Ex-Obsidian Kevin D. Saunders Joins inXile as Project Director

Thanks to a reply to an anonymous question on his Formspring account, we learn that Kevin Saunders, an industry veteran who among other things worked at Obsidian on Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions, has joined inXile permanently, and will be the project director on their next title:

Are you working at InXile now then?

Yes! I was contracting at inXile in November, but have recently joined full time as a project director. It’s great to be involved in RPGs again and I love the route inXile is taking making games directly for the players. It allows us to explore ideas and gameplay that many, including us, are passionate about, but that aren’t mainstream enough for the big publishers (with Wasteland 2 as an obvious example =) ).

I’ll be leading the development of the next game. The writers are finishing up their roles on WL2 and we want to keep that talented group together. Also, by the time WL2 is completed next fall, we’ll want preproduction done for the next game so that the development team can rollover to it (after a well-deserved break, of course!). You need different size teams at various points in a project, and having multiple projects in development is important to allow you to keep your team together. So it’s time to plan for what’s next!

It should be noted that it’s likely that inXile’s next title will be a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, with (likely significant) contributions from PnP Planescape buff and Torment designer Colin McComb, and set in another game universe (whether licensed or a totally original IP is up in the air at this point).