Developer Story Time with Old Man Davis

[Infinitron]

Real answer: Because NWN2 was in development hell and console games suck.

 

[piydek]

Where in the Interplay/Black isle games i never felt that way, they were coherent.

By all love for Black Isle and while they are great games, I wouldn't call Fallout 2 or Planescape: Torment remotly coherent. (If you mean by coherent the entirty (gameplay + narrative) of a game.)

I wasn't talking about narrative or consistency of content. I'm aiming at the feel when you play the game and nothing is really broken, from the gameplay perspective. No feature or lack of feature that makes the game fundamentally a pain in the ass to play. It's the feel (yeah, i know that's vague and quite possibly subjective) of the whole thing seen more as a synthetic unity of game's elements I'm talking about. For example, the fact that even such an abominable thing as grinding in something like Icewind dale manages to make sense and is enjoyable. When the whole game just clicks and it works and you just end up playing it. This is where in particular I fail at enduring Obsidian's games. And then when i start to analyse, there's always lots of good things, ambition and so on. But in the end it just ends up not really doing it for me as a game.

I'm deliberately not analysing what I'm saying here because it is the whole, synthetic experience of the game where this problem manifests itself for me. I'm simply wondering if Anthony felt there's something to those notions or if he thinks this is purely subjective.

 

[Lilura]

By all love for Black Isle and while they are great games, I wouldn't call Fallout 2 or Planescape: Torment remotly coherent. (If you mean by coherent the entirty (gameplay + narrative) of a game.)

Not remotely eh? Can you expand on why you think that, I'm confused.

 

[J_C]

Where in the Interplay/Black isle games i never felt that way, they were coherent.

By all love for Black Isle and while they are great games, I wouldn't call Fallout 2 or Planescape: Torment remotly coherent. (If you mean by coherent the entirty (gameplay + narrative) of a game.)

I wasn't talking about narrative or consistency of content. I'm aiming at the feel when you play the game and nothing is really broken, from the gameplay perspective. No feature or lack of feature that makes the game fundamentally a pain in the ass to play. It's the feel (yeah, i know that's vague and quite possibly subjective) of the whole thing seen more as a synthetic unity of game's elements I'm talking about. For example, the fact that even such an abominable thing as grinding in something like Icewind dale manages to make sense and is enjoyable. When the whole game just clicks and it works and you just end up playing it. This is where in particular fail at enduring Obsidian's games. And then when i start to analyse, there's always lots of good things, ambition and so on. But in the end it just ends up not really doing it for me as a game.

I'm deliberately not analysing what I'm saying here because it is the whole, synthetic experience of the game where this problem manifests itself for me. I'm simply wondering if Anthony felt there's something to those notions or if he thinks this is purely subjective.

This is just your personal preference. For many on the codex, the Black Isle games are not as coherent as you say.

 

[piydek]

Real answer: Because NWN2 was in development hell and console games suck.

So, that would really mean "Obsidian never got to make exactly the game they want to make"? Sure, i could buy into that. I'm eagerly awaiting P:E (backed the whole thing and all as well).

 

[Infinitron]

So, that would really mean "Obsidian never got to make exactly the game they want to make"?

I don't know what they "wanted" to make. I just know that console RPGs as a rule suck, and their only PC-exclusive project was a troubled one. And I don't want to generalize about a company because of one single project.

 

[piydek]

It seems to me that (before kickstarter) Obsidian was just walking an impossible line between the mainstream gaming industry and a desire to make RPGs that matter.

 

[Duraframe300]

By all love for Black Isle and while they are great games, I wouldn't call Fallout 2 or Planescape: Torment remotly coherent. (If you mean by coherent the entirty (gameplay + narrative) of a game.)

Not remotely eh? Can you expand on why you think that, I'm confused.

Well, in F2's case narrative and world consistency and in PS:T's case combat.

The two individual things both games are heavily critized for even by a lot of their most fans.

 

[Lilura]

How is Fallout 2 incoherent/inconsistent as regards narrative and world, are you speaking about New Reno? And I don't see how PS:T's combat is incoherent/inconsistent with narrative (you do mean narrative here also, right?), the combat sucking doesn't itself make it guilty of that charge. I gotta say, I'm still confused by what you mean on both accounts.

 

[Jasede]

Scientologists and chinamen? Tribals? "Aliens"? Not my cup of tea.

 

[Mother Russia]

Anthony Davis

I have a question bro. It is about Chris Avellone, but it doesn't have to do with his writing skills/designing skills exactly. However, I have always wanted to know this:

Avellon used to be obese. Then he became a fitness freak and got himself cut and in shape.

What initiated this transformation? Some health issue, doctors orders, parents, colleagues, friends, a girl, etc etc?

Do you have any idea of his workout schedule, then and now?

What time does Avellone work out? I know game development has incredibly long hours. Does Chris have a no nonsense cut off time when he says no matter what, I have to hit the gym?

What is his diet like? Does he bring his own healthy lunch(es)?

Note I know some of these are personal, but something I've wondered ever seeing his old blackisle pic when he was overwight.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony Davis

I have a question bro. It is about Chris Avellone, but it doesn't have to do with his writing skills/designing skills exactly. However, I have always wanted to know this:

Avellon used to be obese. Then he became a fitness freak and got himself cut and in shape.

What initiated this transformation? Some health issue, doctors orders, parents, colleagues, friends, a girl, etc etc?

Do you have any idea of his workout schedule, then and now?

What time does Avellone work out? I know game development has incredibly long hours. Does Chris have a no nonsense cut off time when he says no matter what, I have to hit the gym?

What is his diet like? Does he bring his own healthy lunch(es)?

Note I know some of these are personal, but something I've wondered ever seeing his old blackisle pic when he was overwight.

I'll start with the easy question first becaus I have to run an errand in 10 mins.

I believe Avellone was not initially fat, or at least not as fat as he was at Interplay. Much like college, the game developer lifestyle takes adjustment.

I believe Avellone works out almost every single day.

He does take time off occasionally from working out, for example if he is going to a Con in Germany, but usually he tries to work out even then.

Avellone is very active at Obsidian's #workout list where he is very encouraging and offers great advice or getting in shape. He won't pull any punches about it either.

I credit him and Dan Spitzely for inspiring me to lose the weight that I did.

As for his diet, he eats a lot, and he seems to eat whatever he enjoys. He does not drink sugar sodas at all.

I think he should blog about it because his routine and discipline can help inspire people with heir own struggle, but he already works so hard I don't think he would have time.

I'll get to the other questions tonight if I have time.

 

[Jasede]

There, you hear that? Straight from the horse's mouth!
Chris Avellone is inspiring!

Have you made a sacrifice at your personal Avellone shrine today yet, fellow Codexites? If not now is the time.

 

[Roguey]

Three, if more game companies had designers like Jeff Husges, who is a rock solid designer, completely trustworthy to get his work done in a timely and efficient manner, and be a master at implementing content without breaking game engines, and be a nice, confident and soft spoken person who gets along well with others, more game companies would be better off.

Hell, the world would be better off with more people like Jeff in it.

I say all of this with 100% confidence that not a single person at Obsidian, or anyone outside of Obsidian who knows Jeff, would disagree with me. Most would say I am not giving ENOUGH credit to how awesome he is. Avellone and Sawyer both routinely praise Jeff's work.

With all these ah-mazing people at Obsidian you'd think they'd make fun games more often, yet they do not. Participation awards for all!

 

[Jasede]

Except for Sawyer! He's so dreamy!

 

[Davaris]

Have you mentioned Scott Everts yet? If not, please tell us a Scott Everts story.

 

[Monty]

Really interesting read, thanks Anthony

Even Roguey's predictable attempts to derail the thread haven't lowered the tone as much as usual.

 

[Blaine]

Staving off obesity as a sedentary nerd in your 30s and 40s is a matter of simple mathematics and pretty easy, here's how I do it:

• jog four miles per night
• count calories (incl. calories burned jogging) and don't inhale junk food

I got a little tubby after I left the military, been doing this ever since. Now just add tattoos, feminism, and hipster glasses, and you're well on your way into Roguey's pants.

 

[Mastermind]

Except for Sawyer! He's so dreamy!

NV was the only great game Obsidian produced, so Sawyer is pretty dreamy.

 

[Rake]

Except for Sawyer! He's so dreamy!

NV was the only great game Obsidian produced, so Sawyer is pretty dreamy.

MotB

 

[Mastermind]

Except for Sawyer! He's so dreamy!

NV was the only great game Obsidian produced, so Sawyer is pretty dreamy.

MotB

Couldn't get into it. Aurora had long overstayed its welcome by the time I got around to MOTB. No game in that shit engine can call itself great.

 

[Rake]

Except for Sawyer! He's so dreamy!

NV was the only great game Obsidian produced, so Sawyer is pretty dreamy.

MotB

Couldn't get into it. Aurora had long overstayed its welcome by the time I got around to MOTB. No game in that shit engine can call itself great.

I don't disagree the engine was shit but Gamebryo is the one engine that you can't hold superior to Aurora.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony, now that you've been rehired as Josh's personal lackey and PR megaphone, in light of your experience with Neverwinter, what is your take on Cryptic's/Perfect World's assault on the IP?

Edit: And another question, at what point during wrangling aurora did you turn insane? Was it a specific event that triggered it or just the general workflow over years and years and years and years



and years.

Being Josh's megaphone and PR lackey is not everything its cracked up to be let me tell you right now. He pays me in spare bike parts... what the hell am I going to do with 17 bike chains, 3 sprockets, and 22 flat tires? I suppose its better than getting what he originally offered to pay me... a lifetime supply of buzzcuts.

I have actually NOT played the Neverwinter Nights MMO yet! I pretty damn curious about it. All I got so far was from Time Cain and I think he said something like... kind of interesting, but he's not sure yet either.



Oooooh, the Aurora codebase. The mouth of madness...


Nah, I'm being kind of harsh. There is a few crazy WTF stuff in the codebase, but there is also a surprisingly large amount of cool stuff there too. The fact that so much of it is data driven and can fail gracefully with bad data is pretty amazing considering how old the engine is. The concept of data tolerance was pretty new to the game industry back then by the large.

By the time we started SoZ, I knew how to do EVERYTHING in the codebase. I knew almost instinctively how to implement the big feature requests.

The only thing I can remember off the top of my head is that one of the SENIOR programmers at Bioware leaves some rude ass comments in his code where he blatantly insults other programmers. Maybe their work environment was one that he was joking and everyone knew he was joking, but reading it out of context it sure seems rude... and frequently dumb. Quite a few times his insults at other programmers for being wrong were actually misunderstandings on his part, For example, he left a comment once where he berated another programmer for NOT declaring every single variable at the top of a HUGE function and proceeded to edit the function and insult the original programmer. Seriously there were probably a hundred variables or more at the top of the function. His claim was that it's faster and more efficient to declare all the variables at the top, which in C++ is not always true, and depending on the nature of the variables, worse.

I wish I had the memory of Erik Novales or Adam Brennecke. You see some people remember with crystal clarity the horrible things they have lived through. Me? I block it out. Maybe if some of my old compatriots with better memories can help refresh my dusty memory, I will share them here.

 

[Jasede]

Oh Mr. Davis, you sure know how to please us: tales of dickery from Bioware.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Staving off obesity as a sedentary nerd in your 30s and 40s is a matter of simple mathematics and pretty easy, here's how I do it:

• jog four miles per night
• count calories (incl. calories burned jogging) and don't inhale junk food

I got a little tubby after I left the military, been doing this ever since. Now just add tattoos, feminism, and hipster glasses, and you're well on your way into Roguey's pants.

Yeah, exiting the military was how I got fat. I was ok for a while while working more physical jobs, but once I got a sedentary programming job it was all over. I think it is largely because in the military, especially in combat arms, you burn calories like mad, prob. 8k a day or more if you are in the field.

I was ALWAYS underweight in the Army. Always.