Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Luckmann]

[...] chris replies 'oh that is so untrue jason, ohmygod it is so not true. nobody is liked for long on the rpg codex. actually, somebody said that if you are well liked on the codex, it's the death of your game.' [...]

Stabbed. In. The. Back.

In the belly of the beast, Kotaku, no less.

 

[Grauken]

So that's why the games he's been involved in are so terrible. Quick, start hating on him for real, I want to have some good games again

 

[Murk]

Harrowing implications m80s, as it means a proper cRPG won't be well received by normies outside of a cesspool(tm) like the cockdix.

 

[Fairfax]

Another panel coming up, but it's one of these writer Q&As:

Pitch to the Pros: Game Narrative

CHRIS AVELLONE

DREW MCGEE
Stoic Studio

JARED MASON
Schell Games

TOIYA KRISTEN FINLEY
Schnoodle Media LLC

Come with your game stories at the ready as industry professionals give feedback on your ideas. This entire session is devoted to audience interaction as industry rookies, aspiring designers, or just some people with a story to tell grab the mic and pitch their stuff to the panel. Come away with feedback and critiques on your idea to help shape it into the kind of story fit for a game. Feedback will be based on the how players could interact with the story, whether the story could find a market, and how to adjust its form. Anything is pitch-worthy. Characters, settings, plots, or even a high concept; if you’ve got ideas, the pros can help you turn them into games.

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/PP95609

And the Imirt interview is on YT now:

For those who missed it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/119413169

It was a good interview, but it was meant for a more casual audience, so not a lot of new info for the Codex crowd.

- He believes producers don't get enough credit, and that good producers make good games happen. Gave shoutouts to Matt Singh and badler from Obsidian.
- PoE didn't give them as much freedom because of the promises and wanting to deliver a BG-like experience.
- Clarifies that he was always in favour of doing a Kickstarter and was the first of the partners to support it. He's actually clarified it here before, but worth mentioning, I guess.
- Met some indie devs who wanted advice on how to work on a AAA projet at a big studio. Told them they were better off doing their own thing, as it gives them a lot more experience compared to very specific roles for a long time when working at a big studio.
- "Was told" there was a number of pitches before Project Eternity was chosen, including one by Tim Cain.
- Doesn't assume the player will talk to a companion when designing it, but wants to reward those who do so.
- Personal dislike for romances, but recognizes that it's something a lot of players enjoy and could be considered, specially for RPGs. Thinks the issue is when people think of just romance and not the full specture of human relationships. He explored more variations in AP, which he thought was more fun than doing just romance.
- Advice for writers: "write everyday"; "everybody has 1000 bad stories in them, so get them out as soon as possible"; "watch your adverbs, people often use adverbs because they aren't looking for the right verb to use".
- Thinks Swen did a great job with D:OS2 on Early Access and loves the spell system in the game.

 

[Lacrymas]

I feel like all his interviews are targeted towards a "casual" crowd. When are we going to get to the juicy stuff?

 

[Fairfax]

I feel like all his interviews are targeted towards a "casual" crowd. When are we going to get to the juicy stuff?

True, but to be fair, it's not his fault.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard from him in a while, so the Codex interview hasn't made any progress recently. I assume he put all of his email interviews on hold while he was busy with the SS reboot, since the sugarbombed one still doesn't have a part 3, and all of his recent interviews were on streams or podcasts.

 

[Luckmann]

Best part of that interview is at 03:12. Subtle.

 

[2house2fly]

I remember when PoE came out he was saying to people who asked about it on twitter "well romances may be tough but they were a staple of the BG games and if people want them we should have done them" which in retrospect is a bit rich considering he wrote the two least sexy companions of all time in that game

 

[Roguey]

I'm into Grieving Mother, an unambitious husk of a person is my thing.

 

[an Administrator]

Do you guys really hate MCA so much that you wanna see him suffer unending pain and boredom in the BMC mines?

BMC mine was fun.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are no romances in BG1 though, so them being a "staple of the BG games" is kinda wrong. Unless you count Skie and Eldoth's "romance"?

 

[Roguey]

Chris reveals Durance was set up to be the villain of Pillars 2



Durance can be killed in combat or end up setting himself on fire so I can see why they abandoned this.

There are no romances in BG1 though, so them being a "staple of the BG games" is kinda wrong. Unless you count Skie and Eldoth's "romance"?

The expansion had one with a wolf person.

 

[Infinitron]

Chris reveals Durance was set up to be the villain of Pillars 2

"Thought it'd be cool to set him up as a new antagonist" != "set up to be the villain of Pillars 2"

 

[Roguey]

"Thought it'd be cool to set him up as a new antagonist" != "set up to be the villain of Pillars 2"

"You kill Durance in a Pillars 2 sidequest if he's still alive" sounds pretty underwhelming and as disappointing as "Durance survives no matter what choices you make, like Leliana in Dragon Age."

 

[Lacrymas]

The expansion had one with a wolf person.

Lol, I totally forgot about that. It's so minor and random though.

 

[Kalin]

"Thought it'd be cool to set him up as a new antagonist" != "set up to be the villain of Pillars 2"

"You kill Durance in a Pillars 2 sidequest if he's still alive" sounds pretty underwhelming and as disappointing as "Durance survives no matter what choices you make, like Leliana in Dragon Age."

Or like how Imoen, Viconia, Minsc, Jaheira, Edwin and a bunch of other NPCs show up in BG2, even if you killed them in BG1.

Man I hate BG2 for that, shittiest save transition ever. Fuck you Gaider, fuck you in the ass.

(except not really because he'd like it)

 

[Roguey]

Lol, I totally forgot about that. It's so minor and random though.

Bad end, unconsummated, Chris Avellone-approved.

 

[Quillon]

He's talking about PoE1; Durance either is or was supposed to be an antagonist we're travelling with in PoE1.

 

[Cosmo]

"Thought it'd be cool to set him up as a new antagonist" != "set up to be the villain of Pillars 2"

"You kill Durance in a Pillars 2 sidequest if he's still alive" sounds pretty underwhelming and as disappointing as "Durance survives no matter what choices you make, like Leliana in Dragon Age."

I'm sure senpai would have found a way to incorporate previous game's reactivity : after all PoE's resident Rasputin could very well work like the one in Hellboy, where he's still an antagonist after his physical death, and even undergoes a psychological journey...
How awesome (as well as exorbitant in terms of resources) would that kind of reactivity be ?

 

[Roguey]

Or like how Imoen, Viconia, Minsc, Jaheira, Edwin and a bunch of other NPCs show up in BG2, even if you killed them in BG1.

Man I hate BG2 for that, shittiest save transition ever. Fuck you Gaider, fuck you in the ass.

It's a setting where you can go into a temple and pay a priest to raise or resurrect a dead person though. Nothing like that in DA or PoE.

He's talking about PoE1; Durance either is or was supposed to be an antagonist we're travelling with in PoE1.

Can't be an antagonist if his quest ends before he can become one. I didn't get the impression that I'd be at odds with Durance at all, I don't care if he kills Magran.

 

[Lacrymas]

There's even that quest where the child of a priest of Tymora gets killed by the Umberlants and you have to fetch his corpse so his father can raise him. That means resurrection spells also work for people who aren't the PCs :p

 

[Quillon]

Can't be an antagonist if his quest ends before he can become one. I didn't get the impression that I'd be at odds with Durance at all, I don't care if he kills Magran.

Well, his tweet clearly suggests he's talking about PoE1 to me.

And who knows how the edits or whatever influenced the character after he handed it over:

 

[Luckmann]

"Thought it'd be cool to set him up as a new antagonist" != "set up to be the villain of Pillars 2"

"You kill Durance in a Pillars 2 sidequest if he's still alive" sounds pretty underwhelming and as disappointing as "Durance survives no matter what choices you make, like Leliana in Dragon Age."

So, like Aloth? Seriously though, the ending in which Durance doesn't die in PoE is absurdly terrible. Having Durance survive throwing himself onto the fire is basically a band-aid for that, more than anything else.

That said, I just want him to be a CNPC. I think it'd be nonsense to have him turn up as a forced villain or antagonist. Then you might just as well let him stay dead.

Edit: Based on the answer MCA gives on the tweet, I get the feeling he's never actually played through the ending, and haven't seen the final product, which likely deviates heavily from what he actually wrote. This would explain why the ending is so fucking random - they simply came up with something to patch over Avellone's original.

 

[Prime Junta]

You can goddidit anything. If Woedica could allow Thaos to reincarnate with his memories and personality intact, why wouldn't Magran (or some other god) be able to do the same with Durance?

 

[Popiel]

You can goddidit anything. If Woedica could allow Thaos to reincarnate with his memories and personality intact, why wouldn't Magran (or some other god) be able to do the same with Durance?

Because Thaos was kind of a special deal made during creation of the gods. Their, sort of, caretaker. No other example of being like him we know of. It's probably forbidden to do such things anymore.