Feargus Urquhart on New Kickstarter Ideas

While Obsidian is currently busy putting the finishing touches on South Park: The Stick of Truth and working on both Pillars of Eternity and an unannounced project for next-generation consoles, CEO Feargus Urquhart has revealed to Rock, Paper, Shotgun that the company is strongly considering going back to Kickstarter with a new project, though he’s coy on what exactly it might be, and only offers hints of the discussions that occured at the developers’ headquartes in Irvine:

(What’s cool about Eternity and then, well, I’d be really surprised if we didn’t make an Eternity II, is having something else we can then use that tech for,) he explains. (I mean, not exactly, because then it would just be a reskinned Eternity. But I always look at the example of what we did back at Black Isle with Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. And then Torment on top of that. Those games used the exact same engine, but they all felt very distinct. That’s what we want to do now too, and I think that’s just gonna help us make each of those games better and better.)

What, then, will be the Icewind Dale or Torment to Pillars of Eternity’s Baldur? Whether devs are chatting fireside, around the ol’ watering hole, or near something that actually exists in a game development studio, that question is the talk of Obsidian. A few standout ideas top the list, but Urquhart has one of his own that he’s especially fond of. And yeah, it sounds exciting. Really exciting.

(What I’m trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC forget console for now with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity? Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?)

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Despite a plan to develop them with a small team, these ideas might not even make it to Kickstarter, either. In fact, it sounds like Obsidian’s already narrowed down its direction for a second Kickstarter quite a lot. During our chat, Urquhart only offers sly hints, just as one might expect from a man who once oversaw the most silver-tongued of espionage RPGs and yeah, no, it’s not going to be Alpha Protocol. Damn it.

(There’s something we’re talking about that I think would be really cool, but it’s not an original property,) he says. (It’s a licensed property. But it’s not Alpha Protocol! It’s something we can still do a ton of creative stuff with, though. And then the other thing is an original property. Also, there’s a third thing that somebody approached us with, but I really don’t think that’s going to work out.)