[Aptorian]

http://hellforge.gam...eel-of-Time-RPG

Quote

Obsidian Entertainment to Develop Wheel of Time RPG

The company that owns the video game and movie rights to Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series Wheel of Time, Red Eagle Games, has just announced a partnership with Obsidian Entertainment with the intent of producing a series of RPGs for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms based on the Wheel of Time series. Obsidian Entertainment is best known for developing Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: KOTOR2 and the upcoming post-nuclear RPG, Fallout: New Vegas.

The full press release can be read after the jump.

Malibu and Irvine Calif. – February 12, 2010 – Red Eagle Games and Obsidian Entertainment today announced they have entered into a services agreement which provides a comprehensive framework for Obsidian Entertainment to work closely with Red Eagle Games’ in-house development team to create new video games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling fantasy series, The Wheel of Time.

“The development team at Obsidian Entertainment has demonstrated time and again that they can successfully blend storytelling with technology to craft a superior RPG game experience,” said Rick Selvage, Chief Executive Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Obsidian Entertainment is the ideal development partner to help Red Eagle Games take Jordan’s beloved characters from the printed page to exciting new forms of interactive media.“

“Obsidian Entertainment is thrilled with this opportunity to work with Red Eagle Games in developing games based upon The Wheel of Time series,” said Feargus Urquhart, Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “The Wheel of Time is a rich universe that lends itself to incredible gaming possibilities.”

Red Eagle Games was formed in 2006, and the Company plans to publish a line of video games on all major platforms, including consoles, personal computers, handheld systems and wireless devices. The Company’s Wheel of Time games will be available through retail channels around the world by the Company’s distribution partner, Electronic Arts. Red Eagle Games’ principals Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon are also producing a live-action motion picture based upon The Wheel of Time for Universal Pictures through their production company, Red Eagle Entertainment.

“Although Red Eagle Games is both a game producer and publisher, as a new company, we quickly recognized that we could benefit from supplementing small in-house creative and technical teams with a proven third party developer,” said Larry Mondragon, Chief Operating Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Our alliance with Obsidian Entertainment is a perfect fit and will greatly improve the quality, cost and time-to-market for the first-generation of our Wheel of Time games.”

“The Wheel of Time is one of the greatest and well-received fantasy series of all time,” said Chris Avellone, Chief Creative Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “Games set in Robert Jordan’s universe have the chance to deliver on the epic storylines and the complex characters that the series is known for – and this is one of Obsidian’s strengths. It’s a natural fit.”

Obsidian Entertainment was established in 2003 by a group of experienced industry veterans. With the company’s first title, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords for Lucas Arts (2004, Xbox & PC), Obsidian quickly established itself as a top-tier developer of critically-acclaimed role playing games featuring strong characters, richly conceived visuals and storylines and teeming with action and adventure. Obsidian subsequently developed the Neverwinter Nights 2 game series for Atari, based upon the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Titles in this series included Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006, PC and Mac/OS X), Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (2007, PC), and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (2008, PC). Obsidian is currently completing two major games for planned release during 2010, Alpha Protocol (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to be published by Sega) and a much-anticipated sequel in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3).

The details of Jordan’s meticulously crafted series have captivated readers since 1990, when The Eye of the World, the first book in the series, was published. Eleven additional books, including one prequel, have since been added to the series and have consistently appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List with the last five of his novels in the series debuting at No. 1. Jordan passed away in 2007 at the age of 58, but his publisher, Tor Books, subsequently announced that a final trilogy of novels will bring his epic series to its long-awaited climax. The most recent installment in the series, entitled The Gathering Storm, was published in October of 2009 by Tor Books. The last three novels are being penned by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson using notes, audio recordings and draft materials left with Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet Rigney.

Jordan’s wildly popular books have been translated into 24 languages, and have sold about 44 million copies worldwide. According to Tor Books, the publisher of The Wheel of Time novels, there are about 65,000 The Wheel of Time fan Web sites as a part of a vast global on-line fan community.

[Defiance]

Oh joy.

[bubba]

I remember playing a wheel of time game before.....maybe......it's all a bit fuzzy.

[Leo]

Yeah, a Wheel of Time game already exists. It didn't do very well because other more hyped games came out at the same time.

[Silencer]

New Vegas, I'm looking forward to. If they can pull that off, I'll consider this.

One problem I have with Obsidian is that they essentially base their games so closely on turn-based systems (and then offer a pause option, too), that the animations always end up clunky and there is no 'flow' to combat. I like it, don't get me wrong - semi-turn-based can be a great thing...it's just that the games almost always end up seeming dated because of it. Queuing up attacks and commands, while efficient, has the annoying effect of battles basically being a series of poorly-shot movies, once you've selected targets and planned power usage and such.

Of course, Obsidian does quite good storytelling and dialogue trees...not very cinematic in style (though we've yet to see their latest offering, ofc), but usually quite detailed.

Still, any interest I may have in this Wheel of Time RPG (given I'm not a huge fan of the source material) will be based off my experiences with New Vegas.

[Gothos]

downer:
- it's fucking WoT.

upsides:
- Obsidian Entertainment. These guys are solid (outdid Bioware with KotOR2, which was better than the original, even if noticable unfinished)
- if half of what I hear about Rand's life is true, we'll get to tap a lot of pussi (you know what the plural for pussy is, Lester? Pussi! Jimmy taught me that.)

[alt146]

I wonder what sort of format the game would take - do they plan to stick close to the events of the books and it's characters, or will they go for a more sandbox type thing? I think it could be pretty cool if they go for free form game with lots of playable classes and a similar gameply type thing to KoToR where you can chose to either aid Rand or oppose him, which advantages and disadvantages to each way you choose to play. I would think that waiting for the series to be finished before they start working on the game would also be a good idea, else they might be a little limited in what they can do storyline wise.

[Aptorian]

Hmm, they could let us play the role of one of the false dragons. A man who can channel but also risks becoming insane. That should set the game up for plenty of drama and fighting.

[alt146]

If they wanted, they could have a pretty huge scope, with a whole whack of different ways for the game to end. Most of the of the skills/abilities would map pretty well onto a traditional RPG character creator, with advantages and disavdantages for each choice you make, as well different storyline choices and starting quests depending on how you set up your character. Something alng the lines of choose which sex your character should be, should they be able to channel, should they have traits like being ta'vern or the ability to dreamwalk, do they start off as darkfriends or working for the forces of god. Essentially give the player the freedom to do pretty much anything. Start off as a damane, or as an Aiel warrior, an Aes Sedai, an Ashaman, a wolf-brother or whatever. Although in that case the game would have to be absolutely massive and very well scripted so that your actions have realistic consequences as you move towards Tarmon Gaidon.

[Dolorous Menhir]

I look forward to the non-verbal conversation options when playing as a female.

[Aptorian]

There is going to be braid tugging taunts.

[Illuyankas]

"Press Enter to straighten skirt. Press Space to tug braid. Press Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, P, A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, Z, X, C, V, B, N, or M to nag a man. Press Alt+F4 to do something of use."

[alt146]

'sniff' skill: permanently gain +1 approval rating from all female party members and removes 2 intelligence points from all males in conversation.

[RodeoRanch]

I enjoyed the WoT shooter from 1999. The Shadar Logoth level was brilliant.


Obsidian has some serious RPG chops but their games are usually fairly buggy and/or not quite finished. I'm still bitter about KOTOR 2.

[Eddie Dean]

RodeoRanch, on 13 February 2010 - 07:19 PM, said:

I enjoyed the WoT shooter from 1999. The Shadar Logoth level was brilliant.


Obsidian has some serious RPG chops but their games are usually fairly buggy and/or not quite finished. I'm still bitter about KOTOR 2.

What? Obsidian is AWESOME! Remember that Alien RPG game...oh wait that was cancelled.
Well how about Alpha Protocol? Oh, that was postponed six months, two days before release. Well, nevermind...

[Silencer]

alt146, on 13 February 2010 - 01:22 PM, said:

If they wanted, they could have a pretty huge scope, with a whole whack of different ways for the game to end. Most of the of the skills/abilities would map pretty well onto a traditional RPG character creator, with advantages and disavdantages for each choice you make, as well different storyline choices and starting quests depending on how you set up your character. Something alng the lines of choose which sex your character should be, should they be able to channel, should they have traits like being ta'vern or the ability to dreamwalk, do they start off as darkfriends or working for the forces of god. Essentially give the player the freedom to do pretty much anything. Start off as a damane, or as an Aiel warrior, an Aes Sedai, an Ashaman, a wolf-brother or whatever. Although in that case the game would have to be absolutely massive and very well scripted so that your actions have realistic consequences as you move towards Tarmon Gaidon.

Not going to happen. At most you will get a game of 20 hours play with maybe one or two variable endings that you have to replay the whole thing for. And it won't be finished.

I don't think any game studio in existence at the moment would ever bother going to the level of detail that you're talking about. It would either need to be independent (in which case, expect to wait 5 years, have much lower graphical quality, and none of the publicity), or you'd need the publishers to be huge WoT fans, and willing to throw more resources at it than any other game that's ever been made.

[alt146]

Silencer, on 13 February 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

alt146, on 13 February 2010 - 01:22 PM, said:

If they wanted, they could have a pretty huge scope, with a whole whack of different ways for the game to end. Most of the of the skills/abilities would map pretty well onto a traditional RPG character creator, with advantages and disavdantages for each choice you make, as well different storyline choices and starting quests depending on how you set up your character. Something alng the lines of choose which sex your character should be, should they be able to channel, should they have traits like being ta'vern or the ability to dreamwalk, do they start off as darkfriends or working for the forces of god. Essentially give the player the freedom to do pretty much anything. Start off as a damane, or as an Aiel warrior, an Aes Sedai, an Ashaman, a wolf-brother or whatever. Although in that case the game would have to be absolutely massive and very well scripted so that your actions have realistic consequences as you move towards Tarmon Gaidon.

Not going to happen. At most you will get a game of 20 hours play with maybe one or two variable endings that you have to replay the whole thing for. And it won't be finished.

I don't think any game studio in existence at the moment would ever bother going to the level of detail that you're talking about. It would either need to be independent (in which case, expect to wait 5 years, have much lower graphical quality, and none of the publicity), or you'd need the publishers to be huge WoT fans, and willing to throw more resources at it than any other game that's ever been made.

I know, but a guy can hope Even a subset of that would be pretty cool. I admit making the world that big and open would be one of the most ambitious gaming projects ever undertaken, at the least the characters that you can recruit into your party could have the whole gamut of possible classes mentioned in the books.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

alt146, on 14 February 2010 - 08:53 AM, said:

Silencer, on 13 February 2010 - 10:33 PM, said:

alt146, on 13 February 2010 - 01:22 PM, said:

If they wanted, they could have a pretty huge scope, with a whole whack of different ways for the game to end. Most of the of the skills/abilities would map pretty well onto a traditional RPG character creator, with advantages and disavdantages for each choice you make, as well different storyline choices and starting quests depending on how you set up your character. Something alng the lines of choose which sex your character should be, should they be able to channel, should they have traits like being ta'vern or the ability to dreamwalk, do they start off as darkfriends or working for the forces of god. Essentially give the player the freedom to do pretty much anything. Start off as a damane, or as an Aiel warrior, an Aes Sedai, an Ashaman, a wolf-brother or whatever. Although in that case the game would have to be absolutely massive and very well scripted so that your actions have realistic consequences as you move towards Tarmon Gaidon.

Not going to happen. At most you will get a game of 20 hours play with maybe one or two variable endings that you have to replay the whole thing for. And it won't be finished.

I don't think any game studio in existence at the moment would ever bother going to the level of detail that you're talking about. It would either need to be independent (in which case, expect to wait 5 years, have much lower graphical quality, and none of the publicity), or you'd need the publishers to be huge WoT fans, and willing to throw more resources at it than any other game that's ever been made.

I know, but a guy can hope Even a subset of that would be pretty cool. I admit making the world that big and open would be one of the most ambitious gaming projects ever undertaken, at the least the characters that you can recruit into your party could have the whole gamut of possible classes mentioned in the books.

Best case scenario is that they attach a usable modding system and some decent open ended scenarios come out a year or two after the release of the game. A decent WoT game is something that would attract the more active and capable amateur modders and coders like flies.

[Dolorous Menhir]

How could you handle the taint in a game? Would it be viable to have a system where male channelers are progressively punished for using saidin? Permanent stat decreases offset by the most powerful abilities in the game?

Maybe they could work it so that each time you level up in the male One Power, you suffer a permanent decrease in another stat like intelligence or charisma (assuming it uses a system like that).

That would be an interesting dynamic. You can summon flaming swords and Travel, but dexterity or strength take a serious hit.

[Gothos]

RodeoRanch, on 13 February 2010 - 07:19 PM, said:

I enjoyed the WoT shooter from 1999. The Shadar Logoth level was brilliant.


Obsidian has some serious RPG chops but their games are usually fairly buggy and/or not quite finished. I'm still bitter about KOTOR 2.

that's not obsidian's fault. see: executive meddling.