 Obsidian was able to recover financially through the Kickstarter-backed role-playing game, "Pillars of Eternity", which allowed them to return to the concepts from "Fury", "Defiance" and "Stormlands" and build out a new title, "Tyranny".Urquhart stated that, with "Tyranny", they refined the "Defiance" idea more to make sure that the player was clearly aware that evil has won and having their character being part of that conquest.Game director Brian Heins said they wanted to avoid the "moustache-twiddling" type of villainy in the game's concept, instead to allow the player to find a way for a villainous character to still become the hero of their own story.