Pillars of Eternity - Voiceovers and the First Complete Playthroughs

Joshua Sawyer has posted Update #87 on the development of Pillars of Eternity. The Obsidian team just finished a "play week" in which developers were given the chance to play the whole game from start to finish rather than sticking to the limited span of the backer beta. Sawyer writes:

We learned a lot from the play week.  Most notably: Pillars of Eternity is a big game. 

Only two of our developers managed to finish.  One was a designer who developed a lot of the crit path and sprinted straight for the end.  The other found an early ending and decided to wrap his story up there. About half of the developers had not yet made it to Defiance Bay (the first big city).

In his wonkish way, Sawyer also breaks down a list of gameplay tweaks, including:

• Combat was still too fast.  We increased the Recovery of most creatures and tuned the global Recovery factor to slow down combat overall. 
• Melee Engagement needs to be communicated more clearly. (Yes it does!)
• Standard casting and Recovery times were too long. The standard casting time was adjusted down to make casting feel less sluggish.
• Hiring adventurers, buying items, crafting, and enchanting were all much too expensive. These have all been made more affordable.
• All classes need a per encounter ability to use at 1st level. (Yes we do!)

They're also beginning to add voiced dialogue and character barks, as well as continuing to expand the variety of character portraits. A new Pale Elf and a couple from the Vailan Republic are below.