Like many engineers and developers of that era who were hard at work in their garages and quietly building the future of computing, young Chris Avellone used the work of other creators as a foundation.
He recalls, “One technique I tried was to dissect existing game engines, like an adventure game framework, and then find ways to change the content layer to create a game. But the attempts rarely compiled without a stream of errors.”
shining moment
However, every failure was a learning opportunity, and I loved my experiences telling collaborative stories with my friends. Dungeons and DragonsThey taught him many lessons that would serve him well later in his career. In our interview, he returned repeatedly to the player-first mentality that drives his design ethos.
First and foremost, a designer has to “understand your players and understand why they’re there,” Avellone said. “What’s his power spec?”
Furthermore, every player, whether in a video game or a tabletop roleplaying adventure, deserves the opportunity to stand in the spotlight.
“That shining moment is important because it gives everyone a chance to be a hero and make a difference,” he explained. “The best adventures are the ones where you can tell how each player designed their character or played an important role in its success.”
And players should be able to approach that moment the way they want, not the one that’s most convenient for you, the game master or designer.
“Not everyone plays like you,” Avellone said, “and your job as the game master is not to dictate how they want to play or force them into a certain game mode. If a player is a min-maxer who doesn’t care much about story, that shouldn’t be a problem. If the player is a heavy role-player, they should put some meat to their interactions. This applies strongly to digital game design. They choose to play the game that way, and they shouldn’t be severely punished for their play style, it’s not your story, it should be a shared experience between the developer and the player.
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