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

[Hassknecht]

Hey Chris Avellone, if you'd like to write for no pay whatsoever, I've tried to get a Sonic the Hedgehog mod for Half-Life 2 off the ground for like a few years but that never took off because I'm not a furry. If you could join us to write that would be great (also can you code?)

True indie development.
By furries, for furries.

 

[Sextant]

brrrrrrrr

 

[rrc2soft]

Avellone: muthafucka I'm so loaded I never have to work again, can sustain myself for 200 years and can easily fight 300-men corporations in courts if I so please.


Also Avellone: I left Obsidian with not a dime and deep in debt





Quite a turnaround in just 3 years, FTL guys pay that well?

Cryptocurrencies, maybe ... or he started living like a monk . Anyway, congrats Chris, take care. And if possible, keep writing those characters of yours

 

[Bohrain]

Avellone: muthafucka I'm so loaded I never have to work again, can sustain myself for 200 years and can easily fight 300-men corporations in courts if I so please.


Also Avellone: I left Obsidian with not a dime and deep in debt





Quite a turnaround in just 3 years, FTL guys pay that well?

He found the treasure of Sierra Madre.

 

[Prime Junta]

Cryptocurrencies, maybe .

Funny, I had the same thought.

If this is the case I hope to God he cashed in around December last year.

 

[Sextant]

Sawyer participates in a fun DND session, anno 2014

 

[bobr]

So Chris Avellone why the silence all this time until today? Fairfax has long believed that you were under NDA (which led the rest of us to believe that was the case too). Is it simply not wanting to shit where you previously ate, or maybe something more?

Not surprisingly, someone who founded the company and is responsible for a lot of their success and good reputation, but was coerced to resign from said company, is still angry over his departure three years later; he wants to inflict pain on those who ran him out. On the eve of the company's biggest release, Chris is delivering gifts to the Codex each night like it's Hanukkah knowing full well that at any other time of the year, Obsidian and their legal team would have already been in contact. However, the last thing Obsidian wants 4 days before the release of Deadfire is news breaking that they've sent a cease and desist letter to their ex-founder who claims nepotism at the company and gross financial improprieties. Therefore, he can continue to post unobstructed and reveal all of Obsidian's skeletons without legal threat looming over him. Pretty clever on Chris' part.

 

[agentorange]

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.

As others have pointed out this is going have little to no effect on the overall sales of PoE2. We exist in a bubble where we give a shit about this sort of inside, behind the scenes information of various studios, but a large contingent (maybe the largest) of video game buyers barely even know the names of studios, let alone the names of specific people working in those studios. There is also a certain golden rule about video game discussions which is: many of the people talking about a game never had any intentions of paying money for the game or playing the game. The amount of people who were deadset on buying PoE2 who had their opinions changed by this thread such that they will no longer buy it are, very likely, a minority.

 

[Jacob]

One of you could've been VD's alt, who knows.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

I've never liked Feargus and I'd love to (metaphorically!) shiv him first chance I get, but I can't shake this feeling that he's done us all so much good over the years. It's not like anybody can keep a studio making niche CRPGs running for decades on end.

You mean, the developers who actually give their best manage to keep their doors open despite Feargus' fuck ups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

I was aware, but still. I mean, I wouldn't take a promotion for a position I wasn't qualified and even if I did I would educate myself properly for the task, instead of being a perpetual layman that is incapable even of learning by trial and error.

I'm worried for Chris Avellone. I don't want him to get assassinated like MLMarkland by hired guns working for the games industry.

Suggesting that Avellone and Markland have the same stature in the gaming industry, and that Avellone's whistleblowing is on the same level of Markland's criticisms.

 

[CyberWhale]

Same thing happened in the inXile-gate thread.

Newsflash: Struggling indie developer prefers not to risk alienating anybody in the games industry

Can anyone provide me with a link to this shitstorm? I've seen Mark talk about pedophiles, but nothing about InXile unfortunately.

 

[Infinitron]

Same thing happened in the inXile-gate thread.

Newsflash: Struggling indie developer prefers not to risk alienating anybody in the games industry

Can anyone provide me with a link to this shitstorm? I've seen Mark talk about pedophiles, but nothing about InXile unfortunately.

I was actually referring to the other inXile-gate.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...orment-gamescom-appointment-cancelled.110327/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...s-men-mass-mayhem-with-monty-markland.120041/

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well this thread is good one for the weekend.

 

[Valtiel]

has already started a crowdfunding for the CHRIS AVELLONE MAJESTIC RPG RETURN?
It's time, put a paywall on this thread and the game will be funded over the weekend

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Prime Junta]

has already started a crowdfunding for the CHRIS AVELLONE MAJESTIC RPG RETURN?
It's time, put a paywall on this thread and the game will be funded over the weekend

Way things are going it'll be CHRIS AVELLONE MAJESTIC DEATH SPACE STATION

 

[DavidBVal]

Bah. When it reaches 1600 pages we'll be talking business.

 

[fantadomat]

Ohhhh this thread is a glorious shitshow,in a few hours of sleep it tried to run away from me with 20 pages. It is real shame that i can't get the time to shitpost because of drinking adventure. Infinitron i could come and post some late night drunken shit on your profile .

MCA i must say that i kind of disagree with you on the employs treatment. As a consumer i care mainly for the quality product and don't really care about if employs are whipped or given blowjobs. That i why i roll my eyes when i see some cucks bitching about how much crunch there is at CD Project Red. Now you getting cheated is a whole different story,it is pretty stupid and pity thing to and at very least is try to push you away from rpgs....and this is a death sentence level of offence in my book. Also my reaction this far could be summed up with this :

 

[Sentinel]

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?

Didn't Leo & Tim make huge sacrifices to pay out every single employee before they closed the company? Seems pretty cool compared to Obsidian management.

 

[Kingston]

Less talk, more memes.

 

[fantadomat]

Less talk, more memes.

This is far too white supremacist mate.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Newsflash: Struggling indie developer prefers not to risk alienating anybody in the games industry

That's a very condescending remark, Infinitron. Do you have any information about ITS we don't have? Inb4 ITS gate.

 

[Kingston]

Less talk, more memes.

This is far too white supremacist mate.

To be fair, it was the only gif I found that wasn't shot from a shitty angle. YO CHRIS THIS WASNT A RACIST THING

 

[fantadomat]

Less talk, more memes.

This is far too white supremacist mate.

To be fair, it was the only gif I found that wasn't shot from a shitty angle. YO CHRIS THIS WASNT A RACIST THING

Shame,i was complimenting you.

 

[Delterius]

Bah. When it reaches 1600 pages we'll be talking business.

By then this drama should include at least 2 arsons and a murder.