Chris Avellone: “I still consider a lot of innovations that occurred with Fallout 1 and Wasteland to be unmatched in today’s RPGs.”
Jeremy Peel April 8, 2012 - 9:27 amNews: Obsidian’s Chris Avellone has said that there are ”a lot of gameplay elements that can be learned from working on ‘old school’ titles that are just as applicable in current titles”.
This week, Wasteland 2‘s Kickstarter campaign passed its new $2.1m goal and Interplay‘s finest were reunited on the project. Obsidian‘s Chris Avellone is set to contribute to area and narrative design to Brian Fargo‘s sequel, whilst developer InXile will benefit from Obsidian’s conversation tree tech.
Despite a new wave of RPG Kickstarter campaigns driven by nostalgia, Avellone doesn’t think there’s any risk of pushing the genre backwards.
“I still consider a lot of innovations that occurred with Fallout 1 and Wasteland to be unmatched in today’s RPGs,” Avellone told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. “I feel true innovation often gets lost beyond features that require new engine tech and the latest video card when we can achieve more interesting game mechanics in tighter constraints.”
Kickstarter-driven RPGs wouldn’t damage the progress made in major modern franchises, he added.
“There’s still a market for those huge budget RPGs that people want, and they’re fun to play, so no harm there.
“I also don’t see the harm in the industry going ‘backwards’ and forwards – again, I think there’s a lot of gameplay elements that can be learned from working on ‘old school’ titles that are just as applicable in current titles and can push both genres forward.”
I suspect he’s right. The Witcher 2, for instance, picked up where ’90s RPGs left off in creating a more reactive, forward-thinking narrative.
You can keep up with news on Wasteland 2 here at BeefJack.
