I loved Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment last year, and with its upcoming anniversary, I figured it was a great time to chat with Josh Sawyer (Studio Design Director at Obsidian) about the game, RPG mechanics, his career, the games he is playing now, and a lot more including a few non-gaming topics.
As much as I'd be happy for companies to start throwing money at RPGs, they'd have to be so stupid to bankroll anything like PoE.
A large part of the success of BG3 is the ubiquity of D&D. Not for brand recognition but for the mechanics to be legible to a much wider number of people. PoE being it's own system is a nightmarish barrier to entry. Even as someone who has been playing TTRPGs and cRPGs for a long time I have to be in a pretty specific mood to want to learn a new system enough to even make it past character creation.
I think the ubiquity of DnD and the streamlined design of 5e really helped. I tried to go back to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous after Baldur's Gate 3, but I lost the patience for applying buffs and casting dispel magic lmao.
I think shorter games and simpler systems tend to work better with original game designs for CRPGs. Tyranny is probably my favorite of the recent Obsidian CRPGs.
I'm afraid people are going to expect loooong expensive games in this space, but BG3 was really a miracle lol.
I think the big thing is just overcoming analysis paralysis. Even if you can force someone through character creation, if it was overwhelming they're way less invested by the end of it.
I'm thinking back on trying to get people into computer RPGs, before the big 5E boom period. KOTOR and NWN were two big recommendations of mine. Both d20 systems by the same developer. They have very similar character creation structure. It's about as controlled a comparison I can think of.
Despite that, the difference is huge. NWN throws like a dozen classes at you with a massive number of skills and feats that you have to scroll through. KOTOR has three classes and skills all fit in a tiny box. Even handholding people through NWN's character creation they'd usually lose any interest by the time it was done unless they were already D&D players. KOTOR I could usually just leave people to do it on their own.
Don't get me wrong, KOTOR was far from perfect in this regard but the simplification it did make still made it so much easier to onboard people with. I also had similar experience with Dragon Age: Origins but it's not technically a d20 based game.
I worry devs will try to follow BG3's example too literally as well. It has so many rough edges that are only forgiven because it's 5E.
Tyranny is probably my favorite of the recent Obsidian CRPGs.
I wouldn't get my hopes up. He more or less said "I'll do pillars 3 if they give me Baldur's Gate 3 money to do it." That's a pretty big if lol
As much as I'd be happy for companies to start throwing money at RPGs, they'd have to be so stupid to bankroll anything like PoE.
A large part of the success of BG3 is the ubiquity of D&D. Not for brand recognition but for the mechanics to be legible to a much wider number of people. PoE being it's own system is a nightmarish barrier to entry. Even as someone who has been playing TTRPGs and cRPGs for a long time I have to be in a pretty specific mood to want to learn a new system enough to even make it past character creation.
I think the ubiquity of DnD and the streamlined design of 5e really helped. I tried to go back to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous after Baldur's Gate 3, but I lost the patience for applying buffs and casting dispel magic lmao.
I think shorter games and simpler systems tend to work better with original game designs for CRPGs. Tyranny is probably my favorite of the recent Obsidian CRPGs.
I'm afraid people are going to expect loooong expensive games in this space, but BG3 was really a miracle lol.
I think the big thing is just overcoming analysis paralysis. Even if you can force someone through character creation, if it was overwhelming they're way less invested by the end of it.
I'm thinking back on trying to get people into computer RPGs, before the big 5E boom period. KOTOR and NWN were two big recommendations of mine. Both d20 systems by the same developer. They have very similar character creation structure. It's about as controlled a comparison I can think of.
Despite that, the difference is huge. NWN throws like a dozen classes at you with a massive number of skills and feats that you have to scroll through. KOTOR has three classes and skills all fit in a tiny box. Even handholding people through NWN's character creation they'd usually lose any interest by the time it was done unless they were already D&D players. KOTOR I could usually just leave people to do it on their own.
Don't get me wrong, KOTOR was far from perfect in this regard but the simplification it did make still made it so much easier to onboard people with. I also had similar experience with Dragon Age: Origins but it's not technically a d20 based game.
I worry devs will try to follow BG3's example too literally as well. It has so many rough edges that are only forgiven because it's 5E.
Hell yeah, mine too.