For Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire director Josh Sawyer, one of the most valuable things a game company can hold onto isn’t just its employees or the hardware it develops, but the original worlds they create that can be used throughout the future to create different games. In this month’s IGN Unfiltered, Sawyer says that Obsidian is open to the idea of other developers using the Pillars of Eternity IP to create their own games set within the same universe.

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“I as an individual designer, I try not to design outside the boundaries of what we're actually putting in the games because I want other teams and other designers [to use this] -- or heck, maybe someone would license this from us,” Sawyer says, citing a hypothetical Pillars of Eternity tactics-based game as an idea that Obsidian might not have the interest in or means to produce itself. Sawyer suggests that a different developer could possibly license the Pillars of Eternity IP and software to start their own project.“That would be great for everybody. It expands that universe, it gives the fans more games to play in that setting, and it's ultimately more profitable for the company,” Sawyer says.When designing Pillars of Eternity’s narrative, Sawyer says one of their main objectives was to make the adventure “feel epic but not too epic.” Obsidian placed an emphasis on the player character being a relatively normal person who catches glimpses of the supernatural forces that their character can’t yet understand. This starting point allowed the writers of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire to responsibly raise the stakes, letting you pursue a rogue god across the sea without it feeling unearned.Sawyer suggests that any number of ideas, including a first-person Skyrim-style game, could be possible within the Pillars of Eternity world.“There's all sorts of stuff we could do with the setting. I'm developing a crazy tabletop role-playing game, going all the way back to my roots, for Pillars of Eternity,” Sawyer says. “When I conceived it, I said this is a thing that we need to use as a company to build in the future.”As for the immediate future of the franchise, Sawyer says that he does want to see Obsidian develop new types of experiences set in the Pillars of Eternity world, but that there are opportunities for more mainstream games as well.“Personally, I want to work on something different because I’ve been working on Pillars for about six years now, which is kind of a while,” Sawyer says. “I have made a lot of party-based fantasy role-playing games. They’re a lot of fun to make, but I’m burned out for now on this. I have other game ideas that are actually even smaller in scope than something like Pillars or Deadfire.”As design director for the entirety of Obsidian Entertainment, Sawyer says he’s going to spend the next year or so helping other designers at the company improve in their craft while focusing on Obsidian’s other projects.For more behind-the-scenes info on the world of Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian’s work adapting tabletop design into Fallout: New Vegas, or their canceled Aliens RPG, make sure to check out this month’s full episode of IGN Unfiltered.

Joseph Knoop is a contributor to IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @JosephKnoop