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Tag: obsidian

  • ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’ Creation Detailed in New Video

    The probable March 4 release of South Park: The Stick of Truth is just weeks away now. The game has taken a long journey to get to store shelves, starting out as a delayed project of THQ, the publisher that went bankrupt and was sold off piecemeal one year ago. From there, Ubisoft took control of the project and delayed its release two more times before settling on its current release date, which finally seems to be sticking.

    Despite the delays the project has continued to excite South Park fans with its blend of the show’s humor and animation mixed with JRPG inspirations. Through all of this South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker stuck with the project, providing hands-on support and vowing to create a video game worthy of the South Park name.

    Today Ubisoft and South Park Studios released a new behind-the-scenes look at how The Stick of Truth was developed. The goal was always to make a game that matched the exact look of the show, and the developer at Obsidian seem to have accomplished that thanks to a perfectionist streak at South Park Studios:

  • ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’ Delayed Once Again

    Ubisoft today announced that South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed. Again.

    The latest release date for the game is now March 4, 2014.

    At this point the delay announcement should come as little surprise for fans who have been waiting more than a year for the title’s release. The game was originally scheduled to launch in March of this year, but was delayed last November by publisher THQ. It was then caught up in the bankruptcy and piecemeal selloff of THQ, ending up in the seemingly capable hands of Ubisoft. The game had been listed as a tentative late 2013 release for months before Ubisoft gave it a December 10, 2013 release date just last month.

    Ubisoft stated that the game has taken far more work for developer Obsidian to get it finished than originally anticipated. Apparently, the studio has had to change the game drastically from the form it was in in during its THQ days.

    “Within three weeks after acquiring the game, we sadly realized we had to turn this thing upside down if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted,” said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America. “It’s been such a major overhaul to get to the point where we are that we couldn’t let it go, even if that meant missing December.”

    The disappointing announcement was accompanied by a press quote from South Park’s creators, making light of the difficult time this game has had in development:

    “We always wanted the game to feel like you’re actually in an episode of South Park,” said Matt Stone and Trey Parker. “Getting the game up to the crappy standards of the show has been a real challenge and we’re excited to say it’s taken way longer than we thought it would.”

    Along with the delay announcement, Ubisoft has released a new video preview of the game. This one shows actual gameplay from the title, demonstrating for fans that the title does, in fact, exist:

  • ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’ Gets (Another) Release Date

    After months of delay, South Park: The Stick of Truth finally has a new release date. The game will hit PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on December 10, 2013.

    The Stick of Truth was originally set for a March 5, 2013 release date before it was delayed along with other THQ games. When it became apparent that THQ was going under, the entire future of the project was thrown into jeopardy. During the THQ auction this January, the rights to Stick of Truth were bought by Ubisoft.

    Developed by Obsidian, The Stick of Truth is an RPG that utilizes real South Park assets and has been written by South Park Studios itself. The game puts players in the shoes of the “new kid” who joins South Parks’ large cast of characters as they battle underpants gnomes, hippies, and other baddies from South Park’s 16 seasons on TV.

    A new trailer for the game accompanied the release date announcement, showcasing the fact that Stick of Truth might be the first South Park game to actually capture the feel of the series:

    In addition to the release date and trailer, Ubisoft also announced a collector’s edition pre-order pack for Stick of Truth. The “Grand Wizard Edition of the game comes with a 6-inch tall statue of Cartman in his “Grand Wizard” garb, a full map of South Park itself, and some in-game abilities for different classes.

    Grand Wizard Edition

  • Project Eternity Becomes Most Funded Video Game On Kickstarter

    Last month, Obsidian Entertainment tried their hand at Kickstarter with Project Eternity. It was being billed as a return to old school RPG design philosophies that would hold true to the gameplay style of classics like Baldur’s Gate. It was pretty clear that the game would meet its $1.1 million goal; but I don’t think many people expected it to break records, let alone become the most funded game on Kickstarter.

    The previous big record holder for traditional gaming was the Double Fine Adventure. It also had the distinction of kicking off the mad rush to get games funded via Kickstarter. Since then, countless projects like Wasteland 2 and an adventure based on the Web comic Homestuck have raised millions of dollars thanks to fans.

    Obsidian’s Project Eternity wrapped up its funding campaign this week and raised a total of $3,986,929. When they factor in the donations from PayPal, the game has raised over $4 million in funds. The only other gaming project on Kickstarter to raise more than that is the Ouya games console. It raised over $8.5 million in its 30 day run.

    Like many Kickstarter projects, Obsidian set forth a number of stretch goals for each funding milestone they hit. Since September 14, they have hit five stretch goals via Kickstarter and the fifth was hit thanks to pledges via PayPal. The game will now receive a number of new classes, cities, gameplay elements and enhancements to make the game better than they had ever hoped.

    Obsidian is also taking a page out of Double Fine’s handbook by allowing people to continue giving money to the project. Latecomers can contribute money via PayPal to get a copy of the game for $25 before the game is released.

    KickStarter proudly declared 2012 to be the year of the game on Kickstarter. The amount of multi-million game projects on the site seem to confirm that fact. There are a lot of gamers out there whose needs aren’t being met by the current industry. Kickstarter is the developer’s way of getting great games into the hands of gamers while being held accountable only to those same gamers.

  • Obsidian Launches Kickstarter for “Project Eternity”

    Obsidian Entertainment, the developer behind games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas, has started a Kickstarter to help raise the funds to develop a new fantasy RPG.

    Obsidian claims that Project Eternity will be an isometric party-based fantasy RPG that pays homage to games such as Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. In the Kickstarter video seen below, Obsidian developers revealed that the fantasy world of the project will be a newly developed IP – and have magic, of course. They also revealed that the game will be developed with a mature audience in mind.

    “I can tell you that one thing I’m looking forward to in Kickstarter is the opportunity to make an M rated game,” said Tim Cain, senior programmer at Obsidian. “I think many publishers steer clear of that these days, and I think there are a lot of themes we can explore.”

    As always, a wide variety of bonuses are available depending on how much fans give to the cause. Pledges range from a Steam copy of Project Eternity for $20, Collectors Editions for $140 or more, designing in-game NPC’s or epic weapons for $1000, and an invite to the Project Eternity launch party for a $10,000 pledge.

    Video game projects are some of the most popular and most successful Kickstarter projects. For example, Stainless Games raised over $600,000 to develop a Carmageddon sequel. Tim Schafer and Double Fine were able to raise an astounding $3.3 million for Double Fine Adventure. The Project Eternity has already raised over $200,000 of its $1.1 million goal at this time, proving once again that gamers are willing to pay, upfront, for great developers to make great games.

  • inXile Entertainment Gets Help For Wasteland 2

    Good news and bad news time. The good news is that inXile Entertainment, the party responsible for the sequel to Wasteland 2, has got Obsidian Entertainment on board for the game. The bad news? There is a catch. The project is currently on Kickstarter where it raised over $900,000 in it’s first two days. They are currently at $1,714,815 and if they get to $2.1 million during the 17 days remaining on the project, they’ll be bringing in Obisidian Entertainment, including Chris Avellone, to help them make the game.

    “Wasteland is one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and when Brian asked if I wanted to work on the sequel, I jumped at the chance,” said Chris Avellone. ” hile I’ve worked on Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, getting the chance to work on the spiritual successor to the Fallout franchise is a honor.”

    The goal might have seemed lofty at first, but after they got 90% done in the first 2 days, it wasn’t a stretch to see them wanting to reach for the stars!

    Brian Fargo, the lead on the Wasteland 2 project observes that “I have a history with the guys at Obsidian that dates back to the days of Interplay’s Black Isle studios. Together we created some of the greatest RPG’s of all time, from Fallout 1 & 2 to titles like Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. It is great that we now have a chance to reunite on a project like Wasteland 2.” “Obsidian has an incredible library of story, dialog and design tools that they have used to create hits like Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and of course, Fallout: New Vegas. Regardless of the tech we use to develop the game, experience with these tools will help us efficiently design the game without wasting time and resources on the tools needed for development.”

    @RowanKaiser
    Rowan Kaiser    Yesss…adding @ChrisAvellone to Wasteland II is a wonderful thing. RT @BrianFargo: http://t.co/wJ6pcNZi 14 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @locust9
    David Goldfarb    Okay, send money to kickstart Wasteland 2, now. Obsidian joins the fight at 2.1m. GO! http://t.co/r03STDHn 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @mathewkumar
    Mathew Kumar    @RaveofRavendale pretty sure with Obsidian on board we can get ’em to agree to return our money if Wasteland 2 doesn’t get 90 on Metacritic. 3 hours ago via Tweetbot for iOS ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • ‘South Park’ may be affected by Obsidian Lay-offs

    Obsidian Entertainment is going through a round of lay-offs this week.

    In an interview with Joystiq, a source close to Obsidian said the team working on the new South Park RPG was affected, and an unnamed project has been cancelled.

    Few other details exist about the mystery project or exactly how the lay-offs will affect production of the South Park game.

    20 to 30 people were laid-off, including someone who was just hired the day before.

    @magrippinho
    Johnny Magrippis    Oh God, the poor guy that was just hired one day prior | Obsidian hit with layoffs http://t.co/FiHZNXwx 5 minutes ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Members of the Obsidian forum are confirming the lay-offs, citing changes in former team members Linked-In resumes indicating they no longer work for the company.

    One Obsidian team member took to Twitter, expressing his sympathy for his former comrades.

    @gelatin
    Andre Nguyen    Fellow Obsidianites who were laid off today…I was lucky, but I’ve been on the other end of that. Your talents will take you far! #keepgoin 11 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Others are offering their condolences…

    @One_Letter
    J Goldberg    Ugh. Good luck to all of those at Obsidian: http://t.co/zNMswGLd 56 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    It was less than a month ago that Obsidian posted this Tweet, inviting job seekers to apply.

    @Obsidian_Ent
    Obsidian_Ent    Obsidian is growing and would like you to join our team. Check out all of our great opportunities.
    http://t.co/ZZWvMYeL 25 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Just don’t expect to keep your job for more than a day.