The most exciting piece of vaguely Obsidian-related news that broke this week was probably the revelation that Brian Fargo had secured the rights to the Torment IP, and that various former Black Isle developers now employed at inXile Entertainment might just be working on a spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment. Could a Torment title work without the Planescape setting? Probably, although Chris Avellone’s absence from the project will probably be felt in some way.

Speaking of inXile, they released another Wasteland 2 update recently, in which attributes and skills got some focus. More recently, they announced a new initiative that takes crowdsourcing to a whole new level. Sure, it’s one thing to ask the online community to finance Wasteland 2 out of their own pockets…but asking fans to submit 3D models, which inXile will gladly pay for in turn? It’s just crazy enough to work.

Right, now let’s actually talk about Obsidian.

Polygon spotted something I had missed in reporting on Gamasutra’s interview with Chris Avellone recently, namely his discussion of how Double Fine’s famous Kickstarter campaign ultimately inspired Project Eternity’s record-setting crowdfunding drive. Avellone was also interviewed by Curse Entertainment about Eternity, and Josh Sawyer sat down with Iron Tower Studio to talk about the game last week as well. Be sure to check that one out, especially for Sawyer’s rather frank opinions about the uselessness of a speech “skill” in a game and his preference to let the player’s dialogue choices determine speech-related outcomes.

Sawyer also talked, on YouTube, about the process of developing characters and locations in Fallout: New Vegas.

Also, check out Rob Nesler’s update to the Project Eternity Kickstarter page, in which various art concepts get shown off. Just…don’t complain about them, or Nesler might come after you.