Joshua "Josh" Sawyer is a video game designer active in the role playing game genre. Sawyer was the lead designer of Van Buren until November 2003. At Obsidian Entertainment, he was the lead designer and project director of Fallout: New Vegas.
Biography[edit]
Sawyer was born and grew up in Wisconsin. He graduated from Lawrence University with a Bachelors in history with a minor in theatre in 1998.[Dev 2][Ext 1]
His father is Gerald P. Sawyer, an American artist most well known for the Bronze Fonz.[Ext 2]
Career[edit]
On the back of web design he did during college, Sawyer started working on the Interplay Entertainment web team. Eventually Feargus Urquhart allowed him to work part-time as a junior designer on Icewind Dale,[Dev 2] eventually working as a lead designer on the cancelled Project Jefferson (Baldur's Gate III) and Icewind Dale II.[Dev 3]
After Chris Avellone left the project, Sawyer took over as the lead designer for Van Buren, but left the project and Black Isle on November 11, 2003.[Ext 3][Dev 3] Burnout and a loss in confidence in Van Buren were key considerations for the decision; Sawyer said: "It's happened enough to me recently that I lost faith. I couldn't devote any more of myself to something that I believed was doomed."[Dev 4]
He moved onto Midway to work on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, but departed July 15, 2005, to join Obsidian Entertainment to work on Neverwinter Nights II.[Ext 4] He worked on several projects at Obsidian, including Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout Series[edit]
Sawyer worked on Van Buren and Fallout: New Vegas.
- Van Buren
For Van Buren, Sawyer was originally the lead system designer prior to being promoted to lead designer after Avellone left the project.[Dev 5] He wrote the New Canaan and Burham Springs design documents, and took the large amount of material Avellone left, and tried to narrow the focus of the project.[Dev 6] Additionally, an early design for vehicles was written by Sawyer, but it was changed after he left.[Dev 7]
- Fallout New Vegas
For Fallout: New Vegas, Sawyer is credited as the Project Director.[1] He wrote and performed several songs for the game: "Cobwebs and Rainbows," "Home on the Wastes," "New Vegas Valley," and "Streets of New Reno." Sawyer was the system designer for the base game, and directed both Honest Hearts and Gun Runners' Arsenal.
He also wrote various characters such as Joshua Graham. Arcade Gannon, Chief Hanlon, and Daniel, amongst others.[Dev 8][Dev 9] He also tuned every weapon, and had to re-tune all of the automatic weapons because they felt unsatisfying to use. He used TestJoshWeapons and a spreadsheet to try to balance the weapons and ensure that there were weapons at each tier for certain concepts, such as having a "Cowboy" or "Military Style" weapon available at each tier.[Ext 1] Jason Fader credits him with balancing all creatures in the game,[Dev 10] as well as balancing Deathclaws to be as tough as they are in game.[Dev 11]
Other[edit]
Sawyer is also included in the "Special Thanks" section of the All Roads graphic novel.[2]
On December 29, 2011, Sawyer released his personal mod, JSawyer, on his blogspot Diogenes Lamp. The mod fixed some major oversights made by the developers with statistics such as karma values and what weapons certain perks effect as well as making Fallout: New Vegas, in general, harder. This inspired various JSawyer derivatives and forks such as JSawyer Ultimate Edition and Vigor.
In 2004, Sawyer created an unofficial pen and paper role-playing game based on Fallout.
Employment History[edit]
| From | To | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 1999 | November 2003 | Black Isle Studios | Lead Designer |
| November 2003 | July 2005 | Midway Home Entertainment | Lead Designer |
| July 2005 | Present | Obsidian Entertainment | Design Director |
Credits[edit]
Fallout Series[edit]
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 |  Van Buren | Lead Designer |
| 2010 |  Fallout: New Vegas | Lead Designer Project Director Additional songs |
| 2010 |  Dead Money | Weapon Design |
| 2011 |  Honest Hearts | Project Director |
| 2011 |  Old World Blues | Weapon Design |
| 2011 |  Lonesome Road | Weapon Design |
| 2011 |  Gun Runners' Arsenal | Project Director |
Other Work[edit]
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Planescape: Torment | Web Master |
| 2000 | Icewind Dale | Designer |
| 2002 | Icewind Dale II | Lead Designer |
| 2004 |  J.E. Sawyer's Fallout RPG | Creator |
| 2006 | Neverwinter Nights 2 | Design Lead |
| 2007 | Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer | Additional Design |
| 2010 | Alpha Protocol | Additional Design |
| 2015 | Pillars of Eternity | Lead Designer Project Director |
| 2015 | Pillars of Eternity: The White March | Lead Designer Project Director |
| 2018 | Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire | Project Director |
| 2019 | The Outer Worlds | Design Director |
| 2022 | Pentiment | Director |
Interviews[edit]
The following is a list of interviews conducted with Sawyer:
Articles[edit]
The following is a list of blog posts, presentations and articles posted by Sawyer:
Other Fallout-related articles found on his blog: Diogene's Lamp:
Notes[edit]
Joshua Sawyer's online usernames include J.E. Sawyer or JESawyer, as well as rope kid, Orpheus, or baby goat.[3]
Behind the Scenes[edit]
- While at Black Isle Studios, Sawyer mentioned that he would like to make a Fallout: Resource Wars spin-off.[Ext 5]
- Sawyer often listened to Moya while writing for New Vegas.[Ext 6]
- Sawyer met some of the celebrity voice actors in Fallout: New Vegas, including Zachary Levi, Matthew Perry, and Kris Kristofferson, as well as Felicia Day (though only briefly).[Ext 7]
Gallery[edit]
Sawyer in 2010
Image used in his Fallout Developer Profile
Videos[edit]
|
Pillars of Eternity, Fallout New Vegas, Divinity Original Sin with Josh Sawyer |
Process for Developing Locations and Characters in Fallout New Vegas |
Josh Sawyer on Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights |
|
Josh Sawyer on Fallout New Vegas |
Reputation Overload The Evolution of RPG Reputation Mechanics |
Josh Sawyer Twitch Charity Stream - Fallout New Vegas Part 2 |
References[edit]
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Credits
- ↑ All Roads Special Thanks
- ↑ Are you secretly Treyster or Gabriel on the Bethesda Fallout forums? They seem akin to your talking style/view points.
Joshua Sawyer: "I'm not secretly anyone. Online, I usually J.E. Sawyer or JESawyer as my username, but occasionally rope kid, Orpheus, or baby goat."
(Joshua Sawyer on Formspring)(Wayback Machine on Joshua Sawyer's Formspring)
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements/Miscellaneous#Joshua_Sawyer: Designing Video Games
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fallout Developers Profile - Joshua Sawyer
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Unmasking the Gamers: Joshua Sawyer
- ↑ Van Buren Developer Statements - Miscellaneous; Joshua Sawyer: Why Sawyer Left Black Isle, 2003 December 13
- ↑ Unmasking the Gamers: Joshua Sawyer
- ↑ Van Buren Developer Statements - Quests; Joshua Sawyer: His Work on Van Buren's Main Story, 2004 May 1
- ↑ Van Buren Developer Statements - Miscellaneous; Joshua Sawyer: Semi-Trailer, 2004 August 4
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements - Miscellaneous; Joshua Sawyer: Game Credits, 2017 January 9
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements - Miscellaneous; Joshua Sawyer: Joshua Sawyer: Writing, Design, and Credits, 2022 December 17
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements - Creatures and enemies; Jason Fader: Joshua Sawyer's Creature Balancing Credit, 2012 July 21
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements - Old World Blues; Jason Fader: Old World Blues Inspiration and Deathclaw Credit, 2012 July 20
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Evolution of RPG Mechanics: From Die Rolls to Hit Volumes by Joshua Sawyer
- ↑ Sawyer on Bluesky
- ↑ J.E. Sawyer bolts Black Isle
- ↑ J.E. Sawyer off Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
- ↑ RPGDot interview with J.E. Sawyer: RPGDot: If you could do any game, regardless of money and developing time, what would it be?
J.E. Sawyer: "An adventure game based off of Norton Juster's Phantom Tollbooth children's book. I'd also like to make a rules-light Delta Green RPG, a light-future Earth adventure/RPG with strong art deco and art nouveau visual themes, and a pre-Fallout "Resource Wars" game set in collapsing Europe (during the U.K.'s invasions of the Middle East)." - ↑ Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas 10th Anniversary Charity Stream (reference starts at 4:51:20)
Joshua Sawyer: "'Did I get to meet any of the celebrity guest voice actors?' Yeah, I got to meet... uh, Zach Levi, I got to meet Matthew Perry, I got to meet Kris Kristofferson. I think maybe that was about it? I didn't meet Michael Dorn. I think I may have briefly met Felicia Day at the Fallout: New Vegas party, like the launch party in Vegas, but not for any extensive period of time."