Bethesda meets Obsidian in Wyrdsong, an RPG inspired by The Witch

Jeff Gardiner has a rich history of working on games as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Skyrimand Fallout 76, and now he’s hard at work on his next big RPG. After leaving Bethesda Game Studios last year, Gardiner formed a new studio with Obsidian Entertainment designer Charles Staples called Something Wicked Games. After securing $13.2 million in funding from NetEase in April, Gardiner revealed the studio’s first project at Gamescom Opening Night Live. that game is called magic songand is an open-world supernatural RPG about a Knight Templar set in medieval Portugal.

WYRDSONG | Announcement announcement | some wicked games

Gardiner tells Digital Trends that he thinks Something Wicked Games can make this Unreal Engine 5 RPG a tempting middle ground between the Bethesda and Obsidian formulas. “People make this rivalry between Bethesda and Obsidian because we’ve both worked on RPGs, but I really admire a lot of people at Obsidian,” Gardiner explains. “I’m very excited about the idea that we’re going to combine these two ideas of what makes great RPGs and make the best version of them.”

While magic song It’s still in pre-alpha development, I spoke to Gardiner before his presentation. I learned more about what this hidden fantasy RPG between Bethesda and Obsidian will look like and why Something Wicked Games wants players to question reality in the same way Robert Egger did. Witch plays.

What is Wyrdsong?

“No surprise, it’s a great open world RPG!” Gardiner explained when asked to describe magic song. “It’s a supernatural, occult historical fantasy RPG set in medieval Portugal because we want vast landscapes and unique architecture. As you saw in the trailer, we really want to get into the mythological history of the Knights Templar and the idea that they had all these weird rituals. They are basically the basis of many of the secret societies that exist today.”


Something mysterious watches the viewer in Wyrdsong.

Gardiner first fell in love with this theme when he traveled to Portugal just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He read a book called Templar First Nation which revealed many eccentricities of that order. He thought it would act as an intriguing backdrop to a game where players are constantly questioning what they experience. Unlike most open world RPGs, ironic song it will always have a psychological undercurrent of horror.

Gardiner made a direct comparison magic song To those who love Witch and Western world and explained that he wanted to combine player choice with mechanics and a story that constantly made players question their reality. Also mix in some influences from Shakespeare and magic song It is shaping up to be a fascinating fantasy adventure.

“We want to explore not only a great open-world game set in this time period, but also the idea that the brain is not a passive receiver of information,” Gardiner explained. “Your subconscious mind plays an important role in how the waking world presents itself to you. We want to explore that space of unreliable storytellers and things that are not what they seem. Wyrd is an Old English word for fate or karma, so we’re going to dig into choice and consequence and see how far we can push that envelope in an RPG.”

No wonder, it’s a massive open world RPG!

Gardiner got into even more specific gameplay details with Digital Trends, offering up some exclusive insights. He confirmed that players can choose their gender identity at the start of the game and that Knight’s Templar is just one of several factions that players will be able to join. As long as he wants magic song to stand out within the open world genre, he also wants to make it an accessible game that doesn’t rely too heavily on historical lore.

“I’m a big proponent of making games familiar enough where you don’t have to learn a lot of backstory and lore and everything else that can overwhelm an RPG, but different enough to explore the corners and see exciting things and learn new things,” he said. is.

It’s a riveting fantasy RPG depiction, and the trailer for the trailer certainly bears that out. magic songin a big but tired tone. Still, the project is in a fairly early stage of development, so Gardiner isn’t ready to reveal any more details on the game because he wants the developers who come on board to have a chance to influence and shape the game.

“The core team is now made up of about a dozen people who build the game, and I’m really focused on giving the people who come in the autonomy to make these decisions,” Gardiner said. “While we’re making a big RPG, we want to keep about 70 people in the studio because we want people to come in and have creative autonomy. We’ll set goals and let them figure it out, come tell us what you think would be cool.”

The best of both worlds RPG

Setting up a studio during the COVID-19 pandemic is a tall order, especially considering Gardiner had never done it before. Gardiner’s comments show that he is eager to involve other people and create something special. Due to the talent and experience of Something Wicked Games’ first dozen developers, Gardiner had no doubt that Something Wicked Games’ first title would be an RPG that combined the best that Bethesda and Obsidian had to offer.


Wyrdworm in the world of Wyrdsong.

Gardiner believes that Bethesda and Obsidian’s RPGs are enjoyable and stand the test of time because they are rewarding both for players who invest a lot of time in the game and for the developers who work on it.

“The real inspiration behind my RPGs was that players could go out into the world and affect the outcomes of the people who live there, experiment with things and see what happens, and feel like ‘I’m part of a big story. ‘ Gardiner says. “I think that’s why RPGs win so many Game of the Year awards: they capture people’s hearts in a way that other games don’t… I want to help other developers experience the same things I experienced: the ability to put games in a world that really affects people who play for hundreds if not thousands of hours and create amazing memories.”

It’s about building a game that people want to be a part of.

Wyrdsong’development is going full speed. There is no release time as Something Wicked Games plans to continue hiring until 2024, revisit Portugal for further research and decide how magic song will play during its pre-alpha phase. Even after he got out, Gardiner came on to him. magic song is a game Something Wicked would like to support. And as someone who was at ground zero Fallout 76release and recovery and infamous Forgot Gardiner wants to make a horse armor scandal magic song something that resonates and lasts. And by combining the strengths of Bethesda and Obsidian, Gardiner believes he can do it.

“It’s about building a game that people want to be a part of, want to see it succeed,” he says. “Personally, I am more than happy to support games that I think have a long history and where developers make changes to fix problems and develop them. The most important thing for me is to make sure it’s a great game that people have fun playing. The rest will take care of itself. WITH magic songWe just want to release a great game that we can continue to support for years to come, while we find ways to keep the lights on Something Wicked on.”

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

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