"We focused on the Edicts as the driving elements for the quests in the areas of our game," says MacLean, "and put a great deal of thought into the factions of the game, how they'd factor into the different solutions, and how we could create a matrix of different interactions (such as this faction would want an Edict broken, another would want it kept in place, another may not care but wants some other thing accomplished).
"We aimed to tell a story that had enough conflict to keep you going forward, enough choice in how it plays out, and enough so that you could see a different experience if you played it from the other side."
Throughout this process, MacLean constantly drew on his previous experiences with Obsidian, as well as inspirations from real-life and a variety of fantasy genres.
"At the risk of being overly self-referential," he explains, "I think Fallout: New Vegas was our single biggest inspiration. We knew we wanted that sort of mixed reputation system, a world more or less already ravaged by human brutality, and quests that feature you making bad situations maybe better, or maybe much worse. The game is real time with pause, not a first person shooter, and it's fantasy, not sci-fi, but at its core, despite these technical differences, the soul of Tyranny draws heavily from our work on New Vegas.
"Most of my inspiration comes primarily from real life - I could mine human history for evil ideas literally forever - more acts of evil and deceit are created in one day than we can put in a game that takes years to make. Games are probably the second most influential source for me. I'm not much of a reader and can usually only tolerate fantasy literature if it's interactive. I have a big place in my heart for the non-digital games in my life and draw a lot of inspiration from them: Warhammer (both the RPG and the game with man-Barbies), Ars Magica (and its successor Mage: The Ascension), Earthdawn, GURPS, and Paranoia all feel forever loaded into my brain's RAM.
