Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Interview

Article Index

Eschalon: Book II

Publisher:Paradox Interactive
Developer:Obsidian Entertainment
Release Date:2018-05-08
Genre:
  • Role-Playing
Platforms: Theme: Perspective:
  • Third-Person
Buy this Game: Amazon ebay
Buck: Okay. What more can you tell us about the other games you have in development outside of this title and Pillars of Eternity II, such as Pathfinder Adventures?

Feargus: We're still working on Pathfinder, and it's going to come to Steam pretty soon. We're looking at how much more we'll support it. We're looking at potentially doing another one of the whole box sets. There's three or four box sets. We've done one and all its modules. We'd do another one. We're continuing to support Tyranny and we're talking a lot to Paradox about what other kind of support we could give Tyranny. And that's the stuff we're working on right now. We are actively proposing other games and we have enough proposals out right now and hopefully we're going to know in the next, sort of 30 to 60 days. the kind of what proposals are there.

I'm also looking at, is there other kind of financing I can go get from different kinds of investors? It would be cool to do a turn-based game. A lot of people ask all the time about doing a turn-based game. It's not like we could put a switch in the Eternity engine and now it's turn-based but the engine is pretty mature right now. And so what would take to put in a rule system in or stick with the rule system up there and then make a turn-based game. And maybe that game is in the Eternity universe and maybe it's not. One of Josh's favorite games of all time is Darklands. So he really would like to make sort of a non-fantastic medieval game.

So yeah, me and Josh are going to talk this year about how to do that. I also talk about how we could take the Eternity engine and make a film noir RPG you know, black and white. I don't know. It sounds totally silly but with that kind of, like, how people talk and just that vibe. But we're talking about a lot of stuff and we're going to be pitching people. And also, I'm looking at other ways to get funding for games so we can maybe try some of this stuff and not spend Pillars of Eternity level money. We can try unusual things and we can make money even if 200,000 or 300,000 people buy it, and if they enjoy it, that's awesome. And that can get maybe some funkier games out there in the market.



Buck: Yeah, absolutely. I think there are a lot of themes that go untouched and it's really unfortunate. I could see a AAA western-themed RPG being totally viable, and we really don't have enough gritty, seedy, horror-themed RPGs. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has had a very long shelf life and it's still considered an iconic RPG to this day, yet no other horror-themed RPGs in a similar style have emerged since then.

I know White Wolf is starting to get back into that market with Werewolf officially announced and a few rumors about Bloodlines 2, but I'd love to see some of those lesser known themes explored more often, and it's unfortunate that they aren't. With Kickstarter and Fig and some of these other crowdfunding options, I'm hoping we will see more titles with these uncommon themes.


Feargus: Yeah.


Buck: And it'd be great if Obsidian was behind one of them.

Feargus: Yes, yes. I think Urban Fantasy is interesting. Urban Fantasy being like Vampire. The Urban Fantasy in the last two years is a little too – I'm not against romance and all that kind of stuff but some of it has gotten a little too romance-y for me. And I've probably talked to you about this before but the flavor that I think is interesting is Neil Gaiman's Other World. I think it's a novel called Other World or something like that. There was even like a BBC miniseries on it and it's about guy who falls into this other world of weapons.

And then there's a series of books by Simon Green about the Nightside which again is this kind of world where demons and angels and goblins just hang out in a city. So it's interesting. We actually have a pitch called "Hidden" which is about this darker city and it's about, sort of the real elements. We probably wrote the pitch nine years ago and it's maybe a darker, less Disney version of “Once” was kind of the concept even though there was no “Once” at the time.

I don't know. I think it would be cool to play in that kind of world, as well.



Buck: Alright, I know it’s getting late there, so I don't want to take any more of your time.

Thanks again, Feargus. It was great talking to you, as always. Have a good night.


Feargus: You too.