People News Chris Avellone tells the Codex about his current work on Pillars of Eternity

[Kz3r0]

"listing as a b-priority" anything that isn't "core gameplay"

So, what Pillows will be.
A Dungeon Crawler, a Shoot'em Up, a Hack and Slash, a Platformer, a beat'em up?
Iquiring minds want to know.

 

[Infinitron]

Which is precisely why PoE is going to be a lifeless and generic piece of crap.

Your excessive edginess already almost cost you Grimrock (finally convinced to play it after 2.5 years, lol).

How many more mistakes will you make, Roxor? How many more?

 

[Kem0sabe]

ITT Sawyer is the grumpy dad while Avellone is the cool uncle.

Sawyer doesn't actually come off as being grumpy or Anti-social, he actually looks like a pretty fun and intelligent person, but has a lot of trouble communicating properly, like the latest video showed.

 

[Duraframe300]

Just think it's worth reminding that the game was sold using both MCA and Tim Cain in its pitch. PoE may end up the best thing since MotB but I'm gonna hold that against Obsidian when it comes to future pitches.

Well... Tim Cain is working on it and its a bit more complicated regarding Avellone.

Mainly he was working on several project during large amounts of time at the beginning to mid of development. A lot of them being passion projects regarding Kickstarters.

Also Eric Fenstermaker became Creative Lead because (as MCA also mentions above) they took their time for the narrative and let several of their writers take a crack at writing one. Erics (with George Ziets behind him) was considered the best and he got the role.

If MCAs would have been chosen I'm sure he would have been more involved.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Your excessive edginess already almost cost you Grimrock (finally convinced to play it after 2.5 years, lol).

Lolwut. I didn't play Grimrock 1 just because I didn't feel like it and was mildly sceptical about rt blobbing. There was no edginess associated with that one.

Keep on shillin' for shitgames, though, you are getting continuously better at it.

 

[throwaway]

Well... Tim Cain is working on it and its a bit more complicated regarding Avellone.

Mainly he was working on several project during large amounts of time at the beginning to mid of development. A lot of them being passion projects regarding Kickstarters.

Cain's involved sure, but certainly not to the extent expected/wanted/suggested.

Also Eric Fenstermaker became Creative Lead because (as MCA also mentions above) they took their time for the narrative and let several of their writers take a crack at writing one. Erics (with George Ziets behind him) was considered the best and he got the role.

If MCAs would have been chosen I'm sure he would have been more involved.

I either missed or completely forgot that part.
Was that before, during or after the Kickstarter?
Regarding Ziets, do you mean he finished 2nd or did he contribute to Eric's narrative? I don't exactly keep a close track on the dates on his career but I thought that he had departed Obsidian by the time of the KS and was already a freelancer, that's why he was a stretch goal..
Either way if the assignment of roles was done after the KS, I'm holding the initial pitch as misrepresenting.

 

[Rake]

You forgot Alpha Protocols final iteration (Though he was constrained there by assets made before)

Also I mentioned it already and the original article mentions it to. Chris is Creative Lead on a original IP at least since mid-last year (when it was first mentioned)

If the NEW IP is a AAA game, i don't give a shit.
If it's their second kickstarter, me happy. I would sacrifice Sawyer to the Dark Gods in order to have that.

 

[Shadenuat]

Chris should get his own kickstarter where he would be the creative lead. He's crazy with what he does sometimes but he's the best.

 

[CyberWhale]

Guess I'm the only one that wouldn't mind having Josh Sawyer as project lead and MCA as creative lead on a same project.
Would also be much happier if the new SF IP was a full-fledged AAA RPG built on CryEngine instead of something on that crappy Unity.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

That was a subtle distancing of himself. So far Sawyer and Avellone have both distanced themselves in some way from PoE. Leaving any analysis of the whys out of it, this indicates non-cohesiveness and a lack of alignment between the principles of its creators and the project. Not the type of environment that leads to people's best work.

 

[Volourn]

So... Sawyer hates Avellone and thinks he's a shitty developer... Interesting.

 

[Duraframe300]

That was a subtle distancing of himself. So far Sawyer and Avellone have both distanced themselves in some way from PoE. Leaving any analysis of the whys out of it, this indicates non-cohesiveness and a lack of alignment between the principles of its creators and the project. Not the type of environment that leads to people's best work.

Not really...

They do that everytime. If (in MCA's case) giving people credit is distancing himself then Avellone has distanced himself from every one of his games. The same way Sawyer has distanced himself by being critical.

 

[Duraframe300]

Cain's involved sure, but certainly not to the extent expected/wanted/suggested..

He's been working on it full time both in system design and programming. He has done nothing else since the project started. He even has passive influence through his husband on the design/narrative (not sure what he focused more on) front.

Edit: And Ziets was a freelancer yes, but he did one too (of course wouldn't have been lead unless they hired him full time back) Some of Ziets Narrative was incorporated in Erics and both worked for a short time on it together.

 

[Infinitron]

I think it was fair, if naive, to expect that Chris Avellone would be Lead Narrative Designer considering the way the game was initially pitched (Sawyer! Cain! Avellone!).

Ultimately though, they're professionals and they chose who they felt was the best man for the job at the time. As a gamer, I don't have to care about this stuff. Just give me the game already!

 

[naossano]

I recall seeing a trailer that was mainly about Sawyer/Avellone/Cain names and what they did in the past, to show that the game is made by the best guy.
One of them being barely involved doesn't fit well with that trailer, IMO.

 

[Duraframe300]

I think it was fair, if naive, to expect that Chris Avellone would be Lead Narrative Designer considering the way the game was initially pitched (Sawyer! Cain! Avellone!)

Yep

That said, if its any consolation, they really enjoyed doing that as usually the whole process is rushed in a AAA production. And for all we know the game might be better for it.

 

[Diablo169]

I still think the game will be perfectly enjoyable. But a part of me will always wonder how insane and wonderful the game would have been with more MCA injected.

 

[Volourn]

Yup. The game should be playable and fun and it won't be the 'masterpiec:australia:e' I thought it be.

 

[set]

A forced stealth dungeon sounds dumb anyway. In general, forced stealth is stupid. Stealth should be an option, not a requirement. A good example of this are the Hitman games - their primary focus is stealth but you can be a retard if you want to. It's good design to let players be retards intead of dictating how they should play.

 

[Viata]

It's kinda funny how Avellone has little to do with PoE when his name was one of the big names on kickstarter page. Bad move, though. If the game didn't sucks, people would say that is because Avellone is part of it. But since he is not part of it, no matter how good the game is, Josh Sawyer will be blamed for any shit part in the game(or the whole game).

 

[Tigranes]

It's kinda funny how Avellone has little to do with PoE when his name was one of the big names on kickstarter page. Bad move, though. If the game didn't sucks, people would say that is because Avellone is part of it. But since he is not part of it, no matter how good the game is, Josh Sawyer will be blamed for any shit part in the game(or the whole game).

By 'people' you mean the Sawyer obsessed part of Codexia, rite

One can only hope that POE is able to spawn sequels and spinoffs as Obsidian envision. POE could easily be the 'orthodox' main series supporting an Avellone-written deviant child.

 

[Roguey]

Obsidian employees click the link to my post and suffer a -1 penalty to morale.

They're keeping up with the spirit of IWDs, where Avellone also only had minor roles.

 

[Diablo169]

By 'people' you mean the Sawyer obsessed part of Codexia, rite

One can only hope that POE is able to spawn sequels and spinoffs as Obsidian envision. POE could easily be the 'orthodox' main series supporting an Avellone-written deviant child.

Sort of like a Mask of the Betrayer for POE? I like it!

 

[Rostere]

All I want is more Chris Avellone Arcanum LP.

That shit is the best there is on Youtube... I don't think I've laughed so much in many years as when Chris was vainly trying to fight through all those wolves.

Chris should totally start a Patreon dedicated to him making his Arcanum LP.

 

[Kalin]

If MCA actually played Arcanum properly for a change instead of suiciding dem poor wolves with his scrawny débutante and clicking through dialogue like a Kwaboonian zapping through TV channels, then the pure power of greatness might just penetrate his foggy mind and enlighten him so that every single project he would ever work on would benefit greatly from his awakening.