Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Jedi Exile]

Chris designed some really cool quests and systems. Doesn't it count as game design?

 

[Fairfax]

Is that an N7 hoodie one of them is wearing?

Gotta pay those bills.

He's known for storytelling, not game design.

Wait, what?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Some D:OS 2 talk at around 51:30 including a nice Codex mention.

"I don't know if they necessarily love my work."

Lots of praise for the Codex there.

 

[Fairfax]

Chris hearing them talk about Fig at ~1:00:00 had a kind of face, and he didn't say a word.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Chris designed some really cool quests and systems. Doesn't it count as game design?

Wait, what?

I shouldn't have piped in. I'm no authority on game design.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Chris hearing them talk about Fig at ~1:00:00 had a kind of face, and he didn't say a word.

Can someone explain what benefit Fig has over Kickstarter?

Is it a way of appealing to "hardcore" gamers over hipsters who get caught up in the hype?

 

[Irenaeus II]

Some D:OS 2 talk at around 51:30 including a nice Codex mention.

"I don't know if they necessarily love my work."

Lots of praise for the Codex there.

Feeling

Chris hearing them talk about Fig at ~1:00:00 had a kind of face, and he didn't say a word.

Can someone explain what benefit Fig over Kickstarter?

They don't have to pay a cut to kickstarter and keep all the money instead.

 

[Infinitron]

Can someone explain what benefit Fig over Kickstarter?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ew-equity-based-crowdfunding-platform.102204/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10037

 

[Irenaeus II]

Can someone explain what benefit Fig over Kickstarter?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ew-equity-based-crowdfunding-platform.102204/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10037

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...wdfunding-platform.102204/page-2#post-4080251

#LMAO

 

[Fairfax]

Chris hearing them talk about Fig at ~1:00:00 had a kind of face, and he didn't say a word.

Can someone explain what benefit Fig over Kickstarter?

Is it a way of appealing to "hardcore" gamers over hipsters who get caught up in the hype?

Guys behind Fig (Feargus, Fargo, Schafer) clearly thought it'd be the best of both worlds: millions from players and millions from investors, which would allow them to reach a higher budget range ($10m+).
Feargus has been talking about larger crowdfunded projects, "episodic Skyrim" or whatever for years, plus they also ran out of KS funds for PoE. InXile struggled with the budget for both WL2 and TTON (still is, in that case), and Double Fine...well, we all know about that mess.
Investors get 0.1% of profits or something like that (don't remember, and they've removed the public page with those details) while regular backers get the usual stuff.

I actually thought it had potential at first, but I failed to consider the fact people would be naturally skeptical of the "free rein" aspect inherent (in theory, at least) to crowdfunded games. Do we really know for sure the investors, specially big ones, won't try to call the shots and change things according to what they consider profitable? Who will people blame if a chunk of the game's content is cut but a mobile port is announced? And so on.

Psychonauts 2 is being funded 52% by investors and 48% by backers, but the $2.8 million atm is very far from the "$10-13.5 million" they need, which if you consider 10 years of inflation + Double Fine working independently, will easily reach $20m. Being a $40 game, it'll have to sell 715k digital copies just to get the $20 million back, out of which ~$17m will probably come from investors expecting a profit.

 

[Irenaeus II]

"Skyrim" anything is triggering.

 

[prodigydancer]

higher budget range ($10m+)

is a pipe dream.

 

[StrongBelwas]

Can someone explain what benefit Fig over Kickstarter?

Is it a way of appealing to "hardcore" gamers over hipsters who get caught up in the hype?

Guys behind Fig (Feargus, Fargo, Schafer) clearly thought it'd be the best of both worlds: millions from players and millions from investors, which would allow them to reach a higher budget range ($10m+).
Feargus has been talking about larger crowdfunded projects, "episodic Skyrim" or whatever for years, plus they also ran out of KS funds for PoE. InXile struggled with the budget for both WL2 and TTON (still is, in that case), and Double Fine...well, we all know about that mess.
Investors get 0.1% of profits or something like that (don't remember, and they've removed the public page with those details) while regular backers get the usual stuff.

I actually thought it had potential at first, but I failed to consider the fact people would be naturally skeptical of the "free rein" aspect inherent (in theory, at least) to crowdfunded games. Do we really know for sure the investors, specially big ones, won't try to call the shots and change things according to what they consider profitable? Who will people blame if a chunk of the game's content is cut but a mobile port is announced? And so on.

Psychonauts 2 is being funded 52% by investors and 48% by backers, but the $2.8 million atm is very far from the "$10-13.5 million" they need, which if you consider 10 years of inflation + Double Fine working independently, will easily reach $20m. Being a $40 game, it'll have to sell 715k digital copies just to get the $20 million back, out of which ~$17m will probably come from investors expecting a profit.

Assuming Tim isn't stretching the truth, he claims in the pitch vid that the rest of the money besides the $3.3 mil Fig Backer/Investor stuff is already accounted for. Double Fine and some "external partner" are providing the rest. I don't know what kind of contract is involved but has Fig specified if investors actually have veto power/creative control? Theoretically speaking, if the contract doesn't say that the devs can easily take their suggestions, say "We understand your concerns", and then go use them for toilet paper.

higher budget range ($10m+)

is a pipe dream.

Star Citizen is hardly the best role model for a crowdfunded game to follow, but it clearly shows it can be done, there are apparently more than enough rich people out there with money to burn, and those people aren't even getting any money out of it.

"Skyrim" anything is triggering.

If we want to play the optimist, "Skyrim-like" has basically become the buzzword for pretty much any kind of open-world-ish RPG since Bethesda made a fortune on it.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Assuming Tim isn't stretching the truth, he claims in the pitch vid that the rest of the money besides the $3.3 mil Fig Backer/Investor stuff is already accounted for. Double Fine and some "external partner" are providing the rest. I don't know what kind of contract is involved but has Fig specified if investors actually have veto power/creative control? Theoretically speaking, if the contract doesn't say that the devs can easily take their suggestions, say "We understand your concerns", and then go use them for toilet paper.

So what's the point of fig, if you have non-fig investors and fig investors on a project? Or is ist just Persson chipping in the 13M he "semi-jokingly" offered for Psychonauts 2?

 

[Infinitron]

Presumably the non-Fig investors who are providing the lion's share of the budget have different, more favorable terms than the Fig investors.

P.S. re: Chris's reaction, remember that Chris is still best buds with the Fig-supporting inXile.

In the Codex's mind, there is now a struggle for Chris Avellone's soul between evil pro-Fig Brian Fargo and good anti-Fig Swen Vincke

 

[vonAchdorf]

Presumably the non-Fig investors who are providing the lion's share of the budget have different, more favorable terms than the Fig investors.

Yeah, but it somehow contradicts the necessity / business case of fig. Catering to the "middle class investors" between the peons (donors) and the high rollers seems to target a niche.

 

[Fairfax]

Eh, I literally didn't suggesting anything, just thought it was a weird reaction. MCA has said before that he didn't like his duties as partner/director, I imagine he avoids the business side entirely as a freelancer.
He does say in the video that he prefers "making what players want, instead of what the publishers think they want". Fig is something in between, because it changes quite a bit from Kickstarter once you have investors in the mix. D:OS2 is using KS money and Larian's own funds, he answers to the players and Swen, really.

As a fan giving my two cents in regard to things that are none of my business, I hope he doesn't join a Van Buren project as director or something like that. He's extremely prolific and struggles with deadlines, who's to say Fargo won't give him the Kevin treatment once the game is delayed and investors are unhappy? Yes, he's best buddies with Fargo and praises him in the video, but one can hope.

 

[Name]

I would love for Chris to fix Telltale. He will restore the gameplay and bring actual C&C to them. I hope.

 

[Fairfax]

MCA Interview in the newest Game Informer. I think it was the first time he talked about his departure sort of directly. Is it against the rules to share the text and/or link?

It's not a very revealing answer (at least in regard to internal Obsidian stuff) but here's an excerpt (that's fair game, right?)

You co-founded Obsidian Entertainment, so your departure came as a surprise to many. How did that come about?

I was indeed one of the founders. I’m still surprised I got the opportunity, and I’m grateful to Obsidian for it…
Obsidian had cool people, but there were a lot of projects that Obsidian wouldn’t consider or couldn’t consider (both internally and externally).
There were even ones that Obsidian didn’t know it couldn’t do, some of which I discovered to my surprise after my departure (hypothetically, something with “Old” and “Republic” in the title).
Hey, now I know, but I never would have known otherwise.

He goes on about his creative director role (hint: he didn't have any decision-making power at all), enforcing design vision, life's short, not doing it for the money, etc.
The interview is interesting, but it's pretty short and not a lot of new stuff in it if you're familiar with previous interviews. He also mentions the RPGCodex when talking about D:OS2.

Considering the first thing he brings up is how Obsidian didn't consider some projects, it's becoming increasingly clear that it had something to do with his (most likely) cancelled project.

 

[Name]

I'm a poor reader, so was he saying that after he left, someone finally told him that EA/Disney had banned all contracts with the likes of Obsidian?

 

[Irenaeus II]

Seems so. Obsidian didn’t know it couldn’t do.

 

[Fairfax]

I'm a poor reader, so was he saying that after he left, someone finally told him that EA/Disney had banned all contracts with the likes of Obsidian?

No, he's saying Obsidian - either Feargus alone or the directors as a whole - didn't know, as in failed to realize, another KOTOR by Obsidian simply wasn't going to happen, and implied that they went after it anyway.
We do know KOTOR III entered pre-production at some point and they pitched it again after KOTOR 2, but it was MCA himself who revealed that a couple of years ago, so that wasn't it. Feargus has mentioned wanting to work on Star Wars quite a few times since the Kickstarter, maybe they pitched it again even though the EA had the exclusivity deal.

"Didn't know they couldn't do" = didn't realize they were wasting their time asking for it again.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I'm a poor reader, so was he saying that after he left, someone finally told him that EA/Disney had banned all contracts with the likes of Obsidian?

Not necessarily. Perhaps no RPG is allowed at the moment, because EA poured 100 mil into SWTOR and now it's "you want to experience a Star Wars RPG - you play our game, faggots".

Is it against the rules to share the text and/or link?

Of course it's against the rules. And when you want to post a screenshot, draw a sketch. And don't discuss the rules, it's also forbidden.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I'm a poor reader, so was he saying that after he left, someone finally told him that EA/Disney had banned all contracts with the likes of Obsidian?

No, he's saying Obsidian - either Feargus alone or the directors as a whole - didn't know, as in failed to realize, another KOTOR by Obsidian simply wasn't going to happen, and implied that they went after it anyway.
We do know KOTOR III entered pre-production at some point and they pitched it again after KOTOR 2, but it was MCA himself who revealed that a couple of years ago, so that wasn't it. Feargus has mentioned wanting to work on Star Wars quite a few times since the Kickstarter, maybe they pitched it again even though the EA had the exclusivity deal.

"Didn't know they couldn't do" = didn't realize they were wasting their time asking for it again.

Exactly what he and I said, retard.

 

[Fairfax]

I'm a poor reader, so was he saying that after he left, someone finally told him that EA/Disney had banned all contracts with the likes of Obsidian?

No, he's saying Obsidian - either Feargus alone or the directors as a whole - didn't know, as in failed to realize, another KOTOR by Obsidian simply wasn't going to happen, and implied that they went after it anyway.
We do know KOTOR III entered pre-production at some point and they pitched it again after KOTOR 2, but it was MCA himself who revealed that a couple of years ago, so that wasn't it. Feargus has mentioned wanting to work on Star Wars quite a few times since the Kickstarter, maybe they pitched it again even though the EA had the exclusivity deal.

"Didn't know they couldn't do" = didn't realize they were wasting their time asking for it again.

Exactly what he and I said, retard.

I'll assume you're "mentally challenged" and explain it plainly: he asked if someone told MCA that EA/Disney banned contracts with the likes of Obsidian. That's not what happened and that's not what MCA said in the interview. He said that only after his departure he became aware that "Obsidian didn't know" it couldn't do a hypothetical KOTOR. They obviously knew about the exclusivity deal, they're not as stupid as you, I'm sure, he's just saying they wasted their time.

If you can't understand after two very simple explanations, then I must feel sorry for you.