We caught up with Obsidian’s Chris Avellone during a visit to Melbourne last year, and quizzed him on Kickstarter, the Australian development scene, and what makes a game, a game.
The enthusiasm and energy that I see in the developers here, the excitement – it’s infectious, energising. It seems to be a really interesting time to be making games in Australia.”
Chris Avellone looks to be in a constant state of relaxation, even when mingling in a room of several hundred game developers. Integral to the development of games such as Planescape: Torment and Star Wars: KOTOR 2, he’s probably best known for his work on Fallout: New Vegas, and it’s his 15 years of game design expertise that he’ll be drawing on today.
He’s here in Melbourne, alongside other well-known developers such as Robin Hunicke, to deliver a “game design masterclass” at Game Connect Asia Pacific (or GCAP, as it’s more colloquially known) – and I’ve managed to tug him away from his catered lunch to answer a few questions on game design, New Vegas, and that crowdfunding phenomenon that has us all throwing our billfolds at projects aiming to revive old-school game design ideals, just like Avellone’s new Project Eternity.
