I answer many questions that have been asked over the last few weeks, so hopefully people can watch this video and refer back to it if those questions are asked again.
In brief, here's what I cover:
- This channel is to talk about the game development of my own games.
- I’m not trying to start a Kickstarter, make a new IP, or reform Troika.
- I don’t own the rights to Fallout, Arcanum, or Bloodlines, so I cannot make a remaster or a sequel. Contact Bethesda or Activision for questions about that.
- I do own the code for Arcanum and Temple but I cannot release it. Contracts and NDAs still apply. I have compiled them on modern compilers, for fun.
- I’m currently a contractor, working for several companies, including Obsidian. I’m not an employee of Obsidian or Microsoft or any other company.
- I’m working on TOW2, but as a contractor. I’m not the director.
- I’m not going to play other people’s games, or rank them, or review them.
- I didn’t work on Fallout New Vegas. It shipped the year before I started at Obsidian, so I have no stories to tell about it.
- I don’t want to talk about events I didn’t witness, and I never want to tell you what someone else was thinking or feeling or planning. Because I don’t know. I can just tell you what they did.
- I’m not going to do regular interviews with other developers, but as questions about my games accumulate that I don’t have answers to, I’ll invite old colleagues on to answer those questions
- Why am I doing this? I’m now the age my father was when he passed away. I want some of the stories remembered, and apparently I’m a better speaker than a writer. So you get videos instead of a book.
- It’s hard to tell true stories. Everyone remembers events differently. Even with my notes, people have disagreed with me. Often it’s a matter of subtle difference, e.g. we had made the Temple starting area for Fallout 2 early on, but it wasn’t a tutorial and it was skippable. That’s one of the reasons I implore you not to cast my stories with heroes and villains. That changes with perspective, either from different people’s viewpoints or the same persons viewpoint changing over time. As I’ve gotten older and my color vision has faded, ironically I see things less as black and white. I recommend you do the same.
