How involved was Josh Sawyer with this game?

[Lethe]

Joshua, i need to to know how much "balancing" you have done to this game.
This is important to me and certain people i know so i'd like an offical statement on this matter.

Did Josh balance Tyranny? I need to know if the feeling of mediocrity pervades throughout the game in both abilities/spells and items just like it was in Pillars of Eternity.

[sonntam]

Josh Sawyer had been working on Pillars of Eternity and now he is working on a mystery project we know nothing about.

However, I wouldn't want to get your hopes up. It's unlikely we will get really cool and epic abilities in the short 20-30 hours of gameplay. This video here details mid level dungeon crawl with custom spell creation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGdrEuxhxlU

Custom spells mean that you can customize pretty much everything about them, but they stay pretty bland and utility focused. I guess if you try very hard, you could make some pretty cool spell sets, but I don't know how powerful and/or interesting it will be.

There are supposed to be epic soulbound weapons which become stronger as your legacy grows (aka, do something cool, it will be reflected on your gear), but we did not yet see examples of how that works.

[Lethe]

Thats sad... his influence on his co-workers just that strong? why are they insisting on such a system without his foul touch?

[♡ Katalina Aryze ♡]

Well, I followed this game since the beginning of its development. It's headed by totally different people they hired (I don't think Josh Sawyer, Tim Cain were involved and if I remember correctly: Chris Avellone left). So, with this info, this should be a totally different game than PoE with that alone.

[sonntam]

Originally posted by Lethe:

Thats sad... his influence on his co-workers just that strong? why are they insisting on such a system without his foul touch?

Simply because a company tends to hire similar folks with similar design philosophies? Besides, PoE combat worked, so why try inventing a wheel, instead of working with what they have?

Making a combat system that is both interesting & balanced is a nightmare. Obsidian seems to prefer making it more balanced than wacky and cool.

No big surprise here, their combat systems were never that good. They excel at making great stories, but gameplay can be pretty uninspired.

[♡ Katalina Aryze ♡]

Here's something a bit more informative of you'd like to see what Josh says about Tyranny....
https://youtu.be/4npBnLMe29Q

Even if it's not much, it should still very valuable to know that he has been overseeing it from not afar.

But yeah, he is working on Pillars Of Eternity 2 at the moment so it's a bit different.

[Spy sapping my Pyro]

You RPGcodexers really hate him, don't you?

[♡ Katalina Aryze ♡]

Originally posted by Spy sapping my Pyro:

You RPGcodexers really hate him, don't you?

When it comes to rpg's, Josh is one of the best in the industry. If anyone hates him, it's the Jrpg community because he prefers to use muted color palettes from the 90's era, hates romances, controllers and consoles... but at least he makes great games with depth and a mature mentality.

[Lethe]

Originally posted by Spy sapping my Pyro:

You RPGcodexers really hate him, don't you?

while i'm not a member there, as far as i know he has some very fanatic supporters there so you should be entirely wrong here.

[Fork_Q2]

He had a formspring account and used to take answers from the community. No idea if that's even still a thing, or if he uses it.

I didn't spot anything about Tyranny on what appears to be his Twitter account, other than the announcement. So I doubt it, but you could always ask him on it.

[sonntam]

He has a tumblr now and answers questions pretty regularly.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by sonntam:

He has a tumblr now and answers questions pretty regularly.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

Oh cool, did not know. Thanks.

[PK_Thunder]

Originally posted by DontBlink +_- UrDead:

If anyone hates him, it's the Jrpg community because he prefers to use muted color palettes from the 90's era, hates romances, controllers and consoles...

Hey, he hates the same things I hate! Maybe I'll like this game.