Alpha Protocol's writing

[Xard]

There's some uncertainty/controversy over Alpha Protocol's lead writer. Of course game has writing team, but lead writer has always left considerable blueprint on the game; On KotOR2 you can see Avellone's craft since the beginning, MotB's story was Ziet's baby and presumably Aliens will be Josh Show: The RPG

 

Nowadays Alpha Protocol's lead writer position belongs to Lead Designer Avellone as exemplified by many mention by himself and others. In particular Anthony Davis recently said at codex "AP is oriented more towards action, but the story and dialog are still Chris Avellone. Matt McClean has done a bang-up job implementing an RPG system that is fun and actually has meaning in an RPG world. "

 

However this game has been under production/designing for many years now and it has had one or two previous lead designers (can't remember, confirmation on that would be cool too).

 

Even though lead designers have changed through these years Brian Mitsoda was the Creative Lead for Alpha Protocol all the time.

 

Now this leads to conclusion that substantial amount - and at least the main story itself - has been written by him already as well as numerous characters etc. material in game, which in turn goes against more recent info we've had. So what's roles of MCA and Mitsoda if they are compared? Avellone is OE's "Creative Director" or whatever that mojo-filtered title was meaning he has his hands at least writingwise in all your games. In MotB Avellone wrote Gann and Kaelyn based on Ziet's initial idea/theme for the character(s).

 

So did Avellone come up with skeleton of the storyline (and some characters) during preproduction and then left the responsibility for Mitsoda to create proper body around the bones? Or did Mitsoda come up with "bones" and most of "body" as well for the game?

 

It is rather confusing, especially now that Mitsoda haven't been mentioned since the initial Game Informer IIRC. Apparently he hasn't left Obsidian (thank god) but he no longer seem to be involved with Alpha Protocol, at least fulltime. So did he get shift on some another (that unannounced?) project?

 

 

 

This thing interests me greatly even alone from the POV of how you guys build your storylines for your games. It would also give some indication how much of previous writing has been scrapped (presumably with the shift from down to earth approach to over the top one) etc.

 

 

 

 

As for the ( utterly random) topic description...

 

I wished I believed in romance more than Bioware. I just can't write it unless one of the pair gets impaled on a pike, set on fire, or betrays the other and then impales them on a pike or sets them on fire. Generally, I prefer unrequited, melancholy, quiet suffering whenever possible, which really doesn't go over well with a lot of the role-players out there.

 

lol finn mentality much?

 

 

 

edit: In fact it was mentioned in Game Informer Mitsoda is no longer working on AP. But questions stays

Edited July 27, 2008 by Xard

[Brian Newland]

lol finn mentality much?

 

You guys have the highest population-to-metal-band ratio of any nation on the planet, so I don't know what you're talking about.

 

 

Sorry, carry on.

[Winterwolf]

I would also like to know that who I must worship for this game. I mean, it is confusing - should I worship Avellone or Mitsoda? Or someone else? I mean, if someone would just say that you need to worship this guy for this game out loud - yeah, you guys should have a "To Whom I Should Look Up In Awe" (Twisluia for short) job title, as it would save all of us from those embarassing situations, when we finally manage to pass the security and break into Obsidian, and then we lay ourselves before the feet of the wrong person. Avellone sure must be getting tired of correcting us all the time.

 

"Are you The Messiah, Savior of Mankind, Son of God?"

"No, not really. He was the lead writer on that game."

[fastpunk]

It is rather confusing, especially now that Mitsoda haven't been mentioned since the initial Game Informer IIRC. Apparently he hasn't left Obsidian (thank god) but he no longer seem to be involved with Alpha Protocol, at least fulltime. So did he get shift on some another (that unannounced?) project?

 

Mitsoda is still with Obsidian? That's a relief. Also, to be perfectly honest, I don't care specifically who wrote what. As long as I know Mitsoda and Avellone worked on AP, it's all good! Mitsoda did story and dialog for Bloodlines (which excelled in both) while Avellone wrote a lot of stuff for both PS:T and KotOR2. That's all I need to know.

Edited July 27, 2008 by fastpunk

[Xard]

It is rather confusing, especially now that Mitsoda haven't been mentioned since the initial Game Informer IIRC. Apparently he hasn't left Obsidian (thank god) but he no longer seem to be involved with Alpha Protocol, at least fulltime. So did he get shift on some another (that unannounced?) project?

 

Mitsoda is still with Obsidian? That's a relief. Also, to be perfectly honest, I don't care specifically who wrote what. As long as I know Mitsoda and Avellone worked on AP, it's all good! Mitsoda did story and dialog for Bloodlines (which excelled in both) while Avellone wrote a lot of stuff for both PS:T and KotOR2. That's all I need to know.

 

Judging by the place he lives according to Myspace yes. At least I don't know any other developer studios on the area than OE

[fastpunk]

Judging by the place he lives according to Myspace yes. At least I don't know any other developer studios on the area than OE

 

Oh. So it's not for sure that he's still with OE... I hope he is.

[Xard]

Judging by the place he lives according to Myspace yes. At least I don't know any other developer studios on the area than OE

 

Oh. So it's not for sure that he's still with OE... I hope he is.

 

Nope, there's no word about it and it makes me a bit worried.

 

But then again I fail to see reason why he wouldn't be working at OE anymore

[Pop]

They installed a "you must be this short to work on our games" sign at the front door and he's been turned away ever since.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I'm already worshipping Avellone for K2's story.

[Cycloneman]

I wished I believed in romance more than Bioware. I just can't write it unless one of the pair gets impaled on a pike, set on fire, or betrays the other and then impales them on a pike or sets them on fire. Generally, I prefer unrequited, melancholy, quiet suffering whenever possible, which really doesn't go over well with a lot of the role-players out there.

 

lol finn mentality much?

It's not like only finns can approach romantic relationships in fiction as a fatalistic deal, you ethnocentric man!

[Xard]

You know one british journalist blamed Jokela school shooting on finnish gloomy and melancholic mentality, for us rather numerous psychological health problems and the fact we don't get enough sunlight in the year.

 

Try and beat that!

 

I'm already worshipping Avellone for K2's story.

 

Which, for all its glory and depth, is nothing but shade of Planescape Torment

 

Bloodlines on the other hand has best end. twist. ever.

 

*constrains waves of rabid fanboyism*

 

I'm honestly curious about this, also partly because I must know to whom I must build my altar for

Edited July 28, 2008 by Xard

[Cycloneman]

You know one british journalist blamed Jokela school shooting on finnish gloomy and melancholic mentality, for us rather numerous psychological health problems and the fact we don't get enough sunlight in the year.

 

Try and beat that!

I'm sure that you know as well as I do I could find an article by a journalist which blames a school shooting on the atheistic nazi mentality. Does this mean that atheists are the only nazis, or, hell, that it actually was motivated by atheistic nazism?

 

No. No it doesn't.

[H]

Bloodlines on the other hand has best end. twist. ever.

 

*constrains waves of rabid fanboyism*

This.

Love, Jack.

[Alvin Nelson]

Sorry folks, we just enjoy keeping you all guessing.

[Xard]

Yeah, I kinda figured it out

[Starwars]

As far as Mitsoda goes... I'm replaying Bloodlines at the moment, and one incredible strength of this game is the characters. Really a colorful bunch, and for once it came full-circle with writing, great face animations and extraordinary voiceacting. I hope AP will be like Bloodlines in that way, because the characters are really extremely good. Jeanette/Therese, Jack, Maximillian Strauss, Alistair Grout (though we only hear him, what a magnificent voiceacting performance, absolutely dead-on), Lacroix... It's great stuff.

 

I hadn't played Bloodlines in a while, so I thought Mass Effect would be the new "king" here so to speak. But after playing Bloodlines again, I'm blown away by the work done with the characters.

[Wrath of Dagon]

ME characters are badly written and boring, why would it be the king of anything?

[Xard]

As far as Mitsoda goes... I'm replaying Bloodlines at the moment, and one incredible strength of this game is the characters. Really a colorful bunch, and for once it came full-circle with writing, great face animations and extraordinary voiceacting. I hope AP will be like Bloodlines in that way, because the characters are really extremely good. Jeanette/Therese, Jack, Maximillian Strauss, Alistair Grout (though we only hear him, what a magnificent voiceacting performance, absolutely dead-on), Lacroix... It's great stuff.

 

I hadn't played Bloodlines in a while, so I thought Mass Effect would be the new "king" here so to speak. But after playing Bloodlines again, I'm blown away by the work done with the characters.

 

And I for one just finished replaying PS:T

 

 

It is still utterly undefeatable, though great chunks of KotOR 2 and Bloodlines gives it good challenge. MotB is fantastic too.

 

oh, and how could you NOT mention Fat Larry?

Edited July 28, 2008 by Xard

[Starwars]

ME characters are badly written and boring, why would it be the king of anything?

 

Wasn't clear in my post, but I was mainly referring to the visual presentation of the characters.

 

I think it's a bit hard to compare something like PS:T to Bloodlines though, since they are kinda on different sides of the spectrum. I myself prefer PS:Ts direction, with it being based mostly on words with its great use of descriptive text and so on, and leaving the visual spectrum more limited. But Bloodlines is great in the other direction, where the writing overall may not as elaborate, but instead relies more on the visuals (and voiceacting).

And of course, there is a huge difference in setting as well, which obviously affects the writing a lot. The Masquerade, while quite fantastical, is still a lot more steeped in realism than something like Torment which is sort of "all out".

 

Like I said, I generally prefer "graphics-lite" games that rely much on words, since that tends to vibe with me for whatever reason. But if we're gonna have fancy technology involved, then I really want that tech poured into the characters. Bloodlines did that wonderfully I think, and having seen some of the screens of AP, I really hope it will follow suit.

[Xard]

Well, I only talked about dialogues

 

 

edit: Is it just me or did Bloodline's just take Morte's "what's up chief" and changed that simply to boss for Gary?

Edited July 28, 2008 by Xard