Putting aside my reservations about this game, nobody can say that isn't a pretty screenshot.

Are you two seriously arguing about a 10-minute photoshop job by some troll on the Codex?

I've got it as my desktop wallpaper right now!

$2,800,000 reached! George Ziets is on the team.

Onward to $3,000,000!

Also, 828 more likes for Obsidian's facebook page for another Endless Paths level.

(I still haven't pledged yet :sadface: , hopefully I'll have enough money to by the last day of the KS)

This morning's Q&A:

Question: Have you dragged George into the OE office, yet, and chained him to his desk?
Feargus: Not yet, bet we are getting the chains ready. :)

Question: Have you foreseen quest that will have a visible impact on the environment. Like a quest that at the end add a temple somewhere or burn a part of the city or... ?
Feargus: We like to do those as much as we can. With the rendered backgrounds, that is a little more difficult - but still very possible - as they were done in the IE games.

Question: Now that we have George Ziets, is the plan to have him rejoin Obsidian or contribute to PE on an independent basis?
Feargus: George, for now, is going to be contributing on an independent basis. We will see what the future holds.

Question: i think we would all love a video update with George Ziets before the end of this campaign , i hope you can make it true !
Feargus: I'll let Adam and the guys know about wanting a video update with George.

Question: a friend wants to know if the PE's world had some type of nordic/viking people if we will able to see them in the game
Feargus: I'm not sure. Josh likes that region of the actual world, so it wouldn't surprise me if we did see something like that in Project Eternity.

Question: If we get to 12 levels in the megadungeon which is not connected to actual money pledged, and it's a huge project, will you be lenient to the guy who proposed the idea? ;)
Feargus: Nope, Bobby Null is going to be drawn and quartered if we make it to 16 levels of the Mega Dungeon for suggesting it. :)

Question: question.. will the cloth map.. say "the world" .. why not put the name of the PE world there? how is the world of PE called anyhow?
Feargus: We haven't named it specifically yet. We want to get to a name that feels right and has legs - something that still sounds cool in 20 years.

Question: the 1UP interview with Chric has some Concept Art attributed to PE. Is that concept art legit? And if it is, why isn't that concept art added to the Kickstarter page? Just thinking that all available assets revealed help convince people to pledge or upgrade.

http://www.1up.com/features/interview-chris-avellone-project-eternity
Feargus: No, that is actually a cover piece that we made for PC Gamer for NWN2 - the wizard picture. The other concept piece is from PE.

Question: Here is an idea that you could use, but I hope you won't need to use it. If we make it pass the 3.0m goal, but fall short of the 3.5m goal, and have not reached the 13 levels of the dungeon, you could use that extra money to fund finishing the dungeon.
Feargus: True.... What we will probably do is see what we have and add things in based upon that amount - potentially all over the game world.

Question: feargus did you see this? http://i.imgur.com/uXdxc.gif
Feargus: I had not seen that animated GIF - very cool!

Question: hey. last time I tried asking about the approx. number of pages in the almanac and would each page be illustrated
Feargus: The almanac will be illustrated and we are not sure on the page count just yet. Assume something in the 50 to 100 range. Might be a bit more, it won't be less.

Question: Has there been any talk of adding alternate planes of existence to the game world (a la Planescape)? Thanks.
Feargus: We have not talked about other planes yet. Josh likes to explore the religion and god/goddess aspects of games, so we will probably get there at some point - maybe not for the first PE game though.

Question: 1. Do you have a $4.0M stretch goal? Just in case, you know :) 2. Do you have plans to sell physical copies of the expansion when it is ready (in 2014)? I would gladly add such to the digital one.
Feargus: 1. We have some ideas - but nothing super solid right now. It would be incredibly cool to get there though. 2. We really don't know right now. PC Games at retail can be a hard proposition to start and then having a box version of an expansion makes it harder.

Question: Ink blot and I really want to read the game design document. any chance of that happening?
Feargus: Design document release is upon the white board for us to talk about. Nothing definite yet.

Could not find the question or comment that prompted the following response - Ink Blot
Feargus: A little bit, but that was almost completely Reflexive. Chris Parker (Obsidian founder/external Producer on Baldur's Gate series) was the external producer on it. I wrote some of the early game system design.

Question: Any comments about Black Isle's Torn? Will you ever retry to do a project like that? Or is this what you had hoped Torn would become? Just curious.
Feargus: Torn had some cool stuff about it, but I think that game has gone off the game graveyard. I don't think we will be pulling anything from it into PE.

Question: Are other big updates like yesterday planned? New screenshots (video?:D) would really boost the campaign in its last days.
Feargus: We are working on all the stuff we are going to announce and making sure all the tiers stay cool and seem fair. Takes a lot of balancing at this point. We still have some tricks up our sleeves.

Question: You are getting really great at dodging questions :P I had ask if that Rob would happen to be Rob Land.
Feargus: Sorry, I totally missed that question about Rob Land. I read "Land" as "land". Actually it is Rob Nesler. We have worked on an off together for almost twenty years. He was the very first artist in the industry that I annoyed. :)

Question: Will it be possible for backer to up their pledge and buy add-ons after kickstarter finishes, like it's with Wasteland2?
Feargus: We are working on that system and will have something up soon. We wanted to finish the translated sites and are getting there (took a long time). We have Español a d Polski up: http://eternity.obsidian.net/pl/ http://eternity.obsidian.net/es/

Question: Congratulations on hitting 2.8 mil. Watching the PE kickstarter slowing down over the past one or two weeks I was getting worried that it would fizzle out towards the end. Now I see that you guys had everything planned. I wanted to say great job on how you've conducted the campaign so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing it surpass all expectations.
Feargus: Thanks, a KS campaign is really a marathon with periods of sprinting.


Oh, and Adam is currently live streaming from his office:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/project-eternity-live-stream


Feargus: $55K in PayPal, not sure on users I'm going to guess 1250

Still haven't pledged yet. I probably will, but not until the last day... unless I forget. Heh.

58,991
backers
$2,825,555
pledged of $1,100,000 goal
4
days to go

It's a 99.99% certainty that it's going to reach 3 million. With the usual last couple of days surge of Kickstarter projects, I predict it will be close to 3.5 million but a couple hundred thousand dollars will be needed to put it over that goal to get a second big city. Anyone here have that lying around that they wouldn't mind donating? ;)

I wonder if they'll add it later if people keep donating after the project is over anyway.

Edit: grammar.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/327340?ref=activity

Update #21 - 5 days left!

Everyone here at Obsidian is thrilled that the feedback to the first look at Project Eternity was so overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for all the encouragement - It really means a lot to our artists and the rest of the team. The outpouring of support and donations over the last day has been amazing. Thank you!

Over the next five days we have a lot of fun things planned to wrap up the Kickstarter campaign. First, crowdfunding and Kickstarter has allowed us to open up our doors to you, literally. Today you can spend a few hours with me at the Obsidian Office, and you will get an inside look into a development studio. Check out what an atypical day is for me at the office (running the Kickstarter is pretty atypical for a game developer). I promise to wear pants! We plan on doing more of these live events at the office during production.

Tomorrow I plan on playing Icewind Dale II by Interplay and Black Isle Studios. Icewind Dale II was the last Infinity Engine game to be released a decade ago in 2002. Before production starts on Project Eternity, I want to revisit some of the magic that Project Eternity aims to bring back. Join the stream and have some fun! Special Obsidian guest developers will join in on the fun, and you can heckle me while I try to make my way out of Targos and through the Dale to Kuldahar. How long will I play? 8 Hours? 12 Hours? 20 Hours? Longer? Watch and find out.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's update with Tim Cain. He is going to answer more of your questions in a special video update.

Here's the rest of the scheduled events for the next 5 days:

Friday, October 12

11:00am PDT - Inside look at a not so typical day with Adam Brennecke - UStream.
3:00pm PDT - PC Gamer Live Chat with the Project Eternity Team - PC Gamer.
Saturday, October 13

10:00am PDT - Adam plays Icewind Dale II all day - UStream.
Monday, October 15

10:00am PDT - Reddit AMA with the Project Eternity Team - Reddit.
5:00pm PDT - Game night at Obsidian. Watch us play D&D at the studio! - UStream.
Tuesday, October 16

12:00pm PDT - The final countdown starts at the Obsidian Office - UStream.
6:00pm PDT - The Project Eternity Kickstarter ends!
Updates to the schedule will be sent via Twitter, Facebook, and posted to our forums.

New Novella Audio Book Reward and Add-on

We have a new digital add-on for everyone. For an add-on of $20 you will receive the digital Audio Book of the Project Eternity Novella by Chris Avellone narrated by a professional voice actor. If you already pledged at the $165 tier and above you will receive it for free!

Two Stretch Goals Hit and The Endless Paths is Larger

We've hit the $2.7M stretch goal, which means Paladins and Chanters are added to the game, and I'm happy to say we just hit the $2.8M stretch goal in record time! George Ziets will be joining the team! The team is very excited to have the opportunity to work with George again.

One more level has been added to The Endless Paths because of your help. The depths grow deeper by the day, and we are getting very close to 20,000 likes and 60,000 backers. 2 more levels incoming! Our next Facebook goal is to hit 40,000 likes - if we can reach that milestone it means we will add one more level to the dungeon! How low can we go?


And last but not least, I leave you with a new concept art piece of Forton the monk.


Thanks, and see you on the live stream!

Here I was, with my doubts.
PE should definitely be fun.

If only I had the time to watch these streams.

Some late evening Q&A with Feargus:

Question: anyone know is the beta will be Steam exclusive like wasteland 2 ?
Feargus: Most likely, but we are going to work on alternatives.

Question: I really want a second big city!!!
Feargus: Bobby Null (designer at OE) really wants that to. He has run D&D campaigns for 20 years and wants to really tackle something like that.

Question: Just wondering, are there any plans to sell physical copies of the almanac and/or novella in the future?
Feargus: We talked about that a lot, I mean a lot, yesterday and today. We really want there to be a whole line of PE products, so we are going to work towards selling them.

Question: how much will the expansion go up in price by if we wait a couple months to hop in on it?
(assuming paypal stays open til after Christmas) or will we have to wait til 2014 for another window of opportunity?
Feargus: I would assume at least $5.

Question: May well hit the second big city goal, but if not, would that be a consideration to include in a expansion?
Feargus: With an expansion, we might do a city in it - we usually try to do a little bit of everything, so it feels like the game as a whole. However, just focusing on a big city for an expansion could be a lot of fun.

Question: What about a physical soundtrack?
Feargus: You been looking at our whiteboard? :)

Question: About movement around the game world: will it be like IWD (a location is unlocked and then you can fast travel but the area itself is rather small) or like BG (large interconnected maps and you can fast travel to various zones once you've been to them)? Hope that's clear.
Feargus: It will be more like BG. We want there to be both overland and undergound exploration.

Question: You mentioned "light strategic gameplay" as a component of a funded Keep. I wonder if you have given thought to introducing "light strategic gameplay" to other parts of the game within which such a treatment may make sense?
Feargus: Those kind of things are usually up to the Area Designers. They are giving a general theme and story needs for an area and then they come up with the story and design of the area. They then will come up with ideas that involve other gameplay - like strategic things. In other words, while there will be that kind of gameplay with the Stronghold - there might be some of that in the rest of game dependent on what the Area Designers choose to do.

Question: With the PE KS campaign at this stage, have you had any immediate reaction from pulishers? Positively encouraging or even negativly towards possible future cooperations? (no names asked)
Feargus: To be honest, I haven't talked with many publishers in the last couple of week with so much focus on the KS campaign. There was some fallout from my comment early in the campaign, but I think everything is cool now.

Question: From the Shadeheart interview I sense that Mr. Sawyer is having a blast researching for this project. Does he ever inundate you all with obscure facts and events?
Feargus: I love reading Josh's stuff when he is in the groove. George also does a great job. Having them both on the project will create absolutely cool lore - making the Almanac something that I think is going to be awesome.

Question: Have there been any discussions about adding one more class? It's a good selection so far , but I feel there is a hole in the row, shaped like a Mechanic/Engineer/Alchemist-type - someone that puts his soul into his work, so to speak :) I'm thinking firearms, golems, primitive machinery, maybe an urban equivalent to the druids. It could go many ways but overall a bit more reliant on the things he/she creates and uses than the warrior/rogue/priest. It would be something new and a bit different from the usual suspects and could be very fun to roleplay and level up!
What do you think? :)
Feargus: That is a really good point and that is a type of character I often play. I'll bring it up.

Question: Adam revealed in his video session his preference for fighters and barbarians in PnP D&D, what's your favourite race/class?
Feargus: I like playing Paladins ( I know funny, huh), Fighters, Engineers and pet class characters (although that is more MMO than PnP). Oh, and I gravitate towards Dwarves. Probably because of the Scottish thing and they usually sound Scottish.

Question: How much time left until the "Adam plays Icewind Dale II all day stream" starts?
Feargus: I'm guessing he won't start until 10AM PST - but that's a guess.

Question: Can we get someone sitting next to Adam the entire time razzing him while he plays IWD2?
Feargus: That would be just like a normal day for Adam.

Question: Did we already get the new Paypal numbers?
Feargus: $59K in PayPal, [so] about $75K to Stronghold.

Question: Out of curosity, will there be hidden doors and objects like the Infinity Engine games had?
Feargus: I'm pretty sure - but it's not a feature that is set in stone yet.

Question: WIll the game have a lot of forest areas to walk around in?
Feargus: We want there to be a good number of outside areas and one of the types of outdoor areas will be forests.


Feargus: I will let you in one of the silly jokes we have had for a tier. And no we weren't actually going to do this. But it was to put up a $10K tier with a limit of 1 and the description was just going to be "Avellone" nothing else just that.

Interview with Feargus at overclockers.com.

Obsidian's facebook page has over 20,000 likes now - The Endless Paths dungeon has expanded to 7 levels (check out that statue in the drawing).

I kinda hoped it'll be a marble penis.

by the way, it's great they will enlist writers from Mask of The Betrayer. For me, it was one of the most entertaning and original story in cRPGs at that time.