Chris Avellone inteview at Gamestar.ru

[funcroc]

http://gamestar.ru/article/1925.html

 

?3 is coming soon. Are you and your team planning to present anything at Expo?

 

Will have to wait for the news releases, so prepare to watch the E3 feeds and be entertained.

 

Have you got congenial developers who have the same idea and point of view on game industry? If you had a possibility of joint game project who of your colleagues could become a perfect co-author?

 

I've worked with a number of great developers. Some I currently work with and others I'd work with again: Dan Spitzley and Brian Menze (we've been together since Torment), Tim Donley (lead artist on Torment), George Ziets, Anthony Davis, Tony Evans, Travis Stout, Colin McComb, and Tim Cain. I'd work with Ken Levine in a heartbeat, but he's already got all his story stuff handled, so he wouldn't need me. I like David Gaider a lot and I think he's pretty sharp, I'd work with him. And Mary DeMarle. And Richard Dansky. As for Brian Fargo, I'm already working with him again on Wasteland 2.

 

There's a ton of other folks I'm missing, but I can't possibly list them all, so the list above will have to suffice for now.

[Nepenthe]

Hmm, Mary DeMarle and Chris Avellone, hmm...

[funcroc]

OT: Chris Avellone at Gamelab 2012

Edited May 28, 2012 by funcroc

[funcroc]

OT: http://www.gamelab.e...greso/ponentes/

[Gorth]

Google translate is your friend...

[Auxilius]

Gaider was the lead designer on Dragon Age 2. Maybe the man is sharp but I wouldn't say the same about his work or his attitude on the Bioforums. Back when I browsed them, I found the man aggressive, snippy and full of himself.

I guess he needs better guidelines. I won't blame him though. First, it's hard to stay calm on the Internet when you have 4chan on your ass. Second, considering Bioware went full-on on the "action & romance for the Call of Duty audience" route with EA deciding the game should be done in 11 months, it was probably hard to do something remotely good.

Then, Obsidian did KOTOR2 in the same amount of time. Okay, there already were assets to use but the writing was top-notch.

I'm legitimaly interested by what Chris think of Dragon Age 2. Chris?

 

On another writer, I'm way more interested by a cooperation between him and DeMarle. I have to admit the story of DE3 was shallow somehow but the dialogue were great, the characters well-defined, the world-building good and the themes interesting. even the little subtext when it came to ship teasing between Adam and Malik was cool; that's how romances should be in video games, hinted, not shoved in your throat.

It just lacked a little soul. I never felt as a part of the story. Adam always seemed to be following the flow, never acting on it, despite the fact he stopped a worldwide conspiracy.

 

I guess he never asked for this.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Gaider was lead writer on Dragon Age II, not designer. He has his faults (the story wasn't good, though I don't know if there were also problems like lack of iteration in dialogue/script, cut sections etc.), but you can't really shoulder all the blame on him, and I say that as someone who's not the biggest fan of his work.

[Sannom]

Gaider was the lead designer on Dragon Age 2.

I'm pretty sure that David Gaider is not a designer, but a writer. He was perhaps Lead Writer, but I don't think he was Lead Designer (that would be Mike Laidlaw, right?).

[Auxilius]

Yup, that's a mistake on my part. Lead writer. I never actually thought he was LD to begin with. I should read myself.

Also, no, he's not the only man responsible but nobody denies he had responsabilities in the mess that DA2 was. That's actually why I wrote that post.

I saw the first two acts and it was hard to believe there were lead writing to begin with. The story was going absolutely nowhere. It looked like a collection of modules ala Newerwinter Nights but without any storyline to piece everything together. The hero did errands (And boy some of them were insanely stupid like helping a guard to hook up with her crush and then she kisses the hero just after getting laid with that guy what the hell) for 15 hours before the story started.

Recently, I read an interview of George Zeits about the importance of having a man to connect the parts of the game in a coherent way. I don't remember the name of the man who did it but his work was instrumental in Mask of the Betrayer. There was nothing that looked like that in DA2.

[C2B]

Recently, I read an interview of George Zeits about the importance of having a man to connect the parts of the game in a coherent way. I don't remember the name of the man who did it but his work was instrumental in Mask of the Betrayer. There was nothing that looked like that in DA2.

 

It's hilarious if you're talking here about Tony Evans because he worked on DA2 too.

 

http://www.formsprin...264246623484752

Edited May 30, 2012 by C2B

[Auxilius]

To be fair, I don't remember the name at all. Maybe ti's him but I can't guarantee it.

If that's the case, well, I stand corrected. Everything was fluid in MotB when DA2 was clanky. What could have happened? Maybe he didn't like his job at Bioware. Due to the recent layoffs they had, some people went out of their way to say something changed since EA bought the company. It wasn't a pleasure like before to make video games.

Besides, this Evans guy sure didn't feel bad at the end of the interview when he spoke about his own layoff. "They actually did me a favor". Hey.

 

A little motivation goes a long way.

[Rostere]

One RPG in the past I've never played because I'm aware there's one low-level spell that makes the critical choice with your character progression in the game meaningless because that spell is overpowered.

 

Worst excuse ever for not playing Arcanum. I'm really quite upset now. Chris, I thought you were first and foremost interested in setting and narrative, and not a powergaming dork.

[C2B]

One RPG in the past I've never played because I'm aware there's one low-level spell that makes the critical choice with your character progression in the game meaningless because that spell is overpowered.

 

Worst excuse ever for not playing Arcanum. I'm really quite upset now. Chris, I thought you were first and foremost interested in setting and narrative, and not a powergaming dork.

 

I'm guessing at this point he's just trolling us.

[Tale]

I've always wanted to see Gaider be lead designer on something. I'm ready to believe Dragon Age 2's fault lies with it not having enough time to bake. And I would be very curious as to what would happen if he had more creative freedom.