Project Eternity - Obsidian hopes the game is "the first in a series of installments"

Project Eternity is "just the first in a series of installments," if Obsidian's Chris Avellone and the rest of the team have their way.

Speaking with GI International, Avellone said the first game is "only one moderately sized nation in a much, much, much bigger world," where there's more than ample room for other games in the universe.

"Our hope with Eternity is that it's just the first in a series of installments, and then obviously we want to do the full expansion packs, and then extra content, just because we know we really enjoyed doing that for Fallout: New Vegas," he said. "We'd want to continue adding new content to the world. The first game is only one moderately sized nation in a much, much, much bigger world where a lot of other things are going on. There's plenty more room for games in that universe and that's what we'd like to do.

"It's kind of nice because not all of that has to be done in the games; we can go out and look for graphic novel tie-ins and novel tie-ins and stuff. It is kind of cool to be able to pursue that on our own without having to go through a publisher, or accept the fact that whatever franchise we're with already has the avenues all covered. It's such a nice feeling."

Avellone also said companion mechanics in Project Eternity will be "a little bit more subtle," as there's a whole spectrum of interactions and personality traits available in character development than just 'go romance this person' or "evil is always psychotic."

"I'd like to think that there are other types of relationships that you can have with a companion, whether it's friendship, rivalry, hatred, or revenge," he said. "Romances end up being an easy target, but I think there's a lot more you can do with companion relationships. Also, I think a lot of games have fallen into the hole of the evil choice is always a psychotic option. There's a whole spectrum of other stuff you can do in conversation that I'm looking forward to doing. Sometimes depending on the franchise it does make sense that you have these really extreme morality bars, because that's the nature of the franchise.

"With this world I think it's going to be a little bit more subtle. The whole premise of the lore and the magic system is that souls get inherited, and then when you pass away the souls wait for a time and then come back to another body. The question is how much of your own behavior is being governed by your own free will or the influence of the soul inside you and all of its history? I think that can raise some interesting questions for both the player character and the companions."

Project Eternity is largely in the pre-production phase, and surpassed its $1.1 million goal with 73,986 backers tossing $3,986,929 at the project.