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Joshua Sawyer
Приєднався 11 чер 2006
Video game designer, Orange County, California.
Balancing Abilities / Weapons Before Player Feedback
A short answer to someone's question about how to approach balancing abilities (or weapons, in the examples I give) in a game prior to receiving feedback from players.
Переглядів: 16 595
Відео
Bike Check Breadwinner Aufderheide
Переглядів 4,6 тис.2 місяці тому
Bike check on my 2010 (I think) Breadwinner Aufderheide, hand built in Portland, Oregon. TIG welded steel frame with S S couplers. Wisconsin Rustic Roads paint scheme.
Q&A #1 - Apologies for the popping audio!
Переглядів 24 тис.5 місяців тому
From Twitter questions: BG3 features I like, more Pentiment-esque games, my process for building stories and characters, how theatre affects my work, the appeal of spy games, did the Pentiment team read all of the reference material. The audio popping was due to some settings interfering with Nvidia Broadcast. It should be fixed for the future.
Mixing History and Fiction in Pentiment
Переглядів 26 тис.6 місяців тому
This is a talk I gave at Game Developers Session in Prague. I thought it might be useful to a wider audience, so here you go.
On Powergaming in Baldur's Gate 3, D&D 5E, etc.
Переглядів 133 тис.11 місяців тому
Some thoughts on Robin Valentine's PC Gamer article about powergaming and min-maxing in Baldur's Gate 3. Edit: Updated the thumbnail for maximum lols.
OEI Tools Talk for Pentiment (ad hoc)
Переглядів 8 тис.Рік тому
I've been putting off doing a full talk on how the Pentiment team used Obsidian's OEI Tools to write dialogue, so I decided to just talk a bit about the basic functionality here, looking at the Golden Hand conversation from Act II. MINOR SPOILERS for Act II of Pentiment!
It Takes an Abbey: Developing Pentiment with a (Small) Remote Team - DStars 2023
Переглядів 25 тис.Рік тому
I originally recorded this talk for the DStars 2023 conference. In it, I talk about how the Pentiment team handled fully remote development of the game with a team of 13 people spread across the United States and Europe.
Armor Clash: Mistrials and Mishaps on the Road to Better Armor Systems
Переглядів 45 тис.2 роки тому
A talk about armor systems and mechanics found in CRPGs from the past ~25 years.
Darklands - Castle of the Apocalypse - End Game
Переглядів 14 тис.4 роки тому
The THRILLING conclusion to my twenty part Twitch playthrough of MicroProse's historical RPG classic, Darklands (1992). This includes the entirety of The Castle of the Apocalypse and features a special appearance by Sesame and a victorious hand choreography by yours truly.
Reputation Overload - The Evolution of RPG Reputation Mechanics
Переглядів 95 тис.4 роки тому
A presentation on how WRPG reputation mechanics have evolved from the early 90s through 2020.
Darklands MicroProse 1992 1st session
Переглядів 12 тис.5 років тому
Re-uploaded from my other account because I am A Dumb.
why don't developers make more historical RPGs
Переглядів 42 тис.5 років тому
well??? re-uploaded from my other account.
Meine Inspirationen für Geschichten
Переглядів 12 тис.7 років тому
captainrieslingschorle hat gefragt: Guten Tag Herr Sawyer, ich würde gerne wissen, woher Sie Ihre Inspirationen für die Geschichten bei Ihren Rollenspielen herbekommen und wie Sie vermeiden, dass Sie in alte Muster fallen (Dinge, die es schon in bereits veröffentlichten Spielen gab).
Branching Dialogues in RPGs - An Evolutionary Dead End?
Переглядів 29 тис.7 років тому
more-t-t said: How do you think about the state of dialogue system in RPGs? Some says it doesn't evolved much in the past decades as it needs to be and the developers should not be content in branching dialogue system. Some says branching dialogue is an evolutionary dead-end and should take a different approach. What's your take on it? Have you and Obsidian considered different approaches? Do y...
you did it, germany
Переглядів 17 тис.9 років тому
not confident in the translation but a VERSPRECHEN is a VERSPRECHEN am i right folks
attributes and character archetypes
Переглядів 14 тис.10 років тому
attributes and character archetypes
sympathy for villains and antagonists
Переглядів 33 тис.10 років тому
sympathy for villains and antagonists
the importance of real-world knowledge for game design
Переглядів 44 тис.10 років тому
the importance of real-world knowledge for game design
prioritizing plot info and characterization in game dialogue
Переглядів 7 тис.11 років тому
prioritizing plot info and characterization in game dialogue
Process for Developing Locations and Characters in Fallout: New Vegas
Переглядів 73 тис.11 років тому
Process for Developing Locations and Characters in Fallout: New Vegas
As good as AI could be, it could never be as good as an organically and culturally lived character. But you are probably way ahead of me in this regard Josh
you are a fucking legend Josh. thank you for giving us new vegas to coddle me and gently tell me bedtime stories in these dark times. gonna try Pentiment with my girlfriend soon since we enjoy history! Cheers.
Josh you're my favorite person in the gaming industry and I want you to know that. Keep making awesome stuff
Do you happen to know who created the Jeffery Epstein mission with Saint Janes? Id like to thank them for allowing me to destroy the child trafficker in game.
Ave, true to sawyer
Sesame Seed
Number soup…. That’s exactly the vibe I’ve been getting from a lot of modern games. It’s just so hard to actually test stuff sometimes. It feels almost intentional. Like we’re being forced to play way more or interact with forms/videos just to understand.
Stress from 18 months of crunch time development did not hinder this man's looks in the slightest.
Just wanted to comment to say you look phenomenal. Got recommended a video from 11 years ago and you have aged like fine wine
starts at 7:05
36:33 maybe one solution would have been to collect all tags that were inside of a single dialogue instance, exclude duplicates, and then adjust reputations based on that. That way even if an anti-religious statement tag occurred twice or more in a conversation, it'd only trigger reputation change once. Which would feel more natural, probably.
1:05:00 What's funny is that even amongst my most liberal of friends romani are seen with disdain
should have watched this before making a game
@07:04 start of the talk
IWD2 was great. BG2, ID and ID2 are my 3 favorite games ever. None of them are too long. The saddest part is that they had to end. I still want more of the IE style games. I was excited for BG3 until i heard that it was a Larian project. I knew it would be DOS with a BG label slapped on it. Not a surprise that we got DivinityGate.
I feel like the lower mobility penalty of fallout nvs lighter armor is basically how to do AC in a first person shooter. The player is doing the dodging themselves. I wish we got to hear your opinion on enemy armor. DT really seems like the best option because of how easy it is to understand. Tank needs big attack to hurt. But I could see dr having uses.
Your beard makes you look like Legate Lanius.
Hey boss just wanted to say, the pillars games were some of the most enjoyable rpgs I've ever played in my life, and deadfire was godamn beautiful and I loved every minute of it, taking my druid through both, I'll never forget it By the end yall had me standing there with eothas ready for the tomorrow we will build for ourselves Can't wait for avowed, more of the pillars universe to enjoy will be so wonderful And the restricted section of waels temple was such a friggin wicked mind fk holy give whoever wrote that a medal my god
What if instead of the master below doing 180 damage in a single blast he did six ticks for 30 damage each in which DT then comes into play for each tick?
feel tim cain vibes
25:47 new vegas
believe it!
The DR system in PoE is still one of my favorites. If a 20-meter-tall iron giant hits me in the face, having a helmet should not matter. You can still design high-level enemies who deal damage in multiple instances so armor doesn't become irrelevant in the late game.
Dear Joshua, I hope you all doing well. Thank you so much for your work and dedication. I really like to watch your content and play your games. My first language isn’t English and I see how my speech improved by watching your videos.
I want to hear about Seven Sorrows development. Please help push to revive Gauntlet series :(
You're the man
Turning that mug around mid ride like hitting the nos
optimizing the fun out of the game you are playing is an interesting thing i've heard reviewers talk about.
more bike checks
He just experienced the heat of the Mojave
J Sawyer looks fit like he knows how to fight I like the dude bet he can rock people out
This is precisely why New Vegas’s guns are still constantly inspiring real world clone builds 14 years later. Gun guys of the world thank you Josh 💖
I think that's the big problem with a lot of games. The weapons are technically balanced, but the vibes are off. You end up with fifty copies of roughly the same gun because if its perfectly balanced. Why change it?
dev log for fallout mods
Деадфайр из Зе Грейт бриллиант гэйм лайк дивинити ту, экселент ворк мистер соер!
I'm watching this and I'm thinking this could be a potential use for AI. I understand AI is a big, scary word these days, but I think if you tuned it carefully to specifically adjust some parts of characters' lines to fit a specific context, that could be incredibly powerful. Like it could make a RPG so much more immersive if characters had responses that would be tailored specifically for what has happened, the order things happened, who was there when it happened, etc, etc. Like covering so many variables in ways that you correctly identified as being too work intensive for designers. That said, I don't think AI tools right now are mature enough to be used this way, but maybe they can be in the future. Probably someone like Obsidian would have to create those tools... Also, I think the Disco Elysium system sounds absolutely brilliant (actually I just bought it based on your description of it, I gotta play this). I think the way it clearly describes in the tooltip what caused a dialogue option to be available, that kind of specific reactivity makes the game much more immersive because you really see in a tangible way how your decisions led to an outcome. You could also use this system to have a really nice log for the player to refer to, where you can see what happened and which decisions led up to it. I think in general, while I understand that it's more work intensive, it's really powerful to be able to show like exactly what led up to a certain outcome. Like the problem with abstracted systems where your actions simply contribute to a paragon/villain value, the problem is that it all just kind of ends up feeling nebulous. Like you could do bad things but it just doesn't matter as long as you have enough good boy points, the characters will never reference the bad things you did anyway, so it's like it never happened. It's always much better if, like, characters will specifically reference things. Then it stops feeling like "just a game", and more like a world that you can believe in and get immersed in. From my own experience with games like BG2, you end up gaming the reputation system really hard for maximum benefit, which makes it feel shallow and non-immersive. That's how I feel, anyway. Big fan. Cheers from Sweden.
MORE BIKE VIDEOS!!!🤘🤘🤘
Love that Murricans say "After Heide" than "Auf der Heide" 😂😂😂😂
"people can have fun how they want, except if you powergame, fuck you" - literally every d&d "influencer"
I would love to see more videos on gamedev from you
Today I learned a great lesson for the game I'm working on. And also, that tumblr still exists. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, for real.
Style > practicality. Always
Hi Josh, can you talk about classless and attribute-less systems and how they would work in an RPG? Just watched your 2016 GDC talk and you mentioned that you don't really like stats. So, what would alternative systems look like and is there space for that in mainstream games?
As time goes on, I really appreciate it when RPGs just dump a wall of text at you all at once and expect you to read it at your own pace. It is like what Zizek says about Plato, where the best dialogues are the later ones where Socrates just talks for ages and someone else interjects to say, "by Zeus! Socrates, you are correct about everything!"
FEROCIOUSLY PONDERING THE CAT
Who knew game devs were so good looking??
Subbed just because of that glorious shirt
Just wanted to say thank you for Pentiment. You and everyone that made it put so much love and care into every aspect and created something truly wonderful. One of the best of all time.
I loved learning the systems in Deadfire and it works for the kind of game it is. Sure readability is rough at times but that's where the Real Time with Pause comes into play. I can take my time to analyze the encounter and pick the right tool for the job.
I have a lot of respect for someone who knows what going on with their bike. Mines weak as hell compared to yours