Obsidian developer plays a really long RPG for $4 million

Game Designer Chris Avellone makes good on Kickstarter stretch goal

What initially seemed like a joke just became real: Obsidian’s Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment, Fallout: New Vegas) is playing through the entirety of lengthy RPG Arcanum and posting videos of it on YouTube, as promised by his Project Eternity‘s $4M stretch goal on Kickstarter.

The stretch goal in full reads:

OK! After much team deliberation we have one final ultimate stretch goal. At $4.0m we will be enhancing the whole game. We will use live instrumentation for the soundtrack, add developer in-game commentary, and use every dollar between $3.5m and $4m to enhance the game. Also at $4.0m Chris Avellone will be forced to play Arcanum.

Arcanum (full title Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura) is a 25-to-40 hour game depending on how many sidequests the player embarks on. Developed by Troika Games in 2001, Arcanum is an underrated RPG that will please fans of Fallout (many key members worked on it) and Planescape: Torment, which is probably why Avellone picked it.

Avellone’s Let’s Play of Arcanum can be found on Obsidian’s YouTube channel. I suspect uploads will be infrequent if Avellone is to develop an actual game, in the meantime.

Now, if only someone would pay me $4 million to play a long RPG I’ve been procrastinating on playing for years. To Kickstarter!

_{[Image courtesy of Obsolete Gamer]}