Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Jedi Master Radek]

a combat system modern players will immediately understand and gel with, but set within a truly old-school setting

Read as: bad gameplay and boring setting. We will pretend that boring setting is exactly what "old-schoolers " want, but we are actually making this boring setting to attract casuals on the promise of offering something they are familiar with. Look! We have dwarfs and elfs. So Hardcore! So Old School! So Edgy! Edgy PG-13 style!

 

[Rev]

I don't know these Gamera Games, but I've heard not exactly good things on them.
I wonder why Avellone keeps wasting his time in this way, it's irritating. It can't even be because he needs the money, because otherwise he'd work for something other than an obscure Italian dev.

 

[Fairfax]

I don't know these Gamera Games, but I've heard not exactly good things on them.
I wonder why Avellone keeps wasting his time in this way, it's irritating. It can't even be because he needs the money, because otherwise he'd work for something other than an obscure Italian dev.

He's mentioned in interviews that he didn't get any help early in his career and only got rejections, so now he goes out of his way to help other people out. I think that has something to do with it. I really don't think it's about money, because he does this sort of thing for free as well. Back when I sent my first DMs to him, I sent him a concept for a CRPG companion, and he gave feedback and suggestions for nothing in return, even though I'm not even a developer and wasn't going to implement it.
Also, "creative consultant" is detached enough that a potentially shitty game wouldn't stain his resume, so that's probably why he's not being particularly selective.

 

[Rev]

Yeah, I guessed that it wasn't because of the money and it's nice of him to give some counsels to young unexperienced devs, but I would prefer to see him working on something I could genuinely get excited about.

 

[agris]

Yeah, I guessed that it wasn't because of the money and it's nice of him to give some counsels to young unexperienced devs, but I would prefer to see him working on something I could genuinely get excited about.

I doubt Chris wakes up in the morning wondering what he can do to excite Rev the Learned from Genoa, Italy.

 

[Rev]

I doubt Chris wakes up in the morning wondering what he can do to excite Rev the Learned from Genoa, Italy.

It would excite pretty much everyone in his fanbase, since I want him to work on his new game instead of doing minor work on other people's project that end up being mostly meaningless.

 

[pomenitul]

He obviously needed to leave Obsidian's strictures behind in order to finally concentrate on a proper large-scale solo project.

 

[Fairfax]

Sawyer thinks MCA is the one who wrote Cera Sumat's description. For those who don't remember/never saw it:

 

[Rivmusique]

I'm pretty sure he also designed the quest and fight that are involved with getting the IWD2 HA. I remember because I was surprised to hear it, that fight is quite hard for a vanilla IE game.

 

[Roguey]

MCA is the one who wrote Cera Sumat's description. For those who don't remember/never saw it:

Yeah, all the Lost Followers stuff was his.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pillars-of...hris-avellone-on-how-to-write-an-rpg/page/0/1

Avellone’s occasional irritation with RPG convention has bubbled to the surface more than once in his career. In Icewind Dale II, he designed a boss battle that required in-game research if players were going to stand a chance of success (“For once, make the lore useful!”).

 

[Prime Junta]

Sawyer thinks MCA is the one who wrote Cera Sumat's description. For those who don't remember/never saw it:

TFW you read an item description that's better than most RPG plots

 

[Infinitron]

In retrospect, Chris Avellone's work on the Icewind Dale games feels like a precursor to what he's been doing for the past half decade. Small, cool things in other people's games.

 

[Neanderthal]

Thought it were interestin how each o pre gen player parties had a hook tyin em to Lost Followers, an always wondered if they were canon heroes on IWD1.

 

[LESS T_T]

That reminds me, I'm paraphrasing here: "Chris Avellone is a wild canon in this project, while I'm a play-it-safe guy." - Jason Fader, Project Director of System Shock reboot, talking about MCA's role in the reboot in PowerUp Digital Games Conference

 

[stony3k]

MCA sure seems to be doing a lot of "fire-and-forget" type of projects

 

[Fairfax]

Panel is starting soon. Some people seem to be tweeting about it, and the GDC website says it'll be available in the GDC Vault later. Don't know if that means it'll be available on youtube as well, though.

 

[Fairfax]

(I'll update this post as people tweet)

 

[Infinitron]

I've got you covered: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-discussion-thread.99490/page-15#post-4988272

 

[Fairfax]

Apparently he had a Q&A session today, but I can't find any tweets or reports. These Q&As usually have silly questions for the most part, so maybe that's why.

It's Not in the Writer's Manual: A Q&A Session for New Writers

Summit Speakers:
Toiya Kristen Finley | Narrative Designer/Game Writer and Consultant, Schnoodle Media, LLC
Elizabeth LaPensee | Assistant Professor of Media & Information and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures, Michigan State University
Chris Avellone | Narrative Designer, Freelance
Michelle Clough | Narrative Designer, Freelance
Evan Skolnick | Senior Writer, Telltale Games

How do newer writers fit into game design and narrative design teams? Are in-house jobs better than freelance work? Do film writers have advantages getting game writing work over novelists? Especially for individuals with little experience and those seeking to break in, this session encourages participants to ask veteran writers and narrative designers questions that don't have definitive answers in manuals or on the web. Anyone working with writers is also encouraged to attend. Whether it's finding the right job, leading writers and improving team dynamics, or establishing rates, no question about the business of game writing is off limits.

 

[Fairfax]

http://kotaku.com/podcast-people-who-write-and-program-video-games-1792875982

We’re back for another Kotaku Splitscreen special from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Today we’re joined by storied RPG writer Chris Avellone, Double Fine senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis, and 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth.

Jason and I talk with each guest about the games they’ve worked on, with conversation focusing on Alpha Protocol, Prey, CRPGs in general, Broken Age, Psychonauts, 80 Days and Horizon: Zero Dawn. You can listen to the episode on iTunes or Google Play, or directly here. (MP3 download here.)

 

[Infinitron]

http://kotaku.com/podcast-people-who-write-and-program-video-games-1792875982

We’re back for another Kotaku Splitscreen special from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Today we’re joined by storied RPG writer Chris Avellone, Double Fine senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis, and 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth.

Jason and I talk with each guest about the games they’ve worked on, with conversation focusing on Alpha Protocol, Prey, CRPGs in general, Broken Age, Psychonauts, 80 Days and Horizon: Zero Dawn. You can listen to the episode on iTunes or Google Play, or directly here. (MP3 download here.)

Anything interesting?

 

[Quillon]

Anything interesting?

Yeah, since his departure he finally said something positive about Obs, that their dialogue tool is great and it seems InXile also used that tool for Torment, guess it was a package deal/charity.

 

[Fairfax]

http://kotaku.com/podcast-people-who-write-and-program-video-games-1792875982

We’re back for another Kotaku Splitscreen special from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Today we’re joined by storied RPG writer Chris Avellone, Double Fine senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis, and 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth.

Jason and I talk with each guest about the games they’ve worked on, with conversation focusing on Alpha Protocol, Prey, CRPGs in general, Broken Age, Psychonauts, 80 Days and Horizon: Zero Dawn. You can listen to the episode on iTunes or Google Play, or directly here. (MP3 download here.)

Anything interesting?

Haven't listened yet.

Anything interesting?

Yeah, since his departure he finally said something positive about Obs, that their dialogue tool is great and it seems InXile also used that tool for Torment, guess it was a package deal/charity.

They've had their dialogue tool pretty much since the beginning, and he's praised it numerous times before.

 

[Quillon]

They've had their dialogue tool pretty much since the beginning, and he's praised it numerous times before.

Define "before". Pre-2015 may?

 

[Fairfax]

They've had their dialogue tool pretty much since the beginning, and he's praised it numerous times before.

Define "before". Pre-2015 may?

Here's MCA praising it in 2012:

RPS: Dungeon Siege III appeared to finally kick Obsidian’s bug problem. What exactly did you change, and are you planning to refine the process even more with Project Eternity?

Avellone: It was our own toolset. We had our own bug-reporting and tracking software, and our programmers who knew the engine inside and out were just down the hall. We found it easy to change and iterate on code and toolsets to make DS3 go smoothly. Speaking from a narrative design standpoint, for example, having a customized dialogue editor that caters to everything we’ve learned about writing reactive dialogues over the years was a blessing.

I think they also used it for Alpha Protocol, so not since the beginning, so it's been around for a quite a while. Feargus even brags about it all the time.