While there, I envisioned Planescape: Torment, which I would argue was a huge mistake, but I loved doing it, so there was a period where I loved my job more than my own life, which my doctor later told me would not allow me to rise from the dead when the combination of stress and caffeine would cause my heart to stop beating (the last month of Torment was when I got this medical warning, but Annah was the last companion I had to write, so it was probably the best time for it to happen). This was the third thing I learned about game development – planting your ass in front of a computer game monitor is not conducive to your emotional and physical health.
The spiral of doom for Interplay was pretty evident around that time – Torment, Fallout, and other projects were the last of the 2-3 year development cycle within Dragonplay/Black Isle Games and the cycles became shorter and shorter as Interplay ran out of cash. I recovered from Fallout, lost some weight, gained a social life, lost more weight, actually learned more about Orange County, all against the backdrop of Interplay’s death throes.
