Josh Sawyer Reveals How a Quirky Bug in Pentiment Turned Monks into Sailors

Obsidian Entertainment has a rich history of game development, but their title Pentiment stands out distinctly—a detective RPG inspired by medieval art that has received a plethora of glowing reviews. Interestingly, one of its unique features involves typos. During the development process, an amusing incident occurred, as detailed by PC Gamer.

This hiccup arose from a novel mechanic that aimed to replicate 16th-century handwritten fonts, something the project takes pride in. According to game director Josh Sawyer, the intention was to enhance realism by incorporating random typographical errors. However, the system took a mischievous turn. It turned out that the procedural generation of typos occasionally transformed letters in words like ‘shut’ or ‘can’t’ into combinations that made even monks sound like seasoned sailors.

To address this issue, the team created a blacklist of words for the generator, although Sawyer did not disclose its contents.

Josh Sawyer

It’s worth noting that Pentiment is set in 16th-century Bavaria. The protagonist, Andreas Maler, an artist of illuminated manuscripts, becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. The project was at the forefront of Xbox’s strategy to move away from console exclusives.