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Project Eternity: Obsidians Latest RPG
bcrankshaw
Member Posts: 547
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity
http://forums.obsidian.net/forum/88-project-eternity-speculation-discussion/
Hi All
As some of you may know Obsidian has announced there latest RPG that will be Kickstarter funded, its called Project Eternity and it looks amazing. It has raised $850,000.00 in 1 day on Kickstarter, I have never seen a game get funded so quickly in my life.
Check out the video above. It once again highlights the support for party and turn based RPG that have an isometric view. Similar to your classic games like Baldurs Gate and NWN. This really bodes well for those who miss the era of cRPG. If you think about it makes the reliance, and the influence, of publishers almost non-existent. So the likes of Obsidian can make games exactly what the fans want. No "dumbed down" console adaptations 
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
Comments
In all seriousness, I need to see some actual game world concept art work before i will put up any money. Not alot, Just to give a clearer picture of what im 'investing' in.
Also, Nice name droping but that means very little, Judge the game not the company/developers.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
I'm don't understand part of your comment, sorry. Are you saying that I shouldn't be mentioning that this is an Obsidian initiative? Do you realize who Obsidian are and what games they created or contributed to in the past. Have you watched the video
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
This is not anyway a shot at you or the company. Its a comment about this kick starter item.
Yes i watched the video, I saw people talking about their hopes and dreams for the product with some artwork plugged from the previously released titles.
The problem is, they didnt show enough concept artwork or representation of the game they are trying to pitch. For example i did not see a concept image for how the game world would look. They spoke about how they wanted it, i just need to see a 'model' before i personally can put any money on it.
I don't care about a companies history, I don't care what games they released previously. I care about there current pitch. just because they made some good games in the past does not mean their gona churn out shit on this particular title.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Okay I understand what you mean, and due to the failures of many games that have been released lately its completely reasonable.
I guess for me I believe in Obsidian and I believe in what they are promising. Of course I may be horribly disappointed but thats a chance I'll take
You must remember that Kickstarter is offering us the first real paradigm shift of how games can and will be developed, I'll continuing supporting them until I see the model is a failure. The alternative is continue to let publishers determine how the game should be developed. For the record I am not "anti-publishers" as I understand there role and the finances that they provide. I am opposed to the range of RPG we have seen lately that have been simplified for a variety of reasons.
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
Just make you wonder did thay bandy this around to all the usual suspects and get a negative response for backing this game,even though the public are backing this genre on Kickstarter maybe the big publishers then did not give the green light.
If so this could be the catalyst for other major dev studios to go this route at least then they would have creative control and as said in the vid make the games they are passionate about and still be able to produce games for publishers,while funding side projects like this through Kickstarter.
Same here. There's virtually zero actual exposure on the actual game. I'm very happy to see crowd-funding enabling game designs and genres that are usually underserved due to publisher priorities in their market approaches, and the track record is certainly "these are the guys to do this!" ~ BUT:
I'm happy to let others fund this one and buy it if it turns out good, because I can't evaluate whether I will like a host of things about it:
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I think you have made really relevant points. And yes most publishers won't invest in this type of game as they make more money from a Console and PC version.
I think one of the reasons that Obsidian went this route was the huge funding success of Wasteland 2. A company like Obsidian, until now, would receive a relatively small part of the money made from games like ME and DA. The majority of the revenue would go to the publisher. Say you were part of the development team of Bioware and had produced games like DA1 and DA2, both these games were entertaining but no where near as complex or enjoyable as Baldurs 1&2 for most of the original fans. As a developer you would be aware of the criticism but the reality is you were constrained by what EA had decided was the direction you had to take the game so you accepted it and went to work everyday as you had bills to pay
Now there is a way to pay bills but not be dictated to by someone else, and you would get more revenue from the overall project. Why wouldn't you rather follow the Kickstarter project. So I believe we will be seeing more of these initiatives from prominent developers and there companies. It does bode well
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
When I see a AAA company doing a Kickstarter it always makes me a little leary of the project. It's not really that I don't trust Obsidian as they have released more than their fair share of great games over the years. It's really just that it tells me that they probably pitched this to their investors and they couldn't get any money to get this project started so now they want to put the risk on the general populace. I mean I think Kickstarter is great for Indy Developers as it's usually their only way of funding larger projects than they would be normally able to fund themselves but AAA developers have Investors and in many cases their own capital to fund projects. This to me at least screams..."We don't want to risk our own money so we'll risk yours!"
Bren
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You think its easy to get funding to make a hardcore iso view turnbased RPG?
How many games have we seen like Planescape Torment in the last decade or so?
Now if they made a console FPS/action rpg, with heavy cinematics and tact on multiplayer, sure they can get funding...
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
Not sure about this. If the investors are anticipating ROI at a certain level to fund, then they'll surely take a percentage/royalties etc in any deal?
VS
Kickstarter: Get game funded: All profits to devs AND creative freedom from publisher insisting on maximizing market trends??
Eg how much does NCSoft take from ArenaNet for GW2? Is that one reason why a bunch of those guys set out to make Undead Labs (where they have a much more equal equity among employees)? IE the guys at the top might be getting a decent cut, but that just means it's a good idea to set your own company up so you can either be the guys at the top or ditch the publisher or strike a better deal in another form?
The major thing a publisher used to have was marketing and of course investment at a (substantial) cut.
==
Just mentioning this is already funded >1m$ and 31 days still to go!
Funded:
27,252 backers
$1,114,100: pledged of $1,100,000 goal
<p hide-suspended"="">31 days to go
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Much of the economy is founded on investors putting their faith in individuals or groups to deliver a solid product. It's a risk, but you have to donate your money knowing this.
I understand wanting to wait to see more, but I don't think there is anything wrong with donating money based on reputation alone. You just have to accept that there is a chance you may be throwing that money away.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
It's definitely a good way to bypass the publisher taking a big slice of profits. Also creative freedom.
But that all said, I'm loathe to support this - there is ZERO VISIBILITY on the actual game. If they have or give something to base an impression on, I'd be delighted to kickstart. But I'm holding firm on: Show nothing - get nothing, at least as far as I am concerned.
In fact the lack of VISIBILITY of the project is so low, it's actually a kickstarter BAD PRACTICE irrespective of reputation or final delivery of product quality.
This Kickstarter project gets a big: X
nb: I'm glad it's funded!
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-18-project-eternity-interview-new-information-tentative-spring-2014-release-date
They should have added this at launch: Tons of Info (considering there was almost 0.0 !)
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
This is the reason i did not back this game... no in game footage at all..
hell even the small small indie companies post footage of their games up..
Its good that its got funded but without footage of the game i was not gonna back this one..
Just to add to the voice of others here..
I did original see this project over at kickstarter.. but I did not fund it, why?
I have no F'N clue what the game is about!
...not concept art, no details of when its going to be released, how big it is..no gameplay.
pretty much these peopel said:
We have a company, we want to make game, we want monies..
here take a video of another game from 15 years ago!
/thread
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yeah after looking at that it at least sounds a lot better. Now we just need a brief gameplay video.
Informations and footage about various aspects are yet vague. But I think they'll provide more informations with time.
The main thing of interest (for people that apreciate such games) is that it's going to be a "party based" CRPG with isometric view. In hommage to older titles like Baldur's gate, Icewind Dale or Planescape Torment. They haven't yet given much clues about the game mechanics. But it's definitely not going to be D&D. Instead they are going to do something of their own. This way you don't have to negociate with IP holders like Hasbro/WotC.
Let's face it. If you played "newer" games like Neverwinter Nights 2 or Dragon Age controlling a whole party was rather tedious. It ended up being
The game engines of the latter two titles allowed changing camera angles (up to certain degrees), but controls were a bit clunky. And more often you simply spent lots of time to readjust the camera angle.
Modern CRPGs/MMOs have a preference for 1st person view/3rd person view. Neither perspective makes a game good or bad. The games and gameplay are just different. 1st person view/3rd person view are just not really that suited for games where the player controls a whole party.
It's an interesting idea to go a bit "retro".
This is a bad example as Ncsoft own Arenanet lock, stock and barrel so they take it all.
I initially though the same "why do Obsidian need Kickstarter funding" but from what others have said it makes sense because of the nature of the game, isometric, turn based is not going to wow the modern day ME, TES player I'm afraid and add to that its a Mature rating it puts them firmly in the 100,000's to low Millions of sales and no big developoer is interested in that market. Though my interest is peeked so I shall keep an eye on this.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
Like Creslin says you need to have some faith you are really investing your money on Obsidians reputation and like all investments they can go down and as well as up. Do you think Obsidians rep is worth your money is the only question you have to ask yourself.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
"If the investors are anticipating ROI at a certain level to fund"
I think this is the critical point. if you have two genres of game and one has an average ROI of 2 and the other has an average ROI of 4 then they are both potentially profitable but one is potentially *more* profitable than the other so from an investor's point of view it makes sense to prefer the second type of game and push developers towards the second type of game.
Kickstarter seems great for situations like that.