Having looked a little deeper into it, and watched their updates, I understand why Obsidian is having difficulty pitching the game concept to publishers. Their concept is for a maturely themed, single-player, 90's-to-early-00's style, open-world, isometric RPG with a tactical real-time formation-based combat system. So, basically, in not so many words, a spiritual successor to
Planescape: Torment. What they do not have is the
Wizards of the Coast license to use the actual
Planescape setting, so it looks like it will be a generic Tolkein-esque high-fantasy setting.
Strikes against it for publishers include; 90's-style iso, mature morality themes, and the single-player focus. These are the things, however, which endear me to the project. Additionally, after smearing them a tiny bit here (and in person at my office as well, to my shame) for their ridiculous notion that supporting Linux costs twice as much, they went and decided to build the game using
Unity3D. Linux & Mac now come, regardless of stretch goals, and they will apparently do something else with the additional funds (replacement stretch goal at $2.2M is now TBD). I just wish they'd done their homework up-front, rather than waiting for a full week of their Kickstarter to pass. It's almost as if most Kickstarter project creator don't actually expect their campaigns to succeed, and are completely caught off-guard when they do.
I still think feel as if they should have been able to publish through a smaller publisher (do these still exist anymore?), but I can begin to understand why a crowd-sourced solution would feel like the only way to accomplish their vision.
The more deeply I've delved into the information they've provided in their updates, the more I'm convinced that it's somewhat antithetical to the kind of concept major publishers are interested in. For example, in their most recent update (number 7) they describe a complex system of non-combat skills, and non-combat skill points, and further, they explain that these will be fully integrated into the various quest-lines, such that one could
accomplish nearly the entire game without combat. A serious fantasy RPG in which you don't have to fight? Another nail in the publisher coffin. When you
do fight, your brain is required for tactics and strategy?
In another update, they wax metaphysical in their concept of souls in their invented setting, and soul interaction in the magic system they envision. It's very Eastern-philosophy influenced, with a reincarnation mechanic, and they discuss concepts of new/old/fractured souls and what affect that may have on characters' casting skills.
So, it's not first person, it's not multiplayer, it touches religious themes outside the mainstream, when you fight, you have to use your brain, and you don't even have to freaking kill anything. Also as of yet, there's no mention of a console. Even
Skyrim was console-ized and first-person, and it contained adult themes of morality (... I'm told, having not played it. Still waiting on
Bethesda for the Linux port
).
Does this justify the concept of using KS to fund AA game development, which this surely can be categorized as, along with the wildly successful
Planetary Annihilation? I don't even know what to think of
Homestuck, with their million dollars.
I haven't yet decided the answer to that question, but I'm of two masters here, with my platform preference, and my personal preferences in games. I feel obligated to represent my community on projects in which Linux is made a possibility, and am less choosy about those.
Project Eternity promises enough that I've decided to support it. If they'll give Linux a chance, I'll extend them the same courtesy.
I'll admit, my support won't be in the stratosphere at which I'm backing my adventure games, especially the ones I really went deeply on (
SpaceVenture,
Quest for Infamy,
Jack Houston, and
Broken Sword 5). Further, I'm certainly not going to work nearly as hard to cheerlead them on the internet as I did for SV, QFI and JH. That nearly killed me
