I dunno, maybe he’s not interested in doing CRPGs anymore. But if he is, Obsidian is about as good as it gets. They have enough people and traction to go large scale, they’re flexible enough to do smaller projects, he’s been in a position to have considerable creative control, they have worked with basically everyone in the industry that does RPGs and could conceivably talk their way into a wide variety of licenses if that’s what’s wanted while having a fan base that will support them doing their own IP through Kickstarter. It’s a complete package.
Per this interview: http://www.xp4t.com/interview-with-the-devs-chris-avellone/5/ (last question on last page), a big chunk of his vision for the companions he wrote was cut in the end for the final game, which he was disappointed by. That combined with his comments for wanting to move into different kinds/styles of writing (e.g., less talking heads, more visual storytelling) does kinda paint a picture that his preferences were no longer fitting in well with the Obsidian culture.
I’m somewhat traumatized by this news, but hope he remains full-time in the gaming industry so that we keep reading lots of his words. Sad to see him leave the company he co-founded with 4 other Black Isle dudes.
Man, end of an era. :(
In a recent Eurogamer interview, Fargo mentioned he’s been talking with Avellone about a future collaboration.
I asked if Fargo was doing anything with the Van Buren trademark. “Not yet,” he replied. "But there were some things, some ideas, that Chris Avellone had for doing something that made the post-apoc - a twist on the whole what-was-being-done that we really loved. So we talked about it and we thought why not grab the rights so we can entertain this one of these days.
Maybe he wasn’t being creatively fulfilled at Obsidian?
Interesting idea, but CDPR’s real/human characters have really made me lose interest in traditional RPG party members where you are exploring their dark past over the course of the game and then deciding what to do about it, even when the writing is consistently above Bioware level. There’s a poorly-written character in The Witcher 3 that made me coin the term “unearned seriousness” (or gravitas or something). When Durance talks about his problems, I just don’t care.
I think there might be a structural issue with having to spend so much time with party members, or perhaps making everyone such a mysterious closed book (in order to give them layers to peel away) makes them seem inhuman and uninteresting.
Basically, I’m not sure a new storytelling method would have made much of a difference to me in Pillars. Others’ mileage may vary.
Where is that from?
I saw it on Neogaf, I didn’t realize that it was originally from the RPGCodex, so it could be fake but people in both threads are claiming it was a legit Facebook post from late May.
Why would it be fake if it were from RPGCodex? There’s no mention of ‘popamole’ or ‘dongs’ in it. ;)
It’s a real Facebook update from May 28.
I read somewhere that he and Sawyer butted heads a lot over PoE. No idea if that is true, it was just a forum post somewhere. I think he will end up at inXile.
Very surprising for reasons already mentioned. If he does end up at inXile or some other RPG studio it’s kind of a unfortunate comment on whatever is going on a Obsidian. The Facebook update (if legit) and the timing would imply that maybe they decided to go a different direction on something and he was not happy with the decision.
I would’ve assumed if he’s leaving Obsidian that he’d been leaving the industry. If he ends up at InXile, it seems like great news for RPG fans that he’d still be working on games!
If I may, which character are you talking about? Spoiler it if it’s a spoiler, of course :D
Bad news. Hopefully he will stay in the industry, would be a shame to loose his talent.
Puns and coined terms related with the word “gravitas” are reserved for the Ian M. Banks Culture series, thank you very much.
I don’t know Chris Avellone personally, of course. But… I have the funny feeling that his dream game after finally getting outside publisher’s control wasn’t a nostalgia-driven remake of a 15 years old game, which was based on 30 years old tabletop RPGs; but something more novel. PoE was more Sawyer’s game and Avellone’s.
my guess
I’d say Lambert. Of all the characters he was the only one with bioware-tier backstory and quests
.
Email response from Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart.
“Chris Avellone is no longer at Obsidian,” he told me. “We wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
At least it sounds like Avellone will stay in the industry:
“I don’t think I could ever stop being a game designer, that’s just where my brain is going to be at until I’m in the coffin.”
At present, says he’s enjoying the work he’s doing on Torment: Tides of Numenera. As for what lies beyond that, however:
“The future beyond [Tides of Numenera] … I guess there’s a lot of gleams in people’s eyes for these really cool ideas they would like to bring to the game arena and those ideas are pretty awesome. So I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes and hopefully being a part of that.”
Pfft, probably VR.
“Chris Avellone is no longer at Obsidian,” he told me. “We wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
That doesn’t sound like the type of response you’d get if someone left on great terms with handshakes and a cake for everyone to share. That’s the kind of thing HR tells you to say when you don’t want to praise someone, but you don’t want to get sued for damaging an ex-employee’s work reputation.
What can change the nature of man??
Easy, this Virtual Reality experience changed my life!