"We are not complete idiots": game designer Obsidian explained why the studio released games with a lot of bugs
One of the reasons why the early Obsidian games were so busy on release is the publisher’s desire to release them to the market as soon as possible. This opinion was expressed by Obsidian Design Director Josh Sawyer.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Role-playing games from Obsidian are famous for their deep plot.
The studio’s early projects were full of mistakes. Because of this, Obsidian gained an unflattering reputation.
Game designer Josh Sawyer admitted there was a problem.
“We are not complete idiots,” Sawyer said in his blog on Tumblr, “we know that our games have a reputation for being bogged down. And although when creating large and complex RPGs with thousands of ways to pass them, mistakes cannot be avoided, we would be able to reduce the number of bugs if we had more time. But the publisher measures the development period, so we are deprived of such an opportunity.”
Sawyer also mentioned that limiting the difficulty of quests in the early stages would reduce the time for testing them and reduce the percentage of bugs. This is exactly what Obsidian’s lead designer Bobby Null did when creating Pillars of Eternity. “However, there is a big danger here: if you simplify the quest too much, it will not interest the player. However, we only benefit from reducing the number of buggy quests,” Sawyer noted.
Tyrrany
As VGC notes, over the years of independent funding, Obsidian has learned to release titles with a much smaller number of bugs.
The studio collected money for the latest projects with the help of crowdfunding. She could afford to choose the release date on her own and freely reschedule it if necessary.
But still, the latest Obsidian titles — for example, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – failed. Therefore, in November last year, she had to merge with Microsoft.
Her next game, The Outer Worlds, will be released by Private Division, a private division of Take-Two. It is not yet known what release window the publisher has set for The Outer Worlds.
