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Hey Chris... ahem, Mr Avellone, if you have spare time, why don't you go ahead and outline your hypothetical "dream game" - setting, gameplay, story, structure and themes, just an outline, no need to go into specifics - in a blogpost. Would give some nice new perspective on this whole matter, and would - I believe - launch whole new set of suggestions and interesting discussions.

All of Double Fine

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Uhm, yes they were. This was repeadetly stated by several members of the project. Furthermore they are also passionnate too about South Park because for the devs its actually a pretty smart show. According to Avellone back at Black Isle one of the Artist drew South Park versions of the Planescape: Torment Charachters. Oh, another thing about Black Isle which you seem to have forgotten is that they made Dark Alliance 2. DSIII was basically based on that style. Also I don't think Obsidian and especially Avellone is pretentious enough to think of themselves as making high "Art" as you describe it. (And if you mean it in the sense: "Rather done other projects"... Yeah, but that counts for all games and refers to indivual developers preferences. That's also kinda what this is for)

I don't think they were passionate and proud about DS3. That falls under the category of making license plates. I don't think MCA even worked on that Diablo clone. Another Diablo clone is just what the world needed and Obsidian were passionate about providing it? As far as South Park, I'm left speechless. I don't even know what to say. What's next? A Beavis and Butthead game? That stuff isn't about art. It's about doing what you think will make the most money. Pandering to the lowest common denominator. A race to the bottom. If they were already doing what they wanted I don't think they would need a kickstart project. The problem is that real cRPGs are dead and buried. RIP. Good ones are profitable, but not profitable enough for publishers and investors.

@metiman I don't really think you understand how game development worked. And even then they were passionate and proud about every project so far despite what you may think.

Have you discussed the idea with Feargus? What are his views on the matter? I would hope that you would jump at the chance to make a game which you could be truly proud of again. This DS3 and South Park business seems really embarrassing and shameful. It almost seems like you guys are pulling a Bioware on your old loyal fans. Even before Bioware was bought out, they sold out. They weren't artists. They were businessmen. You are a game designer and writer who now co-owns your own studio. If that doesn't give you the ability to do projects like this then what's the point? Maybe you should segment a part of your studio just for lower budget, but real RPGs and/or interactive novel PS:T type games. You could even give it a separate name to make fans of your work realize that they can expect something more like PS:T/FO1/F02/MOTB/FONV and less like DS3 and South Park etc. Make it clear that the sub-studio will absolutely not compromise on things like what the kiddies would call 'walls of text' and slow, strategic, thinking-man's combat that is more battle chess than street fighter. A niche market is still a market. It hasn't disappeared just because it has been flooded with little kids from the Facebook generation who hate complexity and can't be bothered to read a manual for an hour before starting their game.