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Rummaging through Obsidian's drawer of game ideas; Warhammer, Prey 2, Star Wars RPG

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
Everyone has a drawer they can't close because it's stuffed too full of things. Mine has a whisk which always stops the bloody drawer from closing, and it's really annoying, but Obsidian Entertainment's drawer has around 100 game proposals in it. Game outlines in various states, from two-page snacks to 60-page feasts. "There's tons of them," Obsidian co-owner Chris Parker tells me. And for Obsidian there was never a time of greater need of an idea than summer 2012, after Microsoft cancelled Xbox One launch game Stormlands, and when South Park: The Stick of Truth was onboard THQ's sinking ship. It spurred a period now referred to in Obsidian history as the Summer of Proposals.

"We probably went through about 10 pitches that summer," Parker says. There was a Justice League game pitched to Warner Bros., there were two separate Might & Magic games pitched to Ubisoft, one smaller, one open-world. But the proposals Obsidian really remembers are Prey 2 and Warhammer 40K.

"Prey 2 everyone was really excited about," Parker says. This was before Dishonored developer Arkane set to work on a Prey reboot (released this year). This was in the aftermath of Bethesda shelving Human Head's Prey 2. "Ours had more ties to the old Prey," Parker says. "You're a human bounty hunter and you've gotten transplanted to where all the aliens are. You're a badass bounty hunter in this sci-fi setting."
Click to expand...

"The Warhammer 40K pitch is 28 pages - I just looked at it a little while ago," Chris Parker says while Urquhart, in perfect synchronisation, finds and opens the pitch on his computer and scrolls through it. It's very decorative and detailed but I don't catch any detail as he whizzes through.

"We wrote a small novel about how awesome this game would be," Parker says. "The idea was: there's a pen and paper off-shoot of 40K about the Inquisition, and it's more individual character-based and you travel around different planets." He's probably referring to Inquisitor, the 2001 Warhammer 40K spin-off, although it wasn't pen and paper. Inquisitor focused on a small group of characters: a shadowy Inquisitor with a couple of henchmen, and carte blanche to root out evil in the world (Games Workshop doesn't support Inquisitor any more but rulebooks are available online). A perfect set-up for an Obsidian RPG if ever I heard one. "We built this role-playing game about you being this new Inquisitor and having these crazy resources and going to all these planets," Parker says, "and there's nothing that's not at war in Warhammer 40K."
Click to expand...

Obsidian even, for the umpteenth time, pitched another Star Wars game - hardly a rare occurrence, the two owners joke. "We pitch Star Wars every few years," Chris Parker says while Feargus Urquhart again whizzes through the associate pitch on his PC. It's titled Star Wars: Dark Times, referring to the Dark Horse comic series of the same name. "I'm pretty sure this is a 'between Episode 3 and Episode 4' game," he says. "In essence it was sort of how to reinterpret a modern KOTOR 3-like game within the Dark Times, that's really what that one was."
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ow-white-dwarves-prey-warhammer-40k-star-wars
 
P

Pandy

Member
Hey, just to randomly hype myself for no reason, I've now mentally connected this series of ace Obsidian interviews with the only likely surprise game announcement happening of the week, tonight's Nintendo Direct.

Obsidian Paper Mario, anyone?
 
H

Hektor

Member
I'd want those all.

KOTOR3 by Obs would be a dream come true, hell i'd kickstart 350€ for a remade (and finished) KOTOR2 in Battlefronts Engine if needs be.

I can hardly imagine what a Warhammer 40K under obs would be like, but it sounds incredibly exciting. Same for Prey 2.

Only a might and magic RPG i don't really need, since they can just make their own fantasy license instead, which is what they did.
 
T

The Last Wizard

Member
Pandy said:
Hey, just to randomly hype myself for no reason, I've now mentally connected this series of ace Obsidian interviews with the only likely surprise game announcement happening of the week, tonight's Nintendo Direct.

Obsidian Paper Mario, anyone?
Click to expand...
Something is gonna get announced, when was the last time obsidian had all these articles? They're building up to something.
 
B

berzeli

Banned
The Last Wizard said:
Something is gonna get announced, when was the last time obsidian had all these articles? They're building up to something.
Click to expand...
From the comments section (it's the writer of the article):
yJvWLAW.png

JIcXlYY.png
 
B

Borman

Member
Hey Obsidian, let me know if there's anything I can do to help preserve all these random bits and bobs that have come up over the years. Im doing this full time now, and Im sure it's something that could be done.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Hektor said:
I'd want those all.

KOTOR3 by Obs would be a dream come true, hell i'd kickstart 350€ for a remade (and finished) KOTOR2 in Battlefronts Engine if needs be.

I can hardly imagine what a Warhammer 40K under obs would be like, but it sounds incredibly exciting. Same for Prey 2.

Only a might and magic RPG i don't really need, since they can just make their own fantasy license instead, which is what they did.
Click to expand...

Frostbite (the Battlefront engine) and RPGs don't mix well, based on Bioware's experience. The DAI team has ranted numerous times about their problems with it, and do I even need to list Mass Effect Andromeda's problems with it?

The recent talk about MS and Shadowrun have made me wonder what an Obsidian Shadowrun game would look like.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
"Ours had more ties to the old Prey," Parker says. "You're a human bounty hunter and you've gotten transplanted to where all the aliens are. You're a badass bounty hunter in this sci-fi setting."
Click to expand...

It sounds like Obsidian wanted to pick up from where Human Head left off.
 
H

HariKari

Member
Someone tell them to pitch that shit again. Games Workshop (owners of the 40k IP) are approving anything under the new CEO and they've got the track record to secure funding for it.

I need a great 40k game.
 
T

Tacitus_

Member
"We wrote a small novel about how awesome this game would be," Parker says. "The idea was: there's a pen and paper off-shoot of 40K about the Inquisition, and it's more individual character-based and you travel around different planets." He's probably referring to Inquisitor, the 2001 Warhammer 40K spin-off, although it wasn't pen and paper. Inquisitor focused on a small group of characters: a shadowy Inquisitor with a couple of henchmen, and carte blanche to root out evil in the world (Games Workshop doesn't support Inquisitor any more but rulebooks are available online). A perfect set-up for an Obsidian RPG if ever I heard one. "We built this role-playing game about you being this new Inquisitor and having these crazy resources and going to all these planets," Parker says, "and there's nothing that's not at war in Warhammer 40K."
Click to expand...

Obsidian making an Inquisition RPG would be like a dream come true.
 
T

TheMrPliskin

Member
I really wish I hadn't read that 40k pitch as I'd never considered the idea before and now an Obsidian Warhammer 40k RPG is all I want.
 
G

Greigor The Fellhand

Member
Keasar said:
tumblr_inline_o6o0ttIRdW1rjmyb2_500.gif

[/SPOILER]
Click to expand...

that seems perfect for no pics, BRB using imagination.



in all seriousness, the one thing I want to know when did they pitch this?

I am assuming it was under Kirby.

Obisdian RE-pitch it, new ceo will most likely approve it. screams at RELIC, HEY HELP THEM, the world needs this.
 
A

AXE

Member
I'm still waiting for the sequel to KotOR series. Doesn't even have to be about the period (which I guess isn't canon anymore), but give me a game with same kind of devotion and AAAAAA budget. I'd play that till the end of the world.
 
adversarial

adversarial

Member
oh my God, an Inquisitor Wh 40k from Obsidian. Fucking kill me, that would be unprecedented sickness in the WH 40K universe.
 
P

Philxor

Member
Poetic.Injustice said:
Lack of publisher is the issue, not the license cost.
Click to expand...

Given Obsidian's success on Kickstarter, I wonder if they could have self-published and forgone a physical release? Even if not, let's hope that Paradox consider the proposal in the near future...or the grimness of the far future, as the case may be.
 
S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
I want a Justice League RPG on PS4 or next-gen so bad. It's frustrating to know we could've had one but didn't because WB wants to sit around holding their DICKS all day instead of getting fucking games out.
 
S

Sabercrusader

Member
Man, Obsidian deserves so much more than they have. I think they're one of the most underappreciated game developers out there.

I think I would take a look at any of these pitches.
 
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