Josh Sawyer: 'The most compromised games I worked on were Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2'

At GDC this 12 months, PC Gamer hosted a roundtable by which a bunch of veteran RPG designers got here collectively to debate matters starting from whether or not the cinematic BioWare-style RPG is lifeless to the impression of Elden Ring’s success. When the dialog got here round to the topic of how a lot their video games have been primarily based on what the RPG viewers was searching for, versus their very own private style, Obsidian’s design director Josh Sawyer—whose design credit embody Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment, Alpha Protocol, and lots extra—went all the way in which again to the start of his profession.

“I have been enjoying D&D since 1985,” Sawyer mentioned, “and different tabletop roleplaying video games alongside the way in which. After I acquired into the business in 1999 the primary sport that I started working on was Icewind Dale, and so I used to be like, ‘Yeah!’ I used to be so stoked.” He describes engaged on Icewind Dale and its sequel, official D&D diversifications made within the Infinity Engine identical to Baldur’s Gate had been earlier than them, as a possibility to “dump” into videogames each thought he had about D&D whereas enjoying it round a desk.

Years later, he returned to that sort of top-down, party-based, real-time-with-pause CRPG with Pillars of Eternity, which raised a record-breaking $3,986,929 on Kickstarter in 2012. However he returned a unique man, with completely different concepts about how you can design an RPG.

“Actually, I’ve to say it felt like essentially the most compromised video games I labored on have been Pillars of Eternity 1 and a couple of,” Sawyer mentioned. “As a result of once I got here again to that format, I used to be like, ‘Oh, I labored on these two [Icewind Dale] video games, after which I labored on Neverwinter Nights 2, and now I’ve a bunch of latest concepts for a way in another way I might do it if I have been doing it by myself.’ However they have been crowdfunded video games and the viewers was like, ‘No, we would like D&D, we would like precisely the identical expertise because the Infinity Engine video games.'”

The truth that backers had already paid for an RPG that, within the phrases of that first Kickstarter (opens in new tab), “pays homage to the nice Infinity Engine video games of years previous”, meant Sawyer felt he needed to maintain Pillars of Eternity retro even in locations the place he had higher concepts. “I did really feel a way of obligation,” he mentioned, “but in addition I felt like I used to be making unhealthy design selections in the end, like I used to be making a sport worse to enchantment to the sensibilities of the viewers that needed one thing extremely nostalgic.”

That mentioned, Sawyer does not contemplate the Pillars of Eternity video games as they ended as much as be failures, even when they’re held again by their format somewhat than being “an evolution” of it. “It was a really bizarre expertise, however I am nonetheless happy with the video games,” he mentioned.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

(Picture credit score: Obsidian Leisure)

Our RPG roundtable additionally included Mike Laidlaw, Strix Beltran, Lis Moberly, and Paweł Sasko. You’ll be able to learn extra of the issues they talked about, in addition to hearken to the entire 80-minute dialog proper right here.

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