Project Eternity / Pillars of Eternity

[Zwiebelchen]

Anyone has seen this promising kickstarter project?

It's actually meant to be released by the end of this year. The kickstarter campaign raised almost 4 million dollars.

https://eternity.obsidian.net/


Project Eternity (now renamed to "Pillars of Eternity") is made by Obsidian, completely funded via kickstarter with no publisher behind the scenes, which means they can actually take the time to make the game as they want, without any deadlines and pressure by the publisher.

It's a 2D isometric RPG with 3D character models and is based losely on the Baldurs Gate / Icewind Dale franchises. It's mechanics are inspired by D&D 3.5 (and have a lot of similarities), but in order to prevent legal issues, they made up their own system.
While the looks of the game appear 2D, the engine is actually Unity. Which means that the landscape is a mixture of 3D animations, 2D pre-renders and actual 3D objects with dynamic lighting.

The main focus will be about a "classic" oldschool RPG experience: story-driven, characters with personalities, realtime tactical party-based combat with the option to pause during a battle.


The game also has a fresh concept to allow and encourage different playing styles:
You will only gain experience by doing quests, not by killing monsters. Which means that you can stealth & pickpocket your way through the game, if you like so.



The game will be DRM free (as the funds basicly revenued it's production cost already, they don't have to fear piracy).



So what do you guys think of this? I actually have a lot of hopes for this. I like the screenshots so far, even if the optics and spell effects are pretty aged, it still looks beautiful, due to the high detail 2D backgrounds.

 

[Adiktuz]

oh so that's the game that Obsidian put on KS...

the DRM-free is for GoG only... Steam is a DRM in itself...

 

[Zwiebelchen]

... Steam is a DRM in itself...

Yeah, kinda. It's a shame that all modern games require steam, even boxed games (like XCOM... which was a great game, but why even sell it boxed when you still need steam to play it?).


Then again, I definitely feel like supporting Obsidian on this project. I loved the Infinity engine games and still play them even 15 years after release. I think there's some magic in them that just can't be found in modern games. With the lovely 2D art, I think they can capture some of that magic.

And judging from the information that is already available on this game, the gameplay mechanics will be quite similar to the Infinity games.
The hinted story also looks promising (rebirth, ressurrection and reanimation will be a central theme throughout the story, which is a refreshing idea compared to the typical "evil must be defeated"). I just hope there won't be plotholes created by ressurection spell mechanics.

If the story and companions are good, I don't think that this project can actually fail what I expect from an oldschool rpg.

 

[sonofjay]

Looks like an interesting game. I think I'll follow this one.

This past few months all I'd been playing are old games like (Tales Series, LoH, Tactic Ogres, Ys series etc) cuz for some reason this new games just can't keep interested for even just the quarter of the game. Main reason is that the story lacks depth and have bad story developments and game characters this days isn't really likable and relate-able also most games really lacks tactics on combats. If Pillars of Eternity achieve this:

story-driven, characters with personalities, realtime tactical party-based combat

then maybe there is still hope for new gen games.

 

[Dr Super Good]

So the game is basically free for them to make (as it was funded by kick starter) and then you have to pay for it? Sounds a bit of a rip off to me unless they plan to return (refund) investors based on a percentage of earnings.

Unless they plan to refund kick starter investors in some meaningful way they might as well make the thing free to play with a donate if you like system.

 

[Adiktuz]

It's the hype nowadays, companies who don't want to dish out their own money to create something commercial go on KS... and the backers back them up knowing fully that the products will be sold.

Normally, the backers will simply get something extra (like merchandise etc) along with a free copy of the game

 

[Dr Super Good]

something extra (like merchandise etc) along with a free copy of the game

Well that is more reasonable I guess. However a lot of the stuff on kick starter only lets you pre-order the device/game if you fund without giving you even a discount.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

To be fair, backers/funders of this project (at a certain amount of funding) not only get a free copy of the game, but even multiple digital copies to give to friends aswell and other goods (ingame items, etc.).

So it's basicly some kind of blind pre-order, combined with donation motives.
I don't think that it's reasonable to give the game out for free for non-backers/funders just because the funding covered the production cost already.
After all, game developers not only want to make a profit (remember: kickstarter doesn't allow making profit out of the actual funding, so the only way to actually make profit is selling the finished product to non-funders afterwards), but they also require the selling revenue to finance possible sequels, addons or new projects.

Even if a possible sequel will eventually hit kickstarter again, you still need to invest into making presentable media before starting the kickstarter campaign. People don't back projects without pictures or media. This money is usually a risk taken by the developers and taken from the revenue of other funded projects.

And let's not forget that the kickstarter hype of 2012 is pretty much over, so the number of funders you get with each project will be lower and lower every year unless some extremely successful kickstarter projects make it to the mass media.


And it's not like game developers nowadays have a lot of internal savings to make new projects. That's why the big game publishers got all the power. Game developers have to play it safe. Indie games from small developement teams (Project Eternity actually has only 15 people working on it) are hardly a thing that publishers look into.


If you do the maths, you will easily notice that 4 millions to cover such a project is *just* about enough to pay all the paychecks.

Let's just remove 1 million for equipment, licencing software, paying the rent and electricity for the building for two and a half years and other complimentary expenses.
That makes 3 million left. Divide that by 15 people fulltime-working on the project and at least add 10 more varying contract workers to it (music producers, voice actors) for two and a half years (30 months) and you are down to 4000$ per month per person. And that is without any taxes and other expenses.
And also remember that you have to contract a distribution service like steam or GOG and a professional advertising company as you don't have the logistics nor expertize to do those things as a game developement studio. I guess it's safe to say that none of the game developers working on this make more than 2500$ per month (again, before any taxes or insurance).
And you also have to pay checks in advance before even having enough presentable media to start the kickfunding.
And you also need a safety margin in case of unpredictable delays or obstructions (what if a worker gets sick for a whole year? What if suddenly you get sued by a company for a copyright infringement?)

It's perfectly fine to make a certain profit out of a funded game and I'm almost 100% sure that this game won't cost more than like 20-25$. Even minecraft costs that much nowadays.


Triple-A measurements don't apply to indie games. 4 millions is NOTHING compared to what AAA games take to produce. GTA V had a production cost of 115 million dollars and spent 150 million on advertising alone! The game made over a billion dollars profit on the first day!

 

[Dr Super Good]

GTA V had a production cost of 115 million dollars and spent 150 million on advertising alone! The game made over a billion dollars profit on the first day!

So you are saying GTA V sold over 20,000,000 copies in a single day?!
Man there is no hope for gamming anymore. I will just write professional software and program embedded systems as I want to at least be able to look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

So you are saying GTA V sold over 20,000,000 copies in a single day?!
Man there is no hope for gamming anymore. I will just write professional software and program embedded systems as I want to at least be able to look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day.

Reality sucks.

But to be fair, GTA V kind of includes all "xxx Simulator" games aswell. Except maybe for the Goat simulator.