Posted October 17, 2012
Is thrilled.
StingingVelvet
Devil's Advocate
Registered: Nov 2008
From United States
TVs_Frank
DEEP HURTING
Registered: Mar 2009
From United States
Posted October 17, 2012
Their sample image gave me a boner.
stonebro
Love Lumberjacks
Registered: Sep 2008
From Netherlands
Posted October 17, 2012
Amazing, and keeping a store open after the end of the Kickstarter should help even more money come in. I will definitely consider upping my pledge to pick up more swag.
ET3D
Always a noob
Registered: Oct 2008
From Clipperton Island
Posted October 17, 2012
By the way, it looks like the dungeon would need to be at least 14 levels, possibly 15.
oldschool
I see you!
Registered: Mar 2009
From United States
Posted October 17, 2012
Edit: I guess I found it, Is Paypal the only option available?
Post edited October 17, 2012 by oldschool
stonebro
Love Lumberjacks
Registered: Sep 2008
From Netherlands
Posted October 17, 2012
I assume you're referring to http://eternity.obsidian.net/. That's the PayPal store that's been kept open for people to have a PayPal option during the Kickstarter. I'm not sure how long they will keep it open, although they might use that as their general-purpose after-kickstarter store. Wasteland 2 opened a site some time after the Kickstarter ended where you could donate more money, although that is only through PayPal as well. All your donations are tied to your account, and you can manage your donations there wrt. rewards. I think they'd have to follow that path in order to control who has donated what through both Kickstarter and PayPal. So if you have already donated through Kickstarter, I'd hold off on donating more through PayPal just for the moment.
Post edited October 17, 2012 by stonebro
KyleKatarn
Do your worst
Registered: Mar 2009
From United States
Posted October 17, 2012
It's nice to be proven wrong sometimes. A pleasant surprise. That was one hell of a last day surge.
Was the bit about Chris Avellone being forced to play Arcanum as part of the last stretch goal an inside joke?
Meh. I don't care that much about beta personally and I don't care that much about restrictions during the production stage. It's the post-production crap that goes on that vexes me.
Was the bit about Chris Avellone being forced to play Arcanum as part of the last stretch goal an inside joke?
Meh. I don't care that much about beta personally and I don't care that much about restrictions during the production stage. It's the post-production crap that goes on that vexes me.
Post edited October 17, 2012 by KyleKatarn
TerriblePurpose
Kwisatz Haderach
Registered: Sep 2008
From Canada
Posted October 17, 2012
Avellone had mentioned that he'd never actually played Arcanum and a bunch of the kickstarter pledgers started posting that he really should fix that oversight. So the other Obs guys picked up on it.
KyleKatarn
Do your worst
Registered: Mar 2009
From United States
Posted October 17, 2012
mondo84
hwgr
Registered: Apr 2011
From United States
Niggles
MOMOSaysMAHAYO;)
Registered: Apr 2009
From Australia
Posted November 09, 2012
Niggles
MOMOSaysMAHAYO;)
Registered: Apr 2009
From Australia
Posted November 16, 2012
Project Eternity Update #31
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/350054?ref=activity
Enter the Story Zone
Update #31 · Nov. 16, 2012 · 20 comments
Today's update isn't about lore as much as it is about the focus and process of developing our central plot. I'm not going to spoil any details of the story, but I do want to share what we're working on.
When we develop stories at Obsidian, we often ask ourselves (and each other), "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" "RPG" means a lot of different things to different people. For us, it's important to let the player decide who he or she is in the story. That means when you set aside class, race, magic missiles, and all of the other goodies, the player needs to be able to define his or her own motivations, attitudes toward others, and ways of resolving problems in the story.
Finding the right level of player freedom and clarity of purpose can be difficult. It's tricky to develop scenarios that can convincingly motivate characters of many races and classes, many backgrounds, and many moral and ethical stances. A conflict that is too "hands-off" or impersonal (e.g. a political conflict that doesn't directly involve the player) can make it difficult for players to connect to it. A conflict that is extremely personal may rub players the wrong way if it assumes too much about their character or if it feels like their choices don't have a large enough impact on the world around them.
Because this is the first story your characters will shape in this world, we want to start with something small that grows into something larger. As we have hinted before, the story opens with the player's character witnessing a supernatural event that puts him or her in a difficult situation. The full ramifications of what you become a part of are not immediately apparent, but you quickly become aware that you have... new problems. Dealing with these problems makes you realize that resolving your situation is inexorably linked to the fates of many others. In some cases, these "others" are individuals. In others, they are much larger groups of people. You will get to interact with them all in various ways over the course of the story. If we do a good job in developing these groups and characters, the decisions you make in the course of resolving your problems will be interesting and difficult to make.
That's what we're aiming for, but that doesn't necessarily tell you what we've been doing. On this project, the process started with a rough idea for a story and a theme that went along with it. The story itself wasn't that important; it was just an idea to get us moving. What followed were critiques of the story's premise, the unfolding of the plot, the player's motivation and involvement, and the scope of the conflicts the player faces from the beginning through the end. For the past few weeks, we've been exchanging various small ideas, big ideas, minor tweaks, radical overhauls, and brand new storylines. Through it all, we regularly return to the questions I posed up above: "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" We can (and do) write about all sorts of character and location ideas, subplots and interesting takes on themes, but until we answer those questions in a way we believe will be compelling to your characters and all that they may be, we still have work to do.
We like to develop fun ideas we come up with and every once in a while we delight at some clever character or situation we think of, but for us, it's more important for you to feel clever, for you to feel like you can take control of a situation -- by whatever means you see fit. Until we believe we have a few gems on our hands, we'll keep the Story Gnomes digging in the mines on your behalf.
Thanks for reading.
Update by Josh Sawyer
PS: Chris says he will start playing Arcanum mid-January.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/350054?ref=activity
Enter the Story Zone
Update #31 · Nov. 16, 2012 · 20 comments
Today's update isn't about lore as much as it is about the focus and process of developing our central plot. I'm not going to spoil any details of the story, but I do want to share what we're working on.
When we develop stories at Obsidian, we often ask ourselves (and each other), "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" "RPG" means a lot of different things to different people. For us, it's important to let the player decide who he or she is in the story. That means when you set aside class, race, magic missiles, and all of the other goodies, the player needs to be able to define his or her own motivations, attitudes toward others, and ways of resolving problems in the story.
Finding the right level of player freedom and clarity of purpose can be difficult. It's tricky to develop scenarios that can convincingly motivate characters of many races and classes, many backgrounds, and many moral and ethical stances. A conflict that is too "hands-off" or impersonal (e.g. a political conflict that doesn't directly involve the player) can make it difficult for players to connect to it. A conflict that is extremely personal may rub players the wrong way if it assumes too much about their character or if it feels like their choices don't have a large enough impact on the world around them.
Because this is the first story your characters will shape in this world, we want to start with something small that grows into something larger. As we have hinted before, the story opens with the player's character witnessing a supernatural event that puts him or her in a difficult situation. The full ramifications of what you become a part of are not immediately apparent, but you quickly become aware that you have... new problems. Dealing with these problems makes you realize that resolving your situation is inexorably linked to the fates of many others. In some cases, these "others" are individuals. In others, they are much larger groups of people. You will get to interact with them all in various ways over the course of the story. If we do a good job in developing these groups and characters, the decisions you make in the course of resolving your problems will be interesting and difficult to make.
That's what we're aiming for, but that doesn't necessarily tell you what we've been doing. On this project, the process started with a rough idea for a story and a theme that went along with it. The story itself wasn't that important; it was just an idea to get us moving. What followed were critiques of the story's premise, the unfolding of the plot, the player's motivation and involvement, and the scope of the conflicts the player faces from the beginning through the end. For the past few weeks, we've been exchanging various small ideas, big ideas, minor tweaks, radical overhauls, and brand new storylines. Through it all, we regularly return to the questions I posed up above: "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" We can (and do) write about all sorts of character and location ideas, subplots and interesting takes on themes, but until we answer those questions in a way we believe will be compelling to your characters and all that they may be, we still have work to do.
We like to develop fun ideas we come up with and every once in a while we delight at some clever character or situation we think of, but for us, it's more important for you to feel clever, for you to feel like you can take control of a situation -- by whatever means you see fit. Until we believe we have a few gems on our hands, we'll keep the Story Gnomes digging in the mines on your behalf.
Thanks for reading.
Update by Josh Sawyer
PS: Chris says he will start playing Arcanum mid-January.
Niggles
MOMOSaysMAHAYO;)
Registered: Apr 2009
From Australia
Posted November 21, 2012
#32
As promised in Update #30, it's time to meet the people making the game. In today's update, we interview Steve Weatherly, a programmer on Project Eternity.
Q:Steve, can you tell us what you do on Project Eternity?
A:
I'm a gameplay programmer primarily responsible for making combat happen. What that means is that I look at what Josh and Tim design for the game, and tell them it can never be done. After that, they tell me it has to get done, so then I figure out a way to make it happen. I spend most of my day writing code, either for AI (to make the enemies act like they know what they're doing), or the underlying code that makes characters fight and take damage, etc. I'm also our chief Reddit ambassador, which I sort of fell into but it has been a lot of fun.
Q:What are you currently working on today?
A:
Today I'm actually working on building our equipment system. When I'm done, designers will be able to take a weapon that an artist models and drag it onto a character. The character will then hold it in their hand, swing it, and cause damage to their enemies. My weapon of choice is currently the flail, which Unity made surprisingly easy to create.
Q: What’s your typical work day like on Project Eternity?
A:
When I start my day in the morning the first thing I do is check email and make sure there aren't any outstanding issues or meetings I need to think about. I frequently also log into Reddit to see if I have any fan questions. After that I fire up Unity, update my build to see everyone else's work, then run the game to make sure it still works like it did when I left the night before. If there are any major issues I'll take care of them, otherwise I'll start working on whatever the next thing is that I need to build. I usually head off to the gym at lunch because my office is a dark cell and I need sunshine (or the fluorescent lights of the gym). Then more programming after lunch. Around 3:30pm I'm about ready to fall asleep, so each day all of the programmers gather up and walk across the street for coffee. That might seem like a waste of time to some, but it gives all of the programmers a chance to talk about what they are working and bounce ideas off of each other. Also coffee.
Q: What feature are you most looking forward to programming?
A:
I got into the game industry wanting to be an AI programmer. So, while I enjoy the challenges of engineering other systems, AI is where my heart is. I can't wait until we have a full complement of spells so I can write some cool wizard AI and give people an epic wizard battle!
Q: What's been one of the largest challenges so far?
A:
So far the biggest challenge has really just been getting familiar with Unity and building stuff so that when the design team starts making levels they will have a solid set of tools, easy to use and ready to go.
Q: What other projects have you worked on at Obsidian?
A:
I've been at Obsidian almost 7 years, so there's been a lot. I started out as tools programmer on the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset, followed by my first job as an AI programmer on the cancelled Aliens RPG project, after that I helped out with Alpha Protocol's AI system doing bug fixes. Then I moved to Dungeon Siege 3 where I was responsible for building the AI systems both for the game and our Onyx engine. I served a tour of duty on South Park integrating the Onyx combat system with the turn based design of that game. They hired Tim Cain to replace me on South Park and I moved over to the (now cancelled) North Carolina project. Between North Carolina and Project Eternity I worked on various prototypes we were doing to try and pitch games.
Q: Where do you like eat for lunch?
A:
Being a California native I really love Mexican food. We tend to go to Wahoo's Fish Tacos a lot because we can walk there from the office and it's pretty good.
Q: Who's your favorite programmer?
A:
Well, I would say Adam Brennecke, but he's a producer now and is dead to me. So it's going to have to be Tim Cain. I definitely envy his ability to design, code, and bake well. He's a triple threat and that's also earned him a spot on my list of most job threatening co-workers. Fortunately I know his weakness...
Q: What's your favorite game?
A:
That's easy, my favorite game of all time is Baldur's Gate. It was the first RPG I played and the first time I felt like I was in another world that I could explore. I'd never experienced that before and it's what inspired me to want to make games for a living.
Q: What do you like to do when you aren't programming?
A:
Drink... heavily. Preferably whiskey, but I'm also happy with vodka.
Q: How many push-ups can you do?
A:
More than the average programmer, but significantly less than Chris Avellone.
Q: What's your favorite Thanksgiving dinner dish?
A:
Cornbread stuffing!
Thanks for reading. We want to have weekly updates on Tuesdays from now on, so be sure to drop by every Tuesday for the next Project Eternity update.
If you have any additional questions for Steve - post them on this thread and he will be happy to answer some of them!
Back to top
As promised in Update #30, it's time to meet the people making the game. In today's update, we interview Steve Weatherly, a programmer on Project Eternity.
Q:Steve, can you tell us what you do on Project Eternity?
A:
I'm a gameplay programmer primarily responsible for making combat happen. What that means is that I look at what Josh and Tim design for the game, and tell them it can never be done. After that, they tell me it has to get done, so then I figure out a way to make it happen. I spend most of my day writing code, either for AI (to make the enemies act like they know what they're doing), or the underlying code that makes characters fight and take damage, etc. I'm also our chief Reddit ambassador, which I sort of fell into but it has been a lot of fun.
Q:What are you currently working on today?
A:
Today I'm actually working on building our equipment system. When I'm done, designers will be able to take a weapon that an artist models and drag it onto a character. The character will then hold it in their hand, swing it, and cause damage to their enemies. My weapon of choice is currently the flail, which Unity made surprisingly easy to create.
Q: What’s your typical work day like on Project Eternity?
A:
When I start my day in the morning the first thing I do is check email and make sure there aren't any outstanding issues or meetings I need to think about. I frequently also log into Reddit to see if I have any fan questions. After that I fire up Unity, update my build to see everyone else's work, then run the game to make sure it still works like it did when I left the night before. If there are any major issues I'll take care of them, otherwise I'll start working on whatever the next thing is that I need to build. I usually head off to the gym at lunch because my office is a dark cell and I need sunshine (or the fluorescent lights of the gym). Then more programming after lunch. Around 3:30pm I'm about ready to fall asleep, so each day all of the programmers gather up and walk across the street for coffee. That might seem like a waste of time to some, but it gives all of the programmers a chance to talk about what they are working and bounce ideas off of each other. Also coffee.
Q: What feature are you most looking forward to programming?
A:
I got into the game industry wanting to be an AI programmer. So, while I enjoy the challenges of engineering other systems, AI is where my heart is. I can't wait until we have a full complement of spells so I can write some cool wizard AI and give people an epic wizard battle!
Q: What's been one of the largest challenges so far?
A:
So far the biggest challenge has really just been getting familiar with Unity and building stuff so that when the design team starts making levels they will have a solid set of tools, easy to use and ready to go.
Q: What other projects have you worked on at Obsidian?
A:
I've been at Obsidian almost 7 years, so there's been a lot. I started out as tools programmer on the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset, followed by my first job as an AI programmer on the cancelled Aliens RPG project, after that I helped out with Alpha Protocol's AI system doing bug fixes. Then I moved to Dungeon Siege 3 where I was responsible for building the AI systems both for the game and our Onyx engine. I served a tour of duty on South Park integrating the Onyx combat system with the turn based design of that game. They hired Tim Cain to replace me on South Park and I moved over to the (now cancelled) North Carolina project. Between North Carolina and Project Eternity I worked on various prototypes we were doing to try and pitch games.
Q: Where do you like eat for lunch?
A:
Being a California native I really love Mexican food. We tend to go to Wahoo's Fish Tacos a lot because we can walk there from the office and it's pretty good.
Q: Who's your favorite programmer?
A:
Well, I would say Adam Brennecke, but he's a producer now and is dead to me. So it's going to have to be Tim Cain. I definitely envy his ability to design, code, and bake well. He's a triple threat and that's also earned him a spot on my list of most job threatening co-workers. Fortunately I know his weakness...
Q: What's your favorite game?
A:
That's easy, my favorite game of all time is Baldur's Gate. It was the first RPG I played and the first time I felt like I was in another world that I could explore. I'd never experienced that before and it's what inspired me to want to make games for a living.
Q: What do you like to do when you aren't programming?
A:
Drink... heavily. Preferably whiskey, but I'm also happy with vodka.
Q: How many push-ups can you do?
A:
More than the average programmer, but significantly less than Chris Avellone.
Q: What's your favorite Thanksgiving dinner dish?
A:
Cornbread stuffing!
Thanks for reading. We want to have weekly updates on Tuesdays from now on, so be sure to drop by every Tuesday for the next Project Eternity update.
If you have any additional questions for Steve - post them on this thread and he will be happy to answer some of them!
Back to top
Niggles
MOMOSaysMAHAYO;)
Registered: Apr 2009
From Australia
Posted November 28, 2012
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/357646?ref=activity
Update #33
PayPal Ends Soon! Current Developments
Update #33 · Nov. 28, 2012 · 7 comments
One Week Left for PayPal
The Project Eternity PayPal donation period will be ending next week on Monday, December 3rd at 6:00PM PST. After December 3rd current backers can add shipping and handling costs at our backer fulfillment site (coming soon). At the backer site, you will be able to select your add-ons and fill out your shipping address, so make sure you keep an eye out for the email that explains how to use the backer site. As a reminder we will let you know when the emails go out in a future update.
After next week we will be accepting slacker backer donations via PayPal for $29 for a Digital Download Copy of Project Eternity for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Get in now for a discount this week if you haven't already! The higher tier rewards and physical items offered on the Kickstarter will not be available past December 3rd, 6:00PM PST.
Current Developments
The Project Eternity team is tackling a number of different things in pre-production including story and world building, creating the look of the Aumaua and Orlans, character customization, combat, and fancy rendering R&D.
Here are a few bits on current developments:
The narrative team is creating the world almanac which contains all the information about the people and history of Project Eternity. Right now they are fleshing out the pantheon of gods. Do you have any crazy or wacky ideas for gods? Share your ideas in the forums!
The artists and programmers have been working on character customization. The system allows for individual pieces of armor to show up on your characters such as boots, gloves, and chest armor. When you swap armor, the character's torso model and texture are also swapped out. There are thousands of different armor, weapon, head, and hair customization models for each race (male and female too!), and we need to make sure that the system can organize and manage all of these character assets.
Lastly, the picture is from an early test environment area using temporary art assets. The red shapes represent collision geometry that will block pathfinding and line-of-sight. The light blue/greenish color represents the walkmesh geometry which determines where characters can walk. We use this area to test tech features that we are building. For example, we are using the cemetery in the lower left to test out complex party pathfinding. If you look carefully, you can see two test characters in the picture.
Next week we will have an art focused update by Rob Nelser, the lead artist on Project Eternity.
Time to get back to work on character customization! Adam out.
Update by Adam Brennecke
Update #33
PayPal Ends Soon! Current Developments
Update #33 · Nov. 28, 2012 · 7 comments
One Week Left for PayPal
The Project Eternity PayPal donation period will be ending next week on Monday, December 3rd at 6:00PM PST. After December 3rd current backers can add shipping and handling costs at our backer fulfillment site (coming soon). At the backer site, you will be able to select your add-ons and fill out your shipping address, so make sure you keep an eye out for the email that explains how to use the backer site. As a reminder we will let you know when the emails go out in a future update.
After next week we will be accepting slacker backer donations via PayPal for $29 for a Digital Download Copy of Project Eternity for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Get in now for a discount this week if you haven't already! The higher tier rewards and physical items offered on the Kickstarter will not be available past December 3rd, 6:00PM PST.
Current Developments
The Project Eternity team is tackling a number of different things in pre-production including story and world building, creating the look of the Aumaua and Orlans, character customization, combat, and fancy rendering R&D.
Here are a few bits on current developments:
The narrative team is creating the world almanac which contains all the information about the people and history of Project Eternity. Right now they are fleshing out the pantheon of gods. Do you have any crazy or wacky ideas for gods? Share your ideas in the forums!
The artists and programmers have been working on character customization. The system allows for individual pieces of armor to show up on your characters such as boots, gloves, and chest armor. When you swap armor, the character's torso model and texture are also swapped out. There are thousands of different armor, weapon, head, and hair customization models for each race (male and female too!), and we need to make sure that the system can organize and manage all of these character assets.
Lastly, the picture is from an early test environment area using temporary art assets. The red shapes represent collision geometry that will block pathfinding and line-of-sight. The light blue/greenish color represents the walkmesh geometry which determines where characters can walk. We use this area to test tech features that we are building. For example, we are using the cemetery in the lower left to test out complex party pathfinding. If you look carefully, you can see two test characters in the picture.
Next week we will have an art focused update by Rob Nelser, the lead artist on Project Eternity.
Time to get back to work on character customization! Adam out.
Update by Adam Brennecke
Niggles
MOMOSaysMAHAYO;)
Registered: Apr 2009
From Australia
Posted December 18, 2012
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/371907?ref=activity
Update #36 (way too long to cut and paste)
Update #36 (way too long to cut and paste)
Post edited December 18, 2012 by nijuu