Avellone: Kickstarter has reignited publisher interest in RPGs

Publishers are starting to believe in RPGs again thanks to the success of Kickstarter projects, according to Obsidian's Chris Avellone.

Avellone, best known as project leader on Planescape: Torment, mentioned the renewed interest in a talk at Rezzed, as reported by StrategyInformer.

"These Kickstarters for RPGs have been really successful, they have garnered more backer support and more funding than many had thought, and we have noticed that publishers have paid attention to that and they are aware of the success these projects have had," he said.

"We have actually had companies reach out to us and go 'you know what, for that price point, which is a much smaller risk than a lot of our AAA titles where there's a lot more at stake, that's much less risk for us and we wouldn't mind exploring the idea of doing old-school RPGs that are set up like this.'

"That totally floors me, I did not realise there would be that sort of sea change from publishers, but apparently there are a number of publishers that realise that doing an Eternity-style game is a good fit for them, and I am thankful for that."

Avellone has a long list of credits on classic RPGs but is also involve din several new ones backed by crowdfunding - Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera and Project Eternity.

Obsidian and related developers like inXile have been quite open about the fact that they'd been unable to secure publisher funding for smaller projects and clasic RPGs prior to the Double Fine-led Kickstarter revolution.

Thanks, games.on.net.