Editorial RPG Codex Report: A Codexian Visit to inXile Entertainment

[Irenaeus]

That restriction still exists though. Tyranny tried to do the animated portraits thing (albeit combined with descriptive dialogue) and it was awful. Theres also the pillars thing where Voice acting runs over the descriptive text so you tune out one or the other. Isometric view doesn't help with the expressive models thing either.

How about talking heads?

 

[sser]

Could it be that the quality of the walls of text matters? Or perhaps, could it be that back then, you had to write a lot due to technical restrictions which now no longer exist and therefore, much of badly written expiatory text seem redundant? Why write "The old man rubbed his chin, his eyes darting about like a scurrying rat" when you can just have a model or animated portrait do it?

If NPCs had portraits half the words in the game could have been axed.

The written actions I kinda get, because there's not an actual sequential motion between reading and animation. Fantasy's bizarre obsession with describing articles of clothing has always bugged me, though, and is technically a redundancy if it's already presented in-game.

 

[Reapa]

Pretty great interview. For all the talk of Fargo being an oil snake salesman (justified I might add. Not communicating all the cuts to the backers when they were one month away from release is a fucking questionable move even if I were to believe it was just incompetence as they say. Considering their update regarding the cuts didn't even cover all of them, they will need more to convince me that they weren't keeping things quiet intentionally), he comes off very sincere in his answers, even when trying to diminish their screw ups.

The ship is sinking, they have no choice but to admit it and move on. Snake oil salesmen can show professionalism you know? professionalism in this case would be to do damage control with the community.
He is totally a sham, but he knows how to act like one.

They don't want to completely cut their bridges with the gaming community no matter how harsh our comments can be because they don't want to become like DoubleBear with no one to sell games to.

I mean, this is what DoubleBear is making these days :

From Dead State to this. Eh.

This isn't Fargo being a nice human being. This is Fargo understanding that InXile could just end up like DoubleBear if they handled the fiasco the same way.

the horror...

 

[MRY]

"Average Players: 0.0" is even shorter than "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

 

[Prime Junta]

"Average Players: 0.0" is even shorter than "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

Hey, you just beat Hemingway in a writing competition. Put that in your bio, it's pretty impressive

 

[cherry blossom]

Did you play Dead State?

I did. Overall good game with good writing gone sour due to scope and compartmented gameplay. Mitsodas need somebody supervising and managing their work, that is what sank Dead State in my opinion but I still liked that game more than quite a few others. Flawed but good game.

 

[huskarls]

Where did Fargo get these two dickheads? He spent eight million paying these two megalomaniacs comparing themselves to authors to hold virtual meetings for four years. Worst of all they were totally unapologetic about making a shitty game and didn't kiss our ass right like Fargo. He needs to fire them and the "celebrity" designers next time so he can pay some artists to make more than two maps and six portraits

 

[Severian Silk]

I am playing Dead State right now. So far so good. I have minor issues with GUI and combat animations. Also, shit like raiding a gun store and only getting bits of ammo.

 

[Father Foreskin]

I envision Brian Mitsoda lying on some shallow bed with faded bedsheets. Its a dimly lit, tiny apartment where he is. Brian dreams of the days when he was at Troika, real art with the bros. Or the early days at Obsidian. Just a young guy with an intresting job and some cash to lose. Annie is on her macbook and turns to Brian.

"You dont guess WHAT Trump just did" Annie Says.

"Hmmmnng?" Brian mums.

"He went GOLFING, fucking GOLFING. MISOGYNIST PIG!" Annie howls.

Brian remembers the time he used to golf a long time ago. He had to sell his golf clubs to pay Unity licencing fees for Dead State. How he longs for those clubs. Suddenly a vicious noise disturbs Brian. TINK TONK BEEP BOOP. Annie has begun to test their latest creation, the Multiverse Highschool whatever.

Brian forgets the golf clubs, he no longer needs them. A gun with one bullet would be great. There must be Early Access in heaven.

 

[naossano]

That's a wordy interviews. You don't think the readers will complain about those info dump ?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

This interview has more than 14.000 words and as such is one of the best interviews of its kind.

 

[Tacgnol]

I envision Brian Mitsoda lying on some shallow bed with faded bedsheets. Its a dimly lit, tiny apartment where he is. Brian dreams of the days when he was at Troika, real art with the bros. Or the early days at Obsidian. Just a young guy with an intresting job and some cash to lose. Annie is on her macbook and turns to Brian.

"You dont guess WHAT Trump just did" Annie Says.

"Hmmmnng?" Brian mums.

"He went GOLFING, fucking GOLFING. MISOGYNIST PIG!" Annie howls.

Brian remembers the time he used to golf a long time ago. He had to sell his golf clubs to pay Unity licencing fees for Dead State. How he longs for those clubs. Suddenly a vicious noise disturbs Brian. TINK TONK BEEP BOOP. Annie has begun to test their latest creation, the Multiverse Highschool whatever.

Brian forgets the golf clubs, he no longer needs them. A gun with one bullet would be great. There must be Early Access in heaven.

Saddest thing being, Annie was relatively sane at one point.

 

[Neanderthal]

I envision Brian Mitsoda lying on some shallow bed with faded bedsheets. Its a dimly lit, tiny apartment where he is. Brian dreams of the days when he was at Troika, real art with the bros. Or the early days at Obsidian. Just a young guy with an intresting job and some cash to lose. Annie is on her macbook and turns to Brian.

"You dont guess WHAT Trump just did" Annie Says.

"Hmmmnng?" Brian mums.

"He went GOLFING, fucking GOLFING. MISOGYNIST PIG!" Annie howls.

Brian remembers the time he used to golf a long time ago. He had to sell his golf clubs to pay Unity licencing fees for Dead State. How he longs for those clubs. Suddenly a vicious noise disturbs Brian. TINK TONK BEEP BOOP. Annie has begun to test their latest creation, the Multiverse Highschool whatever.

Brian forgets the golf clubs, he no longer needs them. A gun with one bullet would be great. There must be Early Access in heaven.

Saddest thing being, Annie was relatively sane at one point.

Nah mate, they're all mad bitches underneath, just gotta marry em so they can let guard down when they've got you by balls an alf your fuckin house that you spent decades slavin to pay for.

Have we got a bitter emote?

 

[ArchAngel]

This interview has more than 14.000 words and as such is one of the best interviews of its kind.

Maybe it is , but after reading some of the quoted examples, I decided to not bother reading it whole as it seems it is full of InXile's terrible excuses for their failures.

 

[Darkzone]

Zeb Cook, Monty Cook, Colin McCook... What difference, at this point, does it make?

The difference is that too many cooks spoil the broth.

 

[laclongquan]

Anne and Brian has no kid, IIRC. That's a recipe for madness. Woman need kids to put their in(s)anity on them, and Man need to compete with the kids to gain mama's attention.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Would you share how much a writer of your stature would get for writing the complete script of an RPG the size of vtmb? Simple curiosity.

My pay has been all over the place over the years. On a couple projects, my pay rate has been 20 cents or 25 cents a word. ... For TTON, I was paid $20/hour, which is the lowest pay rate I've had since painting houses in high school.

I think that for TTON you'd have been better off with the per word rate, a goldmine, literally.

 

[MRY]

Possibly, but I spent an absurd amount of time per word (though it may not show). I can't remember my word count but I think it would've been close. Per word is best for things you can do in a fugue state, and I never got there with Torment.

 

[cvv]

Great interview. The dude did it for free? If so then hats off to DU. With persuasive skills like that how does he still live in Australia?

The walkaway lesson here is I'm so glad I went into finance instead of game design when I had the chance.

 

[J_C]

The walkaway lesson here is I'm so glad I went into finance instead of game design when I had the chance.

As someone who got his degree in finance, I say you should have gone to engineering. :D

 

[cvv]

The walkaway lesson here is I'm so glad I went into finance instead of game design when I had the chance.

As someone who got his degree in finance, I say you should have gone to engineering. :D

Yes, that has been a prevailing sentiment in the industry in the last few years. Unfortunately to study engineering you actually need some measure of genuine talent. In economics/finance you can largely bullshit your way to the diploma, cushy job and eventually even a couple of promotions.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Torment: Tides of Numenera has revealed the difference between a David Zeb Cook setting and a Monte Cook setting, as well as the difference between a game written by Chris Avellone and by Colin McComb.

 

[Crospy]

Saddest thing being, Annie was relatively sane at one point.

Not sure if serious.


Also this.

 

[Tacgnol]

Saddest thing being, Annie was relatively sane at one point.

Not sure if serious.


Also this.

Never seemed that crazy when she posted here.

 

[santino27]

Saddest thing being, Annie was relatively sane at one point.

Not sure if serious.


Also this.

Never seemed that crazy when she posted here.

Agreed. Remember her posting around SoZ time frame and she seemed as sane as the rest of us... which may admittedly be damning her with faint praise.