Obsidian Tease Outer Worlds Secret NO ONE Has Found (Interview)

The following is a conversation with Obsidian developers Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. We go into the inspiration behind the game, what might be next for the company, and a few of their personal highlights.

What was the major inspiration for this game? (besides Fallout New Vegas)

Tim Cain: For me, it was Firefly and Futurama. The former for its space western feel, and the latter for its humor and wacky science.

Leonard Boyarsky: Definitely Firefly and Futurama for the reasons Tim mentioned. I’d have to add True Grit and Deadwood for their use of language and Brazil for its bureaucracy-from-hell humor.

How are your new parents, Xbox Games?

Cain: TOW was released with Private Division as our publisher, so Microsoft had very little interaction with us, beyond some very generous marketing assistance. Development continued after acquisition much as it had before.

With the extra muscle behind you, will you now create a huge, expansive blockbuster? Or stick to the more focused and somewhat shorter titles?

Boyarsky: Hopefully somewhere in between. I wouldn’t want our next game to be a $100 million (or more), 100-hour epic. While I’d like for us to have more content and even more depth, getting too huge doesn’t feel like it would be a good fit for us.

What lessons have you learned from The Outer Worlds, that you can implement in future games?

Boyarsky: We learned a lot working with Unreal for the first time, how long content takes, what the engine is good and not so good at, etc.

Having that type of information going into future titles will help us scope much more effectively (famous last words )

What are your biggest positives post release?

Cain: I loved the reception, especially from people who don’t necessarily play RPG’s regularly. Fans seem to like the setting and the humor a lot, which is gratifying to hear for a brand new game in what will hopefully be a series of them.

Boyarsky: Agreed. I’m always overly critical, so the positive reception has been great.

Your favourite Character/ Weapon/Quest/Location?

Cain: Hmm that is tough and so subjective, but I will try it.

Character: Sanjar (for his back and forth with Celia).

Weapon: Gloop gun (especially giving it to Max to use).

Quest: Foundation. (Ludwig was right!).

Location: Scylla (it turned out so beautiful).

Boyarsky: Outside of our companions, I’d have to say Phineas and ADA, because they were two of the first characters we came up with and they both came out so great. I loved the way Byzantium came out visually, though I would have liked to have had more questing there. For a weapon, I’d have to go with the Pink Slip sniper rifle.

Did you base any of the characters on anyone? Or was there any inspiration for certain characters? Same question for locations?

Boyarsky: We always reference characters from other sources when developing games, but our most direct inspiration for a character would have to be Phineas, who was based on Rick from Rick and Morty and Walter Bishop from Fringe.

Are there any small details in the game, which you’re proud of, but may fly under the radar for the regular consumer?

Cain: Every single quest title in the game is based on the title of science fiction novels and short stories from the Golden Age (the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, mostly). No one seems to notice it, but I thought that was cool!

What was the funniest bug in the game that was squashed before we got to see it?

Cain: We had a lot of butt-related animation issues. I remember a raptidon standing there just wriggling its behind, without a care in the world. We also had issues where after dying, people and creatures would just keep wriggling their butts after falling to the ground. It was really funny, but it got fixed.

Boyarsky: Beyond normal development bugs, I can’t think of any that were really funny besides Tim’s examples and the bug that led to the mandibular rearranger. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favorite one that wasn’t caught before shipping, the dying companions.

The funny part wasn’t that they were dying, it was how they were dying, and Taylor Swope’s (our QA lead) twitter reveal that they were climbing an infinite ladder and falling to their deaths off camera was fantastic.

What were the inspirations for the different science weapons?

Cain: Some of the science weapons were inspired by bugs in the game that we thought were funny. The Mandibular Rearranger, which shrank or elongated bones in victim’s heads, came from just such a bug, which was happening at random in the game for a while.

Other science weapons came out of meetings where we wanted some effect in the game, like crowd control, and we had a need to complete the science weapon set, in this case we needed a ranged heavy weapon. That combined to become the Gloop Gun.

Any uncovered easter eggs we are yet to find? Give us a clue if so!

Boyarsky: I haven’t seen anyone comment on Phineas’ FULL name yet (three Easter eggs for the price of one!)

Finally, Outer Worlds' DLC is highly anticipated, what can you tell us?

Boyarsky: There will be DLC. ;)