Obsidian Scrapped a Sci-Fi Skyrim

[rofltehcat]

Noooooo
I want Sci-Fi Skyrim!

Why are they even talking about this? Are they planning a kickstarter or something?

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

The design doc mentions several gameplay features, including skills that improve over time, fast-paced gun and melee combat, and a selection of AI "companions" to slot into your armor to give yourself stat boosts and provide dialogue in the mostly isolated setting

Fast paced gun and melee combat in a game based on the skyrim engine with AI companions who were written by Obsidian? I really hope they decide to come back and work on this

 

[ailurus]

These type of ideas are exactly why Obsidian is probably my favorite AAA dev team out there today. Really hope they revisit this in the future.

That said, its probably for the best that its shelved for now. Because while I do love Obsidian, their quality control at release needs work. And between Eternity, the work they're doing on Wasteland 2 and finishing up South Park (plus any other stuff they've got on their plate) it sounds to me like they've got their plate full at the moment. Help inXile get Wasteland 2 out the door in a manner it deserves, get Eternity in a good state, and then look at Backspace. I'm fine waiting a bit for it to be good, rather than you guys trying to do a ton of stuff at once and having bugs or oversights wreck it.

 

[dumbseizure]

Obsidian Scrapped a Sci-Fi Skyrim

Obsidian has revealed some details on an action-RPG that could have been.

Obsidian Entertainment has a knack for building inspired games on the shoulders of other studios' engines. Bethesda passed the torch to Obsidian to continue the Fallout series with New Vegas, but it seems the two studios were considering another collaboration - this time on the Skyrim engine. Unfortunately it looks like the idea has been shelved for now, but a design document has surfaced that details what could have been a sci-fi action-RPG that blends Mass Effect, Borderlands, System Shock 2, and of course Skyrim.

The prototype game was known as Backspace, and the creative types at Obsidian seem to have put a lot of thought into the game's setting, story, and mechanics before it was abandoned. The game would take place on a giant space station - think Mass Effect's Citadel - which is ravaged by an alien attack. You'd play as a cyborg who somehow gets caught up in a time travel scenario, shifting between the present-day station (which is under active assault by the invaders) and a bleak decade into the future where the aliens have won and control the station. The design doc mentions several gameplay features, including skills that improve over time, fast-paced gun and melee combat, and a selection of AI "companions" to slot into your armor to give yourself stat boosts and provide dialogue in the mostly isolated setting.

Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart commented that the team may work more on Backspace in the future, but it's just one of many ideas that the studio has considered and ultimately shelved. Still, it sounds pretty cool - and we can still dream.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/a-sci-fi-skyrim-was-in-development-at-obsidian-it-ha-736060432]

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From the sound of this, I would have preferred this over Skyrim, by quite a lot.

 

[thetoddo]

Noooooo
I want Sci-Fi Skyrim!

Why are they even talking about this? Are they planning a kickstarter or something?

I really hope not. People have a limited amount of money to throw at Kickstart projects and I really dislike the idea that companies who have the ability to create games/movies/whatever without the money are starting to use Kickstarter to fund projects they can afford themselves. There are ways to guage interest in a product that do not involve actively trying to hurt smaller/independant creators by shrinking the potential investment pool.

On topic, I'd definately give this a shot if they ever made it.

 

[Scorpid]

How is it that Obsidian shelves more interesting ideas then most triple A studios put out in their lifetime? I really hope Bethesda gives them another Fallout game to make.

 

[mad825]

i do wonder if one of the reasons for shelving it was the skyrim engine. its a pain in the ass to do anything in it. frankly its a buggy and twitchy mess even at its most stable

Congratz!

you may have just figured out that the The Creation Engine[footnote]yes, not even the writer of this article knew the name of the game engine. The Skyrim Engine? That's just lazy.[/footnote] is just a modified version of the Gamebryo engine used in FO3 and oblivion.

 

[Naqel]

How is it that Obsidian shelves more interesting ideas then most triple A studios put out in their lifetime?

Because ideas are cheap.
It's the first thing any aspiring game designer learns: You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can't execute it right, you might as well have not had it.


Though to give them the credit, most studios don't have any good ideas to begin with.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Seriously? they don't see the trend that Scifi is IN right now?

O wells we still have Cyberpunk 2077... that's close enough right?

 

[Woodsey]

Great concept, and a terrible, terrible name.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Great concept, but its Obsidian, the only developer other than Bethesda to release a glitched up game and catch next to no flak from fans. This idea could have been ruined by Obsidian's usual patchy release style. Just like Alpha Protocol. Good game, but before patches it was a mess.

 

[crackfool]

Great concept, but its Obsidian, the only developer other than Bethesda to release a glitched up game and catch next to no flak from fans. This idea could have been ruined by Obsidian's usual patchy release style. Just like Alpha Protocol. Good game, but before patches it was a mess.

Glitches are usually the fault of the publisher, rather than the developer.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

WHY THE FUCK DO THEY TELL US THIS SHIT!?

Seriously, talk about the games you are making, not the potentially awesome idea I would have thrown money at if it were ever made because you just make people mad by telling us you had this idea and then didn't follow through on it.

 

[Angelous Wang]

WHY THE FUCK DO THEY TELL US THIS SHIT!?

Seriously, talk about the games you are making, not the potentially awesome idea I would have thrown money at if it were ever made because you just make people mad by telling us you had this idea and then didn't follow through on it.

Maybe so that it will generate enough positive publicity and want that whatever has caused it to stop/be scraped in the first place will reconsider (be it a Bethesda, a Obsidian higher up, a publisher or whatever).

Manipulate the internet into manipulating your bosses.

 

[william12123]

Sigh. They probably have whole closets filled with good ideas like this, that will never see the light of day. And even if they did, they would be buggy as hell. Although I admit the time travel bugs me a bit. Not a big fan of time travel.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

If they scrapped this then that means that they came up with an even better idea, right? Right?

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Great concept, but its Obsidian, the only developer other than Bethesda to release a glitched up game and catch next to no flak from fans. This idea could have been ruined by Obsidian's usual patchy release style. Just like Alpha Protocol. Good game, but before patches it was a mess.

Glitches are usually the fault of the publisher, rather than the developer.

I heavily disagree. The developers are the ones making the game. The publishers have a deadline sure, but ultimately it falls on the developers. With Bethesda there's little excuse for it because their publisher is Bethesda. And I doub't Bethesda rushed Obsidian when they were making Fallout:New Vegas. New Vegas was possibly the worst game of its generation for glitches and crashes in a AAA title.

Both companies have a history of releasing glitchy games and with the exception of Kotor 2 the publishers have had little to do with that.

 

[Quazimofo]

I'm just gonna say, if they pursued this idea further, I'd probably buy the hell out of it. Sounds like an interesting idea to be executed by competent (if rarely properly funded) developers.

This makes me sad that it's going to be a very long time to this game's creation, let alone release, even if it ever happens. Makes me almost as sad as Disney going exclusive with EA for their starwars junk, horrifically limiting what star wars games will be made while EA still lives and breathes. Honestly, why would you ever sign an exclusivity thing for such a potentially grand IP? You could do f*** ANYTHING with star wars if you wanted, and there's TONS of people who would want to and are good enough to deliver. Why limit yourself to EA?
Gah, disney executives just baffle me sometimes.

 

[Frankster]

This seems cool, aww that they gave up on it

Sci fi skyrim is a bit misleading though, in my mind skyrim brings up images of vast open space with a lot of snow and mountains, and this would have been set on a space station which is much more claustrophobic.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Sci-fi Skyrim?

Want want want want want want want.

Honestly, I love Obsidian. They have a lot of potential, even though their games are horribly buggy, and if they ever had all the time they needed in order to perfect their games, they'd easily be GOTY potential.