Chris Avellone Interview

Industry Gamers had the chance to chat with the ever-talkative creative director of Obsidian Entertainment Chris Avellone, on subjects such as the upcoming next generation of consoles, what his role involves, the most important advancements in RPG design in the last few years and more. Here’s a snip:

IG: What’s the most important advances in RPG design in the last few years?

CA: That’s tough. I’ll say the “advances” have been more for player convenience, sometimes good, sometimes bad, in my opinion. Journals, quest compasses that point directly to the goal and show you the route, auto-maps, etc. are helpful; at the same time, I think it undermines the thrill of victory and discovery and a lot of what makes an RPG an RPG (exploration, notably). In terms of non-interface elements, I feel the idea of morally gray choices and more focus on actions and consequences has been great for RPGs across the board. Lastly, fully voice-acted characters has been something to adapt to since Knights of the Old Republic 1, and the amount of localization, recording and audio work that requires is substantial, but I feel it’s a net positive for the player.

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IG: Will we see Obsidian produce and distribute its own games someday?

CA: Our eventual hope is that we can stockpile enough resources to release our own titles digitally. Smaller games can be very satisfying projects to work on, and it would be great to do that. But it’s going to take time for us to get there; we want to make sure we do it right.