Wikipedia

Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone(/ˈævəloʊn/) is an Americanvideo game designerandcomic book writer.He is known for his significant roles on a large number of video games, primarilyrole-playing video games,praised for their writing across his three-decade career.

Chris Avellone
Avellone in 2009
Born
United States
Known forWriting and designingrole-playing video games

Avellone joinedInterplayin 1995 and was one of the designers ofFallout 2(1998) and the lead designer ofPlanescape: Torment(1999), the latter of which has been regarded as "one of the best-written and most imaginative video games ever created".[1]After departing Interplay in 2003, he became one of the co-founders and thechief creative officerofObsidian Entertainment,where he was the lead designer ofStar Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords(2004) and a senior designer onFallout: New Vegas(2010). From 2012 on, he was involved with some of the most successfulcrowdfundingcampaigns onKickstarter,becoming known as a "human stretch goal".[2]

Avellone departed Obsidian in 2015 and has since worked as a freelancer for various companies on games such asPrey(2017),Divinity: Original Sin II(2017),Pathfinder: Kingmaker(2018),Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order(2019) andPathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous(2021).

In 2009, he was chosen byIGNas one of the top 100 game creators of all time[3]and byGamasutraas one of the top 20 game writers.[4]In 2017, he was named byGamesTMas one of the then 50 most influential people in gaming.[5]

Early life

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Avellone grew up inAlexandria, Virginia.[6]At the age of 9, he first learned aboutDungeons & Dragonswhile playing catch with a friend from the neighborhood who started describing a "strange game of make-believe where you could pretend to be a dwarf, elf, fighter and you could explore dungeons, fight monsters, and take their treasure." After trying to put together a group to play with, he realized that no one wanted to be the group'sgame masterand he had to learn how to fill the role himself, experiencing the game vicariously through the players and looking for new ways to entertain them.

He attended theThomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technologyin nearbyFairfax County.[7]While in high school, he visited a friend's house and sawThe Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knightby Interplay Productions running on theCommodore 64,which made him realize a computer game master could also run a game for him and resulted in him playing every computer RPG he could get his hands on, without considering at the time that he could seek a career in computer games.[8]

Upon finishing high school, he moved south and pursued a degree in architecture atVirginia Techbecause he had enjoyed drawing maps and structures for his pen-and-paper gaming sessions.[9][10]After two years, however, he realized his "sketchbook was often filled with more sentences than sketches", which made him question himself and led to him transferring to theCollege of William & Maryand switching over to English as his major, graduating in 1994 with a minor in fine arts as well.[11][12]

His first job was for a role-playing company called Day by Day Associates,[13]and involved role-playing a criminal at the local police academy and atHogan's AlleyinQuantico, Virginiato help train police officers and FBI agents.[14]He later worked in a toy store and as a campus center supervisor.[15]

Career

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1993-2003: Tabletop games and Interplay

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Early projects,Fallout 2andPlanescape: Torment

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Avellone's hobby of gamemastering for tabletop roleplaying games made him try to get his adventures and articles published. Starting in his high school years, he sent a large number of submissions toDungeonmagazine,[16]: 1 [17]Dragonmagazine,Palladium Books,GURPSandHero Games,but they were all rejected.[18]However, when Hero Games had a new product line for theirChampionsRPG calledDark Championsand needed writers, Hero Games' line editor[19][20]Bruce Harlickcontacted Avellone,[21]asking him to write a character book for it, which he agreed to, resulting in 1993'sUnderworld Enemies.[22][23]It was followed byDystopiain 1994,Widows & Orphansin 1997 andNew Bedlam Asylumin 1998,[24]as well as contributions to the adventure anthologiesHeroic Adventures Volume 1andVolume 2in 1996 and toDragon,Alarums and Excursions,Adventurers ClubandShadisthroughout that period.[25][26]Avellone was also one of the authors involved in thefanzineHaymaker!alongside Harlick.[27]

After askingSteve Peterson,his editor at Hero Games, to help him find him a job with a steady paycheck, Peterson put in a recommendation for him with Mark O'Green, the head of Interplay Productions' Dragonplay division.[24]At the beginning of June 1995,[28]Avellone flew toIrvine, Californiaand interviewed with O'Green, who asked him hard questions about how he would go about designing a video game using thePlanescapelicense,[29][30]which Interplay held the video game rights for at the time.[31]Avellone told him he would "start at the death screen, and just tell the story of what happens after that". O'Green was intrigued and hired him as a junior designer.[32][33]

His first task at Interplay was to design cities for aDungeons & Dragonsgame set in theForgotten Realms.When that project was cancelled a few months later,[21]he was transferred to the role of a level designer onDescent to Undermountain,a first person 3Ddungeon crawlerthat was also set in theForgotten Realmsand repurposed the engine used by 1995's spaceship combat gameDescent.According to Avellone: "I didn't know what I was getting into! I was very happy to work on it at the time, though. They were trying to add gravity and first-person combat into theDescentengine, you know, so they could create something [like]Ultima Underworld.The engine just wasn't set up to do that, and we didn't have the sheer amount of programming power available to make that happen. "[16]: 1–2 

While working onUndermountain,he was also asked to contribute writing and design to other games. The first of these to be released wasConquest of the New World,a turn-based historical strategy game developed byQuicksilver Softwarewhich was published by Interplay in 1996. Because Quicksilver were only a few streets away from Interplay, designers from Interplay including Avellone were asked to help with lore additions to the game whenever needed.[8]He then contributed mission design to Interplay's 1997 gameStar Trek: Starfleet Academy,a space flight simulator that made extensive use of full motion video.[34]

By late 1996,[35]Feargus Urquhart– who had replaced O'Green as the head of Interplay's role-playing division, soon to be known asBlack Isle Studios– was being mandated to make use of thePlanescapelicense by his superiors and became interested in making a game for it using theInfinity Engine,the isometric engine inBioWare'sBaldur's Gate,which was then in development and which Interplay had access to as BioWare's publisher. Urquhart asked Avellone if he was interested in being the lead designer on the new project and Avellone agreed, seeing it as an opportunity.[36]Avellone initially titled the gamePlanescape: Last Rites,[37][38]and, recalling the design ideas he had shared with O'Green in his hiring interview, used them as the starting point for the game's vision document, which was warmly received by Interplay's studio headBrian Fargo,who nonetheless asked Avellone to promise he could actually deliver on it.[33]During the game's pre-production, Avellone was given a very small team that consisted of lead programmer Dan Spitzley, lead artist Tim Donley and two other artists, sharing an office with them.[39][40]As Avellone described it:

Once the vision document was approved, we scaled it down and outwards and turned each bit into reality. The lead artist, Tim Donley, did sketches of each of the major locations one by one before they were arted on the computer. I then took the characters and quests and did area design documents. I wrote a first pass of much of the dialogue and companions (many of which made it all the way to the final draft). All the while our programmers started digging into the Infinity Engine (which wasn’t done at that time, sinceBaldur’s Gate 1was still going on) and learning more about how it worked so we could see if our ideas were feasible or not.[41]

Avellone incorporated the many ideas for fantasy quests and characters he had gathered over the years into his design[42]and sought to turn fantasy conventions upside down.[43]Around this time,Tim Cainalso offered Avellone a role onFalloutas a designer,[44]but Avellone had to turn him down because, betweenLast Ritesand his continued responsibilities onUndermountain,he was already overburdened with work, and he recommendedScott Benniefor the role instead.[45]: 1 [46]

At the beginning of 1997, Avellone asked Urquhart to be transferred to full-time work onLast Ritesbecause he no longer felt there was much he could contribute toUndermountaingiven that game's development troubles, but this request was only granted in the summer of that year.[16]: 2 WhenColin McCombwas assigned toLast Ritesas its second designer in April 1997,[47]he found that Avellone already had a broad outline of the entire game from start to finish, with all of the major characters sketched out.[48]It was soon realized that the nameLast Riteswas already trademarked and being used for another company's game,[37]which led to their project being renamed intoPlanescape: Tormentafter many other possible names for it were rejected.[49]Throughout that period, Avellone also contributed writing to Interplay's racing combat gameRed AsphaltandTreyarch's swordfighting action-adventure gameDie by the Sword,both of them released in early 1998.[50][51]

Undermountainwas finally released in January 1998 and sold poorly and was widely panned by critics.[16]: 2 [52]That same month,Fallout's central creative trio of Tim Cain,Leonard BoyarskyandJason Andersondecided to leave Interplay and start their own company which they namedTroika Games.This created an uncertain future forFallout 2,which they had been leading development on for a few months, so designers, programmers and artists were taken from other projects and assigned to help with it.[46][53]This included Avellone, who became an area designer on the game and designed New Reno, Vault City, the raider caves and the game's various special encounters.[45]: 1 His work on New Reno is how Avellone "first came to people's attention", as it has been called "one of the most beloved locations in any RPG"[54]and "possibly Avellone's single greatest creation [...] emblematic of everything a true RPG should be: non-linear, dynamic, detailed, and expertly written".[16]: 3 Fallout 2was released in October 1998 and has been ranked by video game publications as one of the best RPGs of all time,[55][56][57]though Avellone has expressed misgivings about the game's tonal inconsistencies and overuse of breaking the fourth wall.[58]: 1 

While working onFallout 2,he also continued writing the story and dialogue forTorment,which led to him having 160 hour workweeks that kept him exhausted.[59]OnceFallout 2was finished, he immediately had to enter crunch time again onTorment[60]as the game's development team expanded from the 10 people it had at that point[50]to between 35 and 40 by the end.[47]McComb would later estimate that, although there were seven other designers on his team, Avellone did approximately half of the design work on the project.[48]However, as the game's localization costs mounted due to its long script and quality assurance testers regarded it as the strangest game they had worked on, Avellone thought thatTormentwould be poorly received at large and was afraid he was going to be fired.[23]WhenTormentwas released in December 1999, it instead sold moderately well[40]and received very positive reviews. It has since become regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time[61][62][63][64]and has been especially praised for reaching a quality of writing that had not existed in games up to that point.[65]

By the end of the game's development, Avellone's health had declined significantly from the long hours and he was advised by his doctor to not continue down that path.[16]: 4 Interplay's vice president Trish Wright also became concerned and helped reduce his workload.[66][9]When Urquhart and Donley asked him if he was willing to work on a sequel toTorment,Avellone declined, saying he was too tired.[67][23]

Icewind Daleseries,Van Burenand collaborations with Snowblind

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Most of theTormentteam then wanted to work on a new fantasy intellectual property which became known asBlack Isle's Torn,while Avellone opted to join a different team inside Black Isle which, after the release ofFallout 2,had spent a few months working on a sequel for that game, but had not made good progress in that time with either its design or its switch to a new 3D engine.[68]After promising them another chance to make that sequel in the future, Urquhart had tasked them in May 1999[69]with developingIcewind Dale,[70]a more traditionalDungeons & Dragonsgame which, likeBaldur's Gate,was set in theForgotten Realmsand also used the Infinity Engine, but was more linear and had a strong focus on dungeon crawling. Despite joining halfway through development, Avellone wrote the dialogues of all the major NPCs inIcewind Daleand also edited those written by the other designers. Additionally, he designed a number of quests for the starting town of Easthaven and many of the special items in the game, as well as writing the game's narrative style guide and manual.[16]: 4 [66]He was also one of the few technical designers involved with directly implementing content in the game.[71]Icewind Dalewas released in June 2000 and was well-received, but was regarded by Avellone[58]: 2 and the general public as not pushing the genre forward compared to Black Isle's previous games.

During his time onIcewind Dale,Avellone also wrote a vision document for the project codenamedVan Buren,which was the promised next attempt at continuing theFalloutseries.[18]Once it was approved, he became the lead designer on it and worked on it for the next three years, doing area design, maps, character breakdowns, items and plot elements for all the locations in the game.[45]: 2 Avellone felt the game had the potential to be better thanTorment,as everything in its design seemed to be clicking into place,[17]but none of the teams at Black Isle were available to work on it, and it languished in pre-production with Avellone as the sole person assigned to it,[72]his only chance to playtest and refine his design coming from tabletop sessions based around it that he ran for his fellow developers.[73]

A few weeks after the release ofIcewind Dale,work began on an expansion pack for it calledHeart of Winter.[74]At fellow designerJosh Sawyer's suggestion, its story was based on the lore Avellone had written for one of his Easthaven quests,[75]and Avellone continued his dialogue-focused duties on the title.[76]Heart of Winterwas released in February 2001 and was not as well-received as the original game, mainly because of its short length. To allay the fans' complaints, the team including Avellone[51]then developed a free but smaller downloadable expansion calledTrials of the Luremaster,which was released in July 2001.[77]

DuringHeart of Winter's development,[78]Avellone was also asked to write the story forBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliance,a console action RPG that Interplay had taskedSnowblind Studioswith developing in an attempt to enter the increasingly lucrative console market. Although Avellone quickly wrote a draft of the storyline that he liked, it became a target for what he called "the most mind-boggling iterations and suggestions" from his bosses, and he was unhappy with the result as he felt it was lacking and not similar to his original vision.[79][80]

Black Isle's Torn,which Avellone did not work on[81]but had offered occasional design input on,[82][83]was cancelled in July 2001,[84]as Urquhart estimated it would not be done in time to help Interplay with the financial difficulties it was going through.[85]Development onIcewind Dale IIwas started in its place, once again using the Infinity Engine, with Sawyer as the lead designer[86]and Avellone doing area design for the starting town of Targos[87]and for Kuldahar,[88]which he greatly enjoyed because of the unusual amount of freedom the designers were given on the project.[25]Icewind Dale IIwas released in August 2002 and received positive reviews, although the public felt its engine had become too dated.[89]

In early 2002, production began onLionheart: Legacy of the Crusader,an alternate history action RPG developed byReflexive Entertainmentand published by Interplay, on which Avellone was assigned to provide design assistance for a short while after its overall storyline had already been established several months into development.[90]Afterwards, before he could return to work onVan Buren,he contributed to the design ofBaldur's Gate III: The Black Hound,[79]Black Isle's attempt at making aDungeons & Dragonsgame in a 3D engine that had to useBaldur's Gatein its name despite having little to do with it because Interplay had supposedly retained the license for it, but not the license for theForgotten Realmsin general.[91]Once the license turned out to have been lost because of unpaid royalties,[70]The Black Houndwas cancelled after a year and a half of active development, which made Urquhart leave the company in frustration[92]in April 2003.[93]For the first time, a full team was now available to work onVan Buren,but Avellone did not believe it was possible to make the game any longer given Interplay's financial troubles and the management's complete focus on the console market, so he also left the company a couple of months after Urquhart. His assessment turned out to be correct when, half a year later, Black Isle was shut down andVan Burenwas cancelled.[94][72]

Now a free agent, Avellone was invited by Snowblind Studios to help with the writing on their next game,Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest— another console action RPG in the same vein asDark Alliancebut taking place in theEverQuestuniverse — as they had enjoyed working with Avellone despite their relationship with Black Isle becoming frayed after Black Isle had used their engine to makeDark Alliance IIwithout their permission or involvement.[95][80]

2003-2015: Chief creative officer at Obsidian Entertainment

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Founding of Obsidian,Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic IIandNeverwinter Nights 2

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After leaving Interplay, Avellone was asked by Urquhart to join him as one of the five co-founders of a new company named Obsidian Entertainment which aimed to develop the same kind of games as Black Isle,[16]: 4 [9]with Avellone accepting and becoming the company'schief creative officer.[29][11]

Obsidian received their first project very quickly[16]: 5 when BioWare, who were almost done developing the cross-platform RPGStar Wars: Knights of the Old RepublicforLucasArts,passed on the opportunity to make a sequel for it and recommended Obsidian for the job based on their previous relationship with Black Isle.[96][97]Avellone thus became the lead designer ofStar Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords,a role which he was not pleased with at first as he had not been a fan ofStar Warssince his childhood, but which gradually became interesting to him as he immersed himself in the franchise, reading all of its novels and comic books,[98]and realized he could explore the questions he had about its universe through his design[99]and try to recapture the feeling ofThe Empire Strikes Back,his favorite movie in the series.[100]

However, the task of making a sequel to aAAAgame was fraught with difficulties, as Obsidian initially had no employees and no office space, with the co-founders working in Urquhart's attic.[101]Additionally, Avellone had to write a blind first draft of the story without having played the originalKOTOR,as it had not yet been released and LucasArts did not want to provide a copy of it before a full contract had been officially signed, which then led to Avellone having to start over with an entirely different story once he was able to play it.[102]

After a contract was signed in August 2003, Obsidian were able to move into an office inSanta Ana[103]and hire enough employees to start full production on the game by October, but still had a very aggressive schedule that required them to finish the game within a year. Avellone wrote the game's overall storyline and most of the companions and did area design for Peragus, Malachor V, part of Nar Shaddaa and other smaller areas, while also dividing and coordinating the tasks of six other designers.[104][105][106]KOTOR IIwas released on time in December 2004 in what many regarded as a partially unfinished state, but still received very positive reviews, with its story being named one of the greatest in video games[107]and in theStar Warsfranchise.[108][109][110]

AfterKOTOR II,Avellone pitched comic book publisherDark Horsea comic namedUnseen, Unheardabout characters from the game,[106]which he then wrote for the final issue ofStar Wars Talespublished in July 2005.[111]This also led to him contributing short stories to theStar Wars: Clone Wars Adventurescomic series until it ended in December 2007.[112][113]

In July 2004,[114]Obsidian began development onNeverwinter Nights 2,aDungeons & DragonsPC RPG taking place in theForgotten Realms,after another situation in which BioWare, who had developed the first game, recommended Obsidian to its publisher, in this caseAtari,for developing the sequel.[115]Avellone joined the game's development team onceKOTOR IIwas finished and was primarily responsible for writing major characters, including the game's companions and their associated quests, but also for implementing influence mechanics and critiquing area designs, and additionally proofread almost all the dialogue in the game.[29][116]Despite the game's design having an unrealistically large scope that created difficulties and led to its original lead designer Ferret Baudoin being replaced by Josh Sawyer in March 2006,[117]Neverwinter Nights 2had generally favorable reviews when released in October 2006, with its story and writing noted as being its strong points.[118]

As Obsidian began to always have multiple projects in pre-production or development at any given time, Avellone — in his capacity as the company's chief creative officer — oversaw the high-level design on all of them, offering feedback and critiques on prototypes, game builds and design documents, as well as writing and improving pitches for new games and talking to publishers about them.[29][119]Obsidian's third projectDwarves,an RPG prequel toSnow White and the Seven Dwarvesthat Obsidian was enlisted to create byDisneyin 2005,[120]was the first one that Avellone did not have a direct role on, with his involvement instead consisting of reviewing the work done by its lead designer Kevin Saunders and its lead story writerBrian Mitsodaand offering insight into which elements in its story achieved their goals and which elements needed improvement.[121]

In July 2006,[122]pre-production began onMask of the Betrayer,the first expansion pack forNeverwinter Nights 2,with Avellone offering designerGeorge Zietsthe role of creative lead on it and giving him a lot of flexibility on its story and setting, which Ziets used by exploring the religious and mythological elements in theForgotten Realmsthat were the most interesting to him.[123]One of the five companions intended for the expansion, the half-celestial cleric Kaelyn the Dove, was almost cut early on when it was estimated she could not be written and implemented in the time the team had available. Avellone, who was not directly assigned to the project at the time, asked to write her himself so she could be kept,[124][125]with Ziets remarking that she then ended up being his favorite companion in the game.[126]Avellone also wrote a second companion for it, the spirit shaman Gann-of-Dreams.[16]: 5–6 As the expansion neared release, its lead designer Kevin Saunders noted that the dialogues of the new companions were richer and longer than those of the most developed companions inNeverwinter Nights 2.[127]Mask of the Betrayerwas released in September 2007 and was well-received, with game publications calling it the bestDungeons & Dragonsexperience sinceBaldur's Gate II: Shadows of AmnandTorment[128][129][130]and sometimes referring to it as a thematic sequel of the latter.[131]

Alpha ProtocolandFallout: New Vegas

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In early 2006,Segaexpressed interest in having Obsidian develop a cross-platform RPG for them and were pitched an idea from Urquhart and fellow co-founder Chris Jones about making an espionage RPG[41]that took place in the present and incorporated ideas fromBurn Notice,James Bond,theBourneseries and24.Sega liked it and decided to pursue the project, with Obsidian intending at first to retain the intellectual property rights for it, but soon giving them to Sega in return for more funding so they could prevent layoffs when, as the deal with Sega had almost been finalized,Dwarveswas cancelled by Disney[132]because they had decided to avoid going in that game's direction with theSnow Whiteintellectual property after a recent change in that company's leadership.[120][133]Brian Mitsoda was reassigned from writing the story forDwarvesto being the creative lead on the espionage RPG,[134]which was namedAlpha Protocol.Sega announced their collaboration with Obsidian on a game based on new intellectual property on the 23rd of March 2006.[135]

Near the end of 2006,[132]Sega asked Obsidian to also begin development on a second cross-platform RPG to be published by them, this time based on theAlienfranchise, with the project being namedAliens: Crucible.Avellone was assigned as its creative lead[48]and sought to incorporate survival mechanics into the title, giving players the goal of building up a base over time and carefully managing their resources in a tense atmosphere[136]where they would be vulnerable to attack even during conversations.[16]: 6 The game was officially announced by Sega in December 2006.[137]

In early 2008,[17]whenAlpha Protocolwas halfway through development, it became apparent that its vision had not been well-defined and that, in the absence of a project director, its leads were each trying to make a different kind of game.[23]When Mitsoda left Obsidian soon after, Avellone was moved over toAlpha Protocoland became its lead designer[138]— though not in charge of its gameplay systems, which were handled by lead systems designer Matt MacLean — while Josh Sawyer took over the design ofAliens: Crucible.[139]Avellone created a new storyline forAlpha Protocolthat was less linear and allowed for a very large number of player choices, while reusing character designs, locations and plot points from Mitsoda's iteration of the story. Avellone wrote most of the characters in the game, except for their emails, which were written by Matt MacLean, and except for the characters inTaipeiand the peripheral ones inRome,which were written by narrative designer Travis Stout. Avellone estimated there were approximately 120 hours of dialogue in the final game of which players would only hear between 22% and 33% in a single playthrough.[140]

In February 2009,[141][142]Aliens: Cruciblewas cancelled by Sega in favor ofAlpha Protocol,which they deemed to be much farther along in development.[143]After a round of layoffs at Obsidian, Urquhart began talking to Todd Vaughn, the vice president of development atBethesda Softworks,about making a game for them, as Vaughn had previously raised that possibility as early as 2004, but Obsidian had never had any free teams whenever it had come up.[144]Bethesda, who had obtained the rights to makeFalloutgames in 2004 during Interplay's bankruptcy[145]and had released their ownFallout 3in October 2008, were now busy developingThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimand would not be able to make aFallout 4for a long time, which made them interested in having an external studio develop anotherFallouttitle in the interim to avoid a large gap between titles. Obsidian were thus asked by Bethesda to pick an interesting location in theWestern United Statesand pitch aFalloutgame around it. After multiple people at Obsidian independently choseLas Vegasas a signature western city,[146]Avellone wrote a story pitch about a stranger getting shot in the head and dropped in a shallow grave in the desert, with Vegas visible in the distance.[147][148]Bethesda approved it, signing up on the development ofFallout: New Vegas,with theAliens: Crucibleteam being transferred to it[149]and Sawyer becoming the game's project director and lead designer. As Sawyer had taken part in Avellone'sVan Burenpen and paper campaigns at Black Isle and had become the lead designer on that game for its final six months, he incorporated certain elements from it intoNew Vegas,such asHoover Damas a plot-important location, the Caesar's Legion tribal confederation as a major faction, the mentally ill Nightkin super mutants as occasionally encountered characters and the caravan wars as part of the story's background.[73][101][150]

Avellone moved over fromAlpha Protocolto theNew Vegasteam as a senior designer in October 2009.[149]Alpha Protocol,which had originally been meant to be released that same month, was delayed to May 2010 after management at Sega decided it would have a more favorable release window then,[151]but the game did not receive any additional development time during the delay. Upon its release,Alpha Protocolreceived lukewarm reviews, with frequent criticisms about its gameplay being clunky and bland, while its storytelling and freedom of choice were praised. Although Avellone had many ideas for a sequel and wanted to have an even more complex story in it,[150]the game was not financially successful and Sega was not interested in turning it into a series.[152]The game has, however, become regarded as a cult classic because of its unique style of reactivity.[132][153][154]

ForNew Vegas,Avellone wrote two companions: Ulysses, a former scout from Caesar's Legion who was supposed to provide insight into the game's events from the perspective of that faction, and Rose of Sharon Cassidy, the hard-drinking caravaneer daughter of Cassidy, aFallout 2companion who had also been written by Avellone[155]and had been Sawyer's favorite companion in the series.[156]Avellone also provided writing for the game's ending slides,[157]the endgame characters Legate Lanius and General Oliver,[158]as well as for the Mojave Outpost and the REPCONN Headquarters areas,[159]and helped lead writer John Gonzalez with structuring the story and its associated character dialogues, as Gonzalez was not used to writing branching narratives.[160][150]After getting Dark Horse in touch with Bethesda, Avellone also wroteAll Roads,a graphic novel included with the collector's edition ofNew Vegasthat detailed the events leading up to the beginning of the game.[161][162]However, as development onNew Vegaswas nearing the end, it was realized that Ulysses as a companion had so much dialogue that it would not have fit on the game's disc and there was not enough time to trim it down, which led to his complete removal,[163]a difficult task in itself given that his dialogue had so many different hooks into the storyline.[41]Avellone decided instead to reuse the character as an overarching antagonist in thedownloadable contentexpansions that were planned, with foreshadowing about his new story being added to the base game.[164]New Vegas was released in October 2010 and was well-reviewed, but received significant criticism for its technical issues. With the passing of time, it has become regarded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time.[165][166][57]

New Vegasreceived four downloadable content expansions, with Avellone being the project director and lead designer on three of them:Dead Money,Old World BluesandLonesome Road.Avellone shared writing duties onOld World Blueswith Travis Stout, but did almost all of the writing on the other two.[167]In Dead Money,the story revolved around the player character being kidnapped, fitted with an explosive collar and forced to rob an impenetrable casino with the help of three other characters in the same predicament. Avellone sought to create a survival horror experience for it based on an idea he had originally had while working onTormentafter watching the 1997 filmCubeand which centered on taking disparate personalities that would normally be very hostile to each other and forcing them to work together,[168]focusing on the themes of greed and human nature. To provide a contrast to the dark atmosphere of the other expansions,Old World Blueshad a much more humorous story that involved the player character being taken to the highly advanced scientific facility of Big MT, having their brain stolen, and exploring the remains of the facility to recover it. Its story was conceived around the theme of "the optimistic atomic future of what might have been" and the idea that the advanced technology in theFalloutsetting could have saved the world if it had not been misused by its creators.Lonesome Roadwas inspired by the final image at the end of the originalFalloutof that game's protagonist being cast out of their home and attempted to evoke the same sense of abandonment by having the player explore an area that their character had caused devastation for in the past, with rival courier Ulysses holding them responsible for it and waiting to confront them inside.[169][170]TheNew Vegasexpansions were released between December 2010 and September 2011 and have been praised for providing "some of the best sci-fi in games",[171]withOld World Bluesin particular being named one of the greatest video game expansions ever.[172][173]

In early 2011, a team led by Sawyer created a demo for a project namedStormlands,a fantasy action RPG set in a world of magical storms, and pitched it toMicrosoft,who decided to sign up on publishing it as they wanted to have an RPG as a launch title for theXbox Onein 2013.[174][175]Meanwhile, as Avellone was finishing work on theFallout: New Vegasexpansions, he also began developing new pitches for the studio,[168][176]including pitches to Bethesda for spin-offs toThe Elder Scrollsseries, one of which would have taken place in an alternate world that the heroes of previous games had failed in saving, and which were meant to serve a similar role toNew Vegasby filling in the gap between major installments, but they were not picked up.[177]

Forays into crowdfunding and final projects at Obsidian

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On the 8th of February 2012, game developerDouble Finelaunched a campaign on crowdfunding serviceKickstarterto raise funds for a new adventure game and reached their stated goal of $400,000 in less than 8 hours, which was unprecedented at the time.[178][179]This inspired Avellone to write a blog post soon after asking fans what kind of project they wanted to potentially see Obsidian launch a Kickstarter campaign around,[180][181]the responses to which briefly crashed the Obsidian website after it received more traffic than it could handle,[182][183]but revealed that the most requested project was a sequel toPlanescape: Torment.[184][185]That same month,Wizards of the Coast,who held the license forPlanescape,were contacted about the possibility of providing it, but were not interested.[47][186][187]

Former Interplay studio head Brian Fargo, who had left Interplay in early 2002[188]and founded another company namedinXile Entertainmentlater that year,[189]was also inspired by Double Fine's success and decided to use Kickstarter to crowdfundWasteland 2,the sequel to the 1988 post-apocalyptic RPGWastelandon which he had been the game director, announcing his decision to do so on the 15th of February.[190]Aware thatWastelandhad been one of Avellone's favorite games, Fargo initially contacted him asking him to provide a promotional quote for the Kickstarter campaign, which resulted in Avellone writing a blog post in support of it on the 21st of February.[191]Shortly afterwards, Fargo asked him if he was interested in working on the game, to which Avellone replied that he was,[192][11]leading to an arrangement between Fargo and Urquhart whereby Obsidian would be paid for Avellone's participation on it.[193][194]

On the 12th of March 2012,Stormlandswas cancelled, as Obsidian's vision for the project had become increasingly disconnected from Microsoft's demands for it.[175]The following day, the largest round of layoffs in Obsidian's history took place, with around 40 employees losing their jobs[174][103]and company morale reaching its lowest point since the company's inception.[195]

That same day,[196]the Kickstarter campaign forWasteland 2was launched and surpassed its original target of $900,000 in only 48 hours.[197]By the end of the month, when it had reached $1.7 million in pledges, it was announced that Avellone would be joining its development team if a new stretch goal of $2.1 million was reached,[198]although Avellone had been unaware when agreeing to his participation that it would be tied to a stretch goal. The campaign ultimately raised slightly over $3 million.[199]Avellone spent around 2 days a week at inXile over the following months[200]and his contributions to the game consisted in writing its vision document and in doing area design for Highpool and the Agricultural Center, along with a few other areas such as the Synth Refinery[201]and Seal Beach that were not included in the final game, as well as providing templates and design formats for the other designers and taking part in story meetings.[11][121]

Meanwhile, at Obsidian, it was estimated that the company could only keep operating until September,[195]which led to frantic attempts to pitch new games to publishers throughout a period that was later known at the company as the "Summer of Proposals". Ten different games were pitched, including a newStar Warsgame resemblingKnights of the Old Republicthat was namedStar Wars: Dark Timesand was based on a story written by Avellone that would have taken place betweenStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the SithandStar Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.[133][202]However, none of Obsidian's pitches were picked up by publishers.

As a result of the pressure, a Kickstarter campaign around a spiritual successor toTormentthat did not take place in thePlanescapesetting was considered at Obsidian,[185]and Avellone publicly began expressing interest in one in July 2012.[192][203]However, after further discussions, a decision was made to instead create a game combining elements from all of the Infinity Engine titles, but with a more traditional fantasy setting inspired by theForgotten Realms.[204][205]The resulting game concept was calledProject Eternityand, on the 12th of September 2012, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for it, with an initial funding target of $1.1 million that was reached in just over 24 hours.[206]By the end of the campaign on the 16th of October, it had raised over $3.9 million, the most money ever raised by a video game on Kickstarter at that time.[207][208]

On the 27th of November 2012, Brian Fargo acquired the recently expired trademark for the wordTorment,[187]later stating that he had waited patiently for someone to do something with it, but had decided to step in himself and put together a team at inXile to create a similar game toPlanescape: Torment,albeit without thePlanescapelicense.[209]Once he had the trademark, Fargo asked Avellone to work on the new game, but Avellone's responsibilities onProject Eternitymade it infeasible to do so. In January 2013, it was announced that the game would be calledTorment: Tides of Numenera.[210]On the 6th of March 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for it, with an endorsement from Avellone[211]and an initial funding goal of $900,000 that was reached after just 6 hours,[212]although there was some disappointment among fans that Avellone would not be involved in the game. In the middle of March, however, discussions between Fargo and Urquhart led to an agreement on a workload for Avellone onNumenerathat would not negatively impactProject Eternity.On the 22nd of March, at which point theNumeneracampaign had $2.9 million in funding, it was announced that Avellone would be joining the game's team if a further stretch goal of $3.5 million was reached, with his role consisting of reviewing and providing feedback on the story, characters and areas, as well as writing one of the companions.[213]The campaign passed that goal on the 3rd of April,[214]which led to Avellone being referred to as a "human stretch goal" by the gaming press from then on,[131][215]and ended on the 6th of April with a final tally of $4.18 million, overtakingProject Eternityto become the highest-funded game on the platform.[216][217][218]Avellone created eight different concepts for a companion character, wishing to only settle on one after sufficiently exploring the game's plot and themes, and ultimately chose to write Erritis, an impulsive warrior with a love for danger who was meant to introduce some levity to what Avellone regarded as "an otherwise dark and frightening world."[219][220][131]

During a trip toLondonfor a game writers' meetup, Avellone began talking toTom Jubert,the narrative designer for indie developer Subset Games' science fictionroguelikegameFTL: Faster Than Light.Upon discovering who Jubert was, Avellone expressed his appreciation forFTLand offered to write for it. As a result, a few weeks later, Avellone was given the opportunity to do so by Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, the founders of Subset Games, scripting a large number of encounters forFTL: Advanced Edition,an expanded version of the game, around the end of 2013[221]and being credited as a guest writer on it.[222][223]TheAdvanced Editionwas released in April 2014.[224]

In December 2013,Project Eternitywas renamed intoPillars of Eternity.[225]ForPillars,Avellone provided feedback on the story[23]and wrote two companions: Durance, a cynical priest betrayed by his own god,[226]and the Grieving Mother, a cipher with the ability to draw energy from her soul and mind who used her talents as a midwife but was forced to flee her community after hiding the fact that the children in it were being born without souls. Both characters have been regarded as fan favorites,[227]although a significant part of the content Avellone designed for them, such as sequences where the player entered their subconscious to explore their shared past and understand how to affect their present personalities, did not make it into the final game.[228]

At the beginning of 2014,[175]publisherParadox Interactivesigned up on Obsidian's development ofTyranny,a fantasy RPG using the same engine asPillars of Eternitythat took place in anIron Ageworld in which, after an epic struggle between good and evil, evil had won.[229]Avellone was originally the game's creative lead[230]and worked on it throughout its pre-production period. His goals for the title included having a protagonist tasked with restoring order to a conquered area for the forces of evil but provided with the option of rebelling against them, as well as an open world structure where any kind of activity, such as exploring dungeons or doing quests for factions, would cause the story to progress.[231]Pillars of Eternitywas released at the end of March 2015,[232]which freed up development resources and led toTyrannyentering full production. However, after a series of disagreements with some of Obsidian's other co-founders about the company's management practices,[233]Avellone left Obsidian in June 2015.[234][235]Tyranny's game director Brian Heins later noted that concepts, characters and ideas from Avellone's work on the game had been retained.[236]

2015-present: Freelance writing and design

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After departing Obsidian, Avellone quickly became an in-demand freelance writer and designer, working on multiple games for different companies at any given time and seeking experience in a variety of genres in order to improve his craft.[59][223]

Some months prior, Avellone had been asked byRaphaël Colantonio,the founder ofArkane Studiosand a fan of his work, if he could write for Arkane's new first person science-fiction title, later known asPrey,but Avellone had replied that his full-time position at Obsidian did not allow him to do so. However, upon going freelance, Avellone contacted Colantonio to ask if the offer was still open and found that it was. The two of them initially met up atE3 2015to discuss the project, after which Avellone flew out to Arkane's studio inAustin, Texas,where he was shown the game and taken through its critical path storyline before being asked to try his hand at writing two of the side characters. Lead designer Ricardo Bare was impressed by the result and Avellone joined the team, writing several of the game's major characters, including neuroscientist Dayo Igwe and chief systems engineer Mikhaila Ilyushin, as well as many of the side ones and their associated quests, while also offering feedback and insights into the story in general and contributing to the game's lore and alternate history.[237][231][238]

Also in June 2015, inXile launched a Kickstarter campaign forThe Bard's Tale IV,which was billed as a proper sequel to Interplay'sThe Bard's Taletrilogy from the 1980s,[239]and it reached its funding goal of $1.25 million in 12 days.[240]On the 29th of June, with 11 days remaining, it was announced that Avellone would be joining the game's team if its campaign surpassed $1.9 million in funding and that he would design a deadly dungeon named the Cairn of Horrors for it,[241]but this goal was not reached.[242]

On the 12th of August 2015,Larian Studiosannounced they would be launching a Kickstarter campaign for the turn-basedtactical RPGDivinity: Original Sin IIat the end of the month and asked their community to vote on what reward tiers they wanted to see in it,[243][244]but many fans reacted by voting for potential stretch goals instead,[245]with Avellone's addition to the team being one of the most requested. This resulted in Larian CEOSwen Vinckemeeting up with Avellone atPAX Prime2015 to discuss the possibility of his involvement.[246]On the 25th of September, it was announced that Avellone would be working on the game, although not as part of a stretch goal.[247]As a senior writer, he was responsible for doing story and companion reviews[248]and also designed and wrote the backstory for theundeadplayable character and recruitable companion Fane.[249]

Avellone finished his work on Prey in early 2017.[59]On the 8th of February 2017,Italiangame developer Gamera Interactive announced the isometric action-RPGAlaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms,with Avellone as a creative consultant working on the lore, world design and character backstories for the game.[250][251][252]Alaloth was an unusually art-centric project from Avellone's perspective, as a lot of concept art had already been created for the characters in the game and he was tasked with using it as a starting point for writing deeper stories around them.[253]

On the 10th of February 2017, Subset Games announced the turn-based strategy gameInto the Breach,as well as Avellone's involvement in writing and world-building for it.[254][255]The game depicted the conflict between human civilization and giant insectile aliens, with the player controlling time-traveling mechs attempting to save the remnants of humanity across multiple timelines.[256]Avellone designed the varied personalities of the mech pilots, giving them many different reactions to gameplay situations, as well as fleshing out the lore of the corporations in the game and writing the dialogues of their CEOs.[223]Its storytelling, though minimalist, was praised by game journalists, with Kotaku describing it as "full of interesting plot possibilities when it comes to time travel and universe jumping, and where exactly, from a sci-fi point of view, the two meet"[257]and Rock Paper Shotgun noting that "its short lines drip with implication about the rules of time travel, parallel realities and the motivations and peccadilloes of its pilots".[258]

On the 17th of May 2017,Owlcat GamesannouncedPathfinder: Kingmaker,the first computer RPG based on the universe of the tabletopPathfinder Roleplaying Game,an offshoot ofDungeons and Dragonsfrom game publisherPaizo,[259]and also announced that Avellone would be contributing narrative design to the title.[260]Owlcat had already secured the budget to make the game, but they launched a Kickstarter campaign at the beginning of June to increase it and allow for more companions, areas and quests to be included,[261]successfully reaching their goal of $500k on the 26th of June[262]and ending up with a final tally of $909k two weeks later.[263]AlthoughKingmakerwas based on an eponymous series of adventure modules forPathfinder,Avellone helped the studio expand its story so it would have enough new content for people who had played the original tabletop version of it. He also wrote one of the companions — the goblin rogue Nok-Nok — from start to finish, worked with the other designers on setting up the quest arcs for companions across the game, and assisted with the writing and editing of a large number of characters.[264]

In July 2017, Green Tree Games announced a tactical leadershipWorld War IIRPG titledBurden of Command,[265]bringing Avellone in as a senior advisor tasked with guiding the developers on "creating empathy, memorable characters, and compelling narrative arcs".[266]Avellone noted that, in a shift from other World War II games,Burden of Commandwould focus on dealing with the emotional pressure of being in command and having to accomplish your mission while also protecting your soldiers.[223]

In June 2018, publisherElectronic ArtsannouncedStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,an action-adventure game developed byRespawn Entertainment.[267]In March 2019, Avellone revealed that he had recently finished up his work on it, which consisted of story contributions, story and character reviews and the writing of certain cinematic scripts.[268][269]Avellone was thrilled to work onStar Warsagain and noted that he appreciated the game's story taking place afterEpisode III,as that timeframe provided a lot of potential for drama and conflict.[102]

In December 2018,Norwegiangame developer Moondrop Studios announced that Avellone had written the story for its upcoming cooperative puzzleplatformerDegrees of Separation,[270]a game following two characters, Ember and Rime, the former from a world of warmth and light and the latter from a world of cold and darkness, who use their contrasting powers to overcome obstacles together.[271]Having never worked on a platformer before, Avellone saw it as a chance to stretch his writing skills further, and was also intrigued by the ways in which the gameplay mechanics were meant to reflect changes in the relationship between the two characters, with them building bridges when supportive of each other and later having explosive powers when arguing with each other.[272]

In December 2019, Owlcat announcedPathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous,their secondPathfindergame, once again having Avellone involved as a narrative designer.[273][274]Several days later, Avellone revealed that he had also been working on the action role-playing gameWeird West,the first game from Raphaël Colantonio's new company WolfEye Studios.[275]

Misconduct accusations and retraction

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In June 2020, Avellone was accused by two people of using his status for sexual misconduct and harassment towards women during industry conventions. Following these allegations,Techlandannounced that they and Avellone agreed to end his work onDying Light 2.[276]Gato Studios also removed Avellone fromThe Waylanders;according to lead writer Emily Grace Buck, Avellone had "very little writing" over that project, having only penned a few quests that they planned to rewrite.[277]Paradox Interactivesaid that while Avellone had worked on an early version ofVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2,much of his work had since been overwritten.[278]

Avellone published a denial of the allegations throughMediumin June 2021 and stated he had filed alibelsuit against two accusers in a California court.[279][280]This libel suit was settled in March 2023, with a settlement that "provides for a seven-figure payment" from the accusers to Avellone. Concurrently the two accusers retracted their original accusations, stating that "Mr. Avellone never sexually abused either of us," and that "We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women."[281][282][283]They also claimed in the same statement that their previous public statements with regards to Avellone had been "misinterpreted".[284]

Works

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Video games

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Year Title Role(s)
1996 Conquest of the New World Designer
1997 Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Additional mission design
1998 Descent to Undermountain
  • Lead creative designer
  • level design
Fallout 2 Designer
1999 Planescape: Torment
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2000 Icewind Dale Designer
2001 Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Designer
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Senior designer
2002 Icewind Dale II Designer
2004 Champions of Norrath
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2006 Neverwinter Nights 2 Senior designer
2007 Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Senior designer
2010 Alpha Protocol
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
Fallout: New Vegas
2014 FTL: Advanced Edition Writer
Wasteland 2 Area designer
2015 Pillars of Eternity Writer
2016 Tyranny Original world and story design
2017 Torment: Tides of Numenera Writer
Prey Writer
Divinity: Original Sin II Additional narrative designer
2018 Into the Breach Writer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Narrative designer[285]
Omensight Writer[286]
2019 Degrees of Separation Writer
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Writer
2021 Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Narrative designer
2022 Weird West Additional design
2024 Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms
  • Creative consultant
  • writer
TBA Burden of Command Advisor[287]

Comics

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Star Wars

edit

Fallout

edit

Prose fiction

edit
  • "The House of Wael" (2016, toPillars of EternityKickstarter backers)

Tabletop role-playing game modules

edit

References

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Sources

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  • Barton, Matt (April 24, 2013).Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great Game Designers.CRC Press.ISBN9781466567535.
  • Appelcline, Shannon (December 19, 2014).Designers & Dragons: The '80s.Evil Hat Productions.ISBN9781613170816.
edit
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