Interview with Chris Avellone By Tiffany Leigh Smith
While at the GDC 2009 I caught up with Chris Avellone, founding member and co-owner of Obsidian Entertainment and Lead Designer on the upcoming title Alpha Protocol. Chris is also credited on classics Fallout 2, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. I was able to ask Chris a few questions about how he himself got started in game development and gain his insight on the best way to break into the industry today.
Tiffany: Can you start by telling us a little bit about how you got started in the industry?
Chris Avellone: It’s kind of a long embarrassing story, but I'll try to make it quick. I was actually doing a lot of writing for pen and paper games, which doesn't really pay the bills. The pay scale ended up being about 50 dollars every 2 months, which you can’t live on, but then a company called Interplay Productions were starting up their own Dungeons and Dragons division, and they asked if I wanted to come on board as a junior designer. My first reaction was, "you mean there's a steady pay check for what I do?", so I said sure, I'll drive to California. Ever since, I’ve been working in design all the way up until my current job at Obsidian.
Tiffany: What in your opinion are the most common mistakes new game designers make?
Chris Avellone: Some of the common mistakes we've noticed is some new designers try to design a game that only they would enjoy, and they don't take the player into account and what the fun factor is. Being a designer is a lot like being a waiter in a restaurant in the sense that you have to know what the customer wants and provide as much service and helpfulness as possible to get that fun factor across. That includes things like the interface, how you design all the menu screens for consistency, what sort of options you present, etc. You don't want the player to have to do a lot of work to actually play the game and that's one problem we've noticed with new designers, but we're usually able to get that out of them pretty quickly. Beyond that, it's just coming to grips with the amount of detail that you have to include in your design - it sure was growing pains for me when starting, especially from pen-and-paper games - but the designers at Obsidian have a pretty good grasp on that stuff.
Tiffany: What do you consider the most important elements as far as bringing together a solid game design?
Chris Avellone: First off, prototype early, try to get the main fun factor for what your game is trying to do in and working in the engine as quickly as possible. And you usually find out once it’s in there that it’s flawed. But keep revising and revising until it actually feels fun, but the important thing is to get it in there and get it working as quickly as possible. Also, don't try to do a lot of finished assets, like high quality artwork or like the final version interface screen until you actually have that prototype at a level that's actually fun for the player. Once you have all the grunt work out of the way and the timing and various skills and abilities, then you start polishing the visuals and effects until it shines.
Tiffany: So the technical aspect of it. Do you find that most game designers generally have a realistic expectation of what the art and programming teams can do?
Chris Avellone: It varies. Every game is trying to do something new, so there's usually a lot of growing pains trying to figure out exactly what art and programming can do with the new game mechanics - especially with console games because the memory requirements for Xbox and PS3 are pretty good bookends for your blue sky idea. Usually, we've found after 2-3 months people understand what the parameters for the features they're requesting, and it usually helps focus the idea.
Tiffany: Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring game designers?
Chris Avellone: One, always be persistent in applying - even if you get rejected from one game company once. Keep applying; get to know the people there. Generally what happens at game companies is they find themselves in crunch or badly needing employees at a certain time and then they will go back to the resumes and look for someone urgently. Those battlefield promotions can get you into the industry pretty fast. Also when applying at a game company, always choose the game company that you actually want to work for. I know some people think you know "I need to start in a crap designer job" or making My Little Pony or whatever before I can get into the job I really want to do. My recommendation is apply to the places you actually want to work at first, don't worry about the consequences or requirements. A good cover letter and a good resume can sell an applicant who thinks they may not meet all the requirements. Also, when we are hiring at Obsidian, we look for people that did a lot of game building on their off duty time, if they're members of mod communities, or have actually gone through the process of making a game - they're able to answer questions and understand how the whole process works, more so than applicants that are more geared towards theory.
Chris kindly offered up the opportunity for anyone with game development related questions to email him at cavellone@obsidian.net.
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