I think – after all these years – it might finally be safe to say that a few people kind of liked Baldur’s Gate. Admittedly, there’s not much evidence to support this insane theory of mine, but Obsidian’s Project Eternity is scraping by decently I guess. In light of that, I got in touch with Obsidian creative overlord Chris Avellone to discuss his company’s Kickstarter-fueled overnight success. Among other things, we discussed how different systems (progression, leveling up, choice, etc) will work, why Obsidian picked a fantasy setting, why Project Eternity’s PC-only forever and ever, the potential for something like Fallout 2′s idiot dialogue options, and developers’ ability to innovate in spite of confining themselves to “old-school” rules. Contribute $586 million to the (non-existent) RPS Kickstarter to unlock the “after the break” stretch goal.
RPS: You make some pretty big claims about Project Eternity’s lineage – likening the game to Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment. Can you explain how it’s like those games on more specific terms, though? For instance, you say it’ll have the “mature thematic exploration” of Planescape. What kind of themes does that entail?
Avellone: Baldur’s Gate was a party-based, tactical D&D RPG that had a strong storyline, strong companions, and stayed true and faithful to the RPG experience. The biggest takeaway from the BG example is in the way we approach the companion design. We feel that people formed attachments to companions in BG for many reasons – their humor, their backstories, their unique touches in inventory items and barks, and even how they dealt with each other and the player. Also, the amount of questing and exploration, especially in BG2, is something that people love and would love to see again.
Icewind Dale was a party-based, tactical dungeon exploration RPG across a variety of diverse environments that were a hell of a lot of fun for the level designers to make, especially Icewind Dale 2. IWD had some of the most beautiful, crazy-ass locations we’ve ever done, locations that are notoriously hard to do with modern engines.
Planescape explored the philosophies and religions of other races, it explored the idea of the mind shaping reality, and it put forth the question of your place in the universe and then gave you mechanics to compliment that. It purposely bucked many archetypes and tried to re-examine them from the opposite direction, and we’ll do the same in Eternity. We want to explore the ideas and perspectives of other cultures, religions, the concept of language and oral tradition in a world where books aren’t commonplace, and the concept of self in a world where souls transfer from being to being. What kind of cultures and religions come into being in a world like that? What does that mean for you and your companions?
Continued http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/05/obsidian-on-project-eternity-old-school-innovation/
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