Matt Chat Thread

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Huh on a Monday:

Annie delves into how she transitioned from English major to video game designer, and talks about how Twine, Ren'Py, and RPG Maker are good preparation for a career in games. We also talk about Taxi Driver and her early days at Obsidian.

 

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Visual novel stuff ends at 13:45. Obsidian stuff starts at 21:10.

Third part next week, maybe.

 

[Ninjerk]

@37:15 or so Matt talks about a free game on GOG, FYI.

 

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Great stuff here from Annie on BTS at Obsidian during two of their biggest projects. We also chat about voice acting and how much Annie loved working with legends like Jim Cummings.

 

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NWN2 stuff starts at 6:10. Alpha Protocol stuff starts at 18:00.

Roguey might find some parts of this interesting. I'm starting to like these Annie interviews. She provides a more low-level perspective that the more senior designers that Matt usually interviews don't have. Stephen Colbert and Penny Arcade memes in Mask of the Betrayer, oh my! Also lots of voice actor fangirling.

Still one or maybe two Annie episodes to go. Next one is about Storm of Zehir.

 

[Roguey]

They recorded 75% of the script for Brian and Annie's Alpha Protocol.

Annie's into scatological humor.

 

[grimace]

Matt is really cute with these "cliffhanger endings" in recent videos.

Matt Chat 442: Annie VanderMeer on Storm of Zehir, Guild Wars 2, Destiny
Mar 1, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllHQkEwIYM

 

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Lots of great content here from Annie VanderMeer! We chat about NWN 2: Storm of Zehir, Obsidian's cancelled Alien RPG, the importance of prototyping, Guild Wars 2, mmo narratives, Destiny and much more!

 

[Grauken]

They recorded 75% of the script for Brian and Annie's Alpha Protocol.

Annie's into scatological humor.

I find it more funny that the more I look at her face, it starts to resemble the "hopw roewur ne" face

 

[Infinitron]

First 16 minutes of the episode are about Storm of Zehir and Aliens: Crucible, the rest is about the MMOs. I think the MMO part is actually more interesting. She doesn't have much to say about SoZ that we don't already know.

Final episode next week will be about Dead State.

 

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Annie returns for one final segment to chat about Dead State, women in the gaming industry, Kickstarters, and more. I also give a sneak peak of the next interview series with Kevin Saunders.

Kevin Saunders part: https://youtu.be/6-YC963jVVc?t=1403

 

[catfood]

Five videos for this ugly ho. What the fuck J_C ?

 

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A live chat about adventure games and more with Julia Minimata, Francisco González, and Mat Bradley--Tschirgi.

 

[Terra]

Obsidian and inXile veteran Kevin Saunders chats about his recent activities including a very serious medical condition. We also chat about his work on Adhara, an Oregon Trail-inspired game before getting into Torment: Tides of Numenera and the problems with fulfilling its stretch goals.

 

[Hines]

Kevin Saunders has colon cancer and his odds of beating it don't look great.

 

[MRY]

Kevin Saunders has colon cancer and his odds of beating it don't look great.

Let me give you a taste of what a class act Kevin is. In between rounds of chemo, he invited me out to lunch to give me wisdom regarding managing and designing Fallen Gods. Not the slightest hint of low spirits or bitterness. If anyone deserves to roll a natural 20 and beat this crap it’s him. Wonderful person.

 

[Ninjerk]

Reverse chronology was the wrong decision that was a hard start

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, what an episode.

It's interesting to see the different focus that Kevin has when talking about Torment's failure. George & Colin basically went "it was overscoped, next question" while Kevin seems more regretful about a range of issues surrounding the game's crowdfunding and early development.

 

[Infinitron]

More Torment:

Kevin is back to talk more about the development of Torment: Tides of Numenera and how he applied lessons he learned from his earlier involvement Shattered Galaxy MMO. We also discuss the pros and cons of commercial publishers vs. crowdfunding and the fallout from the infamous turn-based vs. realtime with pause poll for TS:T. How faithful is Torment to Monte Cook's vision?

 

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Oof, at the end Kevin reveals he was so bummed about getting kicked off Torment's development that he never played it. He also appears to confirm the stories about Monte Cook's complaints about the game's portraits.

Matt says probably two more episodes left.

 

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In the third installment, Kevin talks about Dwarfs, Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights 2 and the expansions Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir. We also chat about pre-made vs. custom characters, procedural vs. handmade content, and the future of natural language processing in games.

 

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So, now Matt says there are still two more episodes left.

 

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Matt looking to continue his new wave of RPG interviews:



Crooked Bee

 

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It's the final episode after all:

In this final and often emotional segment, Kevin chats about Knights of the Old Republic II and his early days, when he worked on some of the first MMOs (Shattered Galaxy and Nexus). We then chat about games tend to have bad endings (so to speak). Kevin wraps up with some honest reflections on his life, family, and friends, and ponders if the time he's spent making games was really worth it.

Oh my.

 

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The emotional part starts at 35:00. It's really touching.

Doesn't look like Matt has any new interviews lined up after this.