Avowed Deep Dive At Obsidian’s Studios | Official Xbox Podcast

SPEAKER 1: Games on this podcast range from E to M.
MALIK PRINCE: What's going on, everybody?
My name is Malik Prince, and welcome back to the Official Xbox Podcast.
Once again, I'm on location, this time at, you guessed it, Obsidian Entertainment.
You may know them most recently from releasing games such as The Outer Worlds, Grounded, Pentiment, but today we're here to talk about a game that is just three months away, and, yes, I'm talking about Avowed.
Now, they are no strangers to the Official Xbox Podcast, we've definitely had them on the show before, but never quite like this.
They've invited me out to their studio here in beautiful, sunny Irvine, California, to not only see the game, but play the game.
Not only play the game, but play a section of the game that no one has seen before outside of these walls.
I'm also going to get to talk to the devs and learn a little bit about their culture.
So, let me quit yapping, because you're not here for that, let's get right to it.
Alright, now it's the moment of truth, I am going inside the studio.
Let me knock on the door, see who answers, who could it be?
It's Carrie Patel.
Carrie, how's it going?
CARRIE PATEL: Hey, Malik.
Good to see you.
MALIK PRINCE: Good to see you, good to see you.
Thank you for welcoming me into this beautiful studio, your beautiful abode.
CARRIE PATEL: Well, thank you for coming to visit.
MALIK PRINCE: Of course, of course, and I was telling everybody watching, that you're no stranger to the Xbox Podcast, we've talked about it quite a few times.
Not quite like this, but this time, we're three months away from launch.
How are you feeling?
How's the team feeling?
CARRIE PATEL: I'm excited, and so is the team.
Right now, we're fixing bugs, doing final polish and final tuning, but more than anything, we're excited to get Avowed into the hands of our fans, and excited to see what kinds of experiences players create for themselves.
MALIK PRINCE: Nice, and I'm excited to get hands-on today, so be jealous.
As we walk through the studio, it's very clear the reverence you have for games you've released.
We have Pentiment over here.
This beautiful image of Grounded, a game that so many people have played and loved.
In your opinion, what do you think makes an Obsidian game an Obsidian game?
CARRIE PATEL: So, for us, an Obsidian game is really about creating a rich, reactive and interactive world for players to put themselves into, experiment and see their choice and consequences play out in real-time, and also giving players a really meaty role to inhabit in the game.
Something where they can see not just the narrative consequences of their choices, but also make mechanical decisions about how they build their character, how they play and how they progress through the world.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, and we saw a little bit of that during the post-Xbox Games Showcase podcast, where you brought in that awesome builder to game, and, again, to your point on the narrative, choices people were able to make, or the different ways you'd tackle the mission, whether it's stealth or going in sword slashing, it, it's really great to see that, and so I love that answer.
But I want to go back to a little bit about the studio culture, because there's certain ways that you honor some of the teammates that you have here, some of the studio members, right?
CARRIE PATEL: Yes, so we're not just developers, we're also players, and that means playing our own games as well.
Each of us has a little pennant on the door to our office and that celebrates how many years we've been with the studio, so Matt and Brandon here, have both been here fifteen years, and also, the games that we've completed natural play-throughs of.
So, Brandon here has quite the collection of play-through pins.
MALIK PRINCE: Which is so cool.
Even if you're -- new employees to come in and see how you honor the devs at the studio and the people, to your point, players of the games that they make.
It's just a really cool thing and I -- it's got to feel really good for those new folks that come in.
Now, what do you -- what would you say, in your opinion, you're most excited for players to experience when they jump into Avowed?
CARRIE PATEL: I'm really excited to see just the way players build and progress their own characters.
One of the most exciting things from the rounds we've been doing lately with press, has just been seeing the very different experiences that people get with different kinds of builds, that means builds with different abilities, different weapon load-outs and different ways of approach and combat, those things all can feel very different.
I just love seeing how players make a play-through their own, both through the way that they build and progress their characters, and also through the choices they make, moment to moment.
MALIK PRINCE: It's all about playing the way you want.
Set it up for us here today, Carrie, what am I going to be experiencing?
CARRIE PATEL: You're going to be experiencing the first couple hours of the game.
MALIK PRINCE: Nice.
CARRIE PATEL: So, that includes a brief introductory level, where you'll -- we'll introduce you to not only the mechanics but also the world, your role as the Envoy of Aedyr, and after that, you'll get into Dawnshore, which is the first major region of the game, and there you'll get a sense for the Living Lands, which is this very vibrant, colorful world.
You'll also get a sense for some of the conflicts and tensions between the Aedyrans, who are your people, and the locals of the Living Lands, and you'll get to meet your first companion, Kai.
MALIK PRINCE: What a tease, what a tease, I'm excited to jump in.
Carrie, thank you so much for introing me into the studio.
CARRIE PATEL: Thank you.
MALIK PRINCE: So excited to play the game when it releases in February, but I'm going to get to play it today.
: [ MUSIC ]
SPEAKER 2: You know, for most people, getting sent to the Living Lands is a punishment.
MALIK PRINCE: Alright, everyone, we are here again to talk about Avowed.
I just got to play the game and I just want to say it is really incredible, but you don't have to take my word for it.
I'm going to talk with some people who actually worked on the game, it's the awesome Avowed devs.
I'll allow you, all, to introduce yourself.
We'll start with you, Kate.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: My name is Kate Dollarhyde, I'm a Narrative Designer on Avowed.
MALIK PRINCE: Awesome.
MATT HANSEN: I'm Matt Hansen, I am the Art Director on Avowed.
BERTO RITGER: I'm Berto Ritger, I'm a Region Director on Avowed.
MALIK PRINCE: Kate, Matt and Berto, these folks are making an incredible game.
There's -- I played it for the first time today, I just want to say, incredible.
It's one thing to hear about a game for so long, it's a different thing to finally get hands-on with the game, and it was very clear a lot of the direction choices that you all made and really dialing into what makes an Obsidian game an Obsidian game, is what I was talking with Carrie about earlier.
From your perspective, I know you're three months away, how are you feeling?
A little bit of pressure?
Feeling good?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: I'm excited.
I think it's always a little scary, you're sharing something you've been working on with your team for so long, but I'm excited for fans to play the game.
MALIK PRINCE: Nice.
Well, let's dive into it, because I -- we're not going to show too much of it, but I want to talk about the character creator, because it's really robust, there's a lot of pre-sets.
As you know, and many of you may know, you're playing as a god-like and that manifests itself with various different things on your face, which you can also turn off, but there's also -- it's more than just your appearance, it's your background.
I know, Kate, you worked a lot on the narrative.
What was it like building some of the backgrounds for players, because obviously a lot of what they choose in that setting then translates into how characters perceive you, NPCs perceive you, so what was it like building those?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, it was a process of really just looking at where the player comes from and trying to figure out how that's going to inform their role-play suite essentially, like what are the boundaries of the role-play experience here?
The player character is from Aedyr, they are a member of the court, in some way, so we needed backgrounds that really suited that experience, right, the closeness to the emperor that really justified them being sent as an envoy to the Living Lands, so what feels right for the setting?
Can I ask, which one did you pick?
MALIK PRINCE: I'm glad you asked, Kate, actually because I wrote it down.
I was the arcane scholar.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: It's my favorite one.
MALIK PRINCE: I chose that because -- MATT HANSEN: Choice.
MALIK PRINCE: So, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, the arcane scholar graduates with honors and I, I like to consider myself an intelligent person, okay?
And that's what I like to -- but I want to go to Matt and Berto, because this game takes place in the Pillars of Eternity universe.
Pillars, of course, an isometric game, and now, you're building this game as a first-person game.
What were some of the considerations in showcasing the world that you all had to think about?
MATT HANSEN: Sure, I mean there's lots of design considerations, I'll leave that to Berto, but from a purely art standpoint, people look up and that's the biggest, most obvious thing.
When you're working with an isometric game, you've got a fixed camera, you know exactly how everything's going to be laid out for the player at any given moment, so you can cheat a lot of stuff, you can do -- MALIK PRINCE: Sure.
MATT HANSEN: Some really, really fun smoke and mirrors there, and you lose access to a lot of that in a 3D space.
So a lot of the challenges that we faced, and this is true for any first-person game, is that you need to be able to draw the players' attention where you want them to look, but also give them interesting things to see if they're just perusing the world, like I do.
I'm a big wanderer when I play games and I'm just looking at, "Oh, what's over here?
What's over there?" So, making sure there's things that are interesting there, sometimes there's little secrets for you to find, little insights to the quest you might be playing, that aren't necessarily critical information, but curious players will find those things.
But also to finding, and this is sort of going into Berto's realm a little bit, but finding good opportunities for players to, while they're exploring in 3D, kind of go, "Oh, I want to climb up there and see what's up there," and then giving them a reward for that, which I'll hand off to you there.
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
I mean, we want you to look around, we know you're going to look around, and so we designed spaces so that they'll guide you forward along -- kind of main direction that we want the quest or the area to flow, but then as you turn around, you might look around a corner and realize, "Oh, there's actually a path this way, where does that go?" and that'll lead you to little-found secrets, narrative storytelling, another encounter or loot or uniques, that sort of stuff, and so, it's both -- in a first-person environment, it's a lot more freedom in how you look at things, but we also have a parkour and climbing system, so that allows the space to get a lot more vertical than in the past.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, and that's something I definitely noticed as I was playing earlier.
It's like -- I felt like I got rewarded for exploring and going and reading the notes, right, and getting the backstory.
There's a scene early in the game when there's this prisoner, she's trapped behind this gate and you can -- I chose to let her out, I don't know if you can not choose to let her out -- BERTO RITGER: You can.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: You can.
You -- sure, you can -- MALIK PRINCE: Really?
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: Yes.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: You can leave her there, and there are some fun consequences if you do.
MALIK PRINCE: See, this is what I love is going to be the theme, is play the way you want, you're going to see a lot of that.
And, so, I let her out, but I was able to kind of go and look in -- when I was going to get the key to let her out, there was a note that explained what she did and how she was kind of being rude to the people who captured her, and so it was just cool to see that, again, you get as much out of the game as you put into it, from the exploration standpoint.
Now, Matt, what you said a little bit earlier on the vistas and looking around, that's one of the things I noticed.
If we can go back a little bit, and we're actually watching footage, just for everyone at home, I played the game.
Jeff, of course, Xbox Podcast extraordinaire also played the game, and so, you may see some of the gameplay from both of us here, but look at this world, it is incredible.
I think you all have built such -- I mean visually speaking, just looking at the vistas and how far you can see in the distance, it's incredible, and I'm sure as you're building a game, you're thinking, Kate, on, " Hey, what does this mean for the story?
What are the places -- what are the towns that I'm trying to build to, kind of, communicate?" It feels like a living and breathing world, I'm assuming.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, absolutely.
I think, like Berto, area designers, they want to create these really cool little paths, these fun secret areas, but then when you create a secret area, there has to be content that goes there, right?
BERTO RITGER: Yes, of course.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: So, then, it's narrative and area talking back and forth, like, go, "Hey, what can we do with this cool little pocket, this little corner of the world, right, what can we put here to -- that tells a fun story?" In the Dawnshore area, I got to do a fun one where we called back to one of the Pillars of Eternity DLCs, those characters had come to this place and left evidence of their passage.
I think that's going to be really fun.
There's tons of little things like that throughout the world for players of the previous game, players that are new to the world of AR, just fun stuff to discover.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, and then part of that, Matt, from designing the characters and NPCs around the world, even the way they dress, I'm jealous of -- MATT HANSEN: Sure.
MALIK PRINCE: I'm jealous of the suspenders, I feel like, I feel like I could rock them, maybe not as good as you.
MATT HANSEN: A lie.
You'll pull it off.
MALIK PRINCE: That makes me feel so good, thank you.
But, but I'm sure that that's a part of it too, making the player feel like they're encountering characters who have their own style and have their own kind of way of expressing themselves is an important part in that as well, in telling the story.
MATT HANSEN: Absolutely.
You know we're trying to encapsulate the culture of these people, perhaps some of their own personal preferences, to just make them more believable of this living entities and not just a guy that's waiting to talk to you, so there's a big component of that.
There's also mechanical components to it as well.
We want to, if we have combatants, illustrate for the player, that guy's in heavy armor, we know they're going to be harder to hit, they've got a big purple sash, we know they're associated with Aedyr, that sort of thing.
We're trying to leverage the visuals to not only make the world feel a lot more robust and believable, but also give critical gameplay information to players.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, awesome.
Then, Berto, I wanted to talk a little bit about Dawnshore, because -- BERTO RITGER: Sure.
MALIK PRINCE: One of the things that I think about when I play role-playing games, is that very first area in a game and that sets the tone for the entire game, and so, from your perspective, what were some of your goals and objectives in building that area and to -- how to really make the player feel like -- BERTO RITGER: There's a -- yes, there's a lot we want to introduce you to as a new player, or someone who might be familiar with the world, so we want to balance like, "Here's a little bit of tidbits of stuff, call-backs to previous Pillars games, and stuff that'll onboard you into this world." But on top of that, we're also trying to express the history of the Living Lands, and this space, Dawnshore, is the first place you go to, so it's quite a bit less extreme than the later areas you go to.
But you'll see, there's all these ruined gray buildings around, and those are the Maegfolc and they came to the Living Lands a long time ago, and so everybody's built up on top of their structures.
That's just told through the environment art, but that's one aspect of it, and then, we also want to show that the nature is getting more extreme, it's creeping towards -- as you go further into the wilderness, it gets more and more extreme, and you'll see that, even in the level design.
We'll get more meandering a bit as you get into the more extreme areas.
Yes, I think -- MALIK PRINCE: Yes, no, I'm looking forward to it because, again, I really felt like it set the tone for the entire game, and every part of the game, the demo that I played after that.
I want to go on to a little bit of combat, and so this is something -- BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: That, obviously, players have been really excited to see.
Tell us a little bit, Kate, about some of the enemy types that we're going to be encountering.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Sure, in the first area in particular, we're going to see Xaurips, which are our humanoid-lizard guys.
Bears, of course, lots of enormous bears.
Did you fight any bears when you played it?
MALIK PRINCE: I did, I did fight bears, and they stood no chance against me.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Oh, really?
MALIK PRINCE: I destroyed them, I -- MATT HANSEN: Too powerful.
MALIK PRINCE: Destroyed them.
I was -- what can I say?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Just too strong -- MALIK PRINCE: What can I say?
MATT HANSEN: Make a note, we got to tune the bears harder.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Bears.
MALIK PRINCE: Everyone's like, "No, don't tell them that." So, we were -- no, but it was great.
And the enemy variety type was something that I loved, there are healers, obviously.
Long-range enemies that you -- that can attack, and then folks who are really good at shielding, and so I'm assuming that, from a player perspective, as you're tackling these enemies, like we're seeing here, you really have to be dynamic in how you're choosing your abilities and how to build.
MATT HANSEN: Yes, it's a very elaborate game of rock, paper, scissors basically, and, and while we allow the player to build a myriad of different combat styles, we want to make sure that underneath all of those, there are utilities that they can utilize to combat different enemy types and make sure that combat's always a little interesting and spicy.
It's a fun balancing act.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, for me, it was a sword and the grimoire in one hand, and that seemed to work really well for me.
MATT HANSEN: Yes, it's fun, it's fun.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, it was good, but then some of the enemies were really -- I will say this, I would say the combat's actually pretty challenging in a good way, never felt unfair, it felt like, I -- whenever I did die, it felt like, "Okay," I understood what I did, "I got too close to the enemy," or I wasn't using my power, like my spells enough to freeze the enemy where they were, so I think that that's great.
As we continue to see here, challenging and setting up a bit of a challenge for this player, Jeff, of course.
I will say, in the notes that Jeff sent over, when he said he was fighting a bear, he said, "Of course, I beat the bear." Right, Jeff is a -- he's a little cocky on that one.
But speaking of bear, let's actually check out that gameplay of the boss bear, because I don't think I actually experienced this yet, I didn't get to this point yet.
This is different than the regular bears that we see, or is this -- MATT HANSEN: Yes.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, this is a bear that's been afflicted with the Dreamscourge, which is what the emperor sent the envoy, the player, to investigate here in the Living Lands.
This bear has been afflicted with the Dreamscourge, it's become a dreamthralled bear, and it's quite a bit more powerful and aggressive as a result of that.
MALIK PRINCE: Berto, from your perspective, as you're, as you're building these worlds, and earlier, the last fight we saw was a little -- was outside and there was -- BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: Places for the character to go and get a -- high ground, for example, and here, it's a little bit different, little darker, a little different tone.
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: What are some of the considerations as you're building these worlds and where the players will encounter enemies?
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
I think something I probably should have touched on in my long meandering answer about designing Dawnshore -- MALIK PRINCE: I loved your answer.
BERTO RITGER: But one of the very important things as well in a first region, is just giving you the -- giving you an introduction to the gameplay experience, that in a way, that's well-paced as a new player, and giving you the opportunity to experiment with any kind of weapon type or load-out you might want.
We want to give you reasonable access to as many weapons early, especially base weapons, as possible, so you can mix and match and try those things out.
And the environment will allow you to take those range shots from high up, or go running in with a sword and board or cast a bunch of spells, so you can do all those things.
You can even use some of those abilities to get to areas of the map that wouldn't otherwise be accessible.
We wanted to design around that, and then also introduce you to those -- the different archetypes of enemies and ramp up as you get further.
So this dreamthralled bear here, quite a bit more difficult a little bit further into the main story, and along the way you might, and hopefully will, get distracted by a whole bunch of other fun stuff, and then work your way up in power.
By the time you get here, it's more of a satisfying challenge.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, yes.
Alright, so I want to talk about the narrative.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: We talked a little bit earlier, Kate, about some of your ability to come off as a jerk a little bit, in some of the dialogue choices, which I again love in a game, but what I was surprised about was how deep in conversation you can go -- KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: It is not just select the choice and then just exhaust all the choices and, and get out the conversation, it's literally like a branching task.
And so, two questions, how did you all find the time to make all of those dialogue options?
Then, two, what -- why was it so important to go into depth?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, absolutely, it certainly takes quite a long time to create conversations in the way that we do at Obsidian, but the reason we do it is because player agency is really at the core of the gameplay experience here, in that it's not just like you play your way in the open world, play with the weapons that you want, but also, play your character the way you want to play them.
And that means being able to take on personas as you want and really drill down in conversation into the stuff that's really important to you.
If you're talking to a character like Sanza, he's going to give you a quest and you could, if you wanted to, beeline for the quest information, get it and run off and go do that, or you can really sit down and talk to him and get to know more about who he is.
We do that because we want the player to feel like their character is their own -- MALIK PRINCE: Yes.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: That they're really making this character that they have in their head, and they're able to make characters that feel substantially different from each other.
MALIK PRINCE: Berto, from your perspective, as you're building these quests, what were some of the goals that you and your team had in building those side quests and making them seem meaningful?
BERTO RITGER: Yes, so at Obsidian, we're very fond of missable content, honestly, our games are full of it, and that's what our side quests really are.
At the end of the day, you're going to play some side quests, but not everybody is going to play the same combination of side quest, and so the whole experience is -- it's dynamic to how you play the game.
You might stumble across the mid-way point of a quest or a particular item or something that somebody wants, and then when you talk to them, they -- you realize, "Oh, I already have this thing," or, "I killed that person," and then the quest adapts to that.
So you can play things out of order, you can do things a little bit ahead of time if you end up doing that with your exploration.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes.
BERTO RITGER: We try to design around a well-aced player experience.
MALIK PRINCE: Well, it's super smart, and maybe this is a question for all three of you, just from your personal game preferences and the philosophy that you mentioned, Berto, because I'm interested in, what is the allure of trying to -- of creating missable content?
Because in maybe a regular player's head, it's like, "Why would you want to make something, put all this effort into it, a piece of content that somebody may not get to?" But, I guess, why do you, all, cherish that aspect of the game so much?
MATT HANSEN: I'll -- BERTO RITGER: Yes, go ahead.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, please.
MATT HANSEN: I'll talk to that a little bit.
I mean, for me, it's about creating a living world.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: If you're walking down the street, you don't go into every shop, but people are living their lives in there, right?
MALIK PRINCE: Yes.
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: And, to some degree, we want to sell that idea in the game as well, and so, making sure that players get that sensation of, "This is a living world, I am but a character in it." Also, there's just the added nice thing of, our games have a lot of replay value -- KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes.
BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: Even on that second or third or fourth play-through, if you're playing four times, you're awesome, but on those subsequent play-throughs, you can still find content you never experienced before, not just content that you're going through in a different way but -- BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: That you've just never found, and that's super important to us.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, I mean, even -- I wouldn't even call it a -- it wasn't -- this was a missable piece of content, but it wasn't a mission, but as I got on the dock of Paradis, is that what it's called?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Paradis, yes.
MALIK PRINCE: Paradis.
Yes, so I was walking off the dock and then there was a conversation going off to the left, and they were talking and I just went to peek over to see who was talking and the NPC literally looked up at me and, looked up at me and said, "Oh, someone's listening." SPEAKER 3: That's enough for now, we've got a listener.
MALIK PRINCE: It was like that small, tiny little detail is such a cool thing that, to your point, Matt, makes it feel like a living world.
It makes it feel like, "Man, these NPCs are reacting to everything that I do." Even if most people won't see that, it's just a cool thing to have in there.
MATT HANSEN: It's funny you bring that up, because I noticed for the first time, and I think this is probably your doing, in one of our last regions of the game, you're walking towards an ostensibly very important meeting you're about to have and you can hear people arguing behind the door.
If you just walk in, they'd react and they go, "Oh, we have a visitor," and they stop.
I sat there with the door closed for a good three minutes and they just kept arguing, it was so good, it was so excellent.
Fun fact, when you make games this big, all of us get surprised sometimes, BERTO RITGER: Yes.
MATT HANSEN: It's truly great.
MALIK PRINCE: I love that.
Alright, so, Kate, the last thing I want to talk about is Party Camp, which is basically your chance to rest, interact with your companions and also reflect on the missions that you went.
Can you talk a little bit more about what goes on in Party Camp?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes, absolutely.
A game like ours, it's very difficult to control the pacing, because a player can go anywhere and do anything at any time, so we, as designers, don't necessarily know where they are at any given time, so it's difficult to pace the experience.
Instead, what we want to do is allow the player to pace it for themselves and that's kind of where Party Camp comes in.
When they're out in the open zone, running around, killing monsters, there's high-tension environment.
Party Camp is a chance to step back and decompress with your companions, talk about the quests that you've done, talk about what everyone's going through, what their thoughts are on the main story overall, and also to upgrade your weapons and have a nap.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, which as a professional napper, I can appreciate.
You all know when the game comes out, February 18th, day one on Game Pass.
What are you all most excited -- I'll throw it to all three of you, what are you most excited for players to experience when they jump in?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: My favorite things are spoilers, so I'll say in the first region that you've seen, the Dawntreader Dungeon, I think we showed off a little bit at Gamescom, it was my favorite piece of content to work on, it was an absolute blast to put together.
Berto and I worked on it together -- BERTO RITGER: Yes.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: With a few other fantastic folks -- BERTO RITGER: Yes.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: And it was just a great experience.
I love how it came out, so I'm excited for people to see that.
MALIK PRINCE: Okay, so a little bit earlier in the game?
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Yes.
MALIK PRINCE: Awesome.
Matt?
MATT HANSEN: Boy, I'll go even earlier, MALIK PRINCE: Okay.
MATT HANSEN: Because I'm one of those cats that will spend three hours in character creation and I know we'll probably talk about that more later, but I am really excited to see the weirdos that people make, and then how they choose to play them in the world.
You can make some real freaks, it's great.
But beyond that, in general, just I'm really excited for people to holistically get to experience the world of Eora, and for a lot of people, this will be their first adventure into that world, and I'm hoping that some of them will get really excited by what they've played here and maybe dip their toe into the, into Pillars 1 and 2.
MALIK PRINCE: I love that, love that.
Berto?
BERTO RITGER: Honestly, it's very hard to pick favorites.
Dawntreader would be up on the list, but I don't want to have just a very redundant list here.
but in the spirit of that and just Dawntreader generally and this world we built, we're doing a lot of long play-throughs now that we're towards the end of the project, and I am just blown away constantly when I'm exploring the environment, stuff that I didn't even realize was in the game.
I tend to know a lot, particularly in the early game, where things are, just because I have to, but I'll stumble across things like, "Wow, I didn't realize somebody wrote this (inaudible) lore here." There's storytelling that incorporates into this character that I thought was just this little character that we've built upon over the years.
Yes, the, the feeling of exploration and wanderlust in the environment is just awesome and I'm really excited for people to experience it.
MALIK PRINCE: Yes, I mean it was very apparent, how much there is and how deep it goes from a dialog perspective, from a play the way you want, whether it's combat wise or, or how you tackle a mission and the traverse, there are just so many aspects to this game that I think people are going to be blown away.
You're really going to love it.
I'm not just saying that because I work here, I promise you, it's going to be, it's going to be something really special.
Again, Avowed is out February 18th on Xbox NPC and, of course, day one with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Of course, if you pre-order the premium edition, you get to play up to five days early, so why wouldn't you want to do it?
Kate, Matt, Berto, thank you so much for talking to me about Avowed, you are, all, building something truly special.
Thanks so much.
KATE DOLLARHYDE: Thank you.
BERTO RITGER: Thank you.
MATT HANSEN: Thank you -- MALIK PRINCE: Of course.
MATT HANSEN: Really appreciate it.