Black Isle - The Last Days

[HiddenX]

US Gamer looks back at the glory and the last days of Black Isle Studios:

The Last Days of Black Isle Studios

The crucible that defined some of the best RPG designers ever.

Feargus Urquhart remembers the moment that he knew that it was time to leave Black Isle Studios—the team he had founded a little more than five years before it was under Interplay.

Interplay had been struggling with debt and other issues for years before Urquhart finally decided to leave the studio he named for a region of Scotland, his ancestral homeland. But he had nevertheless held on all the way through 2003, if only out of the vain hope that they could finally finish Fallout 3.

Interplay lost $20 million in 2003, but Urquhart knew that it was over well before that.

"For me, I was very aware of what was going on at Interplay in general, and I tried to share that as much as I could with everyone in Black Isle," Urquhart remembers. "The point where I felt that Black Isle was not going to get the support it needed from Interplay anymore was when Interplay lost the [Dungeons & Dragons] license. Interplay could have figured out how to keep it, but it was a lower priority. This meant a game that people had been working on for two years had to be scrapped. After that happened, it felt to me like the writing was on the wall and both Black Isle and Interplay itself were probably not going to be around much longer.

That summer, Urquhart wound up departing the division he had helped to create after a seven year stint. And then the clock started ticking.

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More information.

 

[rjshae]

I hadn't heard of Torn before. It sounds like it might have been interesting.

Yeah that type of situation totally sucks -- where you work with a group you really like but watch the company around you gradually dying off. I've been there.

 

[Phonix]

I was not as sad as they formed Obsidian right after

 

[daveyd]

I guess nothing ever came from the attempt to sort of resurrect Black Isles Studios a few years ago. Interplay ran some sketchy crowdfunding campaign to gauge interest in a post-apocalyptic CRPG and then the forum they had went down and as far as I can tell there's been no communication about the "project V13" in years.

Too bad, I guess, but since none of the original Black Isle people involved there was no reason to believe it would even have been half decent. Even with original Black Isle people involved, there wouldn't have been any reason to expect a good game (see: Obsidian). I think I've had my fill of post-apocalyptic RPGs for awhile anyway. Would really like to see something besides postapoc and medieval / high fantasy.

 

[Ripper]

I think I've had my fill of post-apocalyptic RPGs for awhile anyway. Would really like to see something besides postapoc and medieval / high fantasy.

Yeah, I mentioned before, I'd really like to see a fairly hard SciFi setting set in the solar system, with evil corporations, mining moons, and that sort of thing. Sort of wild west with the solar system as the new frontier.

 

[daveyd]

Yeah, I mentioned before, I'd really like to see a fairly hard SciFi setting set in the solar system, with evil corporations, mining moons, and that sort of thing. Sort of wild west with the solar system as the new frontier.

There was a guy that posted years ago on the Codex about a game concept he wanted to make very similar to that. However, he didn't have any team. And had no programming or art skills of his own IIRC. So unfortunately it will probably never materialize.

 

[wolfing]

Yeah, I mentioned before, I'd really like to see a fairly hard SciFi setting set in the solar system, with evil corporations, mining moons, and that sort of thing. Sort of wild west with the solar system as the new frontier.

The problem with scifi settings is the lack of 'magic' (unless they add it with a different name like 'The Force', nano-technology or whatever), which immediately excludes a lot of players like me who just don't enjoy mundane settings with guns and lasers.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Would really like to see something besides postapoc and medieval / high fantasy.

Behold, your salvation!

https://media.giphy.com/media/TKn5h2gqiCuR2/giphy.gif

 

[rjshae]

The problem with scifi settings is the lack of 'magic' (unless they add it with a different name like 'The Force', nano-technology or whatever), which immediately excludes a lot of players like me who just don't enjoy mundane settings with guns and lasers.

Yes, a "fix" in sci-fi settings is to include a psi corps concept.

 

[Ripper]

Personally, I could live without some variety of psionics in a hard sci fi game. If the combat were based on military skills and mundane weapons, like Jagged Alliance or similar, that would be fine by me.