Developer Story Time with Old Man Davis

[St Antony of Padua]

he possessed a butler .

If his name was Jeeves, he is a valet. Fan of the Woooooster are we?

 

[Western]

This thread

How about a story with one of Obsidian's unsung heroes? Someone who's name doesn't get thrown around very often but deserves more recognition?

 

[Anthony Davis]

This thread

How about a story with one of Obsidian's unsung heroes? Someone who's name doesn't get thrown around very often but deserves more recognition?

Hmmm, so many to choose from...

Dan Rubalcaba
Dan Spitzley
Rich Taylor
Tony Evans
Justin Cherry
The tools guys: Javier and Dave


I guess it depends, most programmers are unsung. Some designers are unsung. Some artists are also unsung, though many artists are known within their local art community they participate in.

I got some ideas about the next big post.

 

[Menckenstein]

Tell us about GREEN SHIRT GIRL DURRR.

Did Feargus pick that office specifically because it's right across the street from Cheesecake Factory or whatever?

:patriot:

 

[Anthony Davis]

Tell us about GREEN SHIRT GIRL DURRR.

Did Feargus pick that office specifically because it's right across the street from Cheesecake Factory or whatever?

:patriot:

Green shirt girl is an animator working on South Park when I was last there a figment of your imagnation. That's all I can say.

Feargus looooves Cheesecake Factory, so that was definitely a bonus for him. Did he pick it on purpose solely because he could walk to the CCF? No CEO would ever base decisions on something like that...
















....he totally did. I'm serious, he loves that place.

 

[sea]

Many designers, especially but not always JUNIOR designers, create systems and cutscenes and all sorts of wonderful things in their head without understanding the game engine they are going to be creating this all in.

It's a tough line to walk as a programmer, you don't want to restrict your designers, but at the same time you have to code it all and get it out the door someday.

Understanding your game engine, your world, your toolbox, is where Josh is super pro. He gets it, and if he doesn't, he asks the right questions so that he does get it.

This is probably because, and this is completely based on my personal experience, usually designers are people without much technical aptitude but decent/lots of artistic aptitude, and at worst also have a serious ego or vanity problem and think their brainstorming constitutes hard work. They have cool ideas and maybe they can get them on paper somehow, but without any knowledge of how to implement this sort of thing, both in terms of programming or scripting, it turns to mush. "But you're talking about, like, code... you know, that's the programmer's job, not mine."

I know someone exactly like this... smart and passionate guy, but he doesn't have a clue about how to design stuff in terms of actual mechanics and systems. He has it in his head to make an MMO as a hobbyist project (of course getting various friends to do the programming work) and I had a lengthy conversation with him, asking him how he plans to implement his ideas A, B, and C, not in terms of "oh it'd be cool for ___ to happen" but in terms of the actual mechanics interactions and how those systems are defined in code and scripting. He had absolutely no idea and hadn't even thought about it, yet in the same conversation was gushing about which game engines he wanted to try using.

Interesting story, and thanks for your hard work on NWN2. Keep it coming.

 

[Menckenstein]

What was your favorite epiphany/eureka moment while working at Obsidian in regards to game development?

 

[80Maxwell08]

Tell us about GREEN SHIRT GIRL DURRR.

Did Feargus pick that office specifically because it's right across the street from Cheesecake Factory or whatever?

:patriot:

Green shirt girl is an animator working on South Park when I was last there a figment of your imagnation. That's all I can say.

Feargus looooves Cheesecake Factory, so that was definitely a bonus for him. Did he pick it on purpose solely because he could walk to the CCF? No CEO would ever base decisions on something like that...
















....he totally did. I'm serious, he loves that place.

Beats Square Enix moving their offices because of a fortune teller.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Ok, last story and then sleepy time.

I was sitting at my desk working on NWN2. Frank, my boss, drops a mod off at my desk and tells me it is from a job applicant and I need to review it.

This guy had taken NWN1 and modded it into a 90% functional and complete American football game, except with monsters, and no, not a Blood Bowl rip off either.

I played it, and then I examined all the scripts and clever bits.

It was really impressive and very, very clever.

I went to my boss and said that we should hire this guy right away.

I think we called Eric Fenstermaker that day for a phone interview.

Overtime he has grown from a programmer new hire to one of Obsidian's senior designers. His writing is sharp, clever, and every bit as funny as anything turned out by anyone else.

He does seem to push the boundaries of what the game engines can do, but he works very hard to make it all fit.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Story time!

 

[Zed]

We need a "Story Time with Old Man Davis" jingle.


Anthony Davis
Any memorable office pranks?
What's the funniest thing you (temporarily) put in a game for shits and giggles?

 

[Jasede]

Wow, what a cool way to land a job!

 

[Blaine]

This thread

How about a story with one of Obsidian's unsung heroes? Someone who's name doesn't get thrown around very often but deserves more recognition?

Hmmm, so many to choose from...

Dan Rubalcaba
Dan Spitzley
Rich Taylor
Tony Evans
Justin Cherry
The tools guys: Javier and Dave


I guess it depends, most programmers are unsung. Some designers are unsung. Some artists are also unsung, though many artists are known within their local art community they participate in.

I got some ideas about the next big post.

Now let's see that in Rogueyvision:

 

[St Antony of Padua]

We need a "Story Time with Old Man Davis" jingle.
Monty Python Storytime

This is probably how he types. I'm sure Obsidian is like the Castle of Schilling. Feargus is Durcet. MCA is Duc of Blangis, JE Sawyer is Curval, and Tim Cain is Bishop of X.

 

[Brother None]

Great stuff Anthony. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Mangoose]

Many designers, especially but not always JUNIOR designers, create systems and cutscenes and all sorts of wonderful things in their head without understanding the game engine they are going to be creating this all in.

It's a tough line to walk as a programmer, you don't want to restrict your designers, but at the same time you have to code it all and get it out the door someday.

Understanding your game engine, your world, your toolbox, is where Josh is super pro. He gets it, and if he doesn't, he asks the right questions so that he does get it.

This is probably because, and this is completely based on my personal experience, usually designers are people without much technical aptitude but decent/lots of artistic aptitude, and at worst also have a serious ego or vanity problem and think their brainstorming constitutes hard work. They have cool ideas and maybe they can get them on paper somehow, but without any knowledge of how to implement this sort of thing, both in terms of programming or scripting, it turns to mush. "But you're talking about, like, code... you know, that's the programmer's job, not mine."

I know someone exactly like this... smart and passionate guy, but he doesn't have a clue about how to design stuff in terms of actual mechanics and systems. He has it in his head to make an MMO as a hobbyist project (of course getting various friends to do the programming work) and I had a lengthy conversation with him, asking him how he plans to implement his ideas A, B, and C, not in terms of "oh it'd be cool for ___ to happen" but in terms of the actual mechanics interactions and how those systems are defined in code and scripting. He had absolutely no idea and hadn't even thought about it, yet in the same conversation was gushing about which game engines he wanted to try using.

Interesting story, and thanks for your hard work on NWN2. Keep it coming.

Hm, so I have a question. How does one get a job as a designer? I always assumed that one started as a programmer, or maybe art, and then was promoted to design. Or is there a pathway to design from starting in as management?

 

[Blaine]

Hm, so I have a question. How does one get a job as a designer? I always assumed that one started as a programmer, or maybe art, and then was promoted to design. Or is there a pathway to design from starting in as management?

The guy's asleep, and as I've seen this answered in developer interviews numerous times, I'll offer my two cents: You typically get the job obliquely. Perhaps you start as a programmer (I don't think artists are as likely to segue into general design), but it could be anything from customer support, to tech support, to Q&A, to "community manager", to web designer/webmaster (which is how Josh segued into his position, IIRC).

In other words, just get your foot in the door and hope for the best. It's not a situation I'd choose for myself if my ultimate goal was to become a designer, because I wouldn't enjoy handing the reins of my destiny over to other people's personal whims and office politics.

 

[Data4]

So you don't really think that Ferret burned the ships that could bring him back to Obsidian after the unavoidable demise of EA's Bioware, do you?

He's already at Bethesda working on Fallout 4. Man knows where the money is.

That's fine by me. I never could wrap my head around Obsidian having 2 guys that both had weird first names starting with F.

 

[serch]

So you don't really think that Ferret burned the ships that could bring him back to Obsidian after the unavoidable demise of EA's Bioware, do you?

He's already at Bethesda working on Fallout 4. Man knows where the money is.

True to Hernan Cortez' spirit

 

[Anthony Davis]

We need a "Story Time with Old Man Davis" jingle.


Anthony Davis
Any memorable office pranks?
What's the funniest thing you (temporarily) put in a game for shits and giggles?

Getting ready for my drive...


In kotor2 I put on three dancing mandalorians in a bar as temp cheat/test bots. You would talk to them to set certain flags or to get certain things, but I wrote all of it in a funny (to me) way. For example, to get money for testing, you would select the " Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?" Dialog option. We were all big Chapelle show fans at that time.

I laughed pretty hard when the kotor2 restoration guys found that and wondered why there were dancing mandalorians.

I put in these security camera system in the ebon hawk so you could spy on your teammates. That stayed in the game because Avellone liked it.

In nwn2 the default portrait for characters for a LOOOOOOONG time was a sexy picture of Morgan Webb.

I'll share more later.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony, I'm not sure what specifically are you talking about, is it the 2da system? I believe it was present in NWN1 as well? Or is it the separate hard-coded variable for Deities? (for GetDeity function, all 2da references)

Also, Anthony, can you tell us anything about how did programmable GUI files come into life with MotB? It's the best feature of NWN2 in my opinion (although it did lack function that checks whether GUI screen is active or not )

Yes, the 2da system existed in nwn1 and we kept it for nwn2. We also added XML support. The deity system used a 2da file, but all the code for it was added by me.

The programmable/moddable UI was made by me and Rich Taylor. The bet thing I ever saw with that was Bard Hero which blew me away.

 

[serch]

 

[Infinitron]

Anthony Davis, were there any features that never made it into the game from which, you believe, the game would have benefitted? Also, were you involved in development of SoZ expansion ?

He and Tony Evans famously created SoZ's dialogue system. They may have been invited to implement something similar in Wasteland 2, although I'm not sure how that turned out. Can you shed more light on that, Anthony?

 

[Spectacle]

Reporting Anthony Davis for blatant brofist harvesting!



Seriously, this thread is a great read.

 

[Duraframe300]

This thread

How about a story with one of Obsidian's unsung heroes? Someone who's name doesn't get thrown around very often but deserves more recognition?

Hmmm, so many to choose from...

Dan Rubalcaba
Dan Spitzley
Rich Taylor
Tony Evans
Justin Cherry
The tools guys: Javier and Dave


I guess it depends, most programmers are unsung. Some designers are unsung. Some artists are also unsung, though many artists are known within their local art community they participate in.

I got some ideas about the next big post.

Dude, I sung.

I sung and I got my heart broken when he got laid off.


Needles to say, Justin Cherry story request.