RPG Codex Interview: Chris Avellone on Pillars Cut Content, Game Development Hierarchies and More

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for what games I worked on - there isn't much of those, but me and Chris Avellone once worked together on an unreleased game called The Collapse.

It was supposed to be published by Electronic Arts, and the action was actually set in Hell.

You, the protagonist, are a young demon, making your way up through Hell's corporate ladder. And Hell is in crisis - there's too many sinners out there, and we are running out of space in fiery pits. Lucifer, King of Hell, sends you on a quest to find Jesus and convince him to make some space in heaven for the neverending influx of sinners.

The production was going great, we had amazing vertical slice, EA loved it. But then Feargus told us to "sex up" the succubus companion. I don't need to explain what happens if you sex up a succubus.

Feargus took the demo to the EA, but all the 20 men in the board room immediately had a raging boner from hell. They couldn't even hear Feargus talk, because the only sound heard was their erect penises, furiously bumping the conference table. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, I still hear that sound in my nightmares. One older corporate VP actually passed out, because all the blood drained from his head and into his dick.

Obviously no one wanted to admit what actually happened, so EA cancelled the game just to keep that story from ever leaking. It is now but a legend, known only to the most veteran Obsidianites.

Anyhoo lads, that's all questions I can answer for now. Me and Josh are going to protest global warming tonight.

 

[MajorMace]

I don't need to explain what happens if you sex up a succubus.

please do

 

[DarkUnderlord]

As for what games I worked on - there isn't much of those, but me and Chris Avellone once worked together on an unreleased game called The Collapse.

It was supposed to be published by Electronic Arts, and the action was actually set in Hell.

You, the protagonist, are a young demon, making your way up through Hell's corporate ladder. And Hell is in crisis - there's too many sinners out there, and we are running out of space in fiery pits. Lucifer, King of Hell, sends you on a quest to find Jesus and convince him to make some space in heaven for the neverending influx of sinners.

The production was going great, we had amazing vertical slice, EA loved it. But then Feargus told us to "sex up" the succubus companion. I don't need to explain what happens if you sex up a succubus.

Feargus took the demo to the EA, but all the 20 men in the board room immediately had a raging boner from hell. They couldn't even hear Feargus talk, because the only sound heard was their erect penises, furiously bumping the conference table. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, I still hear that sound in my nightmares. One older corporate VP actually passed out, because all the blood drained from his head and into his dick.

Obviously no one wanted to admit what actually happened, so EA cancelled the game just to keep that story from ever leaking. It is now but a legend, known only to the most veteran Obsidianites.

Anyhoo lads, that's all questions I can answer from now. Me and Josh are going to protest global warming tonight.

Does it play like Theme Hospital? Because I'd play that.

 

[Brancaleone]

Now that we have another dev here, mind answering some important questions HugeNick?

What is your favourite 80s tv show?

HugeNick, have you played AoD?

I hate to spoil your fun, but you are already late with your PoE2 review.

 

[Alienman]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

 

[Blaine]

You know what IHaveHugeNick , you're all right.

He has his developer tag less than a day, and the cocksucking has already started...

Remember how completely fine and not gay interacting with people is when they aren't being worshiped by a bunch of idiots?

Yeah, me neither. Fuck that Blaine guy ruining everything by treating developers like just another Codexer. DarkUnderlord, ban that turd RIGHT NOW or I'm leaving to form my own Discord with other like-minded individuals who are fed up with the blatant Nazism around here.

 

[Kev Inkline]

You know what IHaveHugeNick , you're all right.

He has his developer tag less than a day, and the cocksucking has already started...

Remember how completely fine and not gay interacting with people is when they aren't being worshiped by a bunch of idiots?

Yeah, me neither. Fuck that Blaine guy ruining everything by treating developers like just another Codexer.

B-but what if I treat everyone nicely?

 

[Darkzone]

The production was going great, we had amazing vertical slice, EA loved it. But then Feargus told us to "sex up" the succubus companion. I don't need to explain what happens if you sex up a succubus.

Are you sure that he hasn't misspoken or you didn't misunderstood and he meant incubus?

 

[Darth Roxor]

or a mancubus

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

The depressing thing is that in 3 minutes of random shitposting, I still managed to come up with a better game pitch than the entire crowdfunded "CRPG renaissance" has managed to conjure in last 5 years.

 

[mildTea]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

The depressing thing is that in 3 minutes of random shitposting, I still managed to come up with a better game pitch than the entire crowdfunded "CRPG renaissance" has managed to conjure in last 5 years.

One tag and such ego inflation!

 

[Alienman]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

The depressing thing is that in 3 minutes of random shitposting, I still managed to come up with a better game pitch than the entire crowdfunded "CRPG renaissance" has managed to conjure in last 5 years.

Wanted to rate covfefe but the Trump emoticons are gone. RIP.

 

[Darkzone]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

The depressing thing is that in 3 minutes of random shitposting, I still managed to come up with a better game pitch than the entire crowdfunded "CRPG renaissance" has managed to conjure in last 5 years.

The problem is that tolkienesque fantasy is a given guarantee for some form of success. And therefore everyone is repeating always the same thing over and over again with slight deviation. Sad but true.

or a mancubus

Incubus is a form of man / alb - demon. Typical polish catholic. You should study occultism and demonology. (Don't take this to serious or as to aggressive. This is a friendly advice. But you have to study the subject of interest that you want to make a game about. And perhaps one day i will teach you things that you didn't even imagined about the old believs, occultism, old gods and demons. I recommend for you as a starter the youtube channel of Styxhexenhammer666 and his series about occultism.)

 

[Darth Roxor]

or a mancubus

Incubus is a form of man / alb / demon. Typical polish catholic. You should study occultism and demonology. (Don't take this to serious or as to aggressive. This is a friendly advice. But you have to study the subject of interest that you want to make a game about. And perhaps one day i will teach you things that you didn't even imagined about the old believs, occultism, old gods and demons. I recommend for you as a starter the youtube channel of Styxhexenhammer666 and his series about occultism.)

idiot

 

[Darkzone]

or a mancubus

Incubus is a form of man / alb / demon. Typical polish catholic. You should study occultism and demonology. (Don't take this to serious or as to aggressive. This is a friendly advice. But you have to study the subject of interest that you want to make a game about. And perhaps one day i will teach you things that you didn't even imagined about the old believs, occultism, old gods and demons. I recommend for you as a starter the youtube channel of Styxhexenhammer666 and his series about occultism.)

Spoiler

idiot

So much brain as it was in doom.

 

[FreeKaner]

That's not a review, that's an opinion and it's a bad opinion. Natives did comply with the colonists everywhere. Moreover suggesting something is "bad" because it doesn't fit with (false) historical narrative is also clueless, as it doesn't even come close to understanding what's storytelling.

Remarkable. Just because someone was foolish enough into signing their own demise does not justify the actions of the perpetrator. On the contrary, it makes the acts of the perpetrator that much more heinous because being a "wiser" or more "cultured" party they still went on with the clearly unjust deal.

This is not a heavy-handed critic of the western civilization per se, but of the many evils of colonialism, which are undeniable. In fact, I would argue that the moral strength of the west was sapped by the evils then committed and the west still pays for it. Only and only through acknowledgement of the past evils can the west fix that guilt. But on the contrary, it still engages in those practices only under the hypocritical guise of social justice. Modern "social democrats" enjoy the enslaved labour of the Chinese and the Africans assuaging their pride with terms such as "Fair Trade" and "Organically made" food while sending them pity cheques that end up lining the pockets of corrupt governments and dictators that the west installs.

The Hellenic tragedy of this story is that colonialism did have its heroes that were a human ideal of endeavouring, exploring Argonauts. But their greatness was besmirched by their evil acts.

This is entirely unrelated, western colonists did commit atrocities, yes. However what I am talking about is denying the natives even the capacity of bad conscience, they aren't children of a different species and are individuals with their own agenda.

I am not from west.

 

[mondblut]

We do not owe it to anybody to be nice and welcoming.

And for this very reason, people like me that have been playing RPGs for a quarter of a century, choose to only watch the your displays and simply chuckle.

Good for you. So?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I am not a soy boy. I am a

Spoiler

Spoiler

God I've waited too long to be able to use that one.

Where's Trump disgusting-rating when one needs it?

 

[Blaine]

This is entirely unrelated, western colonists did commit atrocities, yes. However what I am talking about is denying the natives even the capacity of bad conscience, they aren't children of a different species and are individuals with their own agenda.

I am not from west.

You're wasting your breath, or in this case, however many seconds and fractions of a calorie it took to type this.

Middle- and upper-class white Western progressives are going to rescue the world, and they aren't going to let anyone get in their way—not even vibrant and diverse people of color if they don't agree due to what must surely be internalized oppression.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

I would say the age of exploration has more heroes than villains. The Aztecs were bloodthirsty savages that as soon as the colonists arrived tribes sided with them to bring down a greater evil. What happened next was mostly incorporation. Compare to Europeans in India or Japan. Another story completely.

Not saying atrocities were not committed.

 

[Blaine]

I would say the age of exploration has more heroes than villains. The Aztecs were bloodthirsty savages that as soon as the colonists arrived tribes sided with them to bring down a greater evil. What happened next was mostly incorporation. Compare to Europeans in India or Japan. Another story completely.

The Native Americans did the same thing. Those who'd been wronged by other tribes (violently and forcibly removed from their territory, in most cases... sound familiar?) very often rode with the Union Army to seek revenge against their erstwhile tormentors.

 

[ArchAngel]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

If we learned something from this topic is that Feargus does not read game pitches from random nobodies, even those from his own studio.

 

[TT1]

Well...

https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/chr...will-werde-ich-das-unterstuetzen,3329455.html

Using google translate:

"Deficient and unethical" - RPG guru Chris Avellone on his fight against the Obsidian leadership
Star developer Chris Avellone has broken harshly with his ex-employer. What is behind it? We talked to him about the problems behind the scenes.

Chris Avellone has worked on some of the best role-playing games of all time - first on titles like Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment on Interplay, then on Knights of the Old Republic 2 , Neverwinter Nights 2 and Tyranny on Obsidian - but behind the scenes raging bitter personal conflicts and partly pure chaos. At least that's what Avellone says.

In an interview with RPG Codex and the associated forum thread , he made the most serious allegations against Obsidian: That Studio boss Feargus Urquhart simply deprived him of his founding rights and wanted to impose on him a contract that would have forbidden him any further work on RPGs. That the chaotic work processes in Obsidian posed one problem after another. The fact that the employees worked voluntarily without salary and the management could be persuaded only after tough struggle to pay for it in retrospect. And even without the knowledge of Publisher Paradox, the studio "disassembled" the Tyranny team to use Paradox money instead to complete Pillars of Eternity .

What was going on? How could such disagreements come about if Avellone and Urquhart had co-founded Obsidian and worked together for over a decade? And what does he say to the allegations that he also harms the entire staff of Obsidian with his statements? In the interview he answered our questions.

Even Obsidian signaled us basically willingness for an interview with Feargus Urquhart, but this could not be realized by Obsidian so far. We stay tuned!

»It was very hard to work in this environment«
If you could give yourself some advice when you thought about joining Obsidian as co-founder, what would you say?

People make a company, and you should be loyal to them and treat them properly, especially as owners. I would like to reiterate that in everything that has happened, I have no problems with the developers or the games - only with senior management.

Personally, I would advise myself to anticipate expectations and goals for my position in advance so that there are no misunderstandings or false expectations. As a matter of fairness, during my time with Obsidian, I repeatedly asked for it, but in vain. That's why it was often unclear what I should do. That was the reason why I accepted concrete roles in the teams at Obsidian, so I wanted to make that clear.

According to Avellone, parts of his story were deleted for Durance and the grieving mother from the first Pillars of Eternity, without any reasonable reason being explained to him.

It is very unusual for a developer to speak so publicly and so harshly about his former employer. Why did you decide to make this story public?

I mentioned it earlier on Reddit when someone claimed that I was part of senior management, that I had signed a silence agreement and received a severance payment.

None of this was true, so I corrected it - I had no management authority, I did not sign an NDA, and I got nothing when I left Obsidian. Obsidian is good business sense, but I found it unethical given my then-family problems that Obsidian knew about. I was reluctant to tell them about it because I was reluctant to talk about personal difficulties with the other Obsidian owners because they seldom kept such things to themselves.

Avellone's criticism is directed primarily at Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart and the other co-owners.(Source: Wikimedia Commons, Cassidy Rainer, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feargus_Urkuhart_at_KRI_2013,_Russia,_Moscow.jpg)

The same answer for the same reasons received more attention than I repeated them on the RPG Codex. Again, I wanted to correct information that I did not know was unknown to people. It should not be a press release, but a clarification, so that people do not have any misconceptions about how I left the company and what I signed and what did not sign.

Several of your allegations against Obsidian sound like the company may have broken the law: contracts with you not respected, paid family members who do not work there, paid by Paradox for Tyranny pay for resources used instead for Pillars of Eternity. Did you ever think about going to court? You wrote that you would welcome any legal battle that begins obsidian against you.

This is up to the companies and publishers who have been wronged. What I'm going to say: As a developer, it was very hard to work on two projects at the same time and still get things done - I was split between Pillars and Tyranny. The time you invested has never been repaid, so even if you love the project you work on, it weakens the title if you do not get the support you need. And it undermines much of the effort you put into it. No developer likes it when a game he has worked on with heart and soul suffers in this way.

Tyranny suffered especially from Obsidian's chaotic way of working, so Avellone - allegedly much to the displeasure of Publisher Paradox.

I would like to say that I have given Obsidian more time to tackle the issues. After quitting I asked Obsidian about the finances, the market value and more, but never got an answer to the actual questions.

Can you reveal more details about the expropriation process? It sounds like it was surprisingly easy for Obsidian to take a co-owner and founder's recheche without any compensation. Did not you have protection in your original contract?

I had no influence - there were five owners, and I was one of the few with the lowest proportions. The other owners never talked to me about this problem, it all happened to Feargus. He drove that forward.

 

[Alienman]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

If we learned something from this topic is that Feargus does not read game pitches from random nobodies, even those from his own studio.

Not really a pitch if you steal it and claim it as your own idea.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Watch as Feargus steals that idea and makes a real game out of it.

If we learned something from this topic is that Feargus does not read game pitches from random nobodies, even those from his own studio.

Not really a pitch if you steal it and claim it as your own idea.

Bah, Feargus is more likely to look at game pitches from random nobodies than from his own staff.