Aside from the Skyrim-meets-Doctor-Strange project, called Avowed, not to mention its newly beloved survival epic Grounded and potentially more DLC entries for the space adventure The Outer Worlds, Obsidian remains hard at work on yet another project at this time left in utter secrecy.
Iconic Obsidian video game design director Josh Sawyer, himself a mastermind behind one of the best isometric RPGs on the market, points to an experience that could very well be the developer's next large-scale project after Avowed.
Legendary developers of Pillars of Eternity and Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian has become synonymous with experiences of unreplicable scope, blending tantalizing narratives with hilarious characters and loads of lore that deal in many hours-worth of joy and wonder. Acquired by Microsoft in 2018, the talent under Obsidian has clearly been hard at work not merely with the New Vegas-in-space title, The Outer Worlds, but also a first-person Pillars of Eternity RPG that looks like something taken straight out of The Elder Scrolls playbook (but only made all the more mesmerizing).
Now it seems, according to the Pillars of Eternity design director himself, Josh Sawyer, a new game is under development behind the scenes - and it's most likely as fun and beautiful as its most recently released Grounded. Though it remains unclear why Sawyer is not working on Avowed, there is no doubt he had some hand in the game's direction before leaping headlong into this unknown project, which could potentially be a Pillars of Eternity III, perhaps? Revealed last November, Sawyer explained that the aforementioned title would not be possible without a redetermination of "the entire format of the game."
It's unclear if the team has reacclimated its approach to the Pillars of Eternity experience, given the amount of time that has past since Sawyer first mentioned these necessary alterations. In a recently-published Tumblr post, the design director underscores the importance of his role and the lengths to which he must go in providing the best possible atmosphere for game creation. One interesting excerpt reads:
"There are a lot of things a team gets used to and doesn’t realize how aggravating it is to experience fresh. When it comes to either an existing IP or a new IP, I give feedback on how that IP is being used or developed and how I think the audience will receive it."
With Sawyer at the helm of his own Obsidian project, there is no doubt of its ultimate success.
Source: Josh Sawyer (Twitter)