RPG Codex Interview: Chris Avellone on Pillars Cut Content, Game Development Hierarchies and More

[Chris Avellone]

Chris Avellone when it comes to the Tyranny world building, who created the Glen Cook style random name generator (I’m just assuming this must exist)? Also, please license something from Cook before he dies.

Glen Cook's Black Company was a huge inspiration, to be sure. The random name generator you'd have to ask the Tyranny team. But...

I do think one of the ex-Tyranny leads is resigning this week (he already turned in his resignation, I believe, but he's leaving this week), so I'd check before reaching out to someone who may not be there (also, PoE2 lost someone last week, I believe).

The ex-Tyranny lead was originally slated to be a Project Director on one of the PoE2 expansions, I believe, but Brandon would know for sure.

Also, I like Brandon and think games under his direction will be good, so don't take mentioning the resignation as a slight against Brandon (Brandon's a good producer and he's a genuine gamer), as I believe the resignation was submitted before he even was assigned to the project.

 

[Rostere]

It's funny you know, the topic name of "Codex Interview" referring to one interview, while right now the entirety of RPGCodex is basically conducting another entire interview right here in the thread. :D

 

[fantadomat]

Chris Avellone why AP ended up such a mess,performance wise? Also what is the game that you had most fun working on? Any games that you are actually looking forward to play?

 

[Big Wrangle]

Leave it to the average Codex goers to do in one week what it takes one to do over a year.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Lately this thread and Chris responses is giving me solidity to what I already thought about for a long time. Bethesda navigated the worst times in gaming history successfully with style and confidence, but with a cost to Oblivion and Skyrim being mediocre rpgs experiences albeit in a nice setting.

What a ride.

 

[Sentinel]

I do think one of the ex-Tyranny leads is resigning this week (he already turned in his resignation, I believe, but he's leaving this week)

Time to start guessing.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I've read everything in this thread now. Just waiting on the...

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris Avellone Okay, one mroe thing. You're far and away the most "famous" game writer after Hideo Kojima, but have you seen the work of Amy Hennig much? She wrote and Directed Uncharted 1, 2. You got any opinions of her?

I have never had the chance to meet her in-person, but I admire her work very much.

When asked about people I respect/would want to work with, she's one of them, as I'd love to see her creative process and try to learn from it. (It's one of the reasons I wanted to work with Ken Levine, and I haven't been disappointed - I think he's a great writer.)

 

[Plane Escapee]

Chris Avellone are there any recent games - apart from the ones you've been involved with yourself - that you think have done something significantly different and interesting in how they approach narrative or meld the narrative with the mechanics of the game? Especially games that might have gone over the heads of the Codex, i.e. games that don't feature elves or spreadsheets.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I do think one of the ex-Tyranny leads is resigning this week (he already turned in his resignation, I believe, but he's leaving this week)

Time to start guessing.

My guess: Brian Menze.

 

[MajorMace]

Chris Avellone Okay, one mroe thing. You're far and away the most "famous" game writer after Hideo Kojima, but have you seen the work of Amy Hennig much? She wrote and Directed Uncharted 1, 2. You got any opinions of her?

Namedropping Amy Hennig and talking about Uncharted instead of Soul Reaver.
This is... I don't... what the fuck is wrong with you punk ?

Interestingly, Soul Reaver was released the same year as PS:T, and stroke me as similarly well written. Both have fascinating art direction.

 

[Ninjerk]

I do think one of the ex-Tyranny leads is resigning this week (he already turned in his resignation, I believe, but he's leaving this week)

Time to start guessing.

My guess: Brian Menze.

My first guess was Heins, second Menze

 

[HanoverF]

I do think one of the ex-Tyranny leads is resigning this week (he already turned in his resignation, I believe, but he's leaving this week)

Time to start guessing.

My guess is someone with an E in their name.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Oh Soul Reaver much better written, but man Soul Reaver is such a boring ass game these days, Its actually incredible how fucking advanced Thief TDP was compared to many contemporaries for example, I would much also rather replay PST. Soul Reaver is an amazing game that today would probably get the metroidvania,DS Dad of War treatment today and all that jazz.

 

[deepfire]

Glen Cook's Black Company was a huge inspiration, to be sure.

I would say that the harsh realities of the world, as it was depicted, were indeed sometimes reminiscent of the Black Company.

However, to me the books scented of doom, overwhelming force, mystery, brutality, brotherhood and (often partial) survival of the skilled against bad odds -- Tyranny felt like it was short of these qualities to me.

Which is paradoxical in part, because doom and overwhelming force, at least, were prominent in the story in a very obvious way. Was it perhaps too obvious, in that we knew the source of danger all too well?
Indeed, we're most afraid of the unknown..

Another thing. The visuals came across as too cheerful, and served to water the dark doom perceptions down.

 

[MajorMace]

Soul Reaver is such a boring ass game these days

These days ? It always was fucking boring. Even back then, the PS1 had much better to offer.
Combat was absolute garbage, redeemed only by the fact it was, most of the time, completely skippable.
Yet another common point with PS:T

SR's puzzles involved pushing blocks a lot.
On the plus side, boss fights were actually little puzzles. Even though they were not all that complicated - when they were not straight out dumb as fuck - it really helped making these encounters more unique.

 

[Kingston]

I wonder what the atmosphere is like in Obs meetings now. Everyone just shuffling around awkwardly trying to avoid the subject. Then Feargus interjects "hey, im a pretty cool boss, right guys?" "Oh yea, totally. Totally, man."

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

While I like RPGs, I don't solely want to do RPGs all the time.

Well, nobody is perfect.

 

[deepfire]

I wonder what the atmosphere is like in Obs meetings now. Everyone just shuffling around awkwardly trying to avoid the subject. Then Feargus interjects "hey, im a pretty cool boss, right guys?" "Oh yea, totally. Totally, man."

Imagining the work is partially disrupted, as people obsessively reload this Codex thread -- which is probably surreptitious, since it could be seen as breaking ranks..

Also, the fear in eyes of those not up to date (some of them).. what else is out now?

 

[LESS T_T]

Time to start guessing.

He said the ex-Tyranny lead probably "was originally slated to be a Project Director on one of the PoE2 expansions", so I think it would be Matt Maclean or Brian Heins.

I'd guess Maclean, since while Heins had a presence in PoE 2 promotion Maclean was pretty much unseen to public recently.

 

[Barnabas]

i wannabe your endgame

 

[Bohrain]

Chris Avellone given how many IE-esque games you've worked on since CRPG Kickstarters became a thing, do you think the genre has gone sufficiently forward in terms of what it could accomplish in gameplay and narrative aspects, or are we stuck aping Baldur's Gate too much?
It felt like those little CYOA sequences in Pillars were something I didn't already see in IE games, but even then they were very scarcely used.

 

[Jenkem]

 

[Jenkem]

Chris Avellone Okay, one mroe thing. You're far and away the most "famous" game writer after Hideo Kojima, but have you seen the work of Amy Hennig much? She wrote and Directed Uncharted 1, 2. You got any opinions of her?

Kojima is shit, the real badass is MGS co-writer, Tomokazu Fukushima. He left after MGS3. Coincidence?

 

[2house2fly]

That doesn't make sense, since if he was the superior writer then Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain wouldn't have been the best one