We expanded them by allowing players' relationships with their companions to change based upon the their decisions as the game progresses. Another powerful trait was the player character alignment system, the players' ability to earn lightor dark-side points for many of their actions.īoth of these elements were emphasized in KOTOR II. Their elaborate histories, personalities, and roles in the story were frequently praised as great features of the first game. One of the most successful elements of the original KOTOR was its treatment of non-player character party members (companions). The best example of expanding upon BioWare's strong game design is the influence system that Obsidian developed for KOTOR II. Most of the production phase of the project involved considerable overtime however, employees were driven to work any extra hours not due to management, but due to their dedication to making a great game. LucasArts provided all quality assurance, audio (sound, music, and voice), rendered cinematics, and also assisted in art asset creation. BioWare provided the engine and toolset from KOTOR, which was the used as the foundation for KOTOR II. The leads guided the development process, but gave considerable ownership to team members. KOTOR II had dedicated producers on both the developer and publisher side, and all the members reported to one of three leads in art, programming, or design. About one third of the team was hired within the last six months of the project, including 70 percent of the design staff. About half of the team worked together at Black Isle Studios, while other members came from companies such as Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Activision. This project was Obsidian's first, though most members of the 33-person development team had several years of game development experience. Almost without exception, every game design enhancement to KOTOR II was a natural extension from the original game, not a redesign. Instead, we identified areas of KOTOR that we could expand upon to create a better experience in a flavor similar to that of the first game. In tackling this project, we decided to build upon the proven success of the first game's design and were careful to not fix aspects of the game that had already proved their worth. The challenge for Obsidian was to attain the high expectations of such a game's sequel, while adhering to an ambitious development schedule. Upon release, the original was met by both industry acclaim and consumer praise. The below postmortem, which is studded with images pulled from various versions of the game, was written by Kevin Saunders (then a senior designer at Obsidian) when it first appeared in the April 2005 issue of Game Developer Magazine.Īlthough the original Knights of the Old Republic ( KOTOR) was developed by BioWare, Obsidian Entertainment developed the sequel to the LucasArts game, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords ( KOTOR II). Since then it's earned a reputation as one of the most ambitious and morally complicated Star Wars games ever made, and so to celebrate its 13th birthday we've gone ahead and republished Obsidian's postmortem look at how it was made.
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