The Outer Worlds 2 Interview - talking role-playing and second chances with Obsidian's Brandon Adler and Matthew Singh
In the coming days, the team at Obsidian Entertainment is releasing their second RPG of 2025 with The Outer Worlds 2, six years after the original entry and only months after Avowed launched earlier in the year.
Ahead of the game's release, RPG Site had a chance to sit with game director Brandon Adler and design director Matthew Singh to learn some insight about how the team at Obsidian approached creating a sequel to The Outer Worlds, including a focus on expanded RPG elements, factions, and flaws.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
RPG Site: Brandon and Matthew, can you briefly introduce yourselves, your history at Obsidian, and your role in The Outer Worlds 2?
Brandon Adler (Game Director): Sure. So, Brandon Adler, Game Director on The Outer Worlds 2. Been at Obsidian for close to 20 years. I started off on Neverwinter Nights as QA. Worked my way up through production ... I was in production for a while, then design. I was doing system design and production, kind of back and forth. Around the time of 2013 or so, I became a Production Director on Pillars of Eternity. And then shortly after that, a few years later, I became a Game Director, and I've been working as a Game Director ever since.
Matthew Singh (Design Director): And I'm Matthew Singh. I've been at Obsidian for a little over 17 years now. Brandon actually hired me for QA on Neverwinter Nights 2's second expansion pack, Storm of Zahir. Since then, I also did production. I worked on Fallout New Vegas. I was a Production Director on South Park: The Stick of Truth and Tyranny. And then I was on The Outer Worlds and became Design Director. Originally, I started as Gameplay Director on The Outer Worlds 2, and then over the course of the project, I ended up taking over as Design Director.
Brandon Adler (Game Director): Sure. So, Brandon Adler, Game Director on The Outer Worlds 2. Been at Obsidian for close to 20 years. I started off on Neverwinter Nights as QA. Worked my way up through production ... I was in production for a while, then design. I was doing system design and production, kind of back and forth. Around the time of 2013 or so, I became a Production Director on Pillars of Eternity. And then shortly after that, a few years later, I became a Game Director, and I've been working as a Game Director ever since.
Matthew Singh (Design Director): And I'm Matthew Singh. I've been at Obsidian for a little over 17 years now. Brandon actually hired me for QA on Neverwinter Nights 2's second expansion pack, Storm of Zahir. Since then, I also did production. I worked on Fallout New Vegas. I was a Production Director on South Park: The Stick of Truth and Tyranny. And then I was on The Outer Worlds and became Design Director. Originally, I started as Gameplay Director on The Outer Worlds 2, and then over the course of the project, I ended up taking over as Design Director.
RPG Site: From a glance, it appears that the creative leadership team changed a little bit between Outer Worlds 1 and Outer Worlds 2. Can you speak to the accuracy of that?
Adler: At the highest levels, Tim (Cain) and Leonard (Boyarsky) were co-Game Directors on the first one. Tim was planning to retire at the end of it, and so we were deciding, as a studio, who's going to take over this franchise, and how do we want to do this? At the time, I was working as a Game Director on some other things, and then I was working on Avowed at the very, very beginning of Avowed as their Gameplay Director. So, I had done some game direction on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire's DLC work, and so I had thrown my hat in the ring. Like, 'Hey, I love the first game, I would love to take over.' So, I had worked with them to handle that.
We've been working very closely with Leonard Boyarsky — he's the Creative Director on the project. So, I think there's still a lot of continuity there in terms of, you know, he's the one who helped make the entire IP, so he's got all of that information in terms of how the game is supposed to run. We also, at the highest levels, we have folks like Matt, who worked on the original The Outer Worlds, as well as Daniel Albert, being the Art Director from the first Outer Worlds. Down the line, a lot of the leadership has worked on The Outer Worlds. Actually, I think everybody, maybe except for myself and the Audio Director, had worked on The Outer Worlds at some point. So at the highest levels, there's not really a loss of continuity there.
Singh: And even then, Tim Cain still consults on the project throughout the duration of it, and has written a lot of content for us as well, so he's been integral throughout.
Adler: At the highest levels, Tim (Cain) and Leonard (Boyarsky) were co-Game Directors on the first one. Tim was planning to retire at the end of it, and so we were deciding, as a studio, who's going to take over this franchise, and how do we want to do this? At the time, I was working as a Game Director on some other things, and then I was working on Avowed at the very, very beginning of Avowed as their Gameplay Director. So, I had done some game direction on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire's DLC work, and so I had thrown my hat in the ring. Like, 'Hey, I love the first game, I would love to take over.' So, I had worked with them to handle that.
We've been working very closely with Leonard Boyarsky — he's the Creative Director on the project. So, I think there's still a lot of continuity there in terms of, you know, he's the one who helped make the entire IP, so he's got all of that information in terms of how the game is supposed to run. We also, at the highest levels, we have folks like Matt, who worked on the original The Outer Worlds, as well as Daniel Albert, being the Art Director from the first Outer Worlds. Down the line, a lot of the leadership has worked on The Outer Worlds. Actually, I think everybody, maybe except for myself and the Audio Director, had worked on The Outer Worlds at some point. So at the highest levels, there's not really a loss of continuity there.
Singh: And even then, Tim Cain still consults on the project throughout the duration of it, and has written a lot of content for us as well, so he's been integral throughout.
RPG Site: What components of The Outer Worlds do you feel have been adjusted the most for The Outer Worlds 2, and what parts do you feel are part of the series' identity that needed to be maintained from The Outer Worlds 1?
Adler: Yeah, I mean, I think what needs to be maintained first and foremost is always that dark, absurd humor. That's just the core of what The Outer Worlds is, no matter how we express that or how that may change over time. That's always the key and the core. I would also say that even the corporatist humor, even though that's downplayed quite a bit ... it's not just that. We wanted to have different points of view as to that kind of humor and what it would mean to be in these colonies. I felt that that was a touchpoint that we still needed to have, and that it was important for people, because people liked that, and they wanted to see where that evolved and where that moved.
For the things that needed to change, or the things that I felt could use some good improvement, or things that we wanted to lean a little bit harder into and get a little deeper into: the RPG mechanics themselves. Deep, crunchy RPG stuff - it was something that we could have had more of in the first game, and everybody from the first game that came over was like, 'yeah, that's something we want to do'. So we spent a lot of time breaking down things like 'All right, let's redo the perk system,' or 'We'll redo the flaw system and skills', and 'How do we want those to actually play in-game'? And again, an important element to me is always, "How can I build out my character in fun and interesting ways?' Things that not only can I use in combat or conversations or stealth, but with everything else in the world itself.
So, if I'm an engineer, I want to be able to do engineering things inside of the world, and be rewarded for that as a player. - that would feel special with my own path that I'm taking. So, that was an important element - to get all of those things together and really push that stuff forward. For Matt, one of the things that he had been focused on was combat. He could probably go a little bit more into that.
Singh: Well, the RPG is really the core. That's what we hang our hat on. That's our bread and butter. We saw a lot of opportunities to try and improve the combat experience as well. It was something that our player base wanted, and so we invested there in terms of making our weapon identities feel very distinct from one another, upping our variety across the board in terms of types of equipment that you can get and how they feel and how they can play into the RPG space as well. So we spent a lot of time trying to improve things like player mobility, in terms of gunplay, in terms of the enemy variety, as well as their ability to seek out the player ... to make that core experience feel more satisfying for more people.
Adler: Yeah, I mean, I think what needs to be maintained first and foremost is always that dark, absurd humor. That's just the core of what The Outer Worlds is, no matter how we express that or how that may change over time. That's always the key and the core. I would also say that even the corporatist humor, even though that's downplayed quite a bit ... it's not just that. We wanted to have different points of view as to that kind of humor and what it would mean to be in these colonies. I felt that that was a touchpoint that we still needed to have, and that it was important for people, because people liked that, and they wanted to see where that evolved and where that moved.
For the things that needed to change, or the things that I felt could use some good improvement, or things that we wanted to lean a little bit harder into and get a little deeper into: the RPG mechanics themselves. Deep, crunchy RPG stuff - it was something that we could have had more of in the first game, and everybody from the first game that came over was like, 'yeah, that's something we want to do'. So we spent a lot of time breaking down things like 'All right, let's redo the perk system,' or 'We'll redo the flaw system and skills', and 'How do we want those to actually play in-game'? And again, an important element to me is always, "How can I build out my character in fun and interesting ways?' Things that not only can I use in combat or conversations or stealth, but with everything else in the world itself.
So, if I'm an engineer, I want to be able to do engineering things inside of the world, and be rewarded for that as a player. - that would feel special with my own path that I'm taking. So, that was an important element - to get all of those things together and really push that stuff forward. For Matt, one of the things that he had been focused on was combat. He could probably go a little bit more into that.
Singh: Well, the RPG is really the core. That's what we hang our hat on. That's our bread and butter. We saw a lot of opportunities to try and improve the combat experience as well. It was something that our player base wanted, and so we invested there in terms of making our weapon identities feel very distinct from one another, upping our variety across the board in terms of types of equipment that you can get and how they feel and how they can play into the RPG space as well. So we spent a lot of time trying to improve things like player mobility, in terms of gunplay, in terms of the enemy variety, as well as their ability to seek out the player ... to make that core experience feel more satisfying for more people.
RPG Site: On a similar note, can you briefly describe how navigating the world works? Is it open world from the get-go? Can you go in three or four different directions, go this way or that way? Can you touch on the larger structure of the game?
Adler: Yeah, so similar to the first Outer Worlds, we still have these open regions, but in The Outer Worlds 2, they're much bigger, much more expansive, with a lot more avenues to explore. One of the things that we tried to do early is, in our regions, give you one big framing: 'Here's the goal for the region.' Okay, you need to get over to this facility and do a thing, but then leave it open for the player to discover different paths and avenues that work with different builds to accomplish that goal.
An example we point to in the first region of Paradise Island is, 'You need to get over to this relay at some point, ' and there's a bridge between the part of the island you start at and where you need to get to. It's up to you to figure out what you want to do here. Now, if you go straight to the bridge, you can talk to them, and they may have a talk solution that involves, like, a quest or something that you can do. If you want to just open fire and try and tackle the bridge through combat, you can try that, but it's going to be very difficult for you if you haven't really prepared well. You can try and engage with stealth systems and see if I can get by unseen using distraction devices, et cetera. You can try convincing another faction to help you storm the bridge with additional support units, if you'd like. Or you can explore the island and find other opportunities. Maybe you've gotten double-jump boots, and you can find an alternate path that gets you around the bridge completely, or you've gone to another point of interest where you've gotten a new shield gadget, and you can try and get past hazards in different ways.
We really wanted to try and open up lots of different pathways for the player to accomplish that goal, and we try to do that throughout our various regions, where, depending on how you build your character, depending on how you're speccing things out, and depending on your discovery of opportunities across the regions, we have different pathways for you. Even when you get into, like, something like the end dungeon of, say, the first region, depending on which places you try to explore and engage with in the island, it may change that experience. You might find alternate pathways in. You might find interactions that you could engage with that'll, like, take down security systems or bolster some supports for you, all of these types of things that could play into how you would eventually get to that end goal, and the level of exploration that the player engages in will either limit or expand that opportunity space for you.
Adler: Yeah, so similar to the first Outer Worlds, we still have these open regions, but in The Outer Worlds 2, they're much bigger, much more expansive, with a lot more avenues to explore. One of the things that we tried to do early is, in our regions, give you one big framing: 'Here's the goal for the region.' Okay, you need to get over to this facility and do a thing, but then leave it open for the player to discover different paths and avenues that work with different builds to accomplish that goal.
An example we point to in the first region of Paradise Island is, 'You need to get over to this relay at some point, ' and there's a bridge between the part of the island you start at and where you need to get to. It's up to you to figure out what you want to do here. Now, if you go straight to the bridge, you can talk to them, and they may have a talk solution that involves, like, a quest or something that you can do. If you want to just open fire and try and tackle the bridge through combat, you can try that, but it's going to be very difficult for you if you haven't really prepared well. You can try and engage with stealth systems and see if I can get by unseen using distraction devices, et cetera. You can try convincing another faction to help you storm the bridge with additional support units, if you'd like. Or you can explore the island and find other opportunities. Maybe you've gotten double-jump boots, and you can find an alternate path that gets you around the bridge completely, or you've gone to another point of interest where you've gotten a new shield gadget, and you can try and get past hazards in different ways.
We really wanted to try and open up lots of different pathways for the player to accomplish that goal, and we try to do that throughout our various regions, where, depending on how you build your character, depending on how you're speccing things out, and depending on your discovery of opportunities across the regions, we have different pathways for you. Even when you get into, like, something like the end dungeon of, say, the first region, depending on which places you try to explore and engage with in the island, it may change that experience. You might find alternate pathways in. You might find interactions that you could engage with that'll, like, take down security systems or bolster some supports for you, all of these types of things that could play into how you would eventually get to that end goal, and the level of exploration that the player engages in will either limit or expand that opportunity space for you.
RPG Site: So, when it comes to all these different permutations of player choice in the way that players approach things, how do you develop that? Like, how do you account for all the possible different avenues that some person might take? How do you make sure that that's all reconciled when you actually have to create it?
Adler: Well, I mean, a lot of that is just planning early on, right? Like, Matt was talking about, let's say, the relay. One of the first directives that we had was, 'Okay, like, we need to have three or four different points of interest inside of Paradise Island which affect the relay in some way.' And so then we start talking about, all right, 'Well, what does that actually mean?' So we build out the relay, and we're like, 'All right, well, we could have things that disable defenses. Like, why don't we tie that to this one over here?' So, if you turn off some power - cause a power surge - you can do this. That's really how those things start to build out; we just plan them early on, and then we expand from that.
Now, some of those things, like the bridge - it also expands over time. So, as an example, we came up with a lot of different ways that we wanted the player to be able to solve the bridge. Then, when we were playing the game, we started developing stuff, and then we got some feedback. There's a forward operating base pretty close by, and it originally didn't have any tie-in there. But, we had talked about it, and we were like, well, players are going to want to see if the operating base can help them with their goal, maybe in terms of them being able to attack. Whenever we get into a situation where, like, players are going to want to do that, I know, because *I* want to go and do that. The answer is, okay, well, how can we support this in some way that makes sense? So it feels good to the player, so they're like, cool, that option that I knew I wanted to do is there, and I have some way to interact with that, if I want to.
So a lot of it is planning, but a lot of it is also organic, just from playtesting it.
Adler: Well, I mean, a lot of that is just planning early on, right? Like, Matt was talking about, let's say, the relay. One of the first directives that we had was, 'Okay, like, we need to have three or four different points of interest inside of Paradise Island which affect the relay in some way.' And so then we start talking about, all right, 'Well, what does that actually mean?' So we build out the relay, and we're like, 'All right, well, we could have things that disable defenses. Like, why don't we tie that to this one over here?' So, if you turn off some power - cause a power surge - you can do this. That's really how those things start to build out; we just plan them early on, and then we expand from that.
Now, some of those things, like the bridge - it also expands over time. So, as an example, we came up with a lot of different ways that we wanted the player to be able to solve the bridge. Then, when we were playing the game, we started developing stuff, and then we got some feedback. There's a forward operating base pretty close by, and it originally didn't have any tie-in there. But, we had talked about it, and we were like, well, players are going to want to see if the operating base can help them with their goal, maybe in terms of them being able to attack. Whenever we get into a situation where, like, players are going to want to do that, I know, because *I* want to go and do that. The answer is, okay, well, how can we support this in some way that makes sense? So it feels good to the player, so they're like, cool, that option that I knew I wanted to do is there, and I have some way to interact with that, if I want to.
So a lot of it is planning, but a lot of it is also organic, just from playtesting it.
RPG Site: Matt briefly touched on factions. Factions were somewhat present in the first game, but can you touch on how factions have been incorporated into The Outer Worlds 2, specifically with, like, the deeper RPG kind of systems that you've talked about?
Adler: Very, very early on, factions were something that I felt we could have done better from the first game. The first game had a lot of factions, but I like factions that are omnipresent throughout the entire experience. It's like these big, large entities that are constantly either at odds with each other or, again, more present throughout the game, and you get to see the point of view from each of those factions - looking at the world itself and also the other factions that are around them, and something you can also grow with over time.
So you get to meet more and more of those factions. You move your way up through them, getting to the top rungs and being able to talk to the leaders of those factions. So we had planned that very, very early as something we wanted to deal with. Now, the other aspect of it is the reactivity elements of dealing with those factions. It's not only who you want to actually support or help throughout the game, but also, sometimes, you're going to deal with factions, and things are going to go very poorly. What does that mean for your game in the world state if you're dealing with a faction and you go kill-on-sight because you did something they really didn't like, or you decided not to help their enemies instead? How are they going to deal with those things? What pieces of content are going to be cut off from the player, but in a way that feels good, as in I've made a choice and now there's the natural consequence of that choice? But, these can open up other avenues for you. Like, 'Well, that's closed off, but now I have more things to do with this other side,' and you can go dig into that.
So, again, we were thinking about that very, very early on because I like stuff in Fallout: New Vegas. I'm going to be real with you. That was a big inspiration of mine when looking at that. That just felt good. I loved being able to deal with Caesar's Legion or the NCR, and who I wanted to back on these things and how I wanted to back them, and all the little minor factions that feed into those things. Those were always fun to me. Being able to, again, make sure that those choices really resonated long-term over the course of the entire game was something that was important. We spent a lot of time on that.
Singh: We also tried to integrate the factions into our companions. So many of the companions come from these different core factions that give you some input into their philosophy, into their way of life, but also, we wanted those companions to react accordingly. So, oh, okay, well, you have a companion of this faction and you start shooting up that faction, they're going to respond to that and be like, 'Whoa, what the F are you doing?' And you're going to have to deal with that confrontation. You're going to try to take, you know, Inez — who's from the Auntie's Choice faction — into the order of the Ascendant Headquarters. They better say something about it, right? And they're going to stop you at the gate and be like, 'Oh, that person's not allowed here.' And now you have to figure out, do I tell that companion, 'Sorry, you're not along for the ride, go back to the ship.' Do you try to fight for that person to be able to go in? Do you shoot up the place? What do you want to do here? And we try to allow those options for the player in all instances.
Adler: We even have things where the companions will help the player out depending on stuff. So, like, Inez in particular, if you go into Auntie's Choice territory and you steal something and you get caught, if Inez is with you, she'll step in and talk to them and talk them out of getting you in trouble. They'll be like, 'This is a misunderstanding. We're on Auntie's team here, etc.' If you don't have Inez, you're not going to be able to do that and will deal with the consequences. But those are also the types of things we wanted to layer in with these factions as well.
Singh: We still wanted to make sure that the player has choice — meaningful choice — here. Companions are completely optional. If you don't want to engage with them, you don't have to. But you can take them along and see how that changes your story. Same thing with factions, right? The factions are there. They have their goals. They have their motivations. You can try to side with them. You can try to bring them together. Or you can say, 'F it. I'm going my way. I don't care about you. We're going to do it the way that I would like.' We're all trying to figure out how to give the player as much player agency as possible and respond to it in interesting ways.
Adler: Very, very early on, factions were something that I felt we could have done better from the first game. The first game had a lot of factions, but I like factions that are omnipresent throughout the entire experience. It's like these big, large entities that are constantly either at odds with each other or, again, more present throughout the game, and you get to see the point of view from each of those factions - looking at the world itself and also the other factions that are around them, and something you can also grow with over time.
So you get to meet more and more of those factions. You move your way up through them, getting to the top rungs and being able to talk to the leaders of those factions. So we had planned that very, very early as something we wanted to deal with. Now, the other aspect of it is the reactivity elements of dealing with those factions. It's not only who you want to actually support or help throughout the game, but also, sometimes, you're going to deal with factions, and things are going to go very poorly. What does that mean for your game in the world state if you're dealing with a faction and you go kill-on-sight because you did something they really didn't like, or you decided not to help their enemies instead? How are they going to deal with those things? What pieces of content are going to be cut off from the player, but in a way that feels good, as in I've made a choice and now there's the natural consequence of that choice? But, these can open up other avenues for you. Like, 'Well, that's closed off, but now I have more things to do with this other side,' and you can go dig into that.
So, again, we were thinking about that very, very early on because I like stuff in Fallout: New Vegas. I'm going to be real with you. That was a big inspiration of mine when looking at that. That just felt good. I loved being able to deal with Caesar's Legion or the NCR, and who I wanted to back on these things and how I wanted to back them, and all the little minor factions that feed into those things. Those were always fun to me. Being able to, again, make sure that those choices really resonated long-term over the course of the entire game was something that was important. We spent a lot of time on that.
Singh: We also tried to integrate the factions into our companions. So many of the companions come from these different core factions that give you some input into their philosophy, into their way of life, but also, we wanted those companions to react accordingly. So, oh, okay, well, you have a companion of this faction and you start shooting up that faction, they're going to respond to that and be like, 'Whoa, what the F are you doing?' And you're going to have to deal with that confrontation. You're going to try to take, you know, Inez — who's from the Auntie's Choice faction — into the order of the Ascendant Headquarters. They better say something about it, right? And they're going to stop you at the gate and be like, 'Oh, that person's not allowed here.' And now you have to figure out, do I tell that companion, 'Sorry, you're not along for the ride, go back to the ship.' Do you try to fight for that person to be able to go in? Do you shoot up the place? What do you want to do here? And we try to allow those options for the player in all instances.
Adler: We even have things where the companions will help the player out depending on stuff. So, like, Inez in particular, if you go into Auntie's Choice territory and you steal something and you get caught, if Inez is with you, she'll step in and talk to them and talk them out of getting you in trouble. They'll be like, 'This is a misunderstanding. We're on Auntie's team here, etc.' If you don't have Inez, you're not going to be able to do that and will deal with the consequences. But those are also the types of things we wanted to layer in with these factions as well.
Singh: We still wanted to make sure that the player has choice — meaningful choice — here. Companions are completely optional. If you don't want to engage with them, you don't have to. But you can take them along and see how that changes your story. Same thing with factions, right? The factions are there. They have their goals. They have their motivations. You can try to side with them. You can try to bring them together. Or you can say, 'F it. I'm going my way. I don't care about you. We're going to do it the way that I would like.' We're all trying to figure out how to give the player as much player agency as possible and respond to it in interesting ways.
RPG Site: I have a more specific question about companions. In the original game, bringing certain companions along affects the main character's stats. Sometimes I would find myself choosing my companions purely on the stat bonus they provided, like +15 stealth or what-have-you. Does that work the same way in the sequel?
Singh: No. So they don't give you the stats directly in the way that they did in the first game. They do have different roles that they can play. In The Outer Worlds 2, each of the companions .. you can essentially push them into one of two different kinds of roles. And we try to make their ability space and their perk space synergize with different types of player builds as well.
So you might have... We'll go back to Inez again, who's a combat medic. You can try to push her to be more healer, or you can try to push her to be more damage-dealing. And there might be certain things that she can do depending on the role. Like 'Okay, if I push her more healer, maybe she's going to start throwing out med packs for me.' And that'll be a big bonus that I can use if I'm going to play more of a tank character. Things like that is how we approached those companions' bonuses and benefits this time around.
Singh: No. So they don't give you the stats directly in the way that they did in the first game. They do have different roles that they can play. In The Outer Worlds 2, each of the companions .. you can essentially push them into one of two different kinds of roles. And we try to make their ability space and their perk space synergize with different types of player builds as well.
So you might have... We'll go back to Inez again, who's a combat medic. You can try to push her to be more healer, or you can try to push her to be more damage-dealing. And there might be certain things that she can do depending on the role. Like 'Okay, if I push her more healer, maybe she's going to start throwing out med packs for me.' And that'll be a big bonus that I can use if I'm going to play more of a tank character. Things like that is how we approached those companions' bonuses and benefits this time around.
RPG Site: Obsidian has had two or three big releases this year with Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and work on Grounded 2. As a studio, how do you balance having multiple projects like this? How do you approach that?
Adler: Obsidian, even before Microsoft purchased us and we were independent, always kind of ran two and a half teams at a time ... 'half' being one was always spinning up. And so we're very used to having multiple teams that are separate from each other and continuing to work on whatever they're doing. And we still do that now, even though we're picked up by Microsoft, we still have multiple teams that are very distinct and discrete from each other. And yeah, there is a little bit of overlap from here and there.
Usually like when a project ends, we move some people over to help close stuff out. As an example, when Avowed ended, we grabbed some lighting artists and some audio designers to help bolster the team on The Outer Worlds 2. But in general, they're very separate from each other, and we each have our own goals and we each have our own timelines. And sometimes those timelines move around and things like that. But overall, we've just gotten really good at that over the years. And I think that's why we're able to do stuff like this.
To be honest, while there's always going to be challenges when you have this many games coming out all next to each other, it wasn't as bad as some people may think it is, because we're just used to working in this way. Now, it's bad for the Comms Team like Mikey (Dowling) and his group, because they have to support all three games at the same time (laughs). But you know what? That's his problem to work out.
RPG Site: Ha, but we appreciate him for that.
Dowling: (wryly) Thanks, Brandon!
Adler: Obsidian, even before Microsoft purchased us and we were independent, always kind of ran two and a half teams at a time ... 'half' being one was always spinning up. And so we're very used to having multiple teams that are separate from each other and continuing to work on whatever they're doing. And we still do that now, even though we're picked up by Microsoft, we still have multiple teams that are very distinct and discrete from each other. And yeah, there is a little bit of overlap from here and there.
Usually like when a project ends, we move some people over to help close stuff out. As an example, when Avowed ended, we grabbed some lighting artists and some audio designers to help bolster the team on The Outer Worlds 2. But in general, they're very separate from each other, and we each have our own goals and we each have our own timelines. And sometimes those timelines move around and things like that. But overall, we've just gotten really good at that over the years. And I think that's why we're able to do stuff like this.
To be honest, while there's always going to be challenges when you have this many games coming out all next to each other, it wasn't as bad as some people may think it is, because we're just used to working in this way. Now, it's bad for the Comms Team like Mikey (Dowling) and his group, because they have to support all three games at the same time (laughs). But you know what? That's his problem to work out.
RPG Site: Ha, but we appreciate him for that.
Dowling: (wryly) Thanks, Brandon!
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RPG Site: A couple of platform questions. The Outer Worlds is eventually brought to Switch. Can you say anything about Outer Worlds 2 on Switch 2?
Adler: (long pause) No comment. No, I'm just playing around. (laughs) We want to bring Outer Worlds 2 to as many platforms as we're able to. We have not announced anything beyond the Xbox Series X & S and PlayStation 5 and Steam and Windows GDK. We have not announced anything past all of that. But you can —if you want to get your handheld fix — we are going to be supported on the ROG Allies. So if people really want to play it, that's a great way to play it.
RPG Site: And was the PS5 version also developed at Obsidian internally?
Adler: We worked with a group called Double Eleven. They've done support work for us in the past on various things. Since we're pretty familiar with them, we've been working hand-in-hand with them for a while now to work on the PS5. They've been working on that, and we've also put some work into it with them to make sure it's exactly as we want it.
Adler: (long pause) No comment. No, I'm just playing around. (laughs) We want to bring Outer Worlds 2 to as many platforms as we're able to. We have not announced anything beyond the Xbox Series X & S and PlayStation 5 and Steam and Windows GDK. We have not announced anything past all of that. But you can —if you want to get your handheld fix — we are going to be supported on the ROG Allies. So if people really want to play it, that's a great way to play it.
RPG Site: And was the PS5 version also developed at Obsidian internally?
Adler: We worked with a group called Double Eleven. They've done support work for us in the past on various things. Since we're pretty familiar with them, we've been working hand-in-hand with them for a while now to work on the PS5. They've been working on that, and we've also put some work into it with them to make sure it's exactly as we want it.
RPG Site: What is your favorite Flaw in the game? Or do you not want to spoil it?
Adler: It's hard, right? Is that the one I use all the time? Because that's Over-Prepared. Because that just matches my gameplay style. But I think my favorite current flaw in my current playthrough is actually Bad Knees.
[Editor's Note: Bad Knees is obtained from crouching too often. It allows you to move faster when crouching, but causes your knees to make a loud sound whenever you stand up, alerting everyone around you.]
The reason it works really well for me is that, as a sniper. If I happen to accidentally stand up, the penalty is not as bad because I'm usually fairly far away. Although a couple of times I had forgotten that I had the Flaw, and I stood up next to people when I was really close to them and 'Oh crap!" as I try to run away and reposition. But I love being able to quickly sneak through stuff really fast. I think it's just a really fun one.
Singh: I also think Over-Prepared is probably my most used one Flaw. But the one that I think is really fun, especially for alternate playthroughs, is Foot-in-Mouth.
[Editor's Note: Foot-in-Mouth is gained by clicking through dialogue too quickly and causes dialogue choices to be selected randomly after a few seconds, but you gain more EXP.]
Because you're skipping through dialogue, now you have a timer on your conversations, and you have to pick things very quickly. Just because I think that's such a fun thing to like, 'Okay, how crazy is this going to get? How much is this going to affect my gameplay throughout the course of this RPG where I have to be making decisions?' It really forces you to think about things differently, which I think is fun whenever we have things where you really have to adapt the way you're tackling the game. It is pretty fun to do.
Adler: I cannot wait for the first time that somebody does a full playthrough where they let the Foot-in-Mouth pick for them and they end up kicking out their companions out of the party. I can't wait for it.
Adler: It's hard, right? Is that the one I use all the time? Because that's Over-Prepared. Because that just matches my gameplay style. But I think my favorite current flaw in my current playthrough is actually Bad Knees.
[Editor's Note: Bad Knees is obtained from crouching too often. It allows you to move faster when crouching, but causes your knees to make a loud sound whenever you stand up, alerting everyone around you.]
The reason it works really well for me is that, as a sniper. If I happen to accidentally stand up, the penalty is not as bad because I'm usually fairly far away. Although a couple of times I had forgotten that I had the Flaw, and I stood up next to people when I was really close to them and 'Oh crap!" as I try to run away and reposition. But I love being able to quickly sneak through stuff really fast. I think it's just a really fun one.
Singh: I also think Over-Prepared is probably my most used one Flaw. But the one that I think is really fun, especially for alternate playthroughs, is Foot-in-Mouth.
[Editor's Note: Foot-in-Mouth is gained by clicking through dialogue too quickly and causes dialogue choices to be selected randomly after a few seconds, but you gain more EXP.]
Because you're skipping through dialogue, now you have a timer on your conversations, and you have to pick things very quickly. Just because I think that's such a fun thing to like, 'Okay, how crazy is this going to get? How much is this going to affect my gameplay throughout the course of this RPG where I have to be making decisions?' It really forces you to think about things differently, which I think is fun whenever we have things where you really have to adapt the way you're tackling the game. It is pretty fun to do.
Adler: I cannot wait for the first time that somebody does a full playthrough where they let the Foot-in-Mouth pick for them and they end up kicking out their companions out of the party. I can't wait for it.
RPG Site: How do you like your coffee? Or if not coffee, what is your other beverage of choice?
Adler: I'm sorry, this has got to be Matt, actually. He is the resident coffee expert at Obsidian.
Singh: I don't know about an expert, but I do roast my own coffee at home (laughs), and then I process it, and then I... Usually in the morning, if I'm kind of doing a normal day, I'll do a V60 pour-over, black, and I could... If you want to go through all of the ratios and the flow rates that I go through, we could go through that. But if it's on the weekend and I want to take my time, I'll do either black espresso or a Cortado as well. Which again, we can go through the ratios on that, but I don't want to bore everybody.
[Editor's Note: While Matt is giving his answer, Adler mentions in the interview text chat that Matt is "underselling it". Obsidian Director of Communications Mikey Dowling also chimes in, jokingly, saying Matt is "insufferable" about his coffee.]
RPG Site: Thank you for your time.
Adler: I'm sorry, this has got to be Matt, actually. He is the resident coffee expert at Obsidian.
Singh: I don't know about an expert, but I do roast my own coffee at home (laughs), and then I process it, and then I... Usually in the morning, if I'm kind of doing a normal day, I'll do a V60 pour-over, black, and I could... If you want to go through all of the ratios and the flow rates that I go through, we could go through that. But if it's on the weekend and I want to take my time, I'll do either black espresso or a Cortado as well. Which again, we can go through the ratios on that, but I don't want to bore everybody.
[Editor's Note: While Matt is giving his answer, Adler mentions in the interview text chat that Matt is "underselling it". Obsidian Director of Communications Mikey Dowling also chimes in, jokingly, saying Matt is "insufferable" about his coffee.]
RPG Site: Thank you for your time.