It’s nice to see the underdog win every now and then. Small but talented RPG developer Obsidian has fallen victim to all sorts of misfortune over the years, from having their games rushed out the door well before completion to being cheated out of a well-deserved bonus due to being 1 point off of the publisher’s desired Metacritic score. It seems like more often than not Obsidian finds themselves screwed over in some way when dealing with the top of the industry food chain, which is why their massively successful Kickstarter drive just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
Project Eternity launched back in mid September. Obsidian was looking for $1.1 million to fund their dream project, an RPG inspired by the isometric classics of old, set in a completely original fantasy universe, their second ever attempt at an original IP (the first being the critically panned but cult favorite Alpha Protocol). In a matter of hours, they managed to hit their goal, leaving the remainder of the month to fill with stretch goals that sure enough got hit every time, expanding the game considerably:
- 11 classes
- 6 races
- 8 companions
- A huge mega dungeon of at least 10 levels
- Player house
- A stronghold
- Two big cities
By the end of the fundraising, Project Eternity stood at 73,986 backers giving $3,986,929. In addition to Paypal backers, which were last said to sit at over $100,000, this would put Obsidian’s project at somewhere over $4 million, completely shattering Double Fine’s earlier Kickstarter record of $3.3 million.
Congratulations to everyone at Obsidian. Now to wait the agonizing eighteen months for the game to be made.
If people seeing this success are at all worried about Obsidian not delivering I think they’ll be surprised. I feel as though it has been publisher’s pushing them into things they’ve not been comfortable with that has caused their missteps.
Also there’s my interview with Josh Sawyer that made me very optimistic.
This is obviously Obisidan’s 11th hour. They can prove themselves with this game or they can fold. The company, at least from my cursory, outward glances, seems to be on the verge of collapse. It takes on awful title ideas that are not going to pull in much money on a good day (notably, Alpha Protocol, South Park the RPG, Dungeon Siege 3) let alone when a publisher’s wanting to shove the game out the door by Christmas of a given year.
I like Obsidian’s games (KOTOR2, FO:NV, any of the IE games), but they haven’t made something stick with me since KOTOR2 (NV was just a wistful smile. The whole time I played it, I was dreaming back to the days of FO2). Let’s hope they can get themselves back on the map with this game and make a thing of it – with DLC, expansion packs, sequels – the works.
If they can’t, oh well. They’ve clearly past their prime, in that case. I won’t miss them.
I got confused by the mega dungeon thing. I was under the impression it was a new level every 2,500 backers? Mind you that’d make it like 38 levels lol
They started from 40K IIRC.
i have a no kickstarter support policy
but i will buy this game at official launch
What is your objection to kickstarter?
Proudly funded this one, even though I don’t usually back kickstarter projects.
I’ll gladly make this bet.