The Making of Pentiment - Noclip Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
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We travel to Obsidian Entertainment to talk to the small team behind this award winning historical role-playing game.
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Written & Produced by Danny O'Dwyer
Edited by Jeremy Jayne & Danny O'Dwyer
Filmed by Jeremy Jayne
Gameplay Capture Frank Howley
0:00 - Intro
2:48 - Project Origins
12:18 - Prototype
22:16 - Time & Setting
29:02 - Historical Costumery
33:12 - Protagonist Andreas
37:47 - Animation
45:17 - Reactivity & Gameplay
55:14 - Historical Challenges
59:38 - Typeface
1:05:46 - Marginalia
1:09:45.- The Final Act (SPOILERS)
1:13:23 - Launch & Reception
1:20:13 - Credits 
Игры
Despite 20 years of gaming, Pentiment immediately became one of my favorite games of all time, it's not just any title, it really leaves something in you, not only along the way but also and above all in the ending, where it triggers an infinite series of reflections, on history, the sources from which we learn about past events and what we decide to leave for posterity to tell an event, a story or our passage on Earth
I think it’s probably the best written game ever. Like there’s some competition with Disco Elysium and Pathologic 2 (and Fallout New Vegas and Planescape Torment to a lesser extent) but i think it takes the cake. It is just so incredibly thematically dense with themes on history, the power of language and writing, consequences, the passage of time, art and self expression, community, faith, and power. All these themes not only developed over the entire game but regularly intersected with each other to create an absolutely compelling game. The characters and town are so believable and memorable, and the ending reveal is probably one of the best executed plot twists I have ever seen. It brought back memories and feelings long gone for me in a way that most artistic works have not in a long time. It’s honestly mind blowing how great it is and how many people bounce off of it for not being interactive enough.
One of the few games I've genuinely shed tears at during the ending sequence.
@@nobodythisisstupid4888 screenshotted your comment to check those games out. Thanks for the recommendations. 🫂
Pentiment and Norco both grabbed me that year.
Eh, Pentiment is basically the Pillars of Eternity narrative in a different format. Just wish Sawyer had a broader understanding of the topic, though, to his credit, he does a commendable job anyway. He deffinitely should consider more diverse consultation if he ever wants to tackle the topic again in the future.
I played Pentiment for 20 hours and Baldur’s Gate 3 for 200 hours but Pentiment’s story and uniqueness has stuck in my brain for far longer and with greater emotional impact
As someone born and raised in Upper Bavaria, Germany, thank you so much for this game Mr Sawyer.
Ich komm aus Innsbruck. War einfach nur erstaunt und happy als die Stadt im Spiel erwähnt wurde.
It was crazy to see my tiny town FREISING in the game.
you are so gay lmao holy!
As someone born and raised in Northern Germany, thank you so much Mr Sawyer for making a game so great to make me stand the setting regardless
The game is a labor of love. Hannah and Josh faces are glowing while talking about it.
noclip doing tremendous work, always raising the bar. hats off to danny and the noclip crew!
Hats off you say, nice try.
I loved Pentiment, one of my favorite games of the past few years
Hearing them talk about the challenges, I totally understand why we dont have more historical RPGs, but this game was such a lovely experience it made me wish it was a larger subgenre, it's such an immersive way to learn history.
Tbf all games are tremendously challenging. The main argument of people don't make historical games, because people don't wanna play historical games, is just absurd. Kingdom come deliverance, for example, was an excellent game
This is why I love playing Medieval II Total War and Shogun 2 total war. I can just immerse myself in the historical eras and come up with stories for my countries and soldiers. It’s great!
But yeah this blew me away at how much Pentiment scratched that historical itch.
Cool to see such a unique, experimental game like Pentiment get made at a large studio like Obsidian. I hope they're able to keep sprinkling smaller projects like this into the development schedule.
Pentiment was the most impactful story I played in the past 5 years or so, seeing all the villagers grow up through time really makes even the most secondary characters meaningful to the player and made me bond with them. Growing up in Northern Italy I also saw some elements that reminded me of my hometown's medieval architecture, making me feel both at home and slightly on the edge.
Pentiment is a brilliant game that I would encourage everyone to at least *try*.
The way its characters exist, within the context of the created world and real world history, is nothing short of an achievement and it deserves an earnest look by everyone for this alone.
These characters feel like they exist for their own purposes and not just as some piece of content that the player interacts with. The historical context of its setting only deepens this feeling, as you could easily imagine normal folks living their lives this way at that point in time. And the game does this with nothing but charming visuals and dialogue that is steeped in humanity and realism.
Within my own life, I played this game when my newborn son was taking naps, and its themes of generational hope and conflict resonated with me and brought up feelings in a way that a video game had not done so before.
Thank you so much, NoClip, for taking a look at this game and the voices behind it, it means the world to those of us that really connected with this work of art.
My 2022 GOTY, and a Top 10 all-timer! A singular, inimitable experience. Video games rarely bring me to tears; I cried twice during my playthrough. Phenomenal writing, art direction and historical aesthetic. Full points to Mr. Sawyer and his small team for this masterwork. 🙏
Pentiment truly feels to me like the Golden Age of Graphic Adventure Games (from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s; afterward they first chased action adventure games in vain and then became and mostly remained mechanically barebones even in the Kickstarter-fueled renaissance of the 2010s) dialed up to 11, which is possibly the highest praise I can give. And great documentary, too. 👍
Well, Pentiment isn't mechanically heavy per se as well. As Josh argues, one of the inspirations was Nights In The Wood. That isn't a walking sim. But it isn't an experience full of condundrums and semi-open isle hopping/exploration a la Monkey Island 2 either.
But it's an interesting experience either way.
They always choose the best games that need those behind the scenes❤
I bought pentiment the day this was released, and waited to watch until I finished the game. It may have been one of my favorite games of the last few years. I fell in love with the characters and was so impressed with the art style that I completely forgot the entire story takes place entirely within a book.
I can’t explain what joy I feel when No clip uploads. Best channel ever.
I played and 100% finished Pentiment a couple of months ago. Loved it so much I had to order the physical edition immidiately. Amazing game, highly recommended!
Interesting to see the development of a game that’s essentially the platonic ideal of the subscription era of games.
Take an unbelievably talented group of people, let them make something experimental and small in scope, remove them from the pressures of a traditional publishing environment.
Makes me curious for what’s next out of Double Fine now Tim can focus on making games instead of making payroll!
I never clicked on a video so quickly. I'm going to savour this one though. One of my favorite games of all time. So many unique parts of the development to explore too. Very excited!
Pentiment is a game cater made for me. An historical setting rendered in a stylised way that felt both expressive and authentic, but also telling a achingly human story. One that deals with the human conidition in the immediacey: Love, regrets, hatred, spirituality, rebellion and conformity. But it also ties those aspects into the historical medium it was built from, about how society progresses, and forgets. About how tradition and progress, with all it's ebbs and flows, are always at odds, and how they are never wholly good or bad perspectives. It tells this incredibly ambitous narrative so well, not just because of it's lofty narrative goals, but telling it through the lense of a gorgeously localised story. Sure Josh talks about some of the historical liberties that the story took, but it's because of those slight leaps that creates an incredible historical fiction that not only tells a story via history, but echoes through it, all the way from the illuminated manuscripts made almost a thousand years ago, right through our screens, and what a privelege it is to experience it. What a game, and what a video highlighting the human effort to accomplish it. I hope it is remembered fondly.
This has been my favorite game in years. So glad to see you guys are doing a documentary on it.
I just finished Pentiment on my Steam Deck OLED 2 days ago! I loved it. I love basically everything Sawyer does. New Vegas, Pillars 1 and 2, Pentiment, etc.
No Icewind Dale? :/
@@snakeplissken111 Haven't played it. is it still worth playing? Does it work well on a windows 11 machine?
YES thank you!! I haven't watched yet but I absolutely loved Pentiment and I want it to get as much air time as possible.
I'm super glad that this unique game exist 😊
Pentiment is definitely one of my favorite games. Watching Andreas's hat travel from him to Anna and then to her daughter was priceless =) It is because of such pleasant little things that I, as a player, get attached to the characters
Omg yes! Just burned through and got the plat on PS5. This game is amazing.
I wish in bigger studios people were more oftenly allowed to sit down an be like: "Wouldn't it be great to have a game about..."
Rather than having market research, (low) risk management and focus groups dictating what's getting made next. Thankfully, ever since the explosion of digital distribution and the like, there's always gonna be the indies. But it's always interesting what people at major studios can do if they are allowed to do what they actually genuinelly WANT to do.
PS: I'm an avid RPG fan. But for the life of me I can't fathom how nobody is ever getting sick of elves, PipBoys and Cyberpunks by now for realz.
Pentiment is one of my all-time favorites. So grateful for this labor of love.
Been a gamer for 30+ years, Pentiment is easily one of the best games I've played!
Pentiment is such an amazing game, easily one of the best games I've ever played. I enjoyed every second of it. I just wish we had more games like this. Thank you for making such a beautiful documentary and thanks to the wonderful devs ❤.
There's much of the old 80's-90's historical stuff to find on GoG and abandonware sites. If you can get them to run. Most of the grounded educational/scientific stuff gets buried in pop culture history, though, even if it was popular.
I will share this with my gamedev students.
Imagine my surprise this weekend when almost by accident I download this game, and what an experience. I’m 34 years old, an anthropologist, and I love history. Without a doubt, a sublime experience, an interactive book that deeply resonated with me. I will think about the game for a long time.
I live in suburb of Paris and fell in love with Alps suroundings, bavaria austria, slovenia etc... this game captures so well the ambiance of this region and by extension I guess, era. this is such a particular game that fullfill perfectcly my hungry of non combat focused rpg game. thanks Obsidian for bringing this game to life, thanks Noclip for that superbe documentary
Pentiment to me was one of the first games in a long time to truly feel special. Absolutely loved it.
thank you for this. Pentiment is one of the most unique narrative experiences I've ever had and i loved every brushstroke of it!
One of my favorite games of all time. Thanks for making a doc on this!
I loved this game found it randomly on game pass. Binged it all in like two sittings sooo good, got everyone I knew to play it
I immediately purchased Pentiment after listening to your GOTY podcast. So glad I did. Insightful documentary on a great work of story telling.
One of the best games of the last decade, a truly unique title. I'm sad we don't get more of these titles. Also a great video that kept it interesting and to the point throughout the entire runtime. Thank you.
I played Pentiment for the first time a couple days ago and thought to myself "I really wish there was Noclip-quality documentary about its creation." And what do I find right at the top of my subscription feed? Most excellent.
This game changed me as a person. It's so well made I keep thinking about even a year after finishing it
I am really glad that in this day and age of extremely overproduced AAA games we sometimes get a shining example that games don't have to be massive and sprawling. In fact games like Pentiment remind us that more often than not less is more.
Playing it last year, Pentiment instantly became one of my favourite role-playing games and one of the most emotionally resonant gaming experiences I've ever had. I really hope its positive reception will prompt Obsidian, or even other studios, to continue pushing the boundary of role-playing game settings, stories and themes.
One of the most unique games I have ever played. The writing, music and art are all outstanding. The characters actually feel like real people and not weird npc automatons. Also, The Name of the Rose mentioned! Well done Josh, you've done it again.
Thank you for doing a Video on Pentiment! Loved it, so glad Josh and his team finally got to make a game like this :)
Thank you for making this documentary Noclip! I stopped before the Act 3 spoiler section, bought the game, and binged it this week. What an excellent game I nearly missed out on.
I'm so glad your channel exists and has existed for this long. The work/effort you guys put in your videos is always phenomenal and it's the kind of stuff that makes me love video games even more. Pentiment was by far one of my favorite games of 2023 and of the last decade, it had been a while since I cared this deeply about fictional characters, their everyday life and their fate. A masterpiece.
Pentiment was so good. I'd love to see Josh Sawyer make a Kingdom Come Deliverance type game.
This was one of my top games in 2022, Obsidian are the goats. Great documentary as always.
Finally! So excited for this doc!
i'm sure you folks were pressed for time but i wish there was a section for the music which was also relatively period accurate with a lot of old instruments
thanks so much for this doc. incredible work
This game tickled my history brain-side and I loved every second of it. Had me picking up history books and documentaries on the HRE, Bavaria and the Reformation.
Although Pentiment is not a game I think everyone would enjoy, I want so many people to play it. It's such a special piece of art. Amazing job on this as always.
Excellent work again Noclip! They sound like such a fun team to work in. Really glad they received the recognition they deserved
I don't think I fully appreciated when playing Pentiment just how much dedication they put into the historical details and settings - down to the small detail of character walk animations being toe first! Sure, anyone can see they did their research, and that Mr Sawyer has a passion for this particular period, but it's those little things that take it to the next level! This excellent doc has certainly made me want to revisit Pentiment just to appreciate it even more as a very unique game.
This video and it’s final spoiler warning had me turn off the TV and go finish my save from launch. Thank you for presenting the content as spoiler-free as possible. I’m happy I went back.
My GOTY for 2022, no games have a sense of place and culture like the ones Josh Sawyer has a hand in. Can't wait for this
This reminds me HARD of Mind-Maze in Encarta!!!
Gonna have to check this out just for the nostalgia factor even though this isn't anywhere near the same.
What an awesome game. Stuff like this enriches our medium so much. Josh and Obsidian did it again
I love Pentiment. It was one of the most enjoyable and memorable games of the past years for me. It certainly is on my personal "all time greats" list.
Thank you Josh, Danny and everyone else involved in these projects on both sides. Superb game, superb documentary.
Brilliant game! Bought it on release, played a little, never finished though. It's like a good book. You have to be in the mood.
Best game I have played on my series S, I couldn't put it down once I started it, the period music, art style, quill scratching parchment took me to that time and place. Great to see behind the scenes and meet the amazing team that made this gem of a game.
Pentiment was fantastic. And the jokes and mystery utilized tge fact that ots a text adventure exceedingly well
The team that worked on this game from the animators to the artists are so talented!
I think Kingdome Come: Deliverance is the only other truly historical RPG I've seen. It's not an easy genre to get right.
Thank you for working on this documentary! I have finished the game a week ago and this video came out at the perfect time! This is one of the games that would stay in my head for a really long time. Shoutout to the amazing artists and creators of this game that believed this would be possible!
The art style of this game is absolutely wonderfully done. It's been a true inspiration to me and opened my mind to a totally new 2D style for games. I hope that there will be others out there that are also inspired in such a way.
Thank you for this masterpiece.
Two new games added to my library & a polished documentary
Noclip, thank you 🙏🏻
Playing Pentiment and reading Name of the rose simultaneously was a fantastic experience, this game is wonderful and a real gem.
So glad u guys made this, the game was so unique and it deserves much more recognition
I've never seen a game so committed to a place and period in history. Pentiment was a delight and a triumph ! I hope it can inspire more historical, or at least history inspired, games with as much care and thoughtfulness towards its setting and characters. In any case, it's a very special game and Noclip never disappoints
Wow, this was lovely. Pentiment is such a magical game, and I am happy that Josh finally got to do it.
Love the videos! Looking forward to your next one already. This is a great thing to run in the background while doing more busy work (and invariably get distracted with and take frequent breaks to watch it more closely).
So, I played Pentiment, and despite all the respect that I have for the game and the project, I did not have a great time. And yet, since then, the game has been living rent free in my head. I can't stop thinking about the game, not necessarily its themes and messages, but the dedication and commitment to bring life to such a peculiar setting. This comment is not about hating on the game, I think I just need to write this down as I felt so isolated in my experience and conclusions. What did not work for me kind of eludes me, and I have been waiting for the motivation to get back to the game and try to enjoy it on a second playthrough. I think the murder mystery did not really work for me, and hearing about Josh's take on the reactivity of the game makes me want to give it a second go, as I did not feel for a second that I had any chance to make any progress in the investigation, and that my eclectic choices led to consequences and possibilities that felt completely forced. Secondly, and that is my problem, I think gamepass, as it does for most games, got me anxious and a bit rushy in the way I played. I subsequently plan to buy the game and play it at my own pace.
Thanks Noclip for such a cool doc and congratulations on the team that made the game, we absolutely need more games like this. I'm not mad at anybody but me for not enjoying the game more.
I am so pleased that this game exists. It is in the period i studied for my A-levels and is fascinating.
I didn’t expect to love this game as much as I did.
One of the best games that I played in years. It has a very heart-touching story. And the art direction is so good! Thanks for making it (to Obsidian devs) and thanks for creating a movie about it (to Noclip).
A lot of the philosophy here reminds me of Studio MDHR. They talk about how when making Cuphead they tried to imagine what a video game in the 20s might have looked like, down to crackle in the audio and flickering old film effects. The attention to little details like the mistakes in script are what truly sell it to the time period and I commend the devs for taking such care with this game.
Josh Sawyer will always the coolest dude and most interesting person in the game‘s industry.
Also, thank you for releasing this game for PS. I was quite sad when first it was only published for Xbox / PC.
Thank you for this! It was so interesting to learn the development process, and how other games, movies, and books influenced Pentiment. (Aside from Josh's reading list!) This was a game where the characters and place truly felt alive and vivid, and it was exciting to see how they changed over time.
One of the most interesting games of recent times! It was a blast to play and uncover the characters and story.
Pentiment is a true gem of a game. I wish more games like this were made nowadays. And by that I don't mean the format of the game necessarily but the quality, passion and vision behind it.
I have never heard of this game! I will definitely look it up. Looks awesome. Thanks.
Absolutely adore this game. Truly a gem, wish more people would play it! I hope Sawyer makes another one.
Fantastic documentary work!
Played the game recently and was really glad to know way more about it
I was just looking at your upload history this morning and thought it was about time another doc showed up. This was great.
Pentiment was one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had. I would love to see more games made in a similar style and with a similar depth of research and clear passion for their time period.
I loved this documentary. It makes us know a new gem to discover and play… and most of all, enjoy. If it is as good as the documentary itself, I have no worry.
I absolutely loved this game shout out to Josh & the team for another amazing experience, it’s Obsidian & teams like yours that make the Xbox platform special ❤️❤️❤️
Crazy timing on this, i just bought Pentiment on sale the other day for Switch. Was going to start playing it tonight after Shogun ha
Another amazing work from Danny , I loved Pentiment and all original elements it has, happy to see the in's and out's of it.
Thank you for doing this No Clip you're all awesome!
Awesome! Love the game, it's great to see a 'making of' doc here on Noclip. You're doing a fantastic job!
This game was such an adventure. As an avid history fan I enjoyed the setting at what happened. I also enjoyed the characters and the melancholy hanging over Tassing. As best as you could try to improve it
Omg the clip at 1:28! The character portraits are dictators! Probably accidental clip, but that knocked me out :D
I absolutely loved the game and have purchased it through Limited Run. It's one if the best things to come put if Game Pass since MS purchased Obsidian.
This was excellent, one of your best yet.
I'm really interested in the era of history that Pentiment is set in, and I really, really enjoyed it. It's not just a game, but a very solid piece of well-researched historical fiction. You can tell that Sawyer and the team had immersed themselves in the history, art and literature they were portraying. The decision to set the game over a long time period was a brilliant one, as it allows them to show how all the characters lives are affected by the broad historical trends affecting their world, the chaotic side effects of decisions you make as a player, and even the interactions between the two.
The moment that stands out the most to me isn't even a character driven one. It's from near the beginning of act 3. Up until that point, the games has used the liturgical hours the monastery uses to mark prayers to represent its in-game clock, but the monastery's power was broken at the end of act 2 and suddenly they're replaced with the mechanical clock on the Rathaus. It's just such an elegant way of portraying two simultaneous historical trends affecting people who lived through the time period. Firstly, rapid technological innovation as a result of the rapid spread of knowledge allowed by the booming literacy rates the advent of printing had enabled a few generations before. Secondly the transfer of power from ecclesiastical to secular authorities that happened as a result of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
Those are pretty niche historical topics that few people are even interested in, and that one simple change in the game between acts conveys them in a way that even people who don't know very little about 16th century history will just instinctively understand. You don't need to know about Johannes Gutenberg or John Calvin to get that the old ways represented by the Abbot are out and new, more modern ways are in. It's a genius moment that condenses a whole history lesson into a few seconds.
A wonderful piece about one of my new favorite games! It was so nice to learn about the art direction and themes in the storytelling (my fave bits in the experience!)
Josh Sawyer is such a legend not just for the games he does but because he just feel like a genuine nice and interesting person to talk about anything.
His streams are great not because of what he is streaming but the his thoughts and interesting conversation around and he is insanely funny. The amount of shit I have steal over the time I have been following him in Twitter because I just made me laugh.
So yeah I hope Obsidian continues to do what they believe and have oassion about it.