Interview "I've never felt more pressure in my life": Brian Fargo Interviewed by Edge Online

[InspectorRumpole]

I've never felt more pressure to deliver in my life.

Codexian Hitmen make you feel like this

--fixed

If he fails this, he has made himself a powerful enemy...

 

[Spectacle]

Every software project is always at risk of failure. Remember that about half of all game projects started get cancelled before they're even announced. Or a game might get finished but be irredeemably bad due to decisions made early in the project whose negative impact didn't become apparent before it is too late to go back and change them.

Fargo and his team should have the experience needed to minimize these risks, but the can't possibly eliminate them completely.

 

[Infinitron]

Hunted looks like it could be fun for the lulz. Graphics are pretty bad for a 2011 game though.

 

[circ]

Goddamn, aside from Pavlish they're all going to have to learn to walk again...

At least they don't have to unlearn how to run down corridors, duck behind chest-high cover and pop moles.

Guess they're going to have to help the rest of the inXile team do so...

@1:34

Nice outfits.

 

[Haba]

I've never felt more pressure to deliver in my life.

Codexian Hitmen make you feel like this

--fixed

If he fails this, he has made himself a powerful enemy...

God damn newfags failing their lore rolls.

And what is wrong with the rest of you, why haven't you raped this cunt to death yet? Growing soft?

 

[SerratedBiz]

I've never felt more pressure to deliver in my life.

Codexian Hitmen make you feel like this

--fixed

If he fails this, he has made himself a powerful enemy...

God damn newfags failing their lore rolls.

And what is wrong with the rest of you, why haven't you raped this cunt to death yet? Growing soft?

Some of us have better things to do during a Friday evening.

Totally retarded, though.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

I've never felt more pressure to deliver in my life.

Codexian Hitmen make you feel like this

--fixed

If he fails this, he has made himself a powerful enemy...

God damn newfags failing their lore rolls.

And what is wrong with the rest of you, why haven't you raped this cunt to death yet? Growing soft?

Why don't you do it then?

Come at me bro

 

[Wyrmlord]

Goddamn, aside from Pavlish they're all going to have to learn to walk again...

At least they don't have to unlearn how to run down corridors, duck behind chest-high cover and pop moles.

Guess they're going to have to help the rest of the inXile team do so...

@1:34

Whenever I see videos of these InXile games, I realize why I am relatively distant from all this Wasteland 2 hype.

 

[toro]

Yep. Hunted is bad.

 

[Whisper]

Hunted was one of best action RPGs i played last time (modern titles).

 

[Commissar Draco]

Hunted was one of best action RPGs i played last time (modern titles).

Aside from nice rear view of blond elven ho.... hunter what was so nice in it? I didn't seen this game reviewed on KKKodex.

 

[Whisper]

It was challenging game, it was tactical, it required good reaction AND decision making. Also plot & setting was nice.

Plenty of good puzzles, some of them optional, some not.

 

[laclongquan]

1 second of ass shot, around 10 seconds of body shot... That's it. Before my dick can get hard the rest of the 8 minute video turn me off immediately.

Mhmmm~ No, based on that vid, I wouldnt say Hunted is a game worth a torrent.

 

[Brother None]

Whenever I see videos of these InXile games, I realize why I am relatively distant from all this Wasteland 2 hype.

Whenever I hear Chris Taylor, Jason Anderson and Tim Cain talk about wanting to emulate a pen and paper RPG in a computer game, I'm all "from the hacks who made Stonekeep? You gotta be kidding me"
- 1997 calling

 

[Wyrmlord]

Whenever I see videos of these InXile games, I realize why I am relatively distant from all this Wasteland 2 hype.

Whenever I hear Chris Taylor, Jason Anderson and Tim Cain talk about wanting to emulate a pen and paper RPG in a computer game, I'm all "from the hacks who made Stonekeep? You gotta be kidding me"
- 1997 calling

Except it would have been a perfectly legitimate thing to say in 1995. I mean, logically, you judge people on their record. And if they don't have a record, they don't have anything to show for themselves. They may surprise you, but on what grounds can you affirm that in advance?

Hell, you saw the list of projects worked on by these designers. The ones being brought in from the original Wasteland team have not worked on a game in decades. And as for InXile team itself, it has worked on terrible, lousy, and mediocre games.

 

[Brother None]

Except it would have been a perfectly legitimate thing to say in 1995. I mean, logically, you judge people on their record.

You do indeed. But the comparison works more closely than you think. Stonekeep was an extended, publisher-driven, throwing-good-money-after-bad pit. Fallout was a minor, out-of-sight, B-list project. You factor in record, you don't judge by it.

They're just so different. It's like saying you don't think someone will make a good comedy because their previous drama films weren't comedies. They were still competently made (though not outstanding) drama films. If they can make those well, and then say they want to do something else, why really relate the two the way you're doing, at all.

 

[Wyrmlord]

B-list project? Fallout was a relatively high profile game. It had some of the most famous VG voice actors of the 1990s, from David Warner to Tony Jay. It had astonishingly high quality graphics for 1996, complete with the most impressive death animations for the time. And it had a fairly long and comfortable development time - Tim Cain was sitting on that one since the early 1990s. It also had enough pre-release exposure and hype to have significant commercial success.

While it is tempting to think of good games as having been obscure, under-funded projects and bad games as having been over-funded high profile releases, it's worth mentioning that Interplay and Black Isle games were not in that category. Those were big guns for their time.

 

[Infinitron]

B-list project?

Yes, it was. Searching for proof now.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/8/2855595/fallout-gdc-black-isle-interplay-obsidian-bethesda

Speaking at GDC 2012, Obsidian Entertainment's Timothy Cain calls Fallout "the game that almost never was." The innovative post-apocalyptic RPG started life as a skunk works project Cain tinkered around with alone in his office. It became a franchise and an inspiration. It was almost cancelled twice.

Cain, working at game development studio Interplay, created the engine and most of the design for the game that would later spawn three direct sequels. He worked on it, by himself, noodling with the mechanics of the design and incorporating a then-popular pen and paper role-playing system created by Steve Jackson called GURPS. Later, Cain enlisted help from fellow employees at Interplay who would work with him on the game in their spare time.

Cain says producers on other Interplay games would get mad because he was distracting people from working on their games. But from the beginning he says that everyone involved knew they were working on something special.

The story of Fallout is a classic example of a new idea nurtured by a small, dedicated team working against seemingly insurmountable odds.

For six months, starting in 1994, Cain built the engine alone. He was given no money and no resources — only time — to devise what would become the backbone of Fallout.

Then he got a writer. Then an artist.

Then, slowly, over the course of the next three years, Cain assembled a team of 30 who, over pizza on late nights, built what would become one of the most influential games of its time, and one of Interplay's best-loved hits. Quality Assurance testers worked for free on weekends.

Fallout, considered a "risk" by Interplay, became a hit, leading to creation of three direct sequels including Bethesda's smash hit Fallout 3, one of the best-selling games of 2008 and winner of "Game of the Year" at the 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards. Success due in large part to the vision and style of the original game.

Almost fittingly, the Fallout team was forced to fight for its survival. The now-legendary game was threatened with extinction on three separate occasions and saved only through extreme effort on the part of Cain and his crew. And in one instance, he actually had to beg.

The first threat to Fallout's existence came when Interplay acquired the licenses to the Forgotten Realms and Planescape Dungeons & Dragons franchises. The studio immediately began planing for a raft of D&D inspired games utilizing these popular worlds, and Fallout, then considered expendable, was put on the chopping block. Cain says he literally begged Interplay executives to give his game a chance and, shockingly, they relented. Development continued.

 

[Kz3r0]

Wyrmlord stop pretending that you care about RPGs by spouting your uninformed opinion, continue to do that in GD, thanks.

 

[Roguey]

Fargo doesn't know anything about programming, and anything wrong with stonekeep should fall on Cain's head.

Tim Cain's contribution to Stonekeep was critical error handling code and a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin recipe, wrong guy to blame.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

bad pit

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Not sure if he really means fan pressure or he means personal pressure.

Still, we'll probably know things are going well if his hair turns white after a year.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc7/twinkiegorilla/Brad-Pitt.jpg

 

[Zombra]

Wow, before my time at the Codex. The heady days of youth and optimism, eh? Reading the interview excerpt now, and the thread, makes me feel funny.

Oh and

Ken St. Andre

Wasteland (1988), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set (1986), Electronic Arts, Inc.

You're right here - just Wasteland.

Go to hell! ACS was the shit!

 

[Excidium II]

Yeah, I'm optimistic too but so far it's just "let's say exactly what our target audience wants to hear".

pro-tip: never be optimistic.