Update #53: The Man Who Makes Monsters
May 14, 2013
Greetings, everyone! I'm on update duty this week, and while this will be relatively brief, I'll give you a little insider info I hope you find interesting. Today we will be talking about the bestiary. Yeah, that's right... it's time to talk about monsters.
Update #52: Monk!
May 7, 2013
Hello! I'm sorry I haven't done an update in a while. I've been working on classes and everything related to classes: abilities, skills, spells, combat...you know, the good stuff. For the past several months, Josh and I have been refining the designs for the non-core classes, the classes that are most unusual, classes like the chanter and the cipher and one of my favorites, the monk.
Update #51: Prototype 2 Update
April 23, 2013
Last month we finished our prototype 1 build. In Update #47, Josh outlined our goals for the first prototype, which focused on establishing "that IE feel". Not only did we hit that mark with the look of our characters and environments, but we also hit our target with movement, combat, and gameplay systems.
Update #50: So... Project Eternity!
April 16, 2013
Thanks to everyone who contributed feedback to our visual demo last week. While we are still working out some aspects of our environment art, we appreciate both the kind words and the suggestions for improvement that we received.
Due to all of the coverage we received, we noticed a lot of new folks asking about the game as well as past backers who may have missed a lot of the updates that have happened since the Kickstarter campaign ended. We thought it would be a good idea to restate what Project Eternity is all about and update our FAQ.
Update #49: Water, Trees, Day/Night, Lighting... All That Jazz
April 9, 2013
Welcome. Today's update is a big one, though not by volume of text. Today we're showing you our game in action. Specifically, we're showing what we've been doing for our exterior environments. The Infinity Engine games were known for their art, and we wanted to hit the high standard of visual quality established by games like the Icewind Dale series.
Update #48: Documentary News and More Arcanum
April 2, 2013
In Update #23 Feargus announced that Obsidian would fund a documentary of the making of Project Eternity without using a dime from the Kickstarter funding. Here's a behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes and some other tidbits about the documentary.
Update #47: Odds and Ends
March 26, 2013
We've got a lot of things in progress on Project Eternity right now. As Darren wrote in the last update, we're winding down our first prototype. We just did an audit of the work that remains from the first prototype and where we will be going with the next prototype. Our first prototype allowed us to prove a lot of the basics of movement, character design, stealth, combat controls, inventory, resting, quests, scripted skill interactions, dialogue, status effects, and the ability and spell systems.
Update #46: How (Proto-)Typical
March 12, 2013
Yep, you've seen this before, but not animating yet!
In this week’s update, we’re back with me for one more! We’ll cover what the team’s up to currently as well as a small update from Rob and the art team.
To start, every one of Obsidian’s games goes through a series of phases. Those phases, chronologically, are: Prototype, Vertical Slice, Production, and Finalization. At the end of each phase, the team and owners do an analysis of the progress; we verify that we’ve hit key goals, and (hopefully) officially move the project into the next phase.
Update #45: FATE: Fulfillment, Arcanum, Torment, Egads!
March 5, 2013
In this week’s update, we go over a lot of different little things going on here at Obsidian. Here’s a quick teaser: I’ll be covering a brief update on fulfillment; we have another three videos of Mr. Avellone’s Let’s Play series in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, we’ve got some really great news for fans of Planescape: Torment (along with some sexy fan artwork to share!) and lastly, a project we backed recently that we think is pretty cool that you might too.
Update #44: The Rules of (Melee) Engagement
February 26, 2013
Last week, our art director, Rob, showed you our godlike concepts and dazzled you with an in-depth technical breakdown of how we're doing animation rigging on the project. This week, we'll be talking about a different technical subject, but one that's more connected to gameplay: engagement -- specifically, melee engagement.
Update #43: Pretty and Technical
February 19, 2013
Hello everybody it's me again, Rob Nesler, Art Director on Project Eternity. I had intended on presenting our Art Style document to the world by this update, but it still needs work. So, you have to wait a bit longer for it. So that’s sad. However, with the last art update, I glossed over our Technical Animator Antonio's work 'cause it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I couldn't think about how to describe intelligently what Antonio does for us. Some of you professed extensive knowledge of rigging and skinning, as well as profound disappointment in my patronizing tone, and demanded to be better informed of this horribly complex facet of game development. So...okay!
Before that we have some eye candy.
Welcome to Project Eternity, Obsidian's Fantasy RPG
Obsidian Entertainment and our legendary game designers Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, and Josh Sawyer are excited to bring you a new role-playing game for the PC. Project Eternity (working title) pays homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.
Project Eternity aims to recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPGs that we enjoyed making - and playing. At Obsidian, we have the people responsible for many of those classic games and we want to bring those games back and that's why we're here - we need your help to make it a reality!
What is Project Eternity?
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 are excited at this chance to create something new, yet reminiscent of those great games and we want you to be a part of it as well.
Why Are We Asking for Your Help?
We have wanted to go back to our roots and create an epic PC role-playing game adventure for years. But, it's been almost impossible to get funding through traditional methods for a game like this. The great thing about Kickstarter is that we can go directly to the people who love to play RPGs as much as we love to make them. Plus, we don't have to make compromises with a publisher. We make the development decisions, we market the game, and we don't have to answer to anyone but you - our fans.
Our relationship with you can be even closer with Kickstarter. We can be more transparent with development and give you an inside look to what goes on day-to-day with the programmers, artists, and designers of Project Eternity. We want to give you a behind the scenes look at the game's development, and we have fun stuff planned like developer blogs, web broadcasts, dev chats, and much, much more.
What Is Your Money Going Toward?
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.
FAQ
Have you sent out the survey yet? I don't seem to have gotten it if so!
Instead of using a survey, we're building a fulfillment site that we'll be launching soon where you'll be able to respecify your selected tiers and/or addons, as well as upgrade your selection. This site will also let you update us at any time with your current details like your shipping address, etc.
How will I get my digital copy of the game?
We're busy developing our fulfillment site, where you'll be able to specify how you would like to get the game, as well as provide us with any other details depending on your tier (for example, T-shirt size, or name in the credits, etc.) We support both GOG and Steam for distribution, so if you prefer DRM-free, you can choose the GOG option, and if you prefer achievements, multi-platform play (via Steam Play) and cloud saving capabilities, you'll be able to choose Steam.
If you buy additional copies as add-ons, you'll be able to tell us which one you want per key.
We do not yet have a DRM-free distribution partner for Linux yet, but we expect to have one available as an option by the time we ship for our Linux customers.
What languages will Project Eternity be in?
The initial release will be in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Polish. We are also looking for ways of translating the game for our fans all over the rest of the world. As we have more information and our funding increases, we’ll make sure to keep everyone update on what languages will be coming with Project Eternity.
What about other platforms?
Project Eternity proudly supports Windows PC, Macintosh OS X, and Linux.
Can I use PayPal?
Yes! PayPal donations are still available along the right side of this page. If you missed paying for international shipping, you can do so here.
What file formats will the Digital Download of the Soundtrack be available in?
We are going to be offering both MP3 and FLAC formats for the soundtrack when it becomes available for download.
What file formats will digital books be available in?
We will be offering digital books in PDF, eBook, and Mobi formats.
What are the system requirements for Project Eternity?
It's too early in development to give hardware requirements. Our target is to run on older machines and to support a wide variety of hardware. We will be announcing the system requirements at a later date so stay tuned for an announcement down the road.
I donated on PayPal and besides a receipt from PayPal I haven’t gotten confirmation from Obsidian directly.
Not a problem. When the fulfillment site goes live, we’ll be merging the Kickstarter and PayPal data together into our own system, and from there we’ll be sending out project updates. For now, as long as you received a PayPal receipt, we’ll have you on file.
I need to change my e-mail address before you send out details on the Fulfillment site. What do I do?
Send us an e-mail at support@obsidian.net with your old and new addresses (please e-mail from your old address if you can) and we’ll update our records before the fulfillment site e-mails go out.
When will I get my backer badge on the forums?
That'll come with the fulfillment system.