It's safe to say Josh Sawyer knows a thing or two about RPGs since he's been behind a couple damn good ones (Pillars of Eternity, Pentiment, and Fallout: New Vegas among them). And according to the long-time Obsidian Entertainment developer, good game writing can only go so far if the pacing is a slog.
Speaking to Game File about the studio's mammoth, branching scripts – that sort of look like trees full of nodes instead leaves – Sawyer said that quality words aren't the only thing that matters. "You can write really great individual lines and have great characterization," he explains. "And if the pacing is really bad and drags, the players are going to get tired of it."
Thankfully, Obsidian apparently gives its writers a bit more sway than your average AAA developer, so the RPG factory's narrative team can collaborate with designers to make sure things don't grind to a halt.
"Compared to many studios that I've heard horror stories from, our writers I think have a lot of say," Sawyer says. "The writers are kind of co-creators with the area designers of just what the experience in an area is. There is some give and take and back and forth there. I wouldn't say – and this is often a point of contention – that one has ultimate authority over the other. They need to collaborate and figure out what they're trying to do and say."
Obsidian's set up has obviously yielded results in the recently-released The Outer Worlds 2, which we gave a glowing review: "The Fallout New Vegas creators have crafted a masterful space age RPG that's willing to play game master to my silliest decisions."
