Games

Back in the 1980s, when I started gaming, it took a few people perhaps a few weeks to make a good game. Even the mighty Elite - the first proper 3D game and arguably the first proper open-world game - took two guys a few months to put together. A few years later, during the 16-bit era of the Commodore Amiga, SNES and Megadrive (Genesis for you American types), this had increased to teams of a dozen or so taking a few months to a year, tops, to put together a game. The gaming industry was in the good health, with the biggest mega-hits making tens of millions of dollars but even a game selling just a few thousand copies could still turn a profit. How times have changed. Today, it takes teams of several dozen people anything from two to six years to make a game, with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars. Dozens of game development studios have closed over the course of the last generation of gaming (which began in 2005 with the release of the X-Box 360), in many cases despite selli...

I missed this when it went up over a month ago, but Kotaku have published a thorough interview with the founder and CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, Feargus Urquhart . The interview is extremely informative and revealing. First up is the surprising news that the Wheel of Time RPG is not entirely dead. Previously Obsidian had signed a deal with Red Eagle to make a game based on the setting, but then all news on the project dried up. The article reveals that, despite no forwards movement on the project for almost three years, the game is actually still viable, provided that Red Eagle finds a publisher and provides funding. I'm not holding my breath on this realistically ever happening, but it's good to know that Obsidian are still ready to go with the project if it does ever become a reality. Secondly, Urquhart talks about the success of their Project Eternity Kickstarter appeal, and how it has opened other doors. He reveals that he has been talking to companies like Ubisoft, Bet...

As covered previously , Obsidian Entertainment have been working on a brand-new, 'old-school' RPG with the working title Project Eternity . The game is heavily influenced and inspired by their own classic games (when they were working as Black Isle), such as Planescape: Torment , Icewind Dale and the early Fallout games, as well as those of their associated companies, such as BioWare's Baldur's Gate titles. To help fund the title, Obsidian requested fans to pledge $1.1 million via the Kickstarter crowdfunding website. Click for massive version. A month later, the Kickstarter has come to an end with Obsidian having raised $3,986,929 via the website, plus an additional $140,099 in PayPal contributions. The result being that the game achieved all of its planned stretch goals and will now be radically enhanced as a result. This includes the game now shipping on PC, Mac and Linux platforms, in multiple languages and with several added areas (including a whole new city an...

Obsidian Entertainment have announced their next big RPG: a fantasy game called Project Eternity (working title). This game will be an isometric, old-school RPG that draws heavily on their old D&D games using the Infinity Engine (the Icewind Dale series and the legendary Planescape: Torment ). However, tired of working for publishers who either don't do proper Q&A on their games (resulting in the bug-filled mess of Alpha Protocol ), rush them out in an incomplete state ( Knights of the Old Republic II ) or refuse to pay them a bonus by failing to hit a ludicrously arbitrary Metacritic score by one point despite selling millions of copies ( Fallout: New Vegas ), Obsidian have decided to take this one to the fans. Via Kickstarter, Obsidian are asking for $1.1 million to help fund the game . They're already at $300,000 less than a day after starting the project. The creative forces behind the game include Chris Avellone, the writer of Planescape: Torment ; Tim Cain, the...