My interview with Obsidian Entertainment’s Chris Avellone has just gone up on Gamasutra. Chris and I had this chat sitting on strange orange carpet in the vastness of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre during GCAP 2012. The focus of our discussion is the narrative-strong RPGs that Chris and Obsidian is famous for, including their recent Kickstarter success, Project Eternity, which is a deliberate return to theold-school stylings of games like Planescape: Torment and Baldur’s Gate. Here’s a snippet:
In games, do you feel that you need to be able to let the players decide for themselves what’s meaningful or important?
CA: I think it’s fine to suggest a theme, and suggest a question to the player, but ultimately let them find their own answer in the environment. New Vegas obviously had one critical end point, but at the same time, the overarching goal of the game was just to find out where you stand with all these factions. Do you agree with their philosophies? All of them have good and negative points about them. Or do you feel that you have a better vision for the world? And if so, just go out and create your own story. I think that’s how you have to approach the narrative of games. Sort of like an open world narrative.