE at a 60% profit margin. Some interesting comparison points: first that PE has ~120,000 backers already according to another Feargus interview (up from 75,000 in the Kickstarter), which suggests that 700k sales might be in reach, and second that The Witcher 2 had ~250,000 digital sales in it's first six months, which suggests 700k sales would be incredible. Here's another comparison point, different genre and release model obviously but, Broken Age had 87k initial backers and came out to rave reviews, and only sold 70k copies after 2 months. I encourage people to watch the latest episode of the Double Fine documentary if they have access, it focuses on the post-release sales side of things and it's super interesting.
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Apr 27, 2014 19:42
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Scorchy posted:Here's another comparison point, different genre and release model obviously but, Broken Age had 87k initial backers and came out to rave reviews, and only sold 70k copies after 2 months. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Apr 27, 2014 |
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Apr 27, 2014 19:58
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Sea Otter posted:Also, while Feargus refers "we", how many of his employees want to work on AAA games? I read some of them complaining of spending their time on bug-fixing due to the added layers rather than more creative tasks and inflexibility in changing writing after voice-recording process. Beyond that, the ~100 person staff the studio has in hale times needs to get paid and that doesn't happen if they don't more than one 8 figure project to work on. The amount of people dedicated to PoE seems comparitively small. There are people who probably chip in but their paychecks are being written by that shady Russian conglomerate.
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Apr 27, 2014 19:58
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Scorchy posted:Here's another comparison point, different genre and release model obviously but, Broken Age had 87k initial backers and came out to rave reviews, and only sold 70k copies after 2 months. You can't compare the two. Broken Age had been (gutted is too harsh a term) explored in the entertainment news for its management issues and was split in half before release. I've NEVER bought just the first episode of an episodic game, and there are probably MANY like me.
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Apr 27, 2014 21:07
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zedprime posted:I thought it was clarified in no uncertain words that Paradox is basically there to manufacture and sell boxed copies for them in Europe. rope kid posted:That and handle other physical fulfillments, PR, and similar publisher things. It's still completely our IP and product to develop. Basic Chunnel posted:Beyond that, the ~100 person staff the studio has in hale times needs to get paid and that doesn't happen if they don't more than one 8 figure project to work on. The amount of people dedicated to PoE seems comparitively small. Sea Otter posted:The part which I feel uneasy is that, hypothetically, if I were to pledge on such project, it would not be for the game itself but to help them keep the IP and employees, which feels like kind of hostage situation. So, it's nice to see that Feargus seems to have a better plan...fingers-crossed.
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Apr 27, 2014 21:18
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Accordion Man posted:Thing is Broken Age got split into two parts, so a lot of people are waiting for the whole game to come out before buying it. People do the same thing with Telltale and their games. I guarantee that once Part 2 comes out the sales will start rising. Eternity won't have that problem so I think it'll be raking in profits faster. Maybe, but I'm still a bit worried at the pricepoint the game is at (which I'd say is still fair, but new players might be wary). But then, I'm angling to buy people I know the game anyway to pad out some of those sales, hopefully to introduce them to the genre and garner some more interest. Edit:vvvv I meant PoE, not Broken Age evilmiera fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Apr 27, 2014 |
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Apr 27, 2014 21:41
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evilmiera posted:Maybe, but I'm still a bit worried at the pricepoint the game is at (which I'd say is still fair, but new players might be wary). But then, I'm angling to buy people I know the game anyway to pad out some of those sales, hopefully to introduce them to the genre and garner some more interest. If you want to introduce them to the genre, the Blackwell games a really nicely done, too.
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Apr 27, 2014 21:58
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evilmiera posted:Maybe, but I'm still a bit worried at the pricepoint the game is at (which I'd say is still fair, but new players might be wary). But then, I'm angling to buy people I know the game anyway to pad out some of those sales, hopefully to introduce them to the genre and garner some more interest.
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Apr 27, 2014 22:05
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I'm optimistic about Pillars of Eternity's sales prospects. It isn't an adventure game getting released in 2014; it's a party based fantasy RPG, and there are plenty of examples of really successful fantasy RPGs in recent years. Dragon Age I suppose isn't all that recent any more but it's of the same genre and it did really well. The main issue is that it's not likely to have a huge marketing push behind it, although Paradox are presumably going to be promoting it some extent so there's that going for it.
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Apr 27, 2014 22:08
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Accordion Man posted:Even if people find the launch price a bit steep Obsidian will still make a total killing when Steam sales roll around. I really wouldn't be that worried really, I mean everything Obsidian gets from Eternity is just pure profit now. Maybe, but keeping entirely to budget can be tricky, and even if they do make a profit, if it isn't big enough to warrant/pay for an expansion or continued work in the setting that's certainly going to lead to some problems. I guess my avatar is a bit too accurate because I'm just worried about my favorite developer I guess 
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Apr 27, 2014 22:16
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Drifter posted:I've NEVER bought just the first episode of an episodic game, and there are probably MANY like me. (Curse you Valve.)
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Apr 27, 2014 23:16
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FRINGE posted:Halflife 2? 
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Apr 27, 2014 23:19
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So, can you guys at Obsidian make it so that you can use crafting materials from a chest or something rather than having them in your inventory when you're in your stronghold? It's not really a big thing, but it makes things require less busywork to manage when you can just toss your crafting materials in a chest and then forget about them until you need them, unlike in the older games where you have to carry that Widget until you can get the Thingymabob to make the Gadget, wasting inventory space and weight.
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Apr 28, 2014 00:05
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SunAndSpring posted:So, can you guys at Obsidian make it so that you can use crafting materials from a chest or something rather than having them in your inventory when you're in your stronghold? It's not really a big thing, but it makes things require less busywork to manage when you can just toss your crafting materials in a chest and then forget about them until you need them, unlike in the older games where you have to carry that Widget until you can get the Thingymabob to make the Gadget, wasting inventory space and weight. IIRC, your inventory comprises
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Apr 28, 2014 00:13
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Otto Skorzeny posted:There's not enough tea in the world to make a Wheel of Time RPG There is sort of a Wheel of Time RPG, but it's a FPS/RPG hybrid. The singleplayer was a weird puzzle-spellcasting thing with some combat and the multiplayer was so far ahead of it's time, it's only now starting to be rediscovered (the old Orcs Must Die was bascially 1-player Wheel of Time multiplayer, while the new Orcs Must Die MOBA sounds like it's straight up Wheel of Time multiplayer).
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Apr 28, 2014 00:51
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Incidentally, I hold an irrational grudge against the late Robert Jordan.
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Apr 28, 2014 01:09
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Otto Skorzeny posted:Incidentally, I hold an irrational grudge against the late Robert Jordan. But how do you feel about the post-late-Robert Jordan Robert Jordan?
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Apr 28, 2014 01:18
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coffeetable posted:Considering the amount of thought that's gone into eliminating inventory juggling, I'd guess that crafting kit is taken directly from the stash when it's needed.
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Apr 28, 2014 06:36
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Drifter posted:You can't compare the two. Broken Age had been (gutted is too harsh a term) explored in the entertainment news for its management issues and was split in half before release. I've NEVER bought just the first episode of an episodic game, and there are probably MANY like me. I got episode 1 of Broke Age regardless as I was a backer, however if I had to buy it then I would have waited until I knew they were making episode 2.
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Apr 28, 2014 11:49
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Will Rangers (or some sort of Survival / nature skill) affect the camp supplies requirement for outdoor resting? Will you be able to discover or create rudimentary camp supplies while in the wild if you have the necessary skills/items? Will there be "failed" resting attempts (ambushed by enemies), and if so, are there any consequences like loss of camp supplies, negative status effects, inability to immediately rest again, etc?
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Apr 28, 2014 14:58
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Eddain posted:Will Rangers (or some sort of Survival / nature skill) affect the camp supplies requirement for outdoor resting? Will you be able to discover or create rudimentary camp supplies while in the wild if you have the necessary skills/items? It would be nice if there were things that affected your camping supplies or enemy avoidance at the expense of, say, health regeneration or something. I know at some point it starts looking like you're just playing a spreadsheet game, but if you're a ranger or hunter of some kind I wouldn't expect it'd be hard to use less supplies or resupply over the night (because you've hunted or gathered or something), and also if you absolutely need to not fight enemies because you have super low health you should be able to increase your chances of avoiding enemies ambushing you at the expense of getting enough sleep to heal you completely or something. I don't know.
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Apr 28, 2014 15:08
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There are no random encounters on resting:Josh Sawyer posted:We don't have random encounters on rest. Resting always takes 8 hours and will restore characters to full Health, remove Maimed and other long-term afflictions, and restore all per-rest abilities/item charges.
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Apr 28, 2014 15:31
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Will there be any sort of mechanic to discourage players from doing the old 1 rest per fight trick? I remember cheesing certain portions of Icewind Dale II by doing this, even in areas where it made no sense like uncleared forts.
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Apr 28, 2014 15:55
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VanSandman posted:Will there be any sort of mechanic to discourage players from doing the old 1 rest per fight trick? I remember cheesing certain portions of Icewind Dale II by doing this, even in areas where it made no sense like uncleared forts. Supplies and civilized resting bonuses. Also not being built on a horrible hulk of DnD rules allowing saner encounter tuning but I might be approaching polemic level with that comment.
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Apr 28, 2014 16:03
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VanSandman posted:Will there be any sort of mechanic to discourage players from doing the old 1 rest per fight trick? I remember cheesing certain portions of Icewind Dale II by doing this, even in areas where it made no sense like uncleared forts. Resting spends supplies, an item type that has a fairly low inventory cap (I think 6 in total at the easiest difficulty?) and have to be bought/found in the world.
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Apr 28, 2014 16:17
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Eddain posted:Will Rangers (or some sort of Survival / nature skill) affect the camp supplies requirement for outdoor resting? Will you be able to discover or create rudimentary camp supplies while in the wild if you have the necessary skills/items?
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Apr 28, 2014 23:04
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rope kid posted:Nothing affects the camp supplies requirement. It would be sweet if you could toggle/increase that in the options.
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Apr 28, 2014 23:19
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BigFatFlyingBloke posted:I got episode 1 of Broke Age regardless as I was a backer, however if I had to buy it then I would have waited until I knew they were making episode 2. And you could probably get it at 50+% discount in steam, before final episode is released. (Telltale seasons  )
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Apr 29, 2014 01:29
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Gyshall posted:It would be sweet if you could toggle/increase that in the options. I know some gamers get really angry when others don't play single player games in the most hardcore fashion. And invent words like save scumming to really show how wrong it is to play a game to have fun. But I would also have liked a way to change that part of the game. I must admit I don't quite understand a need to even limit resting, but then again I used save game editors in all the IE games, having a game be a challenge is clearly not a priority for me.
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Apr 29, 2014 07:06
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