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Josh Sawyer

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Josh Sawyer
Born
Joshua Eric Sawyer

(1975-10-18) October 18, 1975 (age 49)[1]
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
NationalityAmerican
Alma materLawrence University
OccupationGame designer
EmployerObsidian Entertainment
Known forIcewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, Pentiment
ParentGerald P. Sawyer (father)

Joshua Eric Sawyer (born October 18, 1975), more commonly known and credited as Josh Sawyer, J.E. Sawyer, or JSawyer, is an American video game designer, known for his work on role-playing video games.

Early life and education

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Sawyer grew up in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and is the son of Linda Sawyer and sculptor Gerald P. Sawyer.[2] He is of German ancestry.[3]

Sawyer majored in history at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, after initially starting out as a voice student. Sawyer continued his involvement in theater and music, including directing a production of Assassins his junior year,[4] and minored in theatre.[5] He also began learning web design and Adobe Flash, which sparked his interest in joining the game industry out of college.[6]

Career

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Starting as a web designer at Black Isle Studios in 1999, Sawyer quickly worked his way up the ladder to an associate designer position and then lead designer on Icewind Dale II.[7][8] While at Black Isle he was known for coming up with the "Ex-Presidents" project naming system.[citation needed]

In November 2003, Sawyer announced his departure from Black Isle to pursue other projects. He had been working as lead designer of the eventually-canceled Fallout 3 (codenamed Van Buren) alongside Chris Avellone.[9] Interplay went on to close Black Isle two weeks after Sawyer's departure.[10]

On July 19, 2005, GameSpot reported that he had left Midway's Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, and was accepting a position at Obsidian Entertainment, a studio founded and staffed by many veterans of Black Isle. His first role was as the lead designer for Neverwinter Nights 2.[11]

He later acted as the project director and lead designer of Fallout: New Vegas. In December 2011 Sawyer publicly released a New Vegas mod designed for his own personal use adding a large variety of small tweaks to the game ranging from rebalancing the karma of certain characters to slowing down the level up speed.[12] As of November 2012, this mod has been updated to version 5.1.[13]

He also served as the project director and lead designer on the Aliens RPG.[14] Sega, the game's publisher, subsequently canceled the project, resulting in layoffs at Obsidian.[15] According to Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, the game - titled Aliens: Crucible[16] - "looked and felt like it was ready to ship".[17][18]

In 2012, with Obsidian on the brink of financial disaster after the cancellation of another project by a publisher, Sawyer proposed the company return to its design roots by making an isometric RPG in the style of those created at Black Isle. Arguing there was a market for this type of game among fans, Sawyer suggested turning to the platform Kickstarter to secure funding for development without a publisher. He succeeded in persuading company leadership, and the resulting game, Pillars of Eternity, met its Kickstarter funding goal of 1.1 million dollars in 27 hours. It ultimately raised nearly four million dollars, setting a Kickstarter record at the time.[19][20][21] Sawyer later served as director and narrative designer on its sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, which was also crowdfunded and released in 2018.[22]

Sawyer's next project was a departure from fantasy CRPG games. He pitched a smaller project that is more focused on history, inspired by tales about 16th century German artists like Albrecht Dürer.[23][24] The game is called Pentiment, and focuses on a murder mystery in 16th century Bavaria. The player takes control of the main character Andreas, a young artist working in a monastery.[25] The game was released on November 15, 2022, for Xbox, Xbox Game Pass and Windows platforms.[26]

Games

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Year Title Role
2000 Icewind Dale designer
2001 Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
2002 Icewind Dale II lead designer
2005 Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
2006 Neverwinter Nights 2
2010 Alpha Protocol designer
Fallout: New Vegas director, lead designer
Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money lead systems designer, narrative designer
2011 Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts project director, narrative designer
Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues lead systems designer, narrative designer
Fallout: New Vegas: Lonesome Road
Fallout: New Vegas: Gun Runners' Arsenal project director
2015 Pillars of Eternity director, lead designer, additional writing
2018 Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire director, narrative designer
2022 Pentiment game and narrative director

References

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  1. ^ "J.E. Sawyer". GiantBomb. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  2. ^ Daily Jefferson County Union. January 14th, 2011. Liedtke, Carolyn. "Sawyer sculpts success throughout Wisconsin". p. 3.
  3. ^ "J.E. Sawyer". Archived from the original on 2013-04-12.
  4. ^ "@jesawyer tweet, 2023-02-19".
  5. ^ "@jesawyer tweet, 2023-07-11".
  6. ^ Berthiaume, Ed (January 18, 2023). "Lawrence expertise fuels historical role-playing game that's drawing rave reviews". Lawrence University News Service.
  7. ^ Ooi, Will (September 25, 2011). "An Interview with JE Sawyer - game developer, biker, and cat lover". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  8. ^ (July 2005). "The Arcade Classic Is Back, and It'd Better Be Good", Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (94): 38.
  9. ^ Thorsen, Tor. "J.E. Sawyer bolts Black Isle". GameSpot. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  10. ^ Thorsen, Tor. "Interplay shuts down Black Isle Studios". GameSpot. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  11. ^ Thorsen, Tor. "J.E. Sawyer off Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows". GameSpot. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  12. ^ Kayatta, Mike (December 30, 2011). "Fallout: New Vegas Project Director Releases Personal Mod". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  13. ^ "JSawyer.esp - v5.1".
  14. ^ "SEGA Signs Obsidian Entertainment To Develop Alien Title For Next-generation Systems". Archived from the original on 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  15. ^ Faylor, Chris (25 February 2009). "Aliens RPG Cancelled, Says Ex-Obsidian Staffer". Shacknews. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  16. ^ "Here's What Obsidian's Cancelled RPG Aliens: Crucible Looked Like". GameSpy. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  17. ^ Purchese, Robert (20 February 2013). "Obsidian's canned Aliens RPG looks finished in new gameplay video". Eurogamer. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  18. ^ Purchese, Robert (29 April 2010). "Obsidian: Aliens RPG was "ready to ship"". Eurogamer. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  19. ^ Schreier, Jason (8 July 2015). "How Kickstarter Saved Obsidian". Kotaku. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  20. ^ Purchese, Robert (December 4, 2012). "Project Eternity crowd-funding ends, grand total now $4.3 million". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  21. ^ Purchese, Robert (December 10, 2012). "Obsidian renames Project Eternity, releases a proper video". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  22. ^ "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire". Fig. Obsidian Entertainment. January 26, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  23. ^ "Josh Sayers's Recommended Reading list for Pentiment". 10 November 2022.
  24. ^ "How Obsidian's Latest Game is Inspired By a Medieval Theory About God and Worms". 14 November 2022.
  25. ^ Krishna, Swapna. "Pentiment May Be the Best New Game You've Never Heard Of". Wired.
  26. ^ "Obsidian's old-timey Pentiment gets a November release date". 24 August 2022.
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