Chris Avellone's Blog

As many before have said: The most important thing is that YOU do something you are happy with and spread your creative wings. I have mentioned it before, but I will chip in $1000 for a Kickstarter the first day, no matter what the game is about and how it is played. As long as Chris is head writer and you have your long time PC fans in focus.

 

That said, I wouldn't be sad if this hypothetical game has lots of dialogue and the choice & consequences you do so well. Deep and difficult strategy if combat is present is nice. Isometric + turn based is usually best for this, but the classic Freedom Force shows that turn-based isn't a must and I really think too few games like it has been made on the PC.

 

If you want to maximize pledge income, I think you should do what Order of the Stick is doing - adding new milestone goals so that pledging becomes a game in itself. Though with the "entitled gamer" culture being what it is, I suspect great adoration could turn to great anger when some people realize they won't get exactly the game they have imagined. I think managing public relations will be a challenge....

 

Adding a variety of small games in completely wild settings as subgoal rewards would be cool. Something like the small creative games Double Fine did to get their creative juices flowing again after almost being killed by Brutal Legend flopping.

 

Ok, the realistic stuff over and done with, time to fantisize:

Some dream settings I have always wanted to see turned into games (but if licence costs would mean less game - screw it, make your own IP):

• Anything China Mieville (though it is rumored he only has contempt for games).
  
• The Gentlemen Bastard world by Scott Lynch, rising in the ranks of a thieves guild from being abandoned there as an orphan.
  
• An occult detective story with secret magic warfare and people making disturbing pacts with dark forces set in Victorian London or the court of Louis XIV of France.
  
• A vivid bustling Constantinople of the Ottoman Empire with scheming eunuchs, Janissiaries and princesses of the Purple chamber...
  
• You cooperating with White Wolf to do a single player Werewolf: The awakening game (Werewolf is the only setting that improved in the second generation I think).
  
• A game where you kill the loathesome bad guy, only it turns out he has vital knowledge, so you have to defy the gods and spring his soul from hell.
  
• A game where instead of someone telling you to attack a place, a full-frontal assault will be suicide and instead you have to carefully infiltrate the location! Spying on the change of the guard, seducing intimidating or bluffing guardmen or servants to get a map of the grounds, not knowing in advance what the magical defences are, etc etc.
  

There are a few things about PS:T that have yet to be surpassed, and none of them have to do with expensive stuff like graphics and voice acting or minute mechanical details like camera perspective, party size or D&D 2e combat.

 

What made PS:T good was that the vast majority of sidequests are of direct relevance to the principle characters both narratively and mechanically. Rather than rolling us through a giant cast of one-off RPG stereotype characters (plus one 'companion quest' per ally as per the Bioware model), each serves to deepen the characters we actually care about. We learn more of their past; we learn about their attributes and tendencies; we gain abilities for them that tie thematically to who they are. Only in PS:T do you get to recover one of your former eyes, stick it back inside your body, and in so doing gain both memories and abilities pertinent to those memories (and pertinent to you! Not to god damn Grimsby the Uninteresting who runs the inn and lost his paperwork in the wolf cave).

 

I've always been surprised that nobody else has done these things since. The stories we see in RPGs today are scattershot, unfocused, thematically oblivious, often lacking in good drama and tension. PS:T was directed, focused, thematically aware and for this reason it was filled to the brim with interesting things. I played through it again last summer; practically everyone you meet and everything you do is concerned with the parable of Nameless One, his past and of course his nature. Storytelling that looks inward rather than outward.

 

This, IMO, is what Obsidian games do best, you seem to be among the only ones in the entire game industry who can do it, and you should continue to do that because that's what makes your games special (regardless of how they fare on Metacritic).

Neverwinter Nights 3!

 

Polish the nwn2 engine and add better multiplayer with proper multiplayer campaign/story.

An original dark fantasy RPG, preferably with a focus on strategy and tactics. Show them all how it's done. Offer us a complex setting we can get lost in for years and don't shy away from more mature subjects. Make it an emotional rollercoaster and make us truly care about the characters involved. Don't be afraid to be cruel in how you punish and reward our choices. Pull no punches.

I'd like to see a magic system that is not in any way, shape or form magical. Alchemy, science and trickery applied by clever minds and cunning sleight of hand. The fireball throwing mage is hurling an explosive grenade, his staff of power is an antiquated long rifle, his long robes hides a number of ingenious inventions and gadgets. A regular Archimedes of Syracuse whose understanding of the natural world has produced wonders that seems utterly fantastical.

First of all, it has to be an RPG.

 

A story-driven one too, so none of your Dungeon Siege 3 shenanigans.

 

A big yes to Party-based. Although Vampire: Masquerade was also awesome.

 

I'm indifferent to isometric and turn-based myself. But if you made one, i'd definitely kick in.

 

Otherwise, whatever setting you think works best for the kind of game you want to make. I'd certainly play another Planescape game but don't blow money on getting the licence for someone else's IP if you can do just as well without it.

Ok so here's mine:

 

 

 

An RPG that has as its base a living, believable world that reacts to your actions and exists DESPITE you, not FOR you. A focus on realism. Like Darklands, but 20 years more advanced. Create good AI and game mechanics instead of scripted events. Non-linearity and a world you explore because its inviting, not because it's the only direction you can walk in. A grey world without clear good/evil choices or people, where everyone has a plausible motive for their actions.

 

 

 

Use that as the backdrop for intense, personal relationships and challenges with consequences. Adult themes and problems, not teen fantasy. Quests about solving believable problems, not finding the lost gem of supahpowah. Relationships more like Torment with some lessons from the better japanese so-called dating sims. Real consequences, in the game world. Not just in a cut-scene or in a karma meter, but really, like if I don't save the village's water supply, they die or move out, and that village is gone for the rest of the game. I want to be crippled by difficult choices and even have not making a choice be a choice, instead of just 'pausing' that quest until I come back 2 game years later to finish it. That feeling of being involved in the world like Star Control 2, or A Mind Forever Voyaging. And not this hand-holding easiness so popular these days. Let me lose, let me make choices that suck. Let there be enemies I simply CANNOT defeat without massive preparation and planning.

 

 

I would love to be able to really affect the game world, not just in scripted ways. If I rob all the trade caravans, let the town's money run low, affecting the population, shops closing, famine, all leading to crime, possible invasion, etc.

If I ignore the growing monster threat, let them start terrorizing local towns, instead of just waiting for me to come deal with them.

Let me hear news about such events through realistic channels with realistic delays (word-of-mouth via traveling salesmen) instead of on an omniscient world events screen. No magic universal karma: if no one sees me kill farmer joe, then let me go and get hired by his son to find the murderer, and frame someone else.

And no gamey crap like artifically blocked-off areas or scaling enemies.

 

I'm not against 3D, but 2D is so much easier to make pretty, leaves more to the imagination, and doesn't take such a huge chunk of the budget. I always wonder how awesome something like Skyrim might've been if the resources spent on graphics and audio were invested in creating the living AI world that Derek Smart always talked about but never delivered.

Combat has to be turn-based, but WEGO. Realtime with pause and giving orders while paused is basically fine.

 

I like fantasy, but it's really overdone. I'd like to see a rather fresh setting, maybe a rarely used area of sci-fi (cyberpunk perhaps, or colonization of new worlds, think mines of titan, gateway, the aldebaran series). Or zombie apocalypse.

 

OOooooorr, a remake of IT CAME FROM THE DESERT....

Actually, not kidding. It doesn't need a massive budget, very story-centric, offers lots of opportunities for great writing, non-linear gameplay (if done right), and is peppered with lots of (hopefully) fun short mini-games and tactical elements that are part of the story and make sense instead of being totally absurd QTE's.

Turned base rpg with 2d or isometric perspective should require little art & animation budget, everything written, no voice-overs. It would bring to the table something a lot of us desire without huge needs of moneys. Just focus on a good tactical gameplay, good story and choices and consequences. Don't use any game system or content license to avoid cost raising.

Okay here's the game I fantasise over;

 

A sci-fi version of Sid Meier's Pirates as an RPG, in which you and your crew sails and colonises the clouds of Venus, make the game short, but with lots of re-playability, I liked how you could alter the world you started in for difficulty. The semi-2D environment of sailing on an ocean of clouds, is very conducive to stealth and ambushing, as well as semi-random(stealthed) encounters.

 

Make it 2D isometric turn-based Strategic tactical RPG with squad/party combat as well as heavy emphasis on non-combat, such as making each character have two class a combat class and non-combat class, although there could be some overlap.

 

You will have RPG progression, your Airship will have RPG progression, and each of your crew members have RPG progression. You, your Airship and your crew members, will be fully customisable. Each member of your crew will be distinct have there own stories as well as interconnected ones. Everyone of your crew member (including you) can have emotions, relationships and even Non-game over deaths.

 

The main game [story] is time limited, making the game technical short and fast paced, but the game can carry on outside of the main story. This allows both a quick game for those who want it, and an in depth hidden world full of exploration and side stories for those whom have the time.

 

The world is composed of vast oceans of clouds, filled with floating structures allied to various factions and of different types, Sky Farms[Harvesting the much brighter rays of the sun to feed the plants], Sky shafts[Vast towers that plunge into the clouds, hoping to gather resources from the surface without being destroyed by the inferno on the surface], Sky Hooks[ Port cities, with space elevators connecting it satellites above], Sky Fortresses [Large floating commercial cities, that trade and hoard Gold, weapons and other] resources], Sky Mines[small wondering mining cities that seek out naturally occurring floating islands composed of alien coral], Coral Shanties[scrap together home built on the underside of floating islands, often filled with pirates, and folk willing to viciously defend their home].

 

The Floating Alien Coral Islands are islands composed of hexagonal tiles made of nitrogen-filled porous rock/living matter, the islands are often filled with minerals gathered from the air by micro-organisms as well as other important resources, it often carries native alien life forms as well, but be careful the oxygen you breath is a deadly toxin to them.

 

These islands can be like mini block game side mission, where you can gather resources for trading or upgrading, as well as for practising combat.

 

All floating structures can be sacked, conquered or traded with so long as they don't destroy with their cannons when you approach, crew/party combat should be tactical and turn-based, kind of like RPG chess.

I personally would love to see a successor to Planescape, or Kotor 2, sadly you don't have any rights to the later.

 

Any old school isometric RPG should be pretty good and I think there are enough Fans to support such a thing.

The obvious advantages were that you could have as much development time as needed, and a isometric RPG doesn't a ton of funding, so you should have enough time to make a big, polished game and restore your slightly tarnished reputation for making buggy games.

It could bring some interesting results if the setting and themes were about something like Game of Thrones meets Philip K. ****.

 

edit - Oh, jesus... I can't write a persons name without it being cencored?

Another vote for a PST game. Not so interested in forgotten realms, it's been done too often.

I'll keep checking back for a vote system, but if Obsidian are screening for the popularity RPG's in the vein of infinity engine games then you have my vote, wallet, blood transfusion, bulk coffee donations, etc.

Personally I would like to see something done in the horror genre, you don't really see it in RPGs and it's something unusual. Also character driven as opposed to story driven.

 

2d/3d/turnbased/isometric/3rd person/FPRPG, doesn't matter to me, I enjoy them all.

An MST3K RPG would be awesome. And a sequal PST game would be awesome. I have 5 different versions of PST so obviously I would love another one.

1) A proper sequel to NwN with a focus on customization, smooth gameplay, and multiplayer. Use the Pathfinder ruleset!

 

2) A classic 2D isometric RPG. Not another Planescape please...nothing could ever compare to the original. Start a bold new IP!

Had to chime in here

 

I'd fork over at least 75 euro for a new REAL cRPG.

If it's made by Obsidian I already know it's going to be good so I have no need to input anything.

 

But as opinions were requested :

 

1

Please make it mature.

No, not like Sexy Beach 3 or Grand Theft Auto.

More like Heavy Rain.

 

2

While many voiced turnbased up to now, let me be the one to break the cycle.

I prefer tactical combat, but don't think tactical and turnbased are 1 in the same.

Do what you think gives the best experience and be inventive

1) A proper sequel to NwN with a focus on customization, smooth gameplay, and multiplayer. Use the Pathfinder ruleset!2) A classic 2D isometric RPG. Not another Planescape please...nothing could ever compare to the original. Start a bold new IP!

 

Why not? The Planescape Setting is big, creative and has mutliple stories still left in it. It's not like Torment touched on everything possible in it.

Envisage you're part of a crew of about 50 - 60 in a research facility out somewhere in deep space either on a inhospitable planet/moon space station, and the overarching storyline is about surviving an impending catastrophe until earth/the federation etc send a rescue team. The decisions you make and the alliances you build with your fellow crew members impact upon how things play out. For example do you risk trying to rescue the team that at trapped out in a blizzard due to vehicle failure and risk the lives of more people, or do you try and come up with a better plan? What's the blowback on your success or failure? How does the heavily pregnant wife of that engineer who you sent to his death react when you break the news to her? Does she blame you? Him for being foolhardy? Those idiots who went off ill prepared in the first place? How does her grief impact future events? Does she lose hope? The will to live? maybe even the baby? What if it's a relief to her given the baby wasn't even his in the first place? In fact why was it that the couplings on the rescue vehicle went?

 

Something where every NPC has some value, agenda and is reactive to events would be a really interesting space to explore. A smaller more detailed arena would suit this rather than a spawling game space like Skyrim.

Just promise to make an old school RPG with no modern consessions or mechanics... and ABSOLUTLEY no controller/console support.

 

Thats worth $60 to me.

You know what, on second thought, an RPG like Darklands could probably go a LOT farther with the limited funds that Kickstarter could produce vs. a completely isometric RPG. I'd be really happy with that route too. Something incredibly old-school where the player's imagination factors into a large part of the appeal of the adventure.

Simple, party based isometric rpg in a fantasy universe.

 

Pretty much this. I hear there used to be a pretty good engine for these, one some of you guys are familiar with.

 

"Beta Protocol" would get my dime as well, on the principle that I assume it was a learning experience for you guys, as well.

What I'd like to see is just an RPG that really pushes the envelope in terms of story telling. What made Planescape Torment really interesting was the moral ambiguity and diverging ways you could play the game and handle conflicts.

 

All I want is to see you go all out with an interesting story and atmosphere. If it's an isometric RPG too, all the better.

This comments thread is making me depressed. You all want to play yet another 2D turnbased RPG with magic and elves and dark fantasy.. for the umpteenth time.

 

****.

i want the best obsidian games:

 

ALPHA PROTOCOL 2

 

or similar game (ACTION TPS ESPIONAGE RPG)

 

you have to give up the votes of Metacritic ... we are a lot to be desired in the sequel to ALPHA PROTOCOL.

 

 

sega did not want to build it?I think it's time to realize it themselves.

 

few months will be announced the Unreal 4.0 engine, I thinkit would be great for the sequel to the best game I played on you.