Chris Avellone joins Larian on Divinity: Original Sin 2

[Forest Dweller]

Just spotted this on IGN:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09...riginal-sin-2?abthid=5605553a2456a5f85b000004

DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN II / 25 SEP 2015
FALLOUT 2, PILLARS OF ETERNITY GAME DESIGNER JOINS DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2
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From Obsidian to Larian.
BY MATT PORTER Larian Studios has announced that Chris Avellone has been brought on as a contributor to Divinity: Original Sin II.

Avellone left Obsidian Entertainment in June to "pursue new projects," and will now be working on the upcoming RPG sequel. He has previously worked on the likes of Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Pillars of Eternity.

Larian Studios creative director Swen Vincke said "it’s a real honor to have one of the masters on board to help us improve our narrative and characters—I honestly can’t wait to get started."

"This is the first time I think the community is responsible for bringing two developers together who might not have crossed paths, and especially for such a great project," said Chris Avellone. "I met Swen at PAX Prime, talked about RPGs for hours, and at the end, it was clear we were on the same page."

Divinity: Original Sin II was announced in August, and its Kickstarter campaign was funded in less than 12 hours.

Well, now we know at least one thing he left Obsidian for.

 

[Turisas]

Looks like his forehead has gained a few levels.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Holy shit - MCA working with Larian?

It's like that thing you get at the 2/3 mark of an actiony tv series (or King Lear, for that matter) where, after spending the first 2/3 being scattered and picked off by the decline, the remaining good guys finally group up and start the glorious resistance!

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Maybe this is a good call because the writing in D:OS1 was absolutely horrible.

 

[Epsilon]

It's only guaranteed to be one origin story. Even if it's the best story in the entire game, it's unlikely to raise the rest of the game if the mainstory is shit. Here's hoping he does more than the one thing though!

 

[Bubbles]

Move to Larian subforum.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Move to Larian subforum.

I'll move it to the Chris Avellone subforum as soon as that's created.

 

[poetic codex]

Isn't there a stylistic clash? People love to praise Avellone for his deep writing, yet the tone of all Larian games is decidedly of the tongue-in-cheek, self-referential variety of humor.

 

[Somberlain]

Meh, Larian sucks and D:OS was disappointing.

 

[Excidium II]

Isn't there a stylistic clash? People love to praise Avellone for his deep writing, yet the tone of all Larian games is decidedly of the tongue-in-cheek, self-referential variety of humor.

He wrote Old World Blues didn't he?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Yawn.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Isn't there a stylistic clash? People love to praise Avellone for his deep writing, yet the tone of all Larian games is decidedly garbage

I fixed your post.

 

[Forest Dweller]

He wrote Old World Blues didn't he?

Was about to say the same.

 

[laclongquan]

OWB's characters are pretty fun to read/hear.

 

[Volrath]

Meh, Larian sucks and D:OS was disappointing.

 

[Darth Roxor]

He wrote Old World Blues didn't he?

Also Alpha Protocol.

 

[Infinitron]

Just spotted this on IGN:

Isn't it great that we have IGN to provide us with RPG news?

 

[Roguey]

Isn't there a stylistic clash? People love to praise Avellone for his deep writing, yet the tone of all Larian games is decidedly of the tongue-in-cheek, self-referential variety of humor.

This meme is weird to me. Okay, it's likely that most people haven't played New Vegas DLC but then there's

Feel free to link to this post whenever anyone asks "Why would they want Avellone for a comedy game????"

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I thought I read that DOS2 will take a more serious tone and Swen has acknowledged that they are perhaps ready to grow up from a writing perspective.

 

[Lacrymas]

A more serious tone doesn't mean "angsty teen "poetry"" though. They can have comedic elements, they should just be set up properly to avoid sudden mood shifts. PS:T and Fallout managed to be serious narratives, but also have some comic relief when it's appropriate. It all depends on the idea, context, style of writing, development, character arcs etc. Dark humor may also be employed to good effect. It really depends on the skill of the author.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Everyone loves cheese!

 

[Neanderthal]

Just not the usual squeeing Joss Whedon shit please, i'm fucking sick of that retarded shit.

 

[Lacrymas]

Just to be clear - D:OS1's writing was cringe-worthy. It definitely isn't an example of how to do comedy (since that was its goal) or storytelling in general. The cheeses bit was the least of its problems :p It was memorable however, so take your pick.

 

[Roguey]

It definitely isn't an example of how to do comedy (since that was its goal) or storytelling in general.

I found the comedy parts quite charming. Humor is subjective.

 

[Lacrymas]

I found the comedy parts quite charming. Humor is subjective.

They *were* charming, I'm not denying that. My point is generally that it had sudden mood shifts from something else to comedy. That, coupled with pacing being bad, relegated the humor to the "random" variety which isn't very high brow no matter how you look at it .