Editorial RPG Codex Report: A Codexian Visit to inXile Entertainment

[Haba]

This placed is becoming filled with retards

I completely agree with you.

Good, honest and frank interview. I regained some respect for the InExile guys though I won't be backing any of their future projects antytime soon. Maybe if against all odds Wasteland 3 turns out decent and they keep supporting ToN I'll change my attitude.

I think that interview shows that Fargo is not the fraudster supper villain some people on the 'dex regard him as.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yeah, McComb is extremely butthurt.
I feel like he always envied MCA for PST and wanted this to be his masterpiece, but it just didn't turn out. Hey, not everyone has it in them.

But at least butthurt means he cares about his work which is a bonus point, I guess. Would be great if he got out of the denial phase at some point, though.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Brian: Well, you’re right, but let me answer that broadly and specifically. One of the things about crowd funding is that the crowd becomes our publisher, ultimately. Now, one of the things we like about industry publishers, at least the ones we work the best with, is that they are agile, that they don’t hold us to the specifics of the contract, that they kind of trust our judgment to do the right things in order to get the product complete and to hit the main beats we want to hit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_(video_game)

So much for trust. I mean, were it not for KS, you'd still be mostly relegated to making such great classics as Choplifter HD.

Also lulz:

Codemasters today announced they have cancelled their upcoming action title Hei$t. The British based publisher told the gaming website CVG that it had 'terminated Heist as a project'. Furthering the statement by announcing it was focused on high quality titles.

You don't even pass that low bar.

Once the KS craze dies, enjoy your career in shovelware.

Don't dis ChopLifter, it's pretty cool mang.

 

[Kalin]

Yeah, their best game for sure.

 

[Elwro]

I really enjoyed the writing 'around' the interview parts and of course the interview itself. Thank you!

Now, when you read a proper, extensive interview as this one, you can see they are reasonable guys. I see little reason for the nonsense that seems to be filling the KS threads on the Codex lately.

It should've been obvious that just receiving some money from KS by no means guarantees a sure-fire hit, a new timeless classic, or even a successful game, from any studio. I'm not sure there are 100% infallible managers out there. These guys at least seem to notice the mistakes and attempt to do something about them.

Having said that, I'm done with backing their KickStarters or whatever the scheme they come up with -- but not with buying their games after release!

 

[thesheeep]

Seems like a rather genuine interview to me.

Don't really understand why the author wants to remain hidden, but hey. Let us spread the brofists evenly among ourselves.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[almondblight]

Brian: I can’t talk about an employee’s specific performance, but what I can do is to provide you with a factual history of things. Kevin left the project in late 2015, right? At that point, we were roughly two years into production.

This...simply isn't true. Torment didn't really start production until then end of 2014 at the earliest, and much more likely later (they were still hiring people in early 2015, and Fargo mentions in the interview that they didn't bring in some people until after WLDC came out - at the end of 2015). Would have been nice to have had some firm numbers for when the team was what size, but the interviewer kind of dropped the ball there (and still not clear when InXile moved from a 1.5 person team to a 2.5 person team).

Anyway, good to have confirmation that Saunders was let go because Fargo wanted to rush the game out rather than because of quality issues; seems to suggest this theory was correct:

Possible scenario: Wasteland 2 delay ended up delaying the full production of Torment (they pretty much said this), which only really got started at the end of 2014. Fargo thought that with all the pre-production and using an already built engine, they could churn out the actual game in a year (Fargo made similar comments about Wasteland 2, if you recall). July 2015, Bard's Tale IV fails to being in $4 million. Fargo tells Saunders that they need to release Torment this year, because "It's almost been three years since the Kickstarter." Saunders says that they haven't even been in full production for a year and he's not comfortable pushing out a half finished game. Fargo replaces Saunders with a "closer" who will push out Torment ASAP.

Also nice to have Fargo's confirmation that the extended pre-production period was a waste. Not sure how accurate Fargo's "It wouldn't come out until 2018 if we do this" line is; it's quite possible that he initially said "It wouldn't come out until 2017 if we do this." When Keenan came on, he said his main goal was to get the game out in 2016. Of course, if Fargo said "I fired Saunders and cut content because I didn't want to have the game delayed until 2017" now, it'd probably look a bit foolish.

Also kind of funny how predicable their answer about the cut stretch goals was.

As for this:

Brian: Now, one of the things we like about industry publishers, at least the ones we work the best with, is that they are agile, that they don’t hold us to the specifics of the contract, that they kind of trust our judgment to do the right things in order to get the product complete and to hit the main beats we want to hit.

Yeeeeah....no. You don't sign a contract with a publisher saying that you're going to include multiplayer, then release the game without multiplayer, say, "Hey, we thought it was for the best!" and have the publisher say "All good, no problem man." I mean, hell, in all of the "Kickstarter is awesome!" vids Fargo did, he specifically talked about how it was great that he didn't need a publisher because publishers would force them to do things that they didn't want them to do. Now publishers are often because they don't? Yeah...

Also kind of bullshit to say the Codex was asking for walls of text. A few people were, others were saying that that was fucking stupid.

Anyway, nice of InXile to let the Codex talk to their PR manager. I laughed at the way he was trying to win the Codex over with "You guys really are tier 1!" bullshit - they can't possibly think such a stupid ploy would work, can they? But looking at some of the responses here it seems it did, so hats off to them.

 

[Cosmo]

Ouch...

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Has Chris Avellone really regressed to the mentality of a teenager, or am I reading too much into this?

 

[Elwro]

I agree the 'tier 1' thing was ridiculous. Kinda desperate. What do they think they'd gain from it? If they're in deep financial trouble, then surely this is not the way to go

 

[thesheeep]

Do you see an implication in his statement that I don't?

 

[FeelTheRads]

I mean, hell, in all of the "Kickstarter is awesome!" vids Fargo did, he specifically talked about how it was great that he didn't need a publisher because publishers would force them to do things that they didn't want them to do. Now publishers are often because they don't? Yeah...

You bend it as needed. It's not without reason that he's got a snakeoil salesman reputation around here.

I laughed at the way he was trying to win the Codex over with "You guys really are tier 1!" bullshit

lul, why didn't BN show up there too? Apparently they don't know who did it... it was "someone".

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Do you see an implication in his statement that I don't?

Taking a bit shit all over Obsidian, from what I see.

 

[Infinitron]

I didn't read Avellone's tweet as anti-Obsidian.

Also kind of bullshit to say the Codex was asking for walls of text. A few people were, others were saying that that was fucking stupid.

O rly. Find me anti-wall of text posts on the Codex from before PoE's release.

 

[Bleed the Man]

But Obsidian have been really open in their interviews and when interacting with the community? Might be talking Feargus specifically, but I don't think applies to him either.

 

[Starwars]

Avellone has been having diarrhea for quite a while now so nothing new there.

Also... nice in-depth interview that is likely to bloat the ego of the Codex even more.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

But Obsidian have been really open in their interviews and when interacting with the community?

It just reads as toy-throwing rather than as a legitimate complaint about the community interactions of his former company.

 

[FeelTheRads]

O rly. Find me anti-wall of text posts on the Codex from before PoE's release.

Now, I'm speaking only for myself, but I don't have a problem with walls of text. FFS, I play text adventures. Those are literally walls of text.
I do have a problem with walls of shitty text, though. Bad writing is much more forgivable if you can go through it fast.

And it's still unclear why big parts of the junk-tier writing in this game weren't simply fucking cut out.

So... right.. back to your post... find me posts against walls of text of good quality?

 

[Lurker King]

Not good enough. Colin needs to bend the knee.

Hate to agree with this faggot.

 

[Crospy]

Pretty great interview. For all the talk of Fargo being an oil snake salesman (justified I might add. Not communicating all the cuts to the backers when they were one month away from release is a fucking questionable move even if I were to believe it was just incompetence as they say. Considering their update regarding the cuts didn't even cover all of them, they will need more to convince me that they weren't keeping things quiet intentionally), he comes off very sincere in his answers, even when trying to diminish their screw ups.

The ship is sinking, they have no choice but to admit it and move on. Snake oil salesmen can show professionalism you know? professionalism in this case would be to do damage control with the community.
He is totally a sham, but he knows how to act like one.

They don't want to completely cut their bridges with the gaming community no matter how harsh our comments can be because they don't want to become like DoubleBear with no one to sell games to.

I mean, this is what DoubleBear is making these days :

From Dead State to this. Eh.

This isn't Fargo being a nice human being. This is Fargo understanding that InXile could just end up like DoubleBear if they handled the fiasco the same way.

 

[undecaf]

Chris has a point. I wouldn't bet for many other studios inviting for an interview like that; especially for a site like Codex. Kinda telling too of how much InXile must actually need&want the good relations with the 'dex. So, a nice gesture at the very least.

Anyway, good interview. Well written, sensible and easy to read despite the length.

 

[MicoSelva]

The narration in the article was a bit too melodramatic for my taste, but still big thanks for the person who went to do the interview, and kudos to Brian Fargo and inXile for reaching out like this.

 

[Crospy]

Chris has a point. I wouldn't bet for many other studios inviting for an interview like that; especially for a site like Codex. Kinda telling too of how much InXile must actually need&want the good relations with the 'dex.

Anyway, good interview. Well written, sensible and easy to read despite the length.

If InXile didn't make niche games and was as big as Bethesda, they wouldn't be doing this.
They value the codex (and other niche gaming communities) because their livelihood depends on it. Where do you think their next game, Bard's Tale IV, is going to sell? It's even more niche than TTON and they made some terrible business decisions in investing so much production value into it. I love blobbers but most of them have 2d static art on monsters and the like for a reason.

If they thought they could bandwagon on the original Grimrock craze.. well, it isn't happening. Grimrock 2 sold a very tiny amount of copies compared to 1 despite being an objectively better game.

Objectively, inXile is nowhere near even Obsidian in terms of audience. They're just a tad bit higher than DoubleBear. And DB is dead apart from pushing deviantart-level stuff.

TTON got really high reviews for what it is in the mainstream, and it didn't even help it one bit. I mean, 8.8 at IGN?
They can't afford public PR fuckups.

 

[Lurker King]

I think that releasing a product that wasn't complete.

They would spent a fortune to polish a dung, and it would still be a polished dung that would sell poorly.

Awesome interview, Fargo sounds like a great guy.

Nice interview, Fargo seemed pretty sincere here in his apology.

Good interview, and all in all I think it was open and frank.

Always nice to see developers speaking honestly.

Seems like a rather genuine interview to me.

The Codex community may come to forgive InXile for Gamescom, and the lost stretch goals, and the missed opportunities in their games, but there simply can't be a return to blissful innocence, to a time when the Codex, or at least a large section of the Codex, had faith.