I didn't know the same person was behind both Planescape: Tormentand Fallout 2, some of my favorite games of all time. Torment I actually played only recently (had only played Baldur's Gate 1&2 before) and absolutely loved it. So it's not even just nostalgia.
He's worked on an impressive number of great games. Prey, SW Kotor 2, Fallout New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, Icewind Dale 1+2 and Alpha Protocol (ok, arguably great) jump out at me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Avellone#Works
yep, i remember playing Fallout 2 and Planenscape as well, one of the best summers ever (1998 and 1999). I discovered some glitch in Fallout to get more skill points ;) and Planescape, had one of the best plots ever in video games (IMO BG3 doesnt even compare ;))
> “Players are selfish,” Avellone said, reflecting on his time designing the seminal computer roleplaying game Planescape: Torment. “The more you can make the experience all about them, the better.
Put more charitably: the user is paying for this experience with their money AND their time. Let’s pack a wallop into the experience.
If you like this sort of content, I recently found Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulu, Doom, Age of Empire, Halo) is extremely active on X. Lots of interesting tidbits about game design https://x.com/SandyofCthulhu
The Anthem one is very long, but is a really fascinating portrait of cultural misfunction. The biggest factor to me was the entire design was dictated by the 'ghost' of Casey Hudson. His initial high-level vision was sacrosanct, but he also was not around to actually clarify anything or take feedback from development since he had already left the studio.
Some people are a different level of productive, and game development sure was different back in the day:
> During his (Sandy Petersen) interview, John Romero (of id Software) introduced him to DoomEd and simply asked him to build a level. Romero was ultimately happy with the results, so Petersen was brought on to production for Doom. The level from Petersen's interview eventually became "E2M6". He was a fast level designer and produced all maps for the third episode of Doom, Inferno. Petersen designed 17 levels for Doom II, a little over half of the 32 total.
tikotus|3 months ago
Yokolos|3 months ago
byPawel|3 months ago
D13Fd|3 months ago
Thaxll|3 months ago
unknown|3 months ago
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cadamsdotcom|3 months ago
Put more charitably: the user is paying for this experience with their money AND their time. Let’s pack a wallop into the experience.
More software should be this way!
jasonthorsness|3 months ago
recursivecaveat|3 months ago
The Anthem one is very long, but is a really fascinating portrait of cultural misfunction. The biggest factor to me was the entire design was dictated by the 'ghost' of Casey Hudson. His initial high-level vision was sacrosanct, but he also was not around to actually clarify anything or take feedback from development since he had already left the studio.
embedding-shape|3 months ago
> During his (Sandy Petersen) interview, John Romero (of id Software) introduced him to DoomEd and simply asked him to build a level. Romero was ultimately happy with the results, so Petersen was brought on to production for Doom. The level from Petersen's interview eventually became "E2M6". He was a fast level designer and produced all maps for the third episode of Doom, Inferno. Petersen designed 17 levels for Doom II, a little over half of the 32 total.
mrec|3 months ago
hakunin|3 months ago
[1]: Tim is the original Fallout creator/designer, who also made Arcanum, and worked on Outer Worlds.
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/@CainOnGames
VTimofeenko|3 months ago
aresant|3 months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2OxO-4YLRk