In a candid interview with Bloomberg, Carrie Patel, the second game director of Avowed, provided insights into the tumultuous development journey that saw two years of work being discarded. Initially, Obsidian Entertainment set out to create Avowed as a unique blend of Destiny and Skyrim, envisioning a vast open world ripe for cooperative exploration and multiplayer engagement.
The excitement surrounding the first teaser trailer released in 2020 was palpable among fans, yet it concealed the truth: the game was far from finished. Mere months after the trailer's debut, the decision was made to completely overhaul the project, rendering the teaser a mere memento of an unreleased prototype that would never see the light of day.
With the reboot, Carrie Patel took the helm as game director and steered Avowed in a new direction. She moved away from the original inspirations of Skyrim and Destiny, opting out of the open-world and multiplayer components. Instead, Obsidian leaned into their expertise with a zone-based structure, concentrating on delivering a rich single-player narrative deeply intertwined with the lore of Pillars of Eternity.
The decision to restart mid-development presented significant challenges, likened by Patel to filming a movie without a script. The development teams faced ongoing uncertainties as the leadership worked to forge a unified vision. Despite these obstacles, it took another four years of dedicated effort before Avowed was ready for release.
