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== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Avellone is an alumnus of the [[Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology]] in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]].<ref name="linkedin1">{{cite web |url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisavellone |title=Chris Avellone |publisher=LinkedIn |access-date=November 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711044608/http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisavellone |archive-date=July 11, 2010}}</ref> He studied at the [[College of William & Mary]], graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.<ref name=OC>{{cite news |author=Chmielewski, Dawn C. |date=August 15, 2000 |title=The writer Chris Avellone, senior designer, Black Isle Studios |newspaper=[[The Orange County Register]] |page=K7}}</ref>
Avellone is an alumnus of the [[Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology]] in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]].<ref name="linkedin1">{{cite web |url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisavellone |title=Chris Avellone |publisher=LinkedIn |access-date=November 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711044608/http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisavellone |archive-date=July 11, 2010}}</ref> He studied at the [[College of William & Mary]], graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.<ref name=OC>{{cite news |author=Chmielewski, Dawn C. |date=August 15, 2000 |title=The writer Chris Avellone, senior designer, Black Isle Studios |newspaper=[[The Orange County Register]] |page=K7}}</ref>

His first job involved role-playing a criminal at the local police academy and at [[Hogan's Alley (FBI)|Hogan's Alley]] in [[Quantico, Virginia]] to help train police officers and FBI agents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/2014/09/20q-with-chris-avellone/ |title=20Q with Chris Avellone |website=Scripts & Scribes |language=en |access-date=2023-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016170218/http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/2014/09/20q-with-chris-avellone/ |archive-date=2014-10-16}}</ref> He later worked as a campus center supervisor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/04/08/interview-chris-avellone/ |title=Interview: Chris Avellone |website=TheSixthAxis |language=en |access-date=2023-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015011320/https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/04/08/interview-chris-avellone/ |archive-date=2021-10-15}}</ref>
His first job involved role-playing a criminal at the local police academy and at [[Hogan's Alley (FBI)|Hogan's Alley]] in [[Quantico, Virginia]] to help train police officers and FBI agents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/2014/09/20q-with-chris-avellone/ |title=20Q with Chris Avellone |website=Scripts & Scribes |language=en |access-date=2023-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016170218/http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/2014/09/20q-with-chris-avellone/ |archive-date=2014-10-16}}</ref> He later worked as a campus center supervisor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/04/08/interview-chris-avellone/ |title=Interview: Chris Avellone |website=TheSixthAxis |language=en |access-date=2023-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015011320/https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/04/08/interview-chris-avellone/ |archive-date=2021-10-15}}</ref>


Revision as of 22:04, 16 November 2023

Chris Avellone
Avellone in 2009
Born
United States
Known forWriting and designing role-playing video games

Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer. He worked for Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as Planescape: Torment and the Fallout series.

In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[1]

Early life

Avellone is an alumnus of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia.[2] He studied at the College of William & Mary, graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.[3]

His first job involved role-playing a criminal at the local police academy and at Hogan's Alley in Quantico, Virginia to help train police officers and FBI agents.[4] He later worked as a campus center supervisor.[5]

Career

Video game design

Working initially as a freelancer in the two years after college, Avellone wrote campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy role-playing games.[3] After entering the video game industry through the company Interplay in 1995, he briefly worked on the development of the 1997 title Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In 1997 he took over the development of Descent to Undermountain, which he later called a disappointment. Avellone contributed to the 1998 game Fallout 2 and continued to work on its franchise.[6]

Interplay acquired the rights to produce a role-playing video game set in the Planescape campaign setting with development led by Avellone. The game, Planescape: Torment was released in 1999 and is frequently cited as among the best-written games in history.[6][7][8]

Avellone worked on all the games of the Icewind Dale series, which were released from 2000 to 2002. As a designer, Avellone contributed to the fantasy titles Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001), Champions of Norrath (2004) and led the design of the canceled Fallout title Van Buren, after which he resigned from Interplay and co-founded Obsidian Entertainment. For the company, Avellone worked on the role-playing games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (2004) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and on the action role-playing game Alpha Protocol.[6] He also worked as a senior designer on Fallout: New Vegas.

He worked as the project director and lead creative designer on Dead Money, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road Fallout: New Vegas downloadable content.[2] Avellone worked as a narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity prior to leaving Obsidian Entertainment in June 2015.[9][10][11] Avellone has since worked as a freelancer on games such as Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Prey, Divinity: Original Sin II, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Into the Breach.[12]

Sexual misconduct accusations and subsequent retraction

In June 2020, Avellone was accused by two people of using his status for sexual misconduct and harassment towards women during industry conventions. Following these allegations, Techland announced that they and Avellone agreed to end his work on Dying Light 2.[13] Gato Studios also removed Avellone from The Waylanders; according to lead writer Emily Grace Buck, Avellone had "very little writing" over that project, having only penned a few quests that they planned to rewrite.[14] Paradox Interactive said that while Avellone had worked on an early version of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, much of his work had since been overwritten.[15][16]

Avellone published a denial of the allegations through Medium in June 2021 and stated he had filed a libel suit against two accusers in a California court.[17][18] This libel suit was settled in March 2023, with a settlement that "provides for a seven-figure payment" from the accusers to Avellone. Concurrently the two accusers retracted their original accusations, stating that "Mr. Avellone never sexually abused either of us," and that "We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women."[19][20][21] They also claimed in the same statement that their previous public statements with regards to Avellone had been "misinterpreted".[22]

Works

Video games

Year Title Role(s)
1996 Conquest of the New World Designer
1997 Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Additional mission design
1998 Descent to Undermountain
  • Lead creative designer
  • level design
Fallout 2 Designer
1999 Planescape: Torment
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2000 Icewind Dale Designer
2001 Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Designer
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Senior designer
2002 Icewind Dale II Designer
2004 Champions of Norrath
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2006 Neverwinter Nights 2 Senior designer
2007 Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Senior designer
2010 Alpha Protocol
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
Fallout: New Vegas
  • Writer
  • project lead on most of the DLC
2014 FTL: Advanced Edition Writer
Wasteland 2 Level design
2015 Pillars of Eternity Writer
2016 Tyranny Original world and story design
2017 Torment: Tides of Numenera Writer
Prey Writer
Divinity: Original Sin II Additional narrative designer
2018 Into the Breach Writer[23]
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Narrative designer[24]
Omensight Writer[25]
2019 Degrees of Separation Writer[26]
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Writer[27]
2021 Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Narrative designer[28]
2022 Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms
  • Creative consultant
  • writer[29]
2023 System Shock Writer[30]
TBA Burden of Command Advisor[31]

Comic books

Star Wars comics:

Fallout comics:

Fiction

  • The House of Wael (2016, to Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter backers)

Tabletop role-playing game modules

  • The Puzzle Box (2020, to Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter backers)
  • Dystopia (1994, Champions module published by Atlas Games)

References

  1. ^ "IGN - 80. Chris Avellone". IGN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Chris Avellone". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on July 11, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Chmielewski, Dawn C. (August 15, 2000). "The writer Chris Avellone, senior designer, Black Isle Studios". The Orange County Register. p. K7.
  4. ^ "20Q with Chris Avellone". Scripts & Scribes. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  5. ^ "Interview: Chris Avellone". TheSixthAxis. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c "Chris Avellone: Dark Knight". Edge. April 20, 2009. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  7. ^ Hughes, William (August 9, 2019). "In 1999, video game writing hit a high-water mark". AV Club. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  8. ^ Park, Andrew. "The Greatest Games of All Time: Planescape: Torment". GameSpot. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  9. ^ "GameStar.ru Alma Mater — Kickstarter. Chris Avellone: "Project: Eternity is our chance to return to doing the types of titles we did at Black Isle"". Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.
  10. ^ Sawyer, Josh (December 10, 2013). "Pillars of Eternity". Forums.obsidian.net. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  11. ^ Purchese, Robert (June 9, 2015). "Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian Entertainment". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  12. ^ "Update 13: Update #13: BREAKING NEWS: Chris Avellone to work on D:OS2! · Divinity: Original Sin 2". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  13. ^ Hall, Charlie; Polo, Susana (June 25, 2020). "The game and comics industries are grappling with widespread allegations of harassment and abuse". Polygon. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  14. ^ Winslow, Jeremy (June 23, 2020). "Dying Light, Waylanders, Vampire Bloodlines 2 Devs Issue Statements Amid Chris Avellone Allegations". GameSpot. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  15. ^ Kerr, Chris (June 22, 2020). "Dying Light 2 writer Chris Avellone accused of sexual assault and harassment". Gamasutra. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  16. ^ Winslow, Jeremy. "Dying Light, Waylanders, Vampire Bloodlines 2 Devs Issue Statements Amid Chris Avellone Allegations". GameSpot. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  17. ^ Gach, Ethan (June 28, 2021). "Games Writer Chris Avellone Files Libel Lawsuit, Denies Sexual Misconduct Accusations". Kotaku. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  18. ^ McAloon, Alissa (June 28, 2021). "Game writer Chris Avellone files libel lawsuit over sexual misconduct allegations". Game Developer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  19. ^ Gach, Ethan (March 27, 2023). "Fallout Writer Chris Avellone's Accusers Settle Libel Case For Seven Figures". Kotaku. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  20. ^ "Sexual assault claims against Fallout dev publicly withdrawn". PCGamesN. March 25, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  21. ^ "Chris Avellone resolves sexual misconduct allegations, claiming a "seven-figure payment"". Eurogamer.net. March 25, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  22. ^ Robinson, Andy (March 25, 2023). "Chris Avellone 'awarded seven-figure payment' after sexual harassment claims settled". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  23. ^ Meer, Alec (March 22, 2018). "Chris Avellone sheds light on Into The Breach's time-travel mysteries". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  24. ^ Vitale, Adam. "Pathfinder: Kingmaker Interview with Chris Avellone on storyline, writing, and characters". RPG Site. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  25. ^ Isaac, Ashish. "Omensight Interview: Developing A Narrative Puzzle". GamingBolt. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  26. ^ Brown, Fraser (December 18, 2018). "Degrees of Separation is a co-op puzzle game written by Chris Avellone". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  27. ^ Chalk, Andy (March 2019). "KOTOR 2 designer Chris Avellone has been working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  28. ^ "Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous".
  29. ^ Skrebels, Joe (February 23, 2017). "Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms Announced for PC and Consoles". IGN. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  30. ^ Frank, Allegra (June 28, 2016). "System Shock reboot is getting help from Obsidian Entertainment co-founder". Polygon. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  31. ^ Stone, Tim (November 17, 2017). "The Flare Path: Emotionally Authentic". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  32. ^ Avellone, Chris (2010). Fallout : New Vegas. All roads. Jean Diaz, Wellinton Alves, Belardino Brabo, N. Pereira Muñoz, Michael Atiyeh, Michael Heisler. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books. ISBN 978-1-62115-546-1. OCLC 836874915.
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