Obsidian Entertainment's Kickstarter: Project Eternity

[Sabretooth]

Some of you may have been following the teasing Obsidian's been doing the past week, but all of you need to look at this. Like, right now.

 

[youtube=hd]

 

Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.

 

Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to success. The world map is dotted with unique locations and wilderness ripe for exploration and questing. You’ll create your own character and collect companions along the way – taking him or her not just through this story, but, with your continued support, through future adventures. You will engage in dialogues that are deep, and offer many choices to determine the fate of you and your party. …and you'll experience a story that explores mature themes and presents you with complex, difficult choices to shape how your story plays out.

 

We need to raise $1.1 million to fund an experienced team to do this right. We are asking for more than a lot of the other Kickstarter projects and that’s because we are not only making a game, we are creating a whole new world. That means a new RPG system, entirely new art, new characters and animation and whole lot of lore and dialogue. We’ve also designed the game to have a flexible budget and scope, so if we reach our target budget goal, we have a list great stuff we can add into the mix through stretch goals. And, additional money we raise will go straight into the game to add new levels, companions, NPCs, features, and even entirely new parts of the world which will add hours and hours to the adventure.

 

It'll be coming out in April 2014 (expected), and is set for what is a *very* ambitious 1.1 million, which may seem like peanuts in the video games industry, but is enormous in Kickstarter. The nearest project that *achieved* $1.1 million was a music project by Amanda Palmer that made $1.19 million - at 1,192% funding.

 

If things go well, this has every chance of being the biggest, most ambitious and most ground-breaking Kickstarter project yet. You can chip in $20 to get the game itself on Steam when it comes out.

 

It's been up for about a half hour and it's already 8% funded (with the highest funding reward filled).

 

Here's an interview about the project with Feargus Urquhart.

 

Key points:

 

*While we plan to improve some things based upon what we think fans of the older games expect now-a-days (like the interface), Project Eternity is going to play and feel like an Infinity Engine game.

 

*On top of Josh Sawyer, Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, and Adam Brennecke, we have a few other people working on technology and an entirely new rendering method that should surprise everyone when we are able to show it off.

 

*Chris Avellone said it best when he talked about how we want tackle Mature subject matter. We are already getting to make South Park which gets all of the “dick and fart jokes” out of our system. In Project Eternity, we want to tell a story that treats players like adults. Does that mean sensationalistic topics – potentially. It means more that if a story is going in a direction our designers don’t need to shy away from how it concludes.

 

*Our goal is to use voice over as flavor and not as something that exists for every written word in the game. We don’t want to cut down on the depth of dialogs or the number of choices that players have because we are counting voice over dollars. That means, like practically every Obsidian project to date, we are going to push the boundaries of reactivity in our dialogs. And, the more we get funded the more we can do that.

 

*We are still rolling up the system, but our goals are very much along the lines of creating a robust and multi-faceted RPG system. That means having a huge focus on support abilities and not just combat ones.

 

*We will be talking about the magic system more in the coming week and months, but we are tying magic and overall potential of all characters to the power of a character’s soul. Player characters and companions are among the people in the world with great potential, those with "unbroken" or "strong" souls. As for the spell types, we’ll definitely see spells that give that us that D&D feeling. But, we want to use the connection between power and the soul as an added factor into every part of the character development system – including magic.

 

*The core to a great RPG is having all matter of quests and that’s what we are going to do in Project Eternity. If every quest was a Fed-Ex quest then that isn’t fun, but having some quests like that round out the types of quests we can offer and I know I appreciate the occasional easy quest. That’s really the other aspect of a well-crafted RPG. There are the intense times where the quests are deep, every choice matters, and the fallout from choosing one way or another spider webs across the game. While others are lighter, fun, but less earth-shattering. Both types are needed to keep the ebb and flow of the game fun. Ultimately though, we are going to walk the line between quality and quantity – tons of single step delivery quests makes an RPG feel shallow, while only a few super complex quests leaves the world feeling empty.

 

* We don’t just want the world to feel unique but everything in it as well. That means creating unique items that fit into the world and have their own descriptions, histories, and potentially, their own personalities.

 

*When we looked at whether to go the Icewind Dale route or the Torment / Baldur’s Gate route, we felt the latter tied much better into the focus we are going to put into the story and character development. We want the central character to be one that players will hopefully not just play through Project Eternity with, but into sequels as well. Like Torment and Baldur’s Gate, players will find companions to join their party – crafted by the incredible talents of Chris Avellone and Josh Sawyer. When it comes to how they will improve – that is something we are still considering and would love to hear what fans out there think.

 

*First and foremost it is going to made on and for the PC (Windows). Our hope is to add Mac and Linux versions as we get farther along with the technology and based upon the success of the Kickstarter campaign.

[JCarter426]

I noticed. I haven't donated yet... biding my time.

It'll be coming out in April 2014 (expected), and is set for what is a *very* ambitious 1.1 million, which may seem like peanuts in the video games industry, but is enormous in Kickstarter. The nearest project that *achieved* $1.1 million was a music project by Amanda Palmer that made $1.19 million - at 1,192% funding.

That's not right. There have been quite a few that passed a million. Wasteland 2's starting point was 900,000, with a final of over 2.9 million, plus additional PayPal donations for a grand total of over 3 million. And it's not that ambitious, seeing as how it's 35% there already... which was to be expected judging by Wasteland 2's previous success. And it's not even the most funded video game...

 

Halfway there now.

[Sabretooth]

I noticed. I haven't donated yet... biding my time.

 

That's not right. There have been quite a few that passed a million. Wasteland 2's starting point was 900,000, with a final of over 2.9 million, plus additional PayPal donations for a grand total of over 3 million. And it's not that ambitious, seeing as how it's 35% there already... which was to be expected judging by Wasteland 2's previous success. And it's not even the most funded video game...

 

Halfway there now.

 

There have been, but like the Palmer project, they have been grossly overfunded as well. If this game gets to just 100%, it will be in the Kickstarter Top 10. Going by the trend, it will likely go well beyond 100%. It already has the highest target goal of video game Kickstarters, and therefore has the serious potential to be the biggest project in Kickstarter ever.

[DarthParametric]

I suspect the final total will end up around 3.5 mil, just slipping past Double Fine to make it the highest funded video game, but a long way short of the highest funded game related projects (i.e. Ouya) and the various other big players in other categories (like the Pebble). They are already at 730K at the time of writing though just a day in (or not even), so who knows. It would actually be cool to see them break 10 mil, but I can't see it maintaining that much stamina.

 

I'm interested to see a bit more info about setting. I'm kind of over generic fantasy at this point, and Sawyer's blog the other day seemed to suggest they probably won't be going for the approach of subverting genre tropes. With the whole RTwP and playing up the Infinity engine spiritual successor angle, I can't help but think this is trending towards being a fairly mass market style of game, rather than the more niche focussed type of thing you'd expect on Kickstarter.

[MsFicwriter]

DarthParametric, I have some questions for you:

 

1) What is RTwP?

2) If by "niche-focused", do you mean "more in the style of Arcanum than DA2"?

3) I'm wary of sending in $20 for a game that's not even in official dev. Is this a stickup?

[Hallucination]

3) I'm wary of sending in $20 for a game that's not even in official dev. Is this a stickup?

Just so you know, if a Kickstarter project doesn't get enough funding no money is taken from the people who pledged.

[DarthParametric]

What is RTwP?

RTwP = Real Time with Pause. In other words, the system used in all the Infinity engine games (i.e. Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale 1&2, Planescape: Torment). This is a halfway house between turn-based (e.g. Fallout 1&2) and real-time (action button mashers of Diablo's ilk), designed to give you some measure of strategy and tactics but up the pace to something more suitable for a mainstream audience.

 

If by "niche-focused", do you mean "more in the style of Arcanum than DA2"?

More or less. Something that adheres more to the roots of the genre than the watered down console action games that pass for RPGs these days. An IE-alike is certainly welcome (BG2 is my favourite game after all), but it does seem they are definitely leaning towards more of a mainstream game than what some of us might otherwise have expected (or been previously lead to believe).

 

I'm wary of sending in $20 for a game that's not even in official dev. Is this a stickup?

You're unfamiliar with Kickstarter I take it? The whole point of it is to fund new projects starting from the ground up, not to pay for existing products. Is that a gamble? Absolutely. As Hallucination said, you won't be charged unless the project passes its funding goal (having just sailed past 800K at the time of writing makes that a surety), but beyond that the risk is entirely on you. If a project is funded but fails to deliver on its promises then you are on your own - Kickstarter absolves itself of all responsibility. I'm sure we'll see this happening in the next year or two, small indie teams that have taken in money but are unable to meet their commitments. I would say in this instance that if you feel unable to gamble a measly $20 on a company the size of Obsidian, Kickstarter is really not for you. Assuming they reach their targeted release window, you can always wait and pick up a copy of the finished game via Steam or whatever other platforms they go with in early 2014.

[JCarter426]

There have been, but like the Palmer project, they have been grossly overfunded as well. If this game gets to just 100%, it will be in the Kickstarter Top 10. Going by the trend, it will likely go well beyond 100%. It already has the highest target goal of video game Kickstarters, and therefore has the serious potential to be the biggest project in Kickstarter ever.

Given that the most funded in that category alone is over 8.5 million, I don't see how any of that can be true.

 

Granted it got to 80% in under a day...

[DarthParametric]

Order of the Stick holds the #10 spot of funded projects at $1.25 mil, but that will be knocked off by Homestuck when it finishes in a few weeks (it's already at $1.25 mil). So no, just reaching its target would not put it in the top 10. But it's fairly obvious that Eternity will surpass its target by a fair margin. As I said before, I expect it to sneak past Double Fine with about 3.5 mil, which would put it, on current figures, at #3 on the list (and a long way short of Ouya at #2).

[JCarter426]

And now it's funded!

[Q]

Obsidian, huh?

 

[DarthParametric]

Stretch goals announced - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/309364

 

With only 5 companions in the base game, I wonder if they are actually planning on IE-like 6 member party? I really hope so, but you'd think they'd have at least a couple of extras. Seeing as further stretch goals add an additional class and a companion of that same class, I wonder if that means the base game only has 5 classes?

[Taak Farst]

I want to see them hit all the stretch goals, as they will just make the game good. new region, player housing etc? hell yeah.

I've paid my 20.

[JCarter426]

Well, it has surpassed OOTS and Homestuck, placing it in the top ten. Two thousand backers a day at the $25 level would give it another million and a half. So it's safe to say everything they just listed will be met.

[Q]

Well, Obsidian (and their fanboys/girls) have always used the "B-b-but-but BUUUUSH!" oh, wait, I'm sorry, the "B-b-but-but-(insert relevant publisher's name here) excuse for their previous disappointments (read: failures). Here's their chance to finally prove that they can create more than an infuriatingly glitchy ant farm of a game, and a complete one, at that.

 

No pressure, Obsidian. I'll be waiting.

 

 

EDIT: I have usually held their writing in high regard, however.

 

/negative nancy

[JCarter426]

They've reached their first goal (new race and class, and a new companion of that class) and released some more details. Among them is a confirmation that the maximum party size is 6 characters, same as PS:T, twice KOTOR's.

[DarthParametric]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-18-project-eternity-interview-new-information-tentative-spring-2014-release-date

[mimartin]

2.4 Million –No Minigames.

 

2.6 Million – Fix Bugs

 

Really hope they get to the 2.6 Million plateau

 

I invested, mimartin will be in the credits, so if it sucks you can blame me.

[Achilles]

2.8 Million - Hardcore mode

 

3.0 Million - Drew Karpyshyn has to sharpen pencils for the writing team while wearing a dunce cap.

 

Unfortunately, it will be few weeks before I am able to invest, but I will be in the credits as well. Hopefully, it will be close to 3.0 million at that point because I would hate to have to rob a bank to make that stretch goal happen.

[leXX]

Donated my $20 a couple days ago as soon as I read about it.

[JCarter426]

Another update, quite a few things this time. Download is now a choice between Steam and GOG.com. There are new digital reward levels. You can add extra game downloads to any reward. And anyone pledging $140 and above gets access to the beta.

 

Oh, and they hit 1.6 million yesterday, so there's a Mac version and some other stuff now.

[DarthParametric]

So they did better than I expected. Just shy of 4mil on Kickstarter, but the extra 150+K via PayPal puts them over the top (although they'll lose nigh on 400K to KS and Amazon). They had a great last day or two. They got almost 1mil in the last 24-48 hours according to Kicktraq - http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/#chart-daily

 

I wonder if they could have got a bit more early on if they had planned things a bit better. It seemed painfully obvious that they were just making it up as they went, which flies in the face of everything the likes of Avellone had said in the months prior about not launching a Kickstarter project until they had everything planned out. Oh well, assuming they pull this off, I'm sure we'll see another project from them on there. Presumably Avellone will get his own project at some point, and I'd like to see Cain get his own as well.

[Sith Holocron]

I invested, mimartin will be in the credits, so if it sucks you can blame me.

 

I also backed it. Add me to that list too.