South Park: The Stick of Truth initially lacked funding at Obsidian

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Obsidian's uncannily accurate recreation of South Park's art, animations, and fart jokes in its upcoming Stick of Truth RPG first came into being without a budget. Kotaku 's lengthy profile of the storied studio revealed that CEO Feargus Urquhart and his team constructed early prototypes for show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker without financial support.

Urquhart initially stressed to the pair that any sort of South Park game should mirror the show's construction-paper style, saying to them, "Let's pretend we can do all the RPG stuff. We can handle that. If it doesn't look like the show, all of this is pointless."

So, Obsidian crafted working examples unpaid as a proof of its enthusiasm for making the crossover work. Stone and Parker immediately loved the results. "We took it in to Matt and Trey," Urquhart said. "And Trey just grabs the controller and he's like, 'This feels awesome!' And Matt runs up to the screen and he goes 'That's the construction paper!' And they were like, 'Let's do this.' And that was that."

The rest of the profile goes over Obsidian's shelved and successful projects and its rise from the ashes of Black Isle Studios. And if you feel a surreal sort of excitement over the fact the developer responsible for Fallout: New Vegas is working on a game involving sentient feces and a High Jew Elf class, we're right there with you.

Omri Petitte

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?