From Icewind Dale to Fallout: New Vegas | Josh Sawyer (Obsidian)

Today on The Examined Game I am talking with Josh Sawyer, Studio Design Director at Obsidian. Josh is an industry veteran who can lay his name to the likes of Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment, The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity II: Dead Fire and many more titles. so what do you talk about with someone who has so many incredible games under their belt? we dig into how to convey grief in a game, the beauty and frustration of not letting players kill God in an RPG, his beginnings as a Web Designer in the industry, how the Fallout New Vegas team made up for the shortfall in time and budget with exemplary content and world building and the risk he took in bringing Pentiment to life. this is part one of a two part interview. The first covering everything upto and including Fallout New Vegas. Part two is dedicated almost exclusively to Pentiment. One of my favorite games of the last few years. 00:00 How Fallout: New Vegas Was Made in 18 Months 00:30 Introduction 01:16 What Josh Sawyer Is Playing Right Now 02:50 From Pong to Bard's Tale 05:30 Discovering D&D and RPGs 06:43 Wanting to Be an Illustrator 08:01 Music, History, and Finding a Direction 08:46 Designing Tabletop RPGs as a Teenager 09:56 Becoming a Web Designer at Black Isle Studios 10:36 From Website Designer to Game Designer 11:19 Finding His Path in the Games Industry 15:38 Designing His First Dungeon in Icewind Dale 16:59 Learning the Importance of Pacing 19:57 Why RPG Dungeons Used to Be So Massive 23:06 Becoming Lead Designer at 24 24:29 The Black Hound: The RPG That Never Released 26:13 Making Icewind Dale II in Just 10 Months 28:23 Fallout: Van Buren and Watching Black Isle Collapse 31:36 Getting the Chance to Make Fallout: New Vegas 34:17 The Core Design Goals of New Vegas 35:10 Why New Vegas Focused on Content Over Technology 36:04 Building Meaningful Choices and Factions 41:46 Josh Sawyer's Favourite New Vegas Ending 44:32 Why Great Writing Beats More Features 46:06 Why Fallout: New Vegas Wasn't Universally Loved at Launch #falloutnewvegas #obsidian #icewinddale #pentiment #gaming #gamingpodcast