Obsidian's uncannily accurate recreation of South Park's art, animations, and fart jokes in its upcoming Stick of Truth RPG first came into being without a budget. Kotaku's lengthy profile of the storied studio revealed that CEO Feargus Urquhart and his team constructed early prototypes for show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker without financial support.
In the first art update for Obsidian's isometric RPG, Project Eternity, Rob Nesler, the game's art director, has provided some new prototype renders and information about how the game's artists are fleshing out the world. The basic gist is that they've got a lot of work ahead of them.
We've just finished moderating a live Project Eternity Q&A with the Obsidian team -- thank you to everyone who participated! Project Director/Lead Designer Josh Sawyer did most of the talking, but also in the chat with us were Obsidian CEO/President Feargus Urquhart, Project Manager/Lead Programmer Adam Brennecke, Gameplay Programmer Steve Weatherly, Senior Environment Artist Hector Espinoza, and Lead Sound Designer Justin Bell. If you missed it, the highlights and full transcript are after the jump.
With five days left to go in the Kickstarter for Obsidian's isometric RPG Project Eternity, the first-ever in-engine screenshot has been revealed. It depicts a temple entrance beside a very attractive waterfall. Alongside it, the biggest chunk of pure lore we've seen so far has been rolled out, which made me squirm in my chair with jubilation. Seriously. It was slightly embarrassing.
Obsidian's Project EternityKickstarter continues to absorb all human wealth with a hunger that lies somewhere between The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly and a supermassive black hole. They've now announced an additional $165 digital-only contribution tier that promises donors a copy of Wasteland 2 (inXile's Kickstarter-funded RPG sequel) as well.
And not only that! But contributions of $165 or more will snag you the first expansion pack for the game on top - which should ship six months after the game's release in April 2014.
Since the last time we checked in on Project Eternity, the upcoming Kickstarter-funded RPG from Obsidian, quite a bit has been revealed. Having already blown past several stretch goals and with just over a week left in the campaign, we've collected all the crunchy info that there is to collect on the game so far.
Evan returns from the depths of space to join Tyler, Omri, and T.J. in discussing all things Project Eternity. Also kind of a lot of things are coming out right now, and we go over the big ones including Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, FTL, Black Mesa, and Mists of Pandaria. You'll also not just hear, but experience, updates on what's going on with BioWare and Bohemia, a new special segment in which T.J. administers shotgun blasts to the face to all of his coworkers, and extended FTL and XCOM discussion in Playlists.
The instant success of Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter, which reached its $1.1 million goal in under two days, has been getting a lot of attention in the games industry. According to a comment posted on Kickstarter by Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, however, the idea has received unwanted attention, too: publishers trying to work their way into the fan-developer relationship before it started.
Project Eternity, Obsidian's crowd-funded RPG, has already raised $1.5M in crowd money. Last weekend, the developer announced stretch goals which stretch to "2.4 million and beyond." Today, the intro to Pink Floyd's "Money" inexplicably looped in the airspace over Irvine, California for six hours.
But also today, Obsidian posted a forum update revealing more details on what the internet's grant will produce, including info on character creation, party tactics, and the story set-up. Read Project Director J.E. Sawyer's complete post inside.
Obsidian's secretive countdown to an unnamed project prophetically featuring "a lone voice crying out in mourning" ticked to zero today and unveiled Project Eternity, the working title of an isometric, party-based tribute to classic Infinity Engine games of yore.
An apparent countdown has appeared on RPG developer Obsidian's site. It depicts a number four in the middle of a serpent eating its own tail (reminiscent of the Norse Jormungandr or Classical Ouroboros). The caption beneath reads: "What do the words mean? Nothing. The Dirge of Eír Glanfath is sound without form, a lone voice crying out in mourning because it must."
The newest addition to Steam's catalog today is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Obsidian Entertainment's followup to the 2003 RPG from BioWare and a direct threat to your weekend's free time.
Well, this is a pleasant punch of the nostalgia button: Fallout and Icewind Dale creator Black Isle Studios breathes life anew.
The last New Vegas DLC pack, Lonesome Road, finally has a release date, with September 20th marking the weary Courier's final delivery to the Mojave. This pack promises to answer the long-hanging question of why you were the one sent to deliver Mr. House's Platinum Chip, courtesy of a trip into the Divide from which no-one ever returns and a much-anticipated meeting with the mysterious "Ulysees". The pack boosts your maximum level by 5, but still doesn't let you continue wandering after the end of the story. Expect it for £7.49 / $9.99, along with two new packs of pre-order DLC and extra guns to play with.
So far, the New Vegas DLC has been up and down. Dead Money was a fun premise but not particularly great, Honest Hearts finally introduced a certain celebrity but was otherwise fairly forgettable. The most recent pack, Old World Blues, was excellent though, taking you out of the desert and into a comedy world of mad science and just regularly angry science. It picked up 83% in our most recent issue.
You'll find the first screenshots of Lonesome Road arranged below, featuring rockets and rocket launchers.
Its heart may be in the right place, but Fallout: New Vegas—Honest Hearts’ story puts the unexciting gameplay to shame.
Obsidian is busy as a beehive these days, both prepping Dungeon Siege III for a June launch and putting the final touches on Honest Hearts, the second DLC batch for Fallout: New Vegas. Honest Hearts will send players off the Mojave map and into the wilderness of Utah's Zion National Park to defend a caravan from tribal raiders. Like the first DLC, Dead Money, the story will pick up the story of a mentioned-but-not-seen character from the main game, The Burned Man.
I wasn't super-wild about Dead Money - though it was a great story, the repetitive level design and obnoxious beeping explosive collar took a chunk of the fun out of it. But the first Fallout 3 DLC, Operation Anchorage, was pretty weak too, and then we got the much better Broken Steel, The Pitt, and Point Lookout (let's not talk about Mothership Zeta), so I'm still very much looking forward to exploring Honest Hearts next week. Click Read and Comment to see the latest batch of screenshots.
