All The Things We Know About Project Eternity So Far

With initial funding targets reached and a month still to go on their Kickstarter, Obsidian have started to entertain some pre-production details for Project Eternity. Josh Sawyer, project leader for Eternity, recently outlined the story premise:

The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance. Burdened with the consequences of this event, the player has to investigate what has happened in order to free themselves from the restless forces that follow and haunt them wherever they go.

Project leads including Sawyer as well as Tim Cain (system mechanics and programming) and Chris Avellone (creative direction and writing) promise an adventure in a traditional fantasy vein with “its own special twists.” While character background is not a chief determinant in how the story unfolds, early descriptions of the multitudinous races of Project Eternity’s world are intended to be socially complex and more nuanced than the typical sword-and-sorcery stereotypes.

As for the system mechanics, system lead Cain again emphasized the “real time with pause”/RTWP format and added that gameplay is centered around souls:

No, you don’t have to be evil to access any abilities. They aren’t categorized like that. Instead, in this world, your soul is connected to your power. Simply put, people who have whole, unbroken souls are more powerful than those people who just have fragments of souls. The nature of these souls, and how they might break, is something we will explore in the game.

[…] the game does not track an alignment for the player. Instead we will use a reputation system to keep track of what different groups in the world think of you. Consequences of your actions will matter in Project Eternity.

We’ve heard the “consequences” line quite a few times out of RPG developers, so it remains to be seen just how the team will be carrying this off.

The team also emphasized the tactical aspect to the combat system, which sounds like a souped-up deluxe version of the combat players will remember from Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment, two of the games from the team’s collective resume they wish to emulate. “Companions exist for both narrative and mechanical purposes,” explained Sawyer: “Companions are designed to have a driving interest in the player’s central conflict. […] Additionally, companions exist to give players strategic management options in party composition.”

Certain fluffy lines aside, it’s a lot of fairly concrete information to be getting so early in development, when we consider the usual torrents of hyperbole and smokescreen had out of certain other major developers. The transparency makes sense, though, as a crowdfunded game where Obsidian are directly answerable to their many thousands of Kickstarter backers. It also goes both ways: many details about Project Eternity remain up in the air until the development team know for certain what their budget will be. For instance, the project’s current Kickstarter stretch goals include possible Mac and Linux ports as well as additional races, classes, companions and locations.

The advantage of doing the Kickstarter this early in its development is that we can be guided by the feedback from our fans. We are reading the forums and noting what features people think are most important in the game, and then we are revising our work schedule accordingly.

Project Eternity is set for a tentative Spring 2014 release date and may be episodic in nature. You can read the entire interview with the developers at Eurogamer.