In a revealing interview with Bloomberg, Carrie Patel, the second game director of *Avowed*, provided insights into the tumultuous development journey that resulted in the abandonment of two years' worth of work. Initially, Obsidian Entertainment set out to create *Avowed* as a blend of *Destiny* and *Skyrim*, aiming to merge cooperative exploration in a vast open world with rich multiplayer features.
The excitement around the first teaser trailer released in 2020 belied the truth: the game was far from being finished. Mere months later, a bold decision was made to scrap the entire project and begin afresh. Now, the teaser trailer serves as a nostalgic reminder of an early prototype that no longer reflects the game's current direction.
After the reboot, Carrie Patel took the helm as game director and steered the project in a new direction. She moved away from the initial inspirations of *Skyrim* and *Destiny*, opting out of the open-world concept and multiplayer elements. Instead, Obsidian returned to its roots with a zone-based structure, focusing on delivering a captivating single-player narrative deeply entrenched in the *Pillars of Eternity* universe.
Restarting the project mid-development posed significant challenges, comparable to making a movie without a script. Teams worked relentlessly under uncertain circumstances as the leadership endeavored to forge a unified vision. Despite these obstacles, *Avowed* took another four years to develop before finally being released to the public.
