Josh Sawyer (Pentiment) on Art, History and What Will Be Remembered

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Josh Sawyer is a studio design director for Obsidian Entertainment. He has worked as the director on Pentiment, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and Fallout: New Vegas. His most recent title, Pentiment, has won numerous awards including the Nebula for best game writing and best narrative and game of the year at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

Pentiment is a historical narrative-driven game focusing on character development, heavily stylized art, and choice-driven storytelling in early 16th century Bavaria. Players will play as Andreas Maler, a clever illustrator caught up in a series of murders in Tassing and Kiersau Abbey over the course of twenty five years.

We talked to Josh about how Pentiment came to be, the ways in which Obsidian designed their dialogue choice system to make difficult decisions for the player, and the state of narrative-driven games today.