14 DAY TRIAL // Project Eternity, the new video game from developer Obsidian, is expected to launch in about one year and a half after it is funded, and the team behind it says that the freedom of working on their own universe allows the process to be completed faster than usual.
Tim Cain, one of the leading developers at Obsidian, tells Eurogamer that, “Those budget numbers are just right for what we are trying to make. We have an engine already, and we aren’t using an established IP with pre-defined game mechanics and an art style that we have to mimic. Both of these things save us a lot of time, because we are now free to make those elements ourselves.”
He explains the situation by using an analogy, saying, “if you ask me to make you a cake, I can bake one and have it ready for you in a couple of hours, and it’ll be very tasty. But if you come to me with a photo of a cake and ask me to replicate it, that’ll take me a lot longer to do, even though the final result might not taste any different than the first cake.”
Cain also acknowledges that the Kickstarter funding drive, no matter how successful, will not give the team that same budget as a publisher would, but he then reveals that the team has ways of making sure that it stays in its budget.
The fact that the Kickstarter effort is taking place one year and a half before the game launches also allows Obsidian to take a look at players’ feedback and incorporate it in their game without having to change fundamental mechanics.
The official page of Project Eternity shows that more than 40,000 people have pledged over 1.6 million dollars (1.3 million Euro) for it and there’s plenty of time to reach all the stretch goals that Obsidian has announced.