Chris Avellone has departed Obsidian.

[veloper]

BG2 was not such a snooze fest like Torment, because some mobs still required a bit more effort than just attacking, buffing and healing. Mage fights were actually interesting.

You're sure we're talking about the same PS:T? The one with tough as nails Undersigil mobs, Modron Cube, and top-tier D&D spells with fucking cinematics made for them?

Maybe you ended up with a very under-leveled party somehow? I don't recall any encounter that was hard in PS:T. Even in the rare case a party member died, you could always revive them on the spot, for free.

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

Well, this sucks. I know Avellone was a driving force on Obsidian's story and writing, which has always been their greatest strength. Hopefully those he left behind can pick up the slack and continue to make good stuff.


Maybe Avellone is going to write Fallout 4. Jesus can you imagine?

 

[nomzy]

Maybe Avellone is going to write Fallout 4. Jesus can you imagine?

I could only dream. But I think it's a bit late for that.
Hope he ends up at Valve or something. Not that many developers I hold in high regard anymore come to think of it.

 

[StatusNil]

His work on Planescape: Torment and Knight of the Old Republic 2 was great(if a little too similar...).

RIP in peace.

Hmmm... we're talking about Obsidian, right? Because Avellone can certainly move on.

When I first read this title, I was for some reason thinking of Josh Sawyer and was all "Meh, so they lost the grim & dark, the soc & jus." But Avellone is a different deal altogether. (At least has proved so in the past, you never can tell these days.) I imagine plenty of developers would want to take him on board.

 

[Fallow]

Just the thought of Chris Avellone working at CDPR gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. He's a God amongst mortals, and CDPR is the right place for such talent.

This is a serious blow to Obsidian, since their entire worth lies in deific storytelling. I speculate that this marks the end of yet another (once) very talented studio.

Let her RIP.

 

[Amir Kondori]

As long as Josh Sawyer is still there I'm good. Can't wait for the Pillars of Eternity expansion.

 

[Kross]

I would love to know why he left though given he was one of the co-founders and all.

So he didn't have to finish playing Arcanum.

 

[Lightknight]

This is potentially a MASSIVE plus for us RPG lovers. Let's face it, Chris left his mark on Obsidian and has shown other Obsidian employees how to craft a good story. So Obsidian is possibly squared away in that area thanks to him and should be able to continue making the same kind of games in the same vein.

What this provides is the opportunity for a second company to become imbued with the Chris Avellone talents. Two or more companies pumping out RPGs with Chris in the writing ranks or at least an influence of? Yes please. Shut up and take my money and help me find some extra time.

 

[veloper]

I don't recall any encounter that was hard in PS:T

Maybe because you actually need to seek a conflict with something that can smash your balls to get your balls smashed? Especially if you're power-leveling. Considering the amount of fights you can talk yourself out of...

And even without those - there were always the Modron Cube and Undersigil, for all your dungeon crawl needs.

Been there. Not hard.

With all of those said - PS:T had mostly a classic Infinity combat. Not that good at all, as far as games go, but definitely better than "sleep a mothafucka - zap a mathafucka - sleep a mothafucka - zap a mothafucka - dispel a mothafucka than sleep and zap dat mothafucka" BGs combat, that's for sure.

Disagree. In BG novice players can atleast lose some fights, until they know what they are doing. PS:T can be easily beaten without even having the slightest clue about how D&D plays.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I love the folks still at Obsidian but damn, I'm going to miss him.

I've been thinking and I think he might go full on freelance, human stretch goal that he is. Be like The Littlest Hobo, wander from game developer to game developer improving the quality of their games.

 

[veloper]

I love the folks still at Obsidian but damn, I'm going to miss him.

I've been thinking and I don't think he's going to join any company. I think he might go full on freelance, human stretch goal that he is. Be like The Littlest Hobo, wander from game developer to game developer improving the quality of their games.

How unlikely is that?
If you just add him to an existing team of writers, players probably won't even notice his contribution among all the other lines.
To have any significant influence on a game project, you need to be a lead designer or maybe in Chris' case, have at the very least control over the writers. How many companies would give that responsibility to a temp?

 

[ObserverStatus]

His work on Planescape: Torment and Knight of the Old Republic 2 was great(if a little too similar...).

RIP in peace.

nah, his work on Lonesome Road was a little too similar.

 

[Mikeybb]

There was a time when hearing the news of an influential developer leaving a company would be something I'd be sad to see.

Now, with smaller companies managing to release truly impressive games, I'm kinda excited to see what he'll work on next.

Assuming, of course, he stays in game development.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

I don't know enough about his input into their games to comment on specifics, but I am reminded of the downturn Bioware took when Brent Knowles left.

Here's hoping it's not a repeat of that.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

This is potentially a MASSIVE plus for us RPG lovers. Let's face it, Chris left his mark on Obsidian and has shown other Obsidian employees how to craft a good story. So Obsidian is possibly squared away in that area thanks to him and should be able to continue making the same kind of games in the same vein.

What this provides is the opportunity for a second company to become imbued with the Chris Avellone talents. Two or more companies pumping out RPGs with Chris in the writing ranks or at least an influence of? Yes please. Shut up and take my money and help me find some extra time.

while this is certainly the outcome I'm hoping for, I'm a bit leery of him joining an even smaller dev team, because I'd feel like his talent would just get lost in the indie game world at that point. Hopefully CDPR or someone else who is passionate about RPG's can pick him up and give him some creative control.

 

[Lightknight]

This is potentially a MASSIVE plus for us RPG lovers. Let's face it, Chris left his mark on Obsidian and has shown other Obsidian employees how to craft a good story. So Obsidian is possibly squared away in that area thanks to him and should be able to continue making the same kind of games in the same vein.

What this provides is the opportunity for a second company to become imbued with the Chris Avellone talents. Two or more companies pumping out RPGs with Chris in the writing ranks or at least an influence of? Yes please. Shut up and take my money and help me find some extra time.

while this is certainly the outcome I'm hoping for, I'm a bit leery of him joining an even smaller dev team, because I'd feel like his talent would just get lost in the indie game world at that point. Hopefully CDPR or someone else who is passionate about RPG's can pick him up and give him some creative control.

The success of Pillars of Eternity may mean he's pursuing more games like that which can be tackled by smaller studios affordably. You may not see him in AAA titles like Fallout 4 but getting more quality isometric games from him would be a plus as long as Obsidian continues to maintain the bar he set.