Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Deleted member 7219]

It's interesting, but I can't even name a single influential female developer. I'm sure there has got to be some out there. I just can't think of any who's game or design contribution influenced the rest of gaming in a positive way.
If it turns out that I can't think of any, because there aren't any. Then that is not the fault of men.
And no, trannies don't count. You have to have been born with double X chromosomes to qualify.

Jennifer Hepler.

Edit: Fuck, this is a joke, fellow Codexers. Hepler did not provide a single thing to the game industry other than SJW identity politics victimhood bullshit. Good riddance.

 

[Fairfax]

I don't think they ever really became less involved. IMO PoE was always going to be the Sawyer & Brennecke show and Obsidian just had Chris and Tim put on a show with some Kickstarter updates. My opinion of MCA acting like he was deeply involved at the beginning is that he was bending the truth.

Bending the truth, eh? Some strong words for something we don't know much about.

MCA wasn't putting on a show, he was the only full-time writer working on the project, but that changed. AFAIK the only KS update MCA wrote during the campaign was this one: Update #10 - Characterization with Chris Avellone. He talks mostly about companion design, which is what he ended up doing. If anyone put on a show, and I don't think they did, it's a lot more likely that it was Tim Cain. He did multiple Q&As by himself, video updates, talked about combat mechanics, non-combat skills, and promised mod support and low INT dialogue. I don't think he lied, though. I think he genuinely wanted to make these things happen and shared his vision, though I'm sure both Tim and Chris knew their updates had a popularity factor boost that Brennecke and the others didn't.

And keep in mind how PoE's premise came to be:

Tim Cain, Adam Brennecke, Josh Sawyer, Feargus Urquhart, and I sat down in a room and broke down elements from all the Infinity Engine games we felt had strengths that appealed to players and to us

Feargus is the CEO, so he was there in that capacity, but 2 out of the 4 designers involved with the project's conception ended up having small contributions. And it wasn't because of money or time. Both MCA and Tim were on the payroll and had the time.
Also, Feargus wanted Chris working on PoE full-time, to the point where Brian Fargo had to go back and forth with Feargus for a while about MCA working on TTON. Both Chris and Fargo had to sit down with Feargus to convince him and work out a schedule for Chris.

 

[MRY]

It's interesting, but I can't even name a single influential female developer. I'm sure there has got to be some out there. I just can't think of any who's game or design contribution influenced the rest of gaming in a positive way.
If it turns out that I can't think of any, because there aren't any.

Roberta Williams? Amy Hennig?

 

[Infinitron]

Wasn't the low INT dialogue thing only in a Reddit AMA?

In any case, the way I see it, chatter during preproduction is cheap. Anybody can talk about stuff and create the impression that they're more involved with a game than they really are. If they don't have a real role on the project and the time to fill it, it was never serious.

 

[Barbarian]

Well, I got to say PoE and now Tyranny are both souless, boring and uninteresting games. In contrast I enjoyed KOTOR 2(buggy and unfinished as it was, still great), enjoyed MotB and I am now enjoying New Vegas. Avellone left, Ziets left, Saunders left, Gonzales left... who they have left? Sawyer? Cain? These two haven't done anything interesting in a long time. It is finished. Hope inxile pulls through, but after the wasteland 2 debacle I wouldn't get my hopes up.

As for Avellone, he obviously was right in leaving Obsidian and he obviously is right in saying negative things about what went on. And I don't know what is up with the personal/family issues he keeps alluding to, but it is a shame that he doesn't seem to have much interest in actually heading the development of a game again.

 

[Fairfax]

Wasn't the low INT dialogue thing only in a Reddit AMA?

In any case, the way I see it, chatter during preproduction is cheap. Anybody can talk about stuff and create the impression that they're more involved with a game than they really are. If they don't have a real role on the project and the time to fill it, it was never serious.

4:30 in case it doesn't work.

The update with the bit about mod support: Update #16 - Reward Updates, Combat with Tim, Mods, and the Mega Dungeon Grows!

Mod Support
From Neverwinter Nights 2 to Fallout: New Vegas, we've enjoyed supporting the mod community, and we are continuing that with Project Eternity. It is awesome to see how you extend the worlds we make.

To make getting mods easy, we are excited to announce that our friends at the Nexus will be the official spot to download Project Eternity mods once the game is released. They have been a great host for mods for our past games, and we want to continue the trend with the Project Eternity Nexus. Check out the Nexus Network at www.nexusmods.com.

Our plan is to release our file-format information and expose as much of the data in the game as possible for you to extend and edit. We traditionally do not "hard-code" numbers so that our designers, and you, have the power to easily change and iterate on RPG data. We also plan on releasing localization tools to let communities around the world create localized versions for languages we are not translating Project Eternity into.

As we get more familiar with Unity during production, we will be extending Project Eternity even more for mod makers. Look forward to announcements in the months ahead as we make further progress and can provide you with more information about tools and mod support.

Small correction: the update above was written by Tim Cain and Adam Brennecke, so it's possible it was Brennecke who promised mod support.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

And the games were good too. Very good. But those were different days. Jansen had a chance to develop two games in recent years and we got a shitty adventure with tons of gay homossex and a decent adventure with a strong liberated wymmin protagonist. Mind you, Gabriel Knight was a shitlord. After the failure of both she abandoned gaming for goood and now dedicates her life to writing gay softporn fiction(I shit you not).

I tell you this: It is 2016. Keep wymmin away from game development or they do just that. This isn't 1992 anymore.

Yeah but aside from a few exceptions, it's not like male developers are doing much better in 2016 either, they also mostly produce mediocre trash whether we're talking about the old guard or new comers. Not immune to the SJW virus either, quite the opposite.

Gaming industry is never gonna reach 90s heights (regarding quality) again whether you keep wymmin away from it or not.

 

[Rev]

I don't think MCA and Cain were bending the truth about their involvement or whatever. It's just that when the KS was announced Obsidian had no idea on what game it was gonna make except that it would've been a spiritual successor to the IE games.
When Cain was saying he wanted to have low-Int dialogues and mod support I think he was honest (he didn't promised them though, as far as I remember, he just said he would've liked to add them), for example, just as MCA and others were when they talked about having a great reactivity that the actual game lacked. It's just that they promised too much with the stretch goals and had to cut some features that were considered less important or optional because the budget and time they had available didn't allowed them to integrate those things in the game. They had to make two cities, an extremely large dungeon (too big for its own sake), the player keep and plenty other features that drained their resources and time and "forced" them to cut other stuff that I would've honestly liked more than Od Nua's path, for instance, but were inserted nonetheless because they were specifically promised in the KS campaign.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

To make getting mods easy, we are excited to announce that our friends at the Nexus will be the official spot to download Project Eternity mods once the game is released.

Funny. Actually I was the one to email Nexus asking them to create the PoE section so I could upload the first mod. And it took them some time to respond and do it. There had been no prior arrangements. When it got created, the section didn't have a custom background image like it does now and looked like a no name game.

The Nexus mod handling it perhaps wasn't even aware of the game. He didn't put the mod in the overhaul category as I requested, because he didn't want to create categories. Just created one category "misc" and stuck it there.

 

[Fairfax]

I don't think MCA and Cain were bending the truth about their involvement or whatever. It's just that when the KS was announced Obsidian had no idea on what game it was gonna make except that it would've been a spiritual successor to the IE games.
When Cain was saying he wanted to have low-Int dialogues and mod support I think he was honest (he didn't promised them though, as far as I remember, he just said he would've liked to add them), for example, just as MCA and others were when they talked about having a great reactivity that the actual game lacked. It's just that they promised too much with the stretch goals and had to cut some features that were considered less important or optional because the budget and time they had available didn't allowed them to integrate those things in the game. They had to make two cities, an extremely large dungeon (too big for its own sake), the player keep and plenty other features that drained their resources and time and "forced" them to cut other stuff that I would've honestly liked more than Od Nua's path, for instance, but were inserted nonetheless because they were specifically promised in the KS campaign.

I agree, but despite developers complaining, stretch goals aren't really a burden. PoE was the first big KS campaign to make good use of stretch goals, and it wouldn't have raised as much money without the ones they had, including the dungeon. Considering the KS funds weren't enough to make the game, everything would've been worse without them, not the other way around.

To make getting mods easy, we are excited to announce that our friends at the Nexus will be the official spot to download Project Eternity mods once the game is released.

Funny. Actually I was the one to email Nexus asking them to create the PoE section so I could upload the first mod. And it took them some time to respond and do it. There had been no prior arrangements. When it got created, the section didn't have a custom background image like it does now and looked like a no name game.

The Nexus mod handling it perhaps wasn't even aware of the game. He didn't put the mod in the overhaul category as I requested, because he didn't want to create categories. Just created one category "misc" and stuck it there.

Guess that puts things in an even worse perspective.

 

[Chris Avellone]

On the mod support issue, you could probably ask Tim directly - one of the nice (and unfortunately, rare in the industry) things about Tim is he's forthrightly honest, and even better, he's forthrightly honest in a programmer-easy-to-understand-my-honesty-script way.

Having Tim as a boss would be incredibly relaxing in that respect. "Hey, I just had a meeting with the boss, and I know exactly what I should/shouldn't do and even better - why I should/shouldn't do the thing I proposed. And if he changes his mind? He'll tell me before I have to ask/find out much, much later."

 

[Chris Avellone]

Although it is sad, based on the video, that we missed out on the low-INT/CHR options (those are the most fun to write, even if it's twice the work, it goes by fast). Not sure what happened along the way - but Tim would likely know.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Although, watching the video above, I really wish Tim would read mean Tweets, Kimmel-style.

 

[axedice]

If Tim Cain were to lead a project for Obsidian (like the Arcanum / Underrail style 3D sandbox RPG him and Leonard Boyarsky hinted a while back), would you be willing to work as a contractor for Obsidian under Cain's management? Now that would be a project of true incline

 

[jaydee2k]

I think Tim and Leonard are either doing a Vampires sequel because Paradox is holding the license or they are secretly doing Fallout New Orleans in isometric view.
Let us pray...

 

[Kev Inkline]

Although it is sad, based on the video, that we missed out on the low-INT/CHR options (those are the most fun to write, even if it's twice the work, it goes by fast).

Had it turned out to be too time-consuming to write those, you could have always outsourced that to the Codex, you would have found plenty of such dialog trees around here.

 

[Neanderthal]

Coulda been fuckin hilarious, i'm thinkin about Durance tryin to be patient wi a thick Watcher, or stupid protag becomin Lord o Caed Nua an fuckin up everythin, or trollin all gods near end.

 

[Black Angel]

(like the Arcanum / Underrail style 3D sandbox RPG

 

[ArchAngel]

I think Tim and Leonard are either doing a Vampires sequel because Paradox is holding the license or they are secretly doing Fallout New Orleans in isometric view.
Let us pray...

Isometric Vampire game with open world exploring Fallout style, I would love that

 

[jaydee2k]

Veeery nice idea

 

[Jaesun]

Isometric Vampire game with open world exploring Fallout style, I would love that

Why would you want a Vampire the Masquerade game like that?

 

[Neanderthal]

Vampires seem kinda Elvish to me, i'm watchin the fuckers.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Vampires seem kinda Elvish to me, i'm watchin the fuckers.

Purge n forget.

 

[Max Deltree]

I think Tim and Leonard are either doing a Vampires sequel because Paradox is holding the license or they are secretly doing Fallout New Orleans in isometric view.
Let us pray...

It's clearly Tim Cain's dream game of Mage the Ascension.

Clearly in my hopes and dreams. :/

(At least I think it was Tim Cain that said that.)

 

[Jedi Exile]

I think a VtM game will lose some of Bloodlines unique charm if it won't have a first-person view, although I have nothing against an isometric VtM game with turn-based combat. It just will be a very different kind of game. And in a perfect world, where blood flows like wine, we would have both (in a real world, most likely none).