Interview More Puuk interviewage at Winterwind

[Spazmo]

Tags: Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound; Black Isle Studios; Damien Foletto

<a href=http://www.winterwind-productions.com>Winterwind Productions</a>, that site of unclear purpose, has posted <a href=http://www.winterwind-productions.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=47>part 2</a> of its interview with ex-BIS developer dude Damien "Puuk" Foletto. Two whole pages of stuff about the games that never were: Baldur's Gate 3 and Fallout 3.<blockquote>WW: There was a story going around that the plot was somehow connected to Terry Gilliam's movie "Brazil". Is this true and are you able to tell us anything about the plot of the game or about the areas you were working on?
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DF: I know Josh was a fan of “Brazil,” and I know that there were ideas that were borrowed, but BG3’s story was original. As for plot, here’s the Cliff Notes version of Jefferson: You’re a wandering, non-chosen-one sap caught in a rainstorm. You seek shelter under a nearby tree adjacent to a dilapidated windmill. As you shiver next to a campfire, a crazy lady and here rogue minions crash your party chasing a large, black hound. An arrow kills the hound and it flops on your lap. The crazy lady, who looks like a cleric by the way she’s dressed, accuses you of being in cahoots with the hound and threatens to kill you as well. Luckily, Rides of Archendale(sp) come to your rescue and scare off the mad woman cleric. However, your troubles have just started because you’re hauled away for questioning. After a brief inquisition, the local magistrates tell you not to wonder far because they may have more questions. And so begins your adventures to find out who the mad cleric was, what this has to do with you, why a black spirit hound now follows you around, and why can’t people just leave you alone and do things for themselves.</blockquote>Chilling stuff! Good to see the emphasis on non-chosendom.
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Thanks to <b>Mr. Teatime</b> for the link.

 

[Sol Invictus]

WW: As every Fallout fan knows, the story of Van Buren has the player falling asleep in one prison cell and awaking in another, not knowing how or why they're there, and managing to escape into the desert being pursued by robots. There was also a mad goddess with a cult of worshippers. Can you tell us any more of the story line?

DF: I'm sure I'll miss a lot, but I'll try. The overall story involves the player discovering he is a carrier of a nasty virus that if it does not kill you, it makes you sterile. After "escaping" the prison because of a strange assault by what looks like NCR soldiers, the player immediately has the freedom to go where they want. During the course of his adventures, the player discovers that in order to get the prison robots to cease their pursuit, the player must hunt down and retrieve several escaped prisoners and return them to their cell, where the prison computer checks off the prisoners from its list. The player later discovers that returning the prisoners conveys to the computer where the prisoners went to and how far the virus has been spread throughout the wasteland. Once enough prisoners have been tallied, the computer unlocks an orbiting nuclear missile station and begins a countdown to "cleansing" the land. <b>As it turns out, this is the situation the main bad guy wants, because he wants to "cleanse" the earth's surface (at least the American portion) so he can start the human race anew.</b> The player is then tasked with finding a way to the orbiting station to stop the bad guy - or help him, if he so chooses. I'm sure I forgot quite a few things. Oh, and the orbiting station looks like the round, spinning 50's conception of orbiting stations and the rocket that takes the player there looks like a cone-shaped rocket with fins; very 50's as well. In fact, the concept art was based on 50's illustrations from pulp sci-fi publications from the time. No space shuttles, to quell the sceptics.

Sound familiar? That's because it shares a similar theme to both Fallout and Fallout 2. Except neither of those games had any mention of orbital nuclear missile platforms.

 

[Briosafreak]

WW: You're a known fan of MMORPGs (see the article Damien wrote for Winterwind on MMORPGs ). Herve Caen (having refused to let IPLY die with dignity) claims that IPLY will survive and develop/release Fallout Online (known affectionately as FOOL in fandom). What would your response be if Herve knocked on your door tomorrow and asked you to be the Lead Designer of FOOL?

DF: A swift punch to his face followed by hysterical laughter and letting my kitties use his face as a litter box – not that I’m bitter, or anything…

Get into the line

WW: In your opinion, what was Interplay's "biggest mistake" and what could/should the company have done differently?

DF: Not having been in upper management, again it’s hard to say what I would have done differently. I’m sure the management thought they were doing the right things, but the current state of the company I think tells a different story. But, to be blunt and honest in the short term, and if I had omnipotent power, I would have canned FOBOS, continued F3 and seen it ship. If I went back even further, I would have done F3 instead of “Fallout: Tactics” and found some way to save BG3 – if I were omnipotent. There’s nothing wrong with a company trying their hand in the console business, but IPLY struggled with making good console games, the exception being BGDA (which was actually done by Snowblind with Chris Avellone as lead designer). IPLY’s strength was in PCRPG’s and they should have stayed focused in that direction until they had the actual revenue to experiment with console games and do them well. But what do I know; I’m just a designer.

This is my stand on this too, but it`s debatable. any thoughts?

WW: During the development of both Jefferson and Van Buren, the mass exodus began. Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone and several others left BIS to form Obsidian. J.E. Sawyer left shortly before the demise of BIS yet you, Chad Nicolas and Jeff Husges kept the faith and continued regularly posting on the forums, interacting with the fans, answering questions, dropping hints right until the end. How damaging were these departures to the morale of the team and how hard was it to put on a "brave face" when going into work each day and posting on the forums considering IPLY’s financial difficulty?

DF: It was very tough. Losing those people hurt the project and they were missed, but we pulled together and were able to continue work. It was our trust in being able to complete this project and believing in the project that kept the rest of us going. What made it even harder was when assets – artists, programmers, designers – were pulled off F3 to work on either FOBOS or BGDA2. We were continually promised those assets would be replaced, but obviously they never were. We were also able to keep our hopes up since upper management kept saying that they were 100% behind F3 and wanted to see it through to the end, right up until the weekend that would be our last at BIS, we got this message. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed when we got laid off. Being lied to and deceived does not sit well with me, and I let them know it during my exit interview.

Molitor probably pissed his pants,Puuk is huge

WW: Of Jefferson and Van Buren, did you have more of an attachment to one over the other. In other words; which game was more "painful" to lose?

DF: Fallout 3 was definitely more painful to lose. We designers had a lot of creative freedom in this game and the areas showed it. Each area probably could have been its own game; there was so much to do. I know some of my best work went into F3. I have a particular fondness for an area I created called, “The Reservation.” It involved ghouls, a nuclear research facility, drug trafficking, trade, deceit, coup-de-tat, and all kinds of other wonderful ways to throw a wrench into the works. *Sigh*

From what i know from the game that particular area is my favorite, even more than Junktown. Very sweet stuff.

 

[z3r'0']

Interesting to say the least.
Man, its a real shame... The Black Hound sounded really good.

 

[Sammael]

Losing Jefferson hurt me a whole lot more than losing a game I knew was doomed from the moment it entered production.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I was pretty torn by the loss of Jefferson. I was looking forward to it much more than I was to Fallout 3, because I knew that wouldn't work out because Interplay kept taking resources away from it and putting it into FOBOS and BGDA2.

*sigh*

 

[taks]

i second that, sammael... *sigh*

oh well, at least it's ski season. no time to play games anyway.

taks

 

[Spazmo]

Agreed (again). Black Hound would likely have been a better D&D game than Van Buren would have been a Fallout game.

What a horrible sentence.

 

[Briosafreak]

No way Spaz, no way. One day you`ll see, one day.

 

[Jed]

What will he see (one day)? What!?

 

[Trash]

Absofuckinglutely nothing, which is the sad part. Sigh, 2 maybe/possibly great games cancelled, troika likely to go down under (which means those cool apoc tech screens will just remain screens and not a game) The pc rpg genre seems to be a dying breed....are these games going the way of the adventure game genre?


PS Replaying the good old quest for glory games, check 'em out, they still are fun!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

When I think about it like that, I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my chest.

 

[Eclecticist]

What a great interview! Seriously, that shed a lot of light on stuff for me, and I close its window feeling thoroughly satisfied. The Black Hound & FO3 both sounded great, 'tis a shame, a shame...

A mad cleric and a dog is a damn good way to start a cRPG. I can imagine it could be made very humorous.

 

[Pegultagol]

It's cool to know the real story behind the projects, beneath the PR releases, glib non-committal responses, etc. Interplay could have spent all their resources on wokring on one game, be it final, since they would've released at least one game before being scuttled and bankrupt. I don't know what to say except being just depressed about the whole ordeal.

 

[DarkSign]

Case and point: SquareEnix...your last game can be your best

 

[Surlent]

Puuk is now working at Raven software. http://www.ravensoft.com/frameset.html
They are the guys who made Heretic and Hexen games in the good ol' past Doom days.
Plus their sequels.
Raven soft also made Soldier of Fortune, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.
And are rumored to make QuakeIV.
Puuk is right, he ended up in good company.

Notice also the part about EA, he admits the rumors are sound. EA, evil antagonist, a nazi corporation slaving off innocent developers.

 

[Sol Invictus]

It isnt a rumor. They really are making Quake IV (With the Doom 3 engine)

 

[DemonKing]

Good to see the emphasis on non-chosendom.

Well - you do seem to have been "chosen" by the Black Hound, but that's not quite the same as being a child of the God of Murder, of course!

Actually, I liked the Bhaal-child concept up until the BG2 expansion where every man and his dog seemed to be a half-sibling of mine.

 

[Volourn]

Well - you do seem to have been "chosen" by the Black Hound, but that's not quite the same as being a child of the God of Murder, of course"

You weren't really the Chosen in the BG series.


"the BG2 expansion where every man and his dog seemed to be a half-sibling of mine."

Um. That's because it was End Game, and the plot had hit its climax so of course you'd be likely to encunter more Bhaalspawn. And, no, fellow Bhaalspawn were still the minority. Most people were not a Bhaalspawn.

Dumbasses.

 

[Milktooth]

Um. That's because it was End Game, and the plot had hit its climax so of course you'd be likely to encunter more Bhaalspawn. And, no, fellow Bhaalspawn were still the minority. Most people were not a Bhaalspawn.

And what a shitty endgame that was with all the Baalspawn all over the place. Couldn't Gaider pull out something out of his ass other than having you battle against hordes of uber-powerful Baalspawn? Im betting he could but that would have probably made the game boring for all the ADHD teenagers who play bio's games. Gotta have super heroes and super villains go at it for it to be remotely enjoyable in any way right??

Either way the game sucked bad for its pause and play bullshit. Give me TB, not that half-assed RT shit.

Dumbass.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Molitor probably pissed his pants,Puuk is huge

That's not Puuk, that's Puuk's husband.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

That's wrong, and that's coming from me.

 

[Avé]

Fallout 3 and BG3 sounded fantastic

Fuck

 

[Seven]

You weren't really the Chosen in the BG series.

Yeah you're right you were just the child of a god who was the fulcrum of a prophecy.

Um. That's because it was End Game, and the plot had hit its climax so of course you'd be likely to encunter more Bhaalspawn. And, no, fellow Bhaalspawn were still the minority. Most people were not a Bhaalspawn.

Dumbasses.

Hmmm.. have you forgetten about the entire town populatated by Bhaalspawn? I'll concede that in BG1 and BG2 they weren't too overt, but in the expansion things were ridiculous. This wasn't just the "end game" as you contend, it was the whole freakin expansion.

 

[Spazmo]

Well, Throne of Bhaal was a high level D&D adventure and you're really supposed to run into all sorts of ridiculous shit like that in high level D&D. Basically, if it's not epic, world-shattering occurences involving a great deal of very powerful people, why the hell are my quasi-divine (in terms of being powerful, not just the Bhaal essence thing) PCs bothering with this shit?