Game Informer - Chris Avellone talks games & Obsidian

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@GameInformer Chris talks about the reasons for his breakup with Obsidian, what its like working on games and lots more. Check it out.

Your work has largely defined an entire genre of games. What have been some of your major and minor influences over the years?

Me define a genre? God, I hope I haven't. It's only recently that I feel that I've been propagating a number of bad habits (unfun companions, reinforcing archaic dialogue systems, and being on titles where reactivity was simply a lot of special cased scenarios to test rather than true systematic reactivity). Part of this is due to the titles and engines themselves, but I needed to step back before I fell even further into a rut.

In terms of influences: The Hero System defined me with point-building freedom in characters. I don't care for class-based systems, since I feel classes are ultimately an obstacle to role-playing - Fallout taught me that. And speaking of Fallout and influences, Tim Cain and the Fallout crew taught me the best innovations don't have to be technological, you just have to approach a convention with a twist (stats affecting dialogue options). Without having played the Fallout series and designed for it (Fallout 2), I also think Planescape: Torment would have been a weaker product, but Fallout opened my eyes to what systems could do if you looked at them from the right perspective.
[...]

Your shift away from Obsidian came as a surprise to many. You were a founder, after all. Can you speak on how that came about and why?

I was indeed one of the founders. I'm still surprised I got the opportunity, and I'm grateful to Obsidian for it.

There's a few things to say here, none of it negative or scandalous or sensationlist, just food for thought. I want to make cool games of any size, any genre with cool people. Anything else (example: money, the best company car) is not important to me. I still think back fondly working with Subset Games, for example. Low ego, high humility, and I loved working on FTL. And I did it for free because I loved it so much. Guess what? I look back on it, and my soul is happy. Perfect.

Obsidian had cool people, but there were a lot of projects that Obsidian wouldn't consider or couldn't consider - both internally and externally. There were even ones that Obsidian didn't know it couldn't do, some of which I discovered to my surprise after my departure (hypothetically, something with "Old" and "Republic" in the title). Hey - now I know, but I never would have known otherwise.

My role was often a question mark, one that I attempted to get answered a few times. I've said this before in other interviews, but while creative director can give a lot of advice and thoughts, they may not have any decision making power at a company - they can't enforce a design philosophy or even tell any other employee what to do, even project directors and lead designers. I don't think this is unusual, but I don't know how the role is at other companies yet. It's certainly different at Larian, where the position has an incredible amount of authority, and it definitely shows on Divinity: Original Sin II.

[...]
More information.
 
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After reading this interview, I am really happy this guy is part of Divinity: Original Sin 2 team.
 
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Great interview - this guy knows a lot about RPGs and games in general.
 
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I'm sensing a subtle hint here about a new Obsidian Star Wars RPG.o_O
Obsidian had cool people, but there were a lot of projects that Obsidian wouldn't consider or couldn't consider - both internally and externally. There were even ones that Obsidian didn't know it couldn't do, some of which I discovered to my surprise after my departure (hypothetically, something with "Old" and "Republic" in the title). Hey - now I know, but I never would have known otherwise.
Then again I''m probably just imagining it.:pout:
 
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After reading this interview, I am really happy this guy is part of Divinity: Original Sin 2 team.
Who isn't? :D
I'm sensing a subtle hint here about a new Obsidian Star Wars RPG.o_O
Then again I''m probably just imagining it.:pout:
You're not imagining anything, but if I'm reading it correctly - the game he's hinting is not in works and can't be made by Obsidian for whatever reason what he discovered after leaving.
 
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I drink coffee, Monster, and Coke Zero (possibly in the same cup)

That's a lot of caffeine…

What’s your favorite Final Fantasy game and why?

Final Fantasy III because the world blew up and made me realize when it comes to writing a game story, I am coward

Seems like he would like the FFXIII series too. Although, being a coward seems to be a common thing about Western writers. Asian ones have a lot less problem with killing important characters, bleak storylines (with ever positive party members to compensate) and crazy concepts.
 
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Who isn't? :D

You're not imagining anything, but if I'm reading it correctly - the game he's hinting is not in works and can't be made by Obsidian for whatever reason what he discovered after leaving.

I have the same felling as you, Joxer. I believe the game he's speaking about is Star Wars KOTOR III. Theoretically Obsidian could make it since they have a widely known ability for such work, but as Mr. Avellone himself says there were projects that Obsidian didn't know they couldn't do.

This leads to these questions: Is KOTOR license definitely dead and buried now that Star Wars universe is owned by Disney ? If it's not, could be a KOTOR III in the works, even at initial stages ? And who would be the developer ?
 
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This leads to these questions: Is KOTOR license definitely dead and buried now that Star Wars universe is owned by Disney ? If it's not, could be a KOTOR III in the works, even at initial stages ? And who would be the developer ?

The PC and consoles publishing license for Star Wars belong to EA until mid-2020 (at which point Disney will probably renew the deal) and they are the only one who can produce stuff in the Old Republic era since Disney took over and decided everything made from now own needs to be linked to the movies. SWTOR is the only exception to that rule and it is the continuation of KoTOR everyone is asking for too anyway.
 
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I bet the license of KOTOR II is now with EA who won't be willing to do that because of their "online = DRM" philosophy (or, in other words : They won't do any offline SP games anymore).

A lot of people right now guess that KOTFE is already some sort of KOTOR III within SWTOR.
Bioware kind of transformed SWTOR into an single-player online Star Wars RPG with KOTFE. At least at (currently) end-game.
 
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I bet the license of KOTOR II is now with EA who won't be willing to do that because of their "online = DRM" philosophy (or, in other words : They won't do any offline SP games anymore).

A lot of people right now guess that KOTFE is already some sort of KOTOR III within SWTOR.
Bioware kind of transformed SWTOR into an single-player online Star Wars RPG with KOTFE. At least at (currently) end-game.

Long before SWTOR was released, BioWare was calling it KoTOR III, IV, V, etc (one for each class story). SWTOR is a direct story sequel and BioWare has marked it as such since 2009. It's nothing new.
 
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Long before SWTOR was released, BioWare was calling it KoTOR III, IV, V, etc (one for each class story). SWTOR is a direct story sequel and BioWare has marked it as such since 2009. It's nothing new.

I didn't know SWTOR is kinda sequel to KOTOR II. Excuse my ignorance about this subject, although it is natural given my relationship with MMORPGs in general, which is zero, as I never played them neither I did read much info about them (not even the big ones - WoW, SWTOR, GW 1 & 2, TES Online, etc).

Someday, maybe, who knows, I can give TES Online a try. The other MMOs aren't options to me, as I write this.
 
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SWOTR plays a lot like the Kotor games.
 
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Hope he's more involved in DOS2 than he was in PoE where he just did a companion and a few ingame books
 
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I'm surprised this comment hasn't caused more controversy

It's only recently that I feel that I've been propagating a number of bad habits (unfun companions, reinforcing archaic dialogue systems, and being on titles where reactivity was simply a lot of special cased scenarios to test rather than true systematic reactivity). Part of this is due to the titles and engines themselves, but I needed to step back before I fell even further into a rut.

Obviously working at Larian has opened his eyes to the creative rut he has been in and by extension Obsidian.
 
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I'm surprised this comment hasn't caused more controversy

Obviously working at Larian has opened his eyes to the creative rut he has been in and by extension Obsidian.
Why should it as we all know how obsidian create games by now. I get that many members here think Larian is the better developer, but that's only their preference.

Now as for Avallone I look forward to seeing what he accomplishes with different developers, but I personally had no problem with his past games at obsidian.
 
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I'm surprised this comment hasn't caused more controversy

Seems like he is talking about Pillars of Eternity and Obsidian …. he is right about reactivity …. PoE had none …. I understand his desire to move on and try new approaches…. he sounds like he'll implode if he does 1 more neo-Infinity RPG
 
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Seems like he is talking about Pillars of Eternity and Obsidian …. he is right about reactivity …. PoE had none …. I understand his desire to move on and try new approaches…. he sounds like he'll implode if he does 1 more neo-Infinity RPG

Considering he barely wrote anything for PoE and had no lead position on it, he can't be talking about that game. His latest game with any real input at Obsidian was New Vegas. He worked on at least one project after that internally but it was cancelled. The rest of his post New Vegas work is side projects: Wasteland 2, FTL, Tides of Numenera and Divinity Original Sin 2.

With his comment about reactivity, he would get along very well with Mary DeMarle, Edios Montréal Deus Ex lead writer too.
 
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I have to agree with him on the Hero system; although a bit more complex than GURPS, it has to be one of the better point-based approaches ever for a PnP RPG. Too bad Fantasy HERO never really caught on.
 
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Excellent and informative interview. I am looking forward to seeing his contribution to DOS2.
 
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Considering he barely wrote anything for PoE and had no lead position on it, he can't be talking about that game. His latest game with any real input at Obsidian was New Vegas. He worked on at least one project after that internally but it was cancelled. The rest of his post New Vegas work is side projects: Wasteland 2, FTL, Tides of Numenera and Divinity Original Sin 2.

With his comment about reactivity, he would get along very well with Mary DeMarle, Edios Montréal Deus Ex lead writer too.

"It's only recently that I feel..."

Odds on his most recent game contributions are foremost to his mind and that includes Pillars. You don't have to work on a game extensively to have an opinion on it.
 
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