Obsidian planning to unveil Kickstarter project

Obsidian Entertainment is said to be bringing a new licensed project to Kickstarter in 2014, CEO, Feargus Urquhart has confirmed. While speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Urquhart suggested that it might use the same engine as the studio's recent Kickstarter success, Pillars of Eternity.

The CEO didn't give too many details away but he did mention that the studio is trying to figure out how to create a Skyrim-esque title with the engine it built for Pillars of Eternity:

“What I’m trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC – forget console for now – with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity? Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?”

Urquhart also talks about the possibility of making the game an episodic series, which would be released in 10 to 15 hour chunks of gameplay:

“What could we do? How much would it cost? Would it make sense for it to be episodic? Because going out there and saying, ‘We're gonna make 100 hours of gameplay,' everyone goes, ‘Oh my god, how could it not cost millions?' But could we create ten hours and have people pay ten bucks? And generally when we say ten hours, it's usually 15. But if we go with five episodes, then people get between 50 and 75 hours.”

This Kickstarter project will be based on a pre-existing license but it won't be based on the Alpha Protocol franchise, the project is expected to be open up for funding around March or April next year.

KitGuru Says: Making an episodic RPG built out of 15 hour gameplay chunks sounds like it could be a good idea. That said, there are a lot of people who hate having to wait for the next episode of anything, including TV Shows and would rather take the marathon approach. However, if the episodes were big enough to last a while then it could work as not everyone has the time to sit down and complete a big game in one day or over a weekend.

What are your thoughts on an episodic RPG series?

Source: RPS

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