Yesterday, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was announced. Today, it has been fully funded, reaching its $1.1 million goal on Fig in less than a day—22 hours and 57 minutes, to be precise. To mark the moment, Obsidian has released a new teaser to remind people that while it's great that the funding goal was reached so quickly, sometimes dreams don't work out quite so well. 

"We have the best fans in the world," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhard said in a statement. "Our fans were responsible for the original game’s critical and financial success, and we are looking forward to doing it all over again with them for the sequel." 

The funding total at this moment stands at a little shy of $1.14 million, nearly half of which—$526,000—comes from investments rather than reward backers. That struck me as kind of odd at first, as I had assumed (without putting much thought into it, I admit) that conventional backers would be the primary source of crowdfunding for videogames. But in fact it appears to be the norm: Wasteland 3, Consortium: The Tower, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, and even smaller projects like Trackless and Make Sail, all drew in more investment funding than reward pledges. (Psychonauts 2, for some reason, is the exception, but even it's almost a flat 50-50.)

Not that it really matters from the perspective of someone who just wants to play the game, although it does open the door to some potentially interesting conversations about how these projects would have fared on other platforms, like Kickstarter. Apocalypse Now, for instance, is a fairly high-profile project that's garnered plenty of press attention, and yet its Kickstarter is struggling by comparison, having pulled in just $105,000 on a $900,000 goal over three days. But the important thing is, Pillars 2 happening, and there's plenty of time for stretch goals: The Fig campaign runs until February 24.

Obsidian Entertainment's recent bout of Twitter teasing has now been officially unveiled as Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, the sequel to the studio's hit 2015 fantasy RPG. The studio also launched a new crowdfunding campaign today on Fig, with an overall goal of $1.1 million. 

Pillars 2 begins with the return of Eothas, the god of light and rebirth, who's not quite as dead as everyone thought. After inhabiting the stone titan buried beneath the keep at Caed Nua, he breaks free, trashes the places, and leaves you for dead. Naturally, there's only one thing to do: "To save your soul, you must track down the wayward god and demand answers—answers which could throw mortals and the gods themselves into chaos." 

"Our goal for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is to improve on what fans loved about the original while adding features our fans want to see," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said. "Truly living cities, more freedom to explore the open world, and pushing what we do best at Obsidian—letting players define and play the role they want to play."

Lead designer Josh Sawyer echoed that sentiment, saying that the focus of the new game will be on "refinement, pacing, and overall quality."

"We're still making a huge game, but it's more important for our content to be high quality than it is for us to have a gargantuan 200+ hour game," he said. "Many players criticized us for having too many mob/filler fights in Pillars. It's something we tried to address in patches, but it's a larger focus for the sequel. Not every fight is a setpiece encounter, but it's okay for us to have more areas that are simply for exploration, environmental storytelling, and down time." 

Deadfire will feature familiar faces from the first game, plus new companions with their own unique stories that will change based on the choices you make throughout your journey. That's also true for quests, which may "present different opportunities depending on when and where characters and environments are approached." 

Sawyer said that it's too early to commit to anything specific, but "broadly speaking," Pillars of Eternity 2 will be comparable in size to the original. Players who come into Deadfire without prior Pillars experience will be given a recap of events, but "there's no substitute for playing through the first chapter," he added. And if you did, you'll have the option of carrying your progress over into the sequel. 

"You will be able to import your endgame saves from Pillars of Eternity—at the very end of the game, Pillars creates a 'complete' savegame," Sawyer explained. "However, if you don't have a save to import or if you simply want to set your own start states, there will be a cool way for you to do so." 

Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire crowdfunding campaign is live now and runs until February 24. Check out some screens below. 

The Road to Eternity is a feature-length documentary detailing the making of Obsidian's fantasy RPG Pillars of Eternity. It was initially offered as a reward to backers of the Pillars Kickstarter, and then, at the end of 2015, released for sale (for $1) on Vimeo. But now you don't even have to pay that, because the whole thing is up—and free—on Obsidian's YouTube channel. 

The documentary, featuring Obsidian mainguys Feargus Urquhart, Adam Brennecke, and Josh Sawyer, starts off on a bit of a bleak note, after a canceled project forced layoffs and even consideration of the studio's outright closure. Obviously, that didn't happen: Pillars of Eternity was a hit, and Obsidian's future looks to be secure. In fact, it's recently been teasing a mysterious new project that will be unveiled to the public tomorrow. What could it possible be!