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

[Chris Avellone]

Anyway Chris, I think even the people reading this thread who take your claims about Obsidian as the whole truth and nothing but the truth, would probably agree you've got a bit of a grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side complex.

I mean, are you telling me that the Chris Avellone that we see before us today, the ideologue of correct management practices, wouldn't find Troika Games to be a mismanaged clusterfuck?

Have you watched Leonard Boyarsky's interview on Matt Chat? There's some real despair porn in there: http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10827

And he's not all that proud of what he did afterwards at Blizzard either.

And then there's your friend Ken Levine, whose troubled stewardship of Bioshock: Infinite was the topic of many a Kotaku and Polygon longform expose.

It's a troubled industry full of broken processes, but somehow at the end it all evens out, mostly.

Well, I hope that anyone reading anything I wrote would not accept it blindly. I don't preach, I do want people to question and ask and contradict. And it's fine if they don't agree, and I freely admit I've been wrong countless times.

As for Tim and Leonard (and Jason), I feel that the franchises they created (inc. Bloodlines) resonated with a lot of RPG gamers and shouldn't be ignored, but respected for what this accomplished. That's all I meant - and yes, there might be a large and uncomfortable upfront cost to that, but imo, it would prove itself out over time, and I would support that looking at their work history.

I don't think broken processes always even out at all - but I think there are performers who you should bank on based on their track record because they do things players enjoy.

 

[Blaine]

Bleh, the drama has gone stale. Unless Chris is willing to answer the more juicy questions.

This newfag is like the "This will be the end of World of Warcraft!" doomsayer, except for this thread and not MMOs.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Being in Israel will probably do the trick.

Goons, neofags, watchers, all those goyim on these lesser forums feel smug about their anti-Codex hate speech.
Little do they know that ever since InXile tried to threaten Infinitron and get back at him irl the ADL is monitoring all that stuff closely.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Mindboggling. That's not just a lack of ethics, that's absolutely disgusting. Proves exactly whom you're dealing with, complete scum, absolutely bottom of the barrel human trash, beings devoid of the slightest bit of decency or personal honour.

Remember kids, spending $ on Obshittian games means financing the dreck that tried to forbid MCA to continue to work in cRPGs employing such repellent methods.

Yes, yes, absolutely scandalous. All codex steam friends will be in poe2 just like they were in fallout4 on release day.

and I want to support them. Especially now, since Cain and Boyarsky could be working on something great.

My bet is on Boyarski leaving after this project.

 

[Quillon]

I do want people to question and ask and contradict.

Which is why you came here where most of the audience reveres you as god among men :D

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Those fellas at badgame2 are following intently.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Which is why you came here where most of the audience reveres you as god among men :D

Again, the Codex was one of the few that ever asked.

 

[Big Wrangle]

Chris Avellone since my question got buried I'll repost it again: Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans? You had experience writing comics, so is that a possible alternative? Novels?
If the question wasn't something you wanted to answer, do forgive me for the annoyance.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans?

Why would he leave cRPGs? There are plenty of Studios who would take him. Age of Decadence 2: New Maadoran (in Unreal engine)

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris Avellone since my question got buried I'll repost it again: Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans? You had experience writing comics, so is that a possible alternative? Novels?
If the question wasn't something you wanted to answer, do forgive me for the annoyance.

If hypothetically, the game industry is an overall "no" next year, I could relax for 200+ years and not worry about a thing. Even my funeral is paid for.

I don't have many expenses, and I don't need to work anymore - I work because I love writing for games, so I do. Shocking, I know, but... yes, it's the truth.

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

Chris Avellone since my question got buried I'll repost it again: Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans? You had experience writing comics, so is that a possible alternative? Novels?
If the question wasn't something you wanted to answer, do forgive me for the annoyance.

If hypothetically, the game industry is an overall "no" next year, I could relax for 200+ years and not worry about a thing. Even my funeral is paid for.

I don't have many expenses, and I don't need to work anymore - I work because I love writing for games, so I do. Shocking, I know, but... yes, it's the truth.

You have no idea how happy hearing this makes me. There is some justice in the universe after all.

 

[Big Wrangle]

Why would he leave cRPGs? There are plenty of Studios who would take him. Age of Decadence 2: New Maadoran (in Unreal engine)

Do trust me I wouldn't want or even think of him leaving, it was just hypothetical. But I got my answer now so it's all good.

Thanks for the answer Chris, good to know you're not in a fickle or anything. If anything, you more than deserved a relaxing retirement.

 

[Quillon]

I do want people to question and ask and contradict.

Which is why you came here where most of the audience reveres you as god among men :D

It's impressive how you managed to overlook all the criticism and scrutiny in your bounding stride. With that kind of ignore-ray vision and leaping around, let me inquire, are you perchance from the planet Krypton?

Most of what Chris says is believable and shameful on Obs' management if true(prolly is) but the timing of all this is annoying. I was watching Anthony Davis' streaming Pillars 1 few hours ago and one of the QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing that Cohh guy's Deadfire stream, despite all this he was very enthusiastic and said he's very lucky to be part of this etc bla bla you can cry now And MCA here trying to ruin it for them(the devs he apparently likes) with the timing of his gut pouring after about 3 years. Yeah :D

 

[Imoens pet]

I do want people to question and ask and contradict.

Which is why you came here where most of the audience reveres you as god among men :D

It's impressive how you managed to overlook all the criticism and scrutiny in your bounding stride. With that kind of ignore-ray vision and leaping around, let me inquire, are you perchance from the planet Krypton?

Most of what Chris says is believable and shameful on Obs' management if true(prolly is) but the timing of all this is annoying. I was watching Anthony Davis' streaming Pillars 1 few hours ago and one of the QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing that Cohh guy's Deadfire stream, despite all this he was very enthusiastic and said he's very lucky to be part of this etc bla bla you can cry now And MCA here trying to ruin it for them(the devs he apparently likes) with the timing of his gut pouring after about 3 years. Yeah :D

Yeah, it is very suspect.

 

[Brancaleone]

Chris Avellone since my question got buried I'll repost it again: Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans? You had experience writing comics, so is that a possible alternative? Novels?
If the question wasn't something you wanted to answer, do forgive me for the annoyance.

If hypothetically, the game industry is an overall "no" next year, I could relax for 200+ years and not worry about a thing. Even my funeral is paid for.

I don't have many expenses, and I don't need to work anymore - I work because I love writing for games, so I do. Shocking, I know, but... yes, it's the truth.

That's the perfect situation for teaming up with Cainarsky and getting started with Arcanum 2.

 

[Rivmusique]

QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing

poor guy. sounds like bad management.

 

[Grauken]

Chris Avellone since my question got buried I'll repost it again: Let us say that hypothetically you'll kiss the game industry goodbye next year. Do you have any backup plans? You had experience writing comics, so is that a possible alternative? Novels?
If the question wasn't something you wanted to answer, do forgive me for the annoyance.

If hypothetically, the game industry is an overall "no" next year, I could relax for 200+ years and not worry about a thing. Even my funeral is paid for.

I don't have many expenses, and I don't need to work anymore - I work because I love writing for games, so I do. Shocking, I know, but... yes, it's the truth.

Wait, think about this guys, if he has to leave the industry, he becomes so cheap (because he would get bored doing nothing) even we could hire him to write for all our RPGmaker games, think of the glorious things we could create

 

[Chris Avellone]

Most of what Chris says is believable and shameful on Obs' management if true(prolly is) but the timing of all this is annoying. I was watching Anthony Davis' streaming Pillars 1 few hours ago and one of the QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing that Cohh guy's Deadfire stream, despite all this he was very enthusiastic and said he's very lucky to be part of this etc bla bla you can cry now And MCA here trying to ruin it for them(the devs he apparently likes) with the timing of his gut pouring after about 3 years. Yeah :D

Anthony is worked very hard at Obsidian, and I regret any long hours or stress he has to deal with (he'll likely have his own response in a few hours, though).

If you ever think I'm attacking Anthony, though, that will never be the case - I think he's an amazing developer, and he's not even a nepotism friend.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Does Chris invest in crypto?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Speaking of Boyarsky, how come he leaves cozy high level position at fucking Blizzard of all places, and goes to Obsidian if its such a horrible place to work?

 

[Quillon]

Most of what Chris says is believable and shameful on Obs' management if true(prolly is) but the timing of all this is annoying. I was watching Anthony Davis' streaming Pillars 1 few hours ago and one of the QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing that Cohh guy's Deadfire stream, despite all this he was very enthusiastic and said he's very lucky to be part of this etc bla bla you can cry now And MCA here trying to ruin it for them(the devs he apparently likes) with the timing of his gut pouring after about 3 years. Yeah :D

Anthony is worked very hard at Obsidian, and I regret any long hours or stress he has to deal with (he'll likely have his own response in a few hours, though).

If you ever think I'm attacking Anthony, though, that will never be the case - I think he's an amazing developer, and he's not even a nepotism friend.

Nope, its just a general assessment of mine of this situation. Anthony is very much unrelated(ain't even working on Deadfire) in what I wrote except QA guy dropping by his stream.(I think you can watch the stream replay if curious somehow )

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Speaking of Boyarsky, how come he leaves cozy high level position at fucking Blizzard of all places, and goes to Obsidian if its such a horrible place to work?

Lured in by Feargus' sirene song only to have a very rude awakening shortly thereafter, finding out that the small printed part of the contract says he can't leave or complain or he's banned from game development forever. This is my guess.

 

[Daedalos]

Speaking of Boyarsky, how come he leaves cozy high level position at fucking Blizzard of all places, and goes to Obsidian if its such a horrible place to work?

A chance to work with his old-time crpg buddy, Tim Cain? Those two usually produce magic together (see Troika). Is my guess, also to work on actual cRPGS rather than blizzard games? Pretty sure that's his own expanation on soem stream a while ago. The matt chatt one.

Leonard might also have a different opinion on the workplace situation at Obsidian than Chris, who knows.

 

[Harold]

Speaking of Boyarsky, how come he leaves cozy high level position at fucking Blizzard of all places, and goes to Obsidian if its such a horrible place to work?

The answer is very simple

 

[Grauken]

Most of what Chris says is believable and shameful on Obs' management if true(prolly is) but the timing of all this is annoying. I was watching Anthony Davis' streaming Pillars 1 few hours ago and one of the QA guys from Obs dropped by and told him they are hard at work polishing the game and he has a few hours rest before overseeing that Cohh guy's Deadfire stream, despite all this he was very enthusiastic and said he's very lucky to be part of this etc bla bla you can cry now And MCA here trying to ruin it for them(the devs he apparently likes) with the timing of his gut pouring after about 3 years. Yeah :D

Anthony is worked very hard at Obsidian, and I regret any long hours or stress he has to deal with (he'll likely have his own response in a few hours, though).

If you ever think I'm attacking Anthony, though, that will never be the case - I think he's an amazing developer, and he's not even a nepotism friend.

Which begs the question, who are your nepotism friends?