Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment has one of the more robust CVs in game design: Iceland Dale 1 and 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 and most recently, the highly-praised historical role-playing game Pentiment.

We focus on various aspects of the production of Pentiment: avoiding burnout, drawing from meticulously-researched historical material, dealing with religion (both as a nexus of temporal power and a daily spiritual presence in peoples lives), as well as covering gameplay and narrative aspects.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:00 – Life post-Pentiment, comparison with the aftermath of Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire

00:04:20 – Managing production stress and preventing burnout, for individuals and for teams

00:06:50 – Balancing personal vision, and the requirements of publishers. For their next project, team morale will be the number one priority.

00:08:30 – Allowing team members to play to their strengths.

00:11:30 – Dealing with history and religion as opposed to fantasy worlds. Engaging with “microhistory” as opposed to top-down, ruler-first historiography; examining the daily lives of the people of an era.

00:16:56 – The difference between taking inspiration from history and literature, as opposed to games that draw primarily on other games.

00:21:26 – Religion in Pentiment: “I consider myself an atheist but, like, who cares.” The personal nature of characters’ engagements with God, the Devil, spirituality, and the church as a political entity.

00:31:41 – The politics of power in Pentiment