Obsidian's "Pillars of Eternity"

[Lucas]

Nah, it will never get funded  

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

Obsidian Entertainment and our legendary game designers Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, and Josh Sawyer are excited to bring you a new role-playing game for the PC. Project Eternity (working title) pays homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.


Project Eternity aims to recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPGs that we enjoyed making - and playing. At Obsidian, we have the people responsible for many of those classic games and we want to bring those games back… and that’s why we’re here - we need your help to make it a reality!

[rk47]

Oh, they ran out of shitty sequels to make huh? 

[Hawkbit]

I've watched it jump $10,000 in the three minutes I've watched the first half of the movie.  Heh.

[Ingmar]

Was just coming here to post this, and then going back to fund it.

[Amaron]

Oh, they ran out of sequels to ruin huh?  

FTFY

[koro]

I've liked every single Obsidian game I've played (with the exception of Dungeon Siege 3 which I haven't played) and most of the Black Isle games as well.

I will probably like this too.

[Sky]

For $20? Fuck yeah.

I HATELOVE KICKSTARTER AND I HAVE A PROBLEM

:)

[Bunk]

Well, that just officially made me sign up a kickstart account, dammit.

[Comstar]

Well, that just officially made me sign up a kickstart account, dammit.

If I was a millionaire, I would buy a NPC character. If I was a multi millionaire, I'd retire to a tavern. Instead, I'll just buy the Tshirt.

[schild]

This will get funded, but will never get an ending.

Edit: Also, this will cost more in the realm of $5M to make, easy. So the 1.1M is shooting way low.

[Soln]

Doh.  Just added it to the Kickstarter thread.   

Who cares?? Take meh moniies!

[Teleku]

Yeah, I just had to throw money at it.

[Lucas]

+Pledged: me wants collector's boxed version + tshirt+cloth map+ cloth patch 

[schild]

Commented in the Kickstarter thread, but pretty tempted to open the donation drive longer to try and get an f13 sponsored $1,000 level. >_>

[Amaron]

Seems they'll meet their goals sometime tomorrow.  I'll predict 4 million funding at the end.

[Ceryse]

This got me to back something on Kickstarter. I expect it to suck in some way, but god damn.. worth the risk.

[Zetor]

I foresee many hopes being dashed and illusions shattered.

That said, $20 suddenly found itself missing from my bank account 

[Amaron]

How exactly do they get the info for shipping the game anyways?  Does amazon give them an address or what?

[caladein]

They should ask in a survey through KS after the campaign finishes. Same with t-shirt sizes and such.

[Amaron]

Well it's official now.  Obsidian's website appears to be dying under load too.  If nothing else we can call this some seriously successful marketing.

[Lucas]

Funded in about 24 hours, lol. Now they'll post the so called "stretch goals" (they already talked about new areas, NPCs etc.)

[Simond]

Project Eternity is an isometric, party-based RPG set in a new fantasy world developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

Combat will be old-school. "It'll feel like Baldur's Gate 2. After discussions here, we decided to pursue a similar combat style to the [games on the Infinity Engine, like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale]—real time with pause. It'll offer the same breadth and depth of combat choices as you'd expect from combats in Baldur's Gate, and our combat system has been one of the first systems we've delved into for the Kickstarter."

The world is totally original. "It's fantasy with its own voice. Josh Sawyer has been leading the charge with the world and race creation—at first glance, players will recognize archetypes and seemingly-familiar landscapes, but often, we just use that as a means to draw you in and let you begin to see the subtleties and differences. Our first goal with the world creation was to make a world that's fun to explore first, and then construct the lore, factions, and conflicts around that."

This is a game with soul. "So there are a few things—we want the player to be able to build their own character, and we want the player to be able to evolve and grow. And this growth wouldn't be limited to the first game, but would continue into subsequent titles as well. The story and world is built around the concept of magic and power tied to a character's soul, and the player's soul and the souls of his companions are... special."

You won't get to create your own party. That's not a bad thing. "Much like Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment, the player creates one character and gathers a party while exploring the world. We'll be giving the companions as much love and attention as we've done in our titles in the past, from Torment all the way up to [Neverwinter Nights 2:] Mask of the Betrayer and Fallout: New Vegas. We don't want them to outshine the player, but support him and act as a sounding board for his decisions and choices in the game. Our desire is the player character and the companions (if they survive) will go beyond simply one title into future installments."

It will look like the old classic isometric games. "While Project: Eternity heralds back to the Infinity Engine games our fans have played, we'll be using a different engine and it will be isometric. We feel isometric lends itself to more tactical party-based play."

If the Kickstarter fails, they'll just try again. "[We'll] refine the idea, figure out what didn't work, then try again. The nice thing about KS is that you know in 30 days (often, less) if your idea doesn't resonate with the public, rather than 2-3 years down the line or trying to pump so many marketing dollars at people they become brainwashed into liking an idea that never resonated with them in the first place. (That's my final rant.)"

If the Kickstarter succeeds, this will be a franchise. "It means we FINALLY have a world of our own that we can build upon, not just for this title but for future releases down the line. We've wanted to do our own RPG world for a long, long time, and it's been hard to pursue outside of existing franchises. Project: Eternity is our chance to take all the RPG knowledge, mechanics, lore, and characterization we've learned over the years and turn it into the game our fans have been hungering for."

[Amaron]

The amount of people shelling out $250+ is impressive so far.  There are only 5,000 pledges left for the discount $20 dollar version of the game by the way.  Better get them fast if you want in.

[KallDrexx]

Maybe I'm broken, but I'd rather pay $40 or so between April - August then pay $20 now and not get to play anything until at least April 2014....

[Tannhauser]

Man, I hope this comes out, it would really scratch an itch of mine.  I love the old isometric RPG's.

[Amaron]

1.1 million, Base Goal – Achieved!
Base game includes three races, five classes, and five companions. We have ideas for these, but we want to hear your opinions on what you'd like to see. Stay tuned to Kickstarter, our website, and our forums to join in on the conversation.

1.4 million, New Playable Race, Class, and Companion!
Expands your options for character creation and adds a companion of the new class.

1.6 million, a Mac Version of Project Eternity and The Story Grows!
We've listened and we’ll make a Mac version of the game at this tier. We're also going to add a new major storyline along with new quests, locations, NPCs, and unique loot (special histories everyone?).

1.8 million, New Playable Race, Class, and Companion!
The options grow for your main character and the roster of your motley crew expands with the addition of a new companion from the selected class.

2.0 million, Player House!
Get your own house in the game that you can customize, store equipment in, and where your companions hang out, or, as the elves say, "chillax".

2.2 million, a new Region, a new Faction and another new Companion! And, dare we say it... ? LINUX!
Great news, everyone! For the Tarball Knights of Gzippia out there, we'll be adding Linux support!
Also, the world of Project Eternity grows in a major way with the inclusion of a whole new faction and the territory it holds. This adds new NPCs, quests, magic items, and hours of gameplay. And yes, you got it, another companion.

We've been listening to your feedback, and have the following announcements:

DRM Free: We are looking into it! Please check back for updates.

Some of those goals seem weird.  Extra companion?  Like they aren't going to put in enough companions unless they reach 2.2 million?  I don't want them wasting money on an endless stream of race/companion options.

[caladein]

Those are pretty standard stretch goals: the logic being more money in the budget, more features can be added (and have their accompanying art assets and testing done). Beyond that of course is that encourages more people to contribute and/or increase their amount with each "Hey, we're close to hitting this goal!" thing.

Only thing that jumps out at me is that Mac wasn't in the base budget already, but this does involve them building their own engine (Oh boy...) versus using something off-the-shelf like Unity (which is what Wasteland 2 uses).

[Hutch]

I got one of the last 100 $20 pledges.
They're up past 1.3 million pledged.
I note that their delivery estimate has moved out to April of 2014  

edit: hmm, unless it was always April 2014, and I'm mixing these guys up with a different KS

[Merusk]

A game dev saying "April 2014" means "December, 2015" right?

[Zetor]

I can't help but notice that "Game ships with a finished ending" is missing from the stretch goals.

[Kail]

I can't help but notice that "Game ships with a finished ending" is missing from the stretch goals.

Rumor is that they didn't have time to finish describing the stretch goals.  Some fans are working on a patch to restore the missing goals.

[calapine]

I can't help but notice that "Game ships with a finished ending" is missing from the stretch goals.

Rumor is that they didn't have time to finish describing the stretch goals.  Some fans are working on a patch to restore the missing goals.

e·ter·ni·ty  (-tûrn-t)
n. pl. e·ter·ni·ties
1.  A very long or seemingly endless time: waited in the dentist's office for an eternity.

It's right there in front of our eyes...  

[caladein]

I note that their delivery estimate has moved out to April of 2014  

edit: hmm, unless it was always April 2014, and I'm mixing these guys up with a different KS

Maybe, they changed it, but different tiers can have different deliverable dates so that might have been what you were looking at.

[Margalis]

Obsidian working without a publisher to force them to do QA sounds very dangerous. I expect a game with a large scope that barely functions.

[schild]

I have no intention of donating to this. I don't really donate to game stuff unless it's super indie and the chances of it coming out are better than, say, 80%. I give this a 10% chance of reaching the market in a state I care about. The comment about donations was merely because it would've been neat to have an f13 sponsored thing in it.