Writing the Characters & Companions of The Outer Worlds
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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In the second video exploring the design of The Outer Worlds, we sit down with the writing team to explore the process of writing NPC's, quest givers and companions.
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Hosted & Edited by Danny O'Dwyer
Filmed & Colored by Jeremy Jayne
Gameplay Capture by Frank Howley
Produced by Danny O'Dwyer & Jeremy Jayne
Closed Captions by Megan Carnes
There are three more videos from this series coming. Make sure you subscribe to get updates the moment they go live. bit.ly/noclipsubscribe
Waiting for this 🙌🙌🙌🙌
This game is sooooo boring with all the talking head scenes and fetch quests
Vicar Max's lines in combat were just so funny, amazing to learn that this aspect of the character was added afterwards. He really grew on me as the game went on, and his one-liners were some of the best.
0:52 it makes me feel so good to know they're aware how much we love New Vegas.
The exact opposite of Bethesda, who would rather everyone forget the game even exists (because they didn't make it) than learn from it and be better.
Any game in which you can have badass went-to-prison priest companion whose quest is getting hallucinations on drugs for enlightening is just so right in so many levels.
Vicar Maximillian DeSoto- A battlefield savage. Love this guy, I take him everywhere.
It is a great inspiration for a D&D cleric
Peak reddit comment.
I love Parvati's quest and her. She's such a sweetheart, and helping her was the most wholesome thing in a video game I've done in a long time!
For sure. When she said she was going to go and scream into a pillow out of glee made me smile more than anything in the game.
I absolutely adored parvarti, she was a constant in my party throughout my playthrough. no way i’d leave her on the ship
I fell in love with her right off the bat.
As somehow who is seriously considering becoming a writer, (for any medium, including games) I really appreciate stuff like this. Keep up the good work guys, your videos always remind me how much I love games not just as a source for entertainment but also as a form of art.
I love this kind of content for 2 reasons. 1) It gives deep insight into a game we originally experienced on the surface level, like blu-ray commentary track edited down to the good parts and 2) Game writers deserve more credit than they currently get in the industry. It is great to give the spotlight to people who often get overlooked. Thanks Noclip!
Very much agree! It's always great to see the hard-working people who bring these visions to life, and it's great to see them light up when talking about it!
My favorites were what I consider the main companions, Vicar Max and Parvati. Max cracked me up with his corny battle lines!
I hope next time they get a little more funding to flesh out ideas. Heck, they could even repackage the game as a “director’s cut” or something with an expanded world and I’d consider replaying. I feel like they had so many mechanics and we players didn’t get enough time to explore it.
Great part of the series. Looking forward to the rest. Keep it up Danny and Jeremy!
Sanjar is awesome. His conversation were, usually, the only one I wasn't skipping during later runs with different builds.
Nyoka was also funny AF
Outer Worlds was one of the best "small RPG's" i
've ever played. Parvati is one of the best / most likeable charakters if ever seen in a video game
The conversation flow chart is exactly what I pictured in my head. I can't imagine doing that on a spreadsheet!
Great doc! After so many mentions about Pillars of Eternity, do you have any planning of doing some podcast or interview about the game? Or even a doc about it?
Ahhh This video made me so happy! Thanks for doing all the interviews and putting this together. SUCH an amazing game! The phenomenal talent shows through so well.
Wish they are working on TOW 2 with more in-depth quests for companions. I like all companions but the overall main quests and companion quests were not enough to know more about companions.
I've just started doing a play through again, I really hope we get DLC soon!
Love the vids, fantastic job! Any chance we might get a little something on “Grounded”? From what I have heard, it’s pretty interesting how they have a really small team with a really large span of creative freedom on the game. Creative freedom is always nice to hear.
Thanks NoClip － now I wanna binge-watch the whole thing :-)
I particularly love how you make use of the game's outstanding soundtrack. I bought the CD and ripped it before I even finished the game and am listening to it all the time ever since when I'm at work. So beautiful, and despite bringing back all the memories and images, it's never distracting, just makes me a happy worker :-)
This is such a great series! Looking forward to the remaining videos.
I really like the fact that they give mass effect its credit I love that game and this game as well. Outer worlds clearly pulled some inspiration from me trilogy AND İ lOVE it for that.
Keep your cinnamon bun engineers and sexy priests. Phineas Welles stan for life!
Absolutely amazing video! I love obsidian with all my heart.
All the people that work at Obsidian are the best of the best. Fucking period.
"The D stands for definitely not insane". Epic fuckin lulz!!!!
I was not sure why I felt so attached to Parvati until I saw this and noticed that she has the same voice actress as Chloe Price.
Do they share this wonderful dialogue tool to the world as an open-source or smth or is it the confidential sauce of the company?
I really love this literature stuff in games
The characters have so much humanity. Parvati for life.
"they both really care even though Rick tries to hide it a lot more" says anyone stuck in an abusive relationship.
Cool to see a bit of their process, but I'm missing maybe a little bit of critical perspective? Did they succeed or fail at what they wanted to accomplish? Where did their intentions get in the way of a good story as opposed to supporting it?
Parvati
"Oh my god, how do I make this guy who loves *spreadsheets* interesting?" Meet @ManyATrueNerd!
I got done watching the first episode yesterday! Cant wait to watch this one. How many total parts are there?
Just got done watching it. Its such a great thing to watch the devs talk about their game, you can see the passion. Obsidian is such a underrated studio now a days.
There are 5 in total.
@@novanis thank you
Star Wars droids are sentient though... At least until the next memory wipe.
Love learning about obsidian. Any hope for a pillars 1 and 2 doc???
Parvati is still be best companion hands down
Game Writing 101:
Kill any character any time? Yes.
Intimidate old ladies into giving you money? Yes.
Steal super valuable things and sell to criminals? Yes.
Give a job to a proven cannibal? Yep.
Drive space ship directly into the sun? Of course.
Have a socially awkward character strong arm an NPC into a date? That...Reads a little weird in the "me too era".
You're an artist, making an artistic piece of work with a tone and narrative. If we're gonna talk the human experience in a CORPORATE DYSTOPIA... Why outright avoid one of the more common negative human experiences in the business world? It's like taking out racism against ghouls in Fallout because of BLM protests. Just because reality is shitty doesn't mean fantasy worlds should be diluted. $0.02
omg i cant believe i never found SAM.
*i just want a big fatt 100GB monstrous game from this crew.......thousands of choices impacting a mega world......Mmmmmm Delicious
Too Human doco?
Arcanum was my first RPG. It was good but what happened to it? About halfway through it just sort of dies and becomes linear.
Sebastion Adams is MY boyfriend. He doesn't know this, but he will soon. What? That isn't creepy or odd - YOU'RE creepy and odd!
Pavarati quest wasn’t boring but it did become tedious with all the back and fourth.
Do a Halo doc!
NO
The world of Outer worlds is shallow and dumb as fuck. One reason why the game is becoming more and more irrelevant.
gonna be honest this video felt a little dry and tangential.. i mean even given the subject matter
Complex characters but paper-thin gameplay.
Parvati was my favorite companion by far, I took her everywhere.
I get high a lot so I don't know if I've actually said this or just thought it often but:
You're dangerously close to these docs about the game to be longer than the game. It's been months since this full priced $60 game (in my market at least) came out and was beaten by everyone 5 times before the week was out.
So no troll, but straight up, do we care? I genuinely want to know positive or negative.
It makes me shudder to imagine writing crpg dialogue trees in excel lol
Spoilt with releases
Who else killed Ellie's parents the moment the conversation was over? (and then reload the save because you didn't wanna lose her as a companion)
Tom Gallagher does she fight you after you kill them?
I also hated her parents so badly that I decided to punish them with all the fury of Valhalla.
@@Martson1z No but she if very upset and does leave your party.
@@Martson1z she basically calls you an asshole and leaves. Presumably forever.
Yup!
I love how much credit they gave the voice actors, specifically Ashly Burch. Not common for a dev to say something like "this side quest we had sounded really boring at first but the voice acting made it so much better so we kept it".
They just did a video on her: th-cam.com/video/QN_tRbqR6FI/w-d-xo.html
I mean her quest is absolutely horrible, it drags on and on with little interesting going on and the payoff for the player is practically zero (which in a way was an interesting experience; being so used to gaining something from doing a quest line but this time it was an NPC who reaped the benefits so to speak). But I still wanted to do it because Parvati was so adorkable and I wanted to help her with her date, and definitely a big part of her being so fun was the voice-acting.
13:37 ... If only the animation matched her performance in like any discernable way. That line read is really fantastic, feels organic and like a real person talking how they actually talk. But oh my god the animation on it is so bad I initially thought the dialogue was desynced. I almost feel like if they had just stuck a GoPro pointing at her face in the booth, and given that footage to the animators, it would have made so much difference.
Do Disco Elysium. The writing is good in that game.
Yup. Disco Elysium and Pathologic 2 are the best written games of the last few years.
YES! The story about Disco is hillarious and triumphant! Such a great game
Disco Elysium is the best writing I've ever seen in a video game.
@@Urelasir man, pathalogic suffers from some really shit gameplay
"Good" more like fucking phenomenal.
Me, playing outer worlds in 2019: Phineas is clearly just Rick from Rick & Morty
Obsidian, today: yah we based him off Rick from Rick & Morty
Me: WHAT
Funny thing is, I thought of Walter from Fringe, but didn't make too much of it since "mad scientist" is a thing... turns out they did use Walter as an inspiration too.
Ersen yeah, I was thinking Walter Bishop in the back of my mind too. I’m glad they proved me right. Fringe is one of my all-time favorites, and I’m happy it’s getting the recognition it deserves from two of the best writers in the game industry.
@@sa_exploder indeed. Massively, massively underrated show.
Who is just a ripoff of Doc from Back to the Future, which was really just an impression of Albert Einstein. The ripoff goes deep!
Parvati's companion quest is my favorite in the whole game. I could actually empathize with Parvati's feelings, insecurities and hopes. I felt happy when she was happy and sorry when she was sad.
Thanks for the vid, Noclip! Looking forward to the rest of the series.
I love Par, but Max...I love that foulmouthed ex-con.
for real.. my entire playthrough went on pause for that woman.. I would have done anything for her.. Parvati was such a great a great part of this game .. just lovely
She was my favourite companion but parts of her quest became tedious with the back and fourth. Maybe due to loading screens
There's so much good stuff in Outer Worlds, but I found myself wanting more with almost all of it. I enjoyed the game but it seems more like a really solid 'proof of concept' than a really compelling thing on its own-which I think is a bit too negative of a way to put it for how I feel, but I'm not sure how else to say it. I really like the art direction and music, and their worldbuilding, and the tone, but I couldn't help wanting a deeper and more compelling story and a bit more character interaction out of the game. I'm sure the team worked hard so I don't want to belittle the game, but finishing it left me feeling wanting for some reason.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that I liked Outer Worlds and I'd be very excited to see a sequel!
I am being humble when I am telling you that I am the most powerful strongest coolest smartest most famous greatest funniest TH-camr of all time! That's the reason I have multiple girlfriends and I show them off on my channel all the time! Bye bye umber
the DLC was theorised to be out mid march, obviously that didn't happen. I'm hoping its because whatever it is turns out to be incredible. Best possible end to these documentaries would be an official release date for the DLC.
The thing is they basically did that intentionally.
They had to cut a lot of stuff and were operating on a limited budget, so in the last docu they literally said they went for this approach of people wanting more instead of people saying "this is unfinished".
So they cut out all the stuff that wasnt ready.
The "i want more" is a positive thing for the devs, the "its unfinished" its not.
I agree and I think that is why Tim & Leonard stressed early on that this wasn't Triple A game, closer to double A, and not a huge development team. I don't think they wanted to sink too many resources into a game that they didn't know if it would be a hit or not. I believe the sequel will need to be much bigger in scope. They should go Skyrim big! A big universe to explore, more complexity in game play, more wide open areas. They got Microsoft money now, they can shoot for the stars.
See but I personally felt like it was enough. I have a baby, a wife, and a career. I barely had time to finish Outer Worlds as it was. I just don't have the time on my hands to play a game for 150-200 hours like the good old days. Now you see the dilemma that these developers contend with. If it's too long, there will be those that say it lost its way after a while. If it's too short, people will throw hatred their way. The middle ground is where people still say how much they love it but thought it was too short. That's probably ideal for them actually.
"She's this little glimmer of goodness in an otherwise horrible world" - yep, that's pretty much Ashly Burch
Omg I never realized that was Aloy too!! Ashly Burch rules!!
@@bezoro-personal why? What happened?
@@bezoro-personal what, people can't change for the better?
"Who gets so excited about the numbers, in a way that nobody does" I feel personally attacked
I love these characters. Sam and I have a lot in common.
I, too, enjoy cleaning and ignoring standard human interaction.
lmao
I wish I had gotten more of a chance to explore Byzantium, but my reputation ticked over to hated at some point and literally every guard in the city was after me. It turned into a warzone.
I had the same thing happen to me. I regret nothing.
Haha same for me. So I decided for the second run to be a manic killer, wiped out the whole city and then explored and looted it in peace. Not there yet with my 3rd run (trying to create the most idiotic character possible) but yh you might be able to tell how much I love this game :D
Honestly, I feel like Byzantium had a ton of potential that wasn’t realized. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love and adore this game, but they could’ve done a lot more with the city. For being the “last level” there is a disappointing lack of content. Hopefully DLC will help flesh it out...
Yo. Vicar Max totally does sound like Alec Baldwin. I remember thinking "who does he remind me of?" while playing and I couldn't put my finger on it.
This game one of the strongest dialogues I’ve seen. And let’s face it, Parvati’s side quest turned into one of the best exposition of a human story in a deeply fantasy world
Her side quest was pimping her out for a date. Was very underwhelming.
The story and dialogue were the weakest parts of this game. It was a shame, because everything else was pretty solid. When that girl said she was "blown away" by the writing in Pillars of Eternity, I knew it was a bad sign. I like Obsidian and love a few of their games, but Jesus. No.
There's a legend that the statues in the Obsidian office are actually NPCs.
Being a wingman for Parvati was one of my favorite moments in modern video games. So memorable, such beautiful acting, and it’s completely optional & missable. Just... wonderful
This doesn't make me think Outer Worlds is impressive with its writing, this makes me wonder how much more work they must've put into New Vegas. That game felt like there was twice as many possibilities and characters to meaningfully interact with
Anti-Nihilist _ they even say in the video that the writers were hired mid development or they hired people who haven’t worked in game writing before/much
It really showed in the final game. Everything was really basic and too scared to offend anyone that all the edges were sanded away. Imagine offending a person!?
They had to build SO MUCH MORE game here. New Vegas was a mod, essentially.
It's amazing how much impact good voice acting has on a game. I think most players severely underestimate how much great voice acting brings a character to life. It seems like something you notice much more when it's poor, than when it's really good. Burch's Parvati is a good example of this. And it's been something on my mind since I've been playing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which also has amazing voice acting performances.
Yeah it's too bad that it's kinda ruined by the static dialogues and animations "a la Bethesda" in this game. I hope they'll get a bigger budget next time and fix that issue to make the dialogues feel better.
I also think that the writing in this game was phenomenal. This is one of the only games that I just don't skip the dialogue.
I have worked in the industry as well and you get tired pretty soon of the robotic voices, especially with a more narrative driven game. The voice acting brings a lot to the game but I think the music is also the first time you are starting to think of an unfinished game as a real adventure and not just this project on your computer.
Compelling characters?
They were generic as fuck! A good game yes, but the dialogue and plot was NOTHING new.
Serveral of the characters were straight up rip off of already bad Joss Whedon characters. To suggest the characters were anything else is just plain incorrect
Holy shit you weren't being ironic with the title. The narrative and characters in this game were utterly forgettable. The writing team did a pathetic job of trying to recapture the charm of new Vegas. It's amazing that people can be blind to the fact that Obsidian is a shell of what it used to be. For Christ's sake people wake up, try using your critical faculties. Unsubscribed
Thanks a lot, Noclip !
Really needed something nice to watch in these shitty times !
Imaginary plague. Shitty times. lel
Love the Outer Worlds Content so far! I can't wait to see stuff about the music :) Just hearing the ambient music in thise video feels nostalgic already!
The game was fun but a poor effort by Obsidian and especially the companions when compared to New Vegas. And don't understand the love for Parvatti. As soon as I got dragged into that school girl type of crush with Junlei, I dumped her from my crew as quickly as possible. It was totally out of place: I'm trying to save a colony and/or fight corporations, not help you overcome some nonsense insecurities about your identity. I had 2 playthrough, never, ever picked Parvatti again as a companion.
The Outer Worlds writers are not the ones to be asked about good writing. This game is boring, imitative and outdated and never delivers on the promise it makes.
The one writer wasn't allowed to talk about the cut companion. Maybe to be released in the DLC later?
Thank you for the great game! If Disco Elysium wasn't a thing, this would've been the best written game of the year.
Vicar Max's combat special lines make me crack up to this day, the shotgun on the shoulder with the dramatic turn, the voice acting, I have a hard time not bringing him with me on sojourns.
not a word about Felix companion, lol. Even Obsidian dont like him)
How to write compelling characters: do the opposite of what The Outer Worlds' writing team did.
They failed.
a lot of people disagree, myself included
Porcin3 Proph3t they failed to surpass themselves.
STFU
Everything Carrie Patel says about writing and narrative is fantastic to hear. It's true that you can't have NPC's - companions or otherwise - be constantly rude, mean, or in some way lording over the player. Many games these days make that mistake, and it really shows that Obsidian's narrative team is aware of this.
NPC's - companions or otherwise - being constantly rude, mean, or in some way lording over the player AKA "The Borderlands Effect."
Half of the companions were boring or uninteresting. Max, and Parvati to a certain degree were the only ones worth keeping. Felix had potential, but clearly wasn't developed very well.
This was super well paced!
Agreed on the pacing. Kind of weird that Felix didn't really play into it at all, but narrowing the scope was a good choice. Also happy to see these videos are releasing relatively close together!
@@Shiftarrr probably because felix is barely even a character
Ada and Ellie were the best for me. Parvati had terrific acting and likeable personality but the whle personal quest was tiring.
Ashly Burch was one of the main reasons why I wanted to play this game in the first place
Isn't it weird they devoted so much to Parvati and didn't mention Kate Dollarhyde at all?
The characters are one of the worst parts of the game. Which is a death sentence for an RPG.
one question tho, has Parvati ever taken off her goggle?
I absolutely LOVED Vicar Max's combat lines so it's surprising that the writer says she wasn't sure about them 😂
6:07 "We don't want to crunch the team." Nice!
Nyoka very much reminded me of Rose of Sharon Cassidy from New Vegas. They are both rough and tumble women with a bit of tragedy in their pasts that they are still struggling with by the time you arrive but who very much mellow out a bit as the story progresses. Also both are red heads you meet in a bar.
I can see that for sure.
I really liked the writing in the Outer Worlds... but then I played Disco Elysium and well... Once again I found out a difference between good writing and a freakin masterpiece.
You know, I always hear about how Cornelius is just Rick. However I'd say Max is much more like Rick and Cornelius is basically just a morally grey Doc Brown
Low key getting the vibe that this Noclip series is secretly a pitch to allow Obsidian to make another Fallout game. Episode 1 referenced Fallout quite a bit, and episode 2 begins with a shot of the New Vegas ranger helmet lololoolol
Fun fact, Diablo III has a legendary gem named after Leonard Boyarsky
Parvati and Sam were my favorites.
Love the vibe and respect at Obsidian, always been a fan of their work but now also of their studio.
Characters of outer world dont really fit into ”deep and compelling” but then again obsidian of today is a far cry from what people would like them to still be.
**Obsidian gets bought by Microsoft**
Obsidian: Fuck Excel
My first playthrough was on supernova, and every single companion eventually died. It made me feel like a person who is just dragging other people to their dooms because they're useful.