And Zenimax owns Bethesda... You are taking that quote too literally.
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Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station
- Thread starter Crooked Bee
- Start date
And Zenimax owns Bethesda... You are taking that quote too literally.
Drax
Arcane
What the fuck is PST and why people still can't use proper GMT/UTC for reference.
In general I agree but it should be obvious that Ireland (being so close to London - longitude wise) has Greenwich time, i.e. GMT (and he gave the Irish time).
Drax
Arcane
Yes, I could understand that, but I'm still quite anal about it. It's so fucking easy to communicate times with the proper terms that annoys me to no end how hard is it to find people actually using UTC as a reference.
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Lol, the first thing that comes to mind is Planescape: Torment.
Turjan
Arcane
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It's the time zone (Pacific Standard Time) of many game developers, Steam, amazon, etc., which means you see it all the time in announcements.
Fairfax
Arcane
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For those who missed it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/119413169
It was a good interview, but it was meant for a more casual audience, so not a lot of new info for the Codex crowd.
- He believes producers don't get enough credit, and that good producers make good games happen. Gave shoutouts to Matt Singh and badler from Obsidian.
- PoE didn't give them as much freedom because of the promises and wanting to deliver a BG-like experience.
- Clarifies that he was always in favour of doing a Kickstarter and was the first of the partners to support it. He's actually clarified it here before, but worth mentioning, I guess.
- Met some indie devs who wanted advice on how to work on a AAA projet at a big studio. Told them they were better off doing their own thing, as it gives them a lot more experience compared to very specific roles for a long time when working at a big studio.
- "Was told" there was a number of pitches before Project Eternity was chosen, including one by Tim Cain.
- Doesn't assume the player will talk to a companion when designing it, but wants to reward those who do so.
- Personal dislike for romances, but recognizes that it's something a lot of players enjoy and could be considered, specially for RPGs. Thinks the issue is when people think of just romance and not the full specture of human relationships. He explored more variations in AP, which he thought was more fun than doing just romance.
- Advice for writers: "write everyday"; "everybody has 1000 bad stories in them, so get them out as soon as possible"; "watch your adverbs, people often use adverbs because they aren't looking for the right verb to use".
- Thinks Swen did a great job with D:OS2 on Early Access and loves the spell system in the game.
It was a good interview, but it was meant for a more casual audience, so not a lot of new info for the Codex crowd.
- He believes producers don't get enough credit, and that good producers make good games happen. Gave shoutouts to Matt Singh and badler from Obsidian.
- PoE didn't give them as much freedom because of the promises and wanting to deliver a BG-like experience.
- Clarifies that he was always in favour of doing a Kickstarter and was the first of the partners to support it. He's actually clarified it here before, but worth mentioning, I guess.
- Met some indie devs who wanted advice on how to work on a AAA projet at a big studio. Told them they were better off doing their own thing, as it gives them a lot more experience compared to very specific roles for a long time when working at a big studio.
- "Was told" there was a number of pitches before Project Eternity was chosen, including one by Tim Cain.
- Doesn't assume the player will talk to a companion when designing it, but wants to reward those who do so.
- Personal dislike for romances, but recognizes that it's something a lot of players enjoy and could be considered, specially for RPGs. Thinks the issue is when people think of just romance and not the full specture of human relationships. He explored more variations in AP, which he thought was more fun than doing just romance.
- Advice for writers: "write everyday"; "everybody has 1000 bad stories in them, so get them out as soon as possible"; "watch your adverbs, people often use adverbs because they aren't looking for the right verb to use".
- Thinks Swen did a great job with D:OS2 on Early Access and loves the spell system in the game.
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- 1,452
Yeah talking shit about your former employer just diminishes your credibility. I wish MCA success, but lately he's just talking shit. How about giving us something awesome to talk about...
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Man I would instantly pledge for a TC game (as THE LEAD AND ONLY DESIGNER). But somehow KS has become frotress of regrets lately, and I don't see it chaning any time soon.
Neanderthal
Arcane
It is all the ideas left unfulfilled upon which tragedies are built.
Fairfax
Arcane
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- Jun 17, 2015
- Messages
- 3,518
"Avallone"?
Overall not a good interview. The interviewer breathes heavily into the microphone and didn't adjust their volumes, so he ended up much louder than MCA. He just switched to completely different topics after most questions, probably going through a list, and clearly didn't do his research.
- He's been working 12-16 hours a day, but doesn't see it as work because he loves it. Puts on noise-cancelling headphones and doesn't listen to anything, just loses himself in the writing.
- English major gave him exposure to books he doesn't think he would've read otherwise, such as Heart of Darkness. Didn't like Heart of Darkness the first time he read it, but in the second time it clicked.
- Has always wanted to work on a Batman game.
EDIT:
- JRPGs used to take more risks with the story. Uses the FF6 example again, where you lose to the bad guy and the world blows up early on, and in the second half you have to deal with the consequences.
- Recently he's seen some games take more narrative risks. Mentions Bioshock Infinite and Telltale's The Walking Dead as examples. Didn't explain how Bioshock Infinite does it, but for TWD he said the ending was brave.
- Liked Prey's clear hierarchy and having the chance to work on sci-fi for a change.
- Prefers open-ended games to linear ones and likes giving players a range of options at each point. Fallout is an example.
- Hasn't played a lot of games recently, but best story he's seen recently is probably Firewatch, though he felt misled by the marketing, which may have prevented him from enjoying it more. EDIT: he actually says "the closest best story game", which I assume means "closest [thing to a] best story[-driven] game".
- Went back to reading non-fiction to re-examine the fundamentals of writing. He was working on an unrevealed project and a developer recommended the Red Sneaker books. Says they're short books that are very concise and helpful.
- As for fiction, he's been reading Iain Banks books; specifically The Quarry at the moment.
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Latro
Arcane
very nice and 'umble advice
The use of underage as love interests.
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When MCA talks about "narrative risks", I believe that he's referring to stories that aren't afraid to totally fuck with the setting. In the past he's also said that JRPGs are good at this. If you consider that he's somebody who has spent most of his career working on Western RPG settings that typically have a certain "stasis" they must adhere to, it's understandable. (Now think of Lonesome Road.)
Deleted member 7219
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Please provide evidence for this in The Walking Dead.
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