As Pillars of Eternity nears launch, dev team begins discussion on sequel

With Pillars of Eternity, the original role-playing game from Obsidian kickstarted for about $4 million, hitting in about two months, the studio is already working on promised expansions and discussing a sequel.

"We're going to do some expansions because we said we would as a part of the Kickstarter," said Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart. "We've already started working on artwork. So we've already kind of figured out where we want to go in the world and the artists are doing some tests.

"But with Eternity 2, that's the next thing. Probably at the end of this month, Josh [Sawyer] and Adam [Brennecke], the key guys on the team are all going to sit down. They've already come up with a list of what they want to do, kind of new game systems and that kind of stuff. We're going to try and get going on that as soon as we can."

It sounds like the question isn't whether a sequel is going to be made, but how it will be funded.

Urquhart said he thinks they might once more pursue Kickstarter for funding, but was hesitant.

""I think so, I think that's what we'll do," he said. "It's not 100 percent. The reason is because first we didn't want to do it until [Pillars of Eternity] came out. The second thing is that the Kickstarter stuff is kind of up and down here and there. But the Shadowrun guys look like they're pretty successful, they're like one and a half or two million. I know if we put exploding kittens in it we could make billions.

"I think it might be a good time again for a Kickstarter, so we're talking about it."

He said the team needs to have a reason for going to Kickstarter for money, not just a request for more money.

"So we need to start talking about Eternity 2 so we can say we would like you to back us so we can do these things."

While Pillars of Eternity is set to launch on March 26, the team continues to work on it. Mostly focusing on polish and giving the title a once over, Urquhart said.

A lot of the final changes to the game were driven by a required playthrough back in December.

"We told the entire team that no one works for a week and instead they just play the game," Urquhart said. "It gave everyone a chance to be proud of what they had done and to figure out what they wanted to fix and change."

A lot of those tweaks included balance changes, work on the stronghold and the interfaces, Urquhart said.

"This whole process has been great," he said.

Correction: The headline has been updated to make it clear that the sequel is in the discussion and active development hasn't started yet.