A recent Chris Avellone interview.

[Guest The Architect]

http://www.starwarsknights.com/fullstory.php?id=386

 

Pretty interesting stuff, eh?

Edited September 25, 2007 by The Architect

[Rosbjerg]

It was, I had no idea that the HK-50 factory was supposed to've been set up by Revan.

[Mr Tenacious]

Hmm. Thats a pretty interesting interview right there.

[DAWUSS]

It was, I had no idea that the HK-50 factory was supposed to've been set up by Revan.

 

 

So he builds one of the greatest droids of all time, and has it become the template for a bunch of loser imitators, rambling about "facilitating communications and terminating hostilities"...

 

 

At least it's better than Jango's clones.

[Pavlos]

Bah! I was just going to post this over here too and you go an' ruin my fun. I hope you're happy with yourselves.

 

Anyway, I'd just like to thank Mr. Avellone once again for responding to our questions. Even after Emperor Devon told me to shorten my questions some of them still turned out larger than his answers >_>.

[Dark Wastl]

Hey, isn't that something new about KOTOR III?

It went from "we aren't developing it right now and I don't think anyone else does, either" to "can't talk about it"

 

 

Nice interview, and some very interesting answers.

[Xard]

Huge kudos for TA, I would've never seen this interview without this topic

 

Very, very interesting, especially point about team not being able for playing first game for first three months of development cycle ( now THAT'S a waste of time! ), last K3 was slightly uplifting and it's ALWAYS interesting to hear Avellone to speak.

[Force Slayer]

Huge kudos for TA, I would've never seen this interview without this topic

 

Very, very interesting, especially point about team not being able for playing first game for first three months of development cycle ( now THAT'S a waste of time! ), last K3 was slightly uplifting and it's ALWAYS interesting to hear Avellone to speak.

That does seem rather interesting. Some movie and novel writters are somtimes told not to see anything that preceeds. Some times it helps people to not repeat storyarchs. When proffessors teach figure drawing, they have their students go through relaxing techniques. I don't think it was a waste of time. They should practice this on a regular basis. Some of the greatest improvements to stories comes from not being exposed to the material. Just like artists, writters need to flex their mental muscles.

Edited September 26, 2007 by Force Slayer

[DeathScepter]

That is an interesting interview/article. Me likely.

[Zoma]

For KOTOR2, especially if one considers that the development time is barely a year. 3 months is ALOT of time to waste.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Not allowed to play KoTOR 1 before starting with KoTOR 2? What the heck is that about? What a waste of time.

[pantherus]

It's really quite telling of his character that he takes on himself the responsibility of the botched deadline...

[Zoma]

I think he's being too harsh on himself on the other hand.

[DAWUSS]

Not allowed to play KoTOR 1 before starting with KoTOR 2? What the heck is that about? What a waste of time.

 

I agree completely

[Meshugger]

Very nice interview. And it is nice to see as well that Mr.Avellone unofficially supports Team-Gizka for their efforts.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Not allowed to play KoTOR 1 before starting with KoTOR 2? What the heck is that about? What a waste of time.

 

I agree completely

I still don't understand the point of that. Just wasted time.

[Tale]

Probably so they would create a fresh game and not try to just repeat what KOTOR1 did.

 

Avellone mentions one particular way they did suffer trying to imitate KOTOR1 already. The number of planets.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Tale

[pantherus]

Kinda hard to justify not being able to play the game though...

 

Definitely agree that he's too hard on himself about it all

[NoCc]

"Emperor Devon: And lastly, the inevitable K3 question... Are you allowed to say anything on it?

 

Chris Avellone: I can

[Guest The Architect]

It was, I had no idea that the HK-50 factory was supposed to've been set up by Revan.

 

It's been speculated that Revan set up the HK factory in preparation for this True Sith threat. I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess if Revan's plan to stop the True Sith failed, Revan would have something to draw back to. Either way, I like the sound of a HK-47 led HK army assisting Revan against the True Sith at some point in KotOR III.

 

I don't think we've seen or heard the last of this HK factory yet.

 

Anyway, I also agree that it was stupid how Obsidian weren't allowed to play KotOR during the first three months of the development of TSL. How the heck are they supposed to do a sequel to a story that took place five years before it when they know nothing about it?

 

To use an analogy, it's no different than if someone else, who hadn't even read and knew nothing about The Fellowship of the Ring, was to write The Two Towers, instead of Tolkien. I can't help but think that there would be less people complaining that TSL lacked that sequel feel to KotOR, if Obsidian was allowed to play KotOR from the very beginning.

 

And yeah, as you folks have said, that last bit of the interview on KotOR II was some fairly encouraging news. It's also nice to know that if Obsidian does make KotOR III, it will be a wrap up of TSL, since Avellone has said that from the very beginning he wrote TSL with the intention of their being a wrapper upper sequel to it. I don't see why LA would deny him the opportunity to "clean up the mess" so to speak.

 

Oh, and by the way, in case anyone was wondering, the fact that it's not canon that Nihilus is the Exile's other half doesn't mean that they aren't and never will be. It's just that Avellone cannot canonize it, because that right falls to LA and not to him. It might not be canon now, but it might be one day. I'd say so too, since KotOR III is on the cards for sure.

[refuse]

To the users who find not playing the first game a waste of time:

 

This is a risky situation, but assuming that the team you employ is creative enough, by not allowing them to play the first game, you don't automatically set them any parameters about game design or story/plot. This can be positive as you'll end up with an entirely new game, rather a game that feels more like an expansion than a game in itself. To use a musical analogy, you don't end like the Ramones, releasing the same one record with 20 different covers (ha!).

 

It is a bit questionable on behalf of Lucas, if only because at least with the films, they like to repeat many story themes and situations, so you'd somewhat expect a repitition of events, places and scenarios. Perhaps they should have been given a comic book version of the first game and then let them figure out how to design the game from scratch.

 

In any case, it's pointless discussing what coulda woulda shoulda, the game's done!

[Pidesco]

To use an analogy, it's no different than if someone else, who hadn't even read and knew nothing about The Fellowship of the Ring, was to write The Two Towers, instead of Tolkien. I can't help but think that there would be less people complaining that TSL lacked that sequel feel to KotOR, if Obsidian was allowed to play KotOR from the very beginning.

 

 

Isn't lacking the sequel feel a good thing?

[Xard]

In this case, yeah.

 

However with that short developing time not being able to play first game at all is only harmful. Possible influences by plot and scenes are minor when compared against benefits from knowing gaming mechanics/engine stuff/[insert your random gaming jargon here].

 

If development time would've been longer that would be just reasonable, but now 1 month should've been enough IMO

[pantherus]

While avoiding making K2 a carbon-copy of K1 is a good idea - the simple fact that it's a sequel from the original, follows on the story (more or less) from the first, and contains reintroduced and cameo characters from it all mean that you will need a solid knowledge of how the first game went to make it viable.

[Tale]

follows on the story (more or less) from the first, and contains reintroduced and cameo characters from it all mean that you will need a solid knowledge of how the first game went to make it viable.

This is true only if they had planned on these things originally. I think it's very reasonable to say that they were not planning on doing that intially.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Tale