Fallout Developers Profile - Colin McComb

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Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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After a year of inactivity (mostly caused by the shock that was MCA's interview), NMA has managed to bother enough developers into talking about their work on Fallout to warrant a revival of the Fallout Developers Profile feature.

First in the pipeline, with more to come, is Fallout 2 designer Colin McComb. Colin is mostly known for his work on BIS' Planescape: Torment, but also did a bit of tinkering on Fallout 2:<blockquote>Anyway, when I showed up, there were three Planescape games in the pipeline. Mine, Zeb Cook's, and Avellone's. Zeb's turned into Stonekeep 2, Avellone's became Torment, and mine got canceled because our managers couldn't justify having three Planescape games. I got shuffled over to be the second designer on Torment, and I was working away happily on that when I got the call to go do dialogues and areas for Fallout 2 (specifically, Broken Hills and San Francisco, so if you hate those areas, you know who to blame now).

I got a fifteen minute introduction to the dialogue editor, and then was shoved forth to spew greatness from my brow. I probably should have asked a few more questions along the way.</blockquote>Link: Fallout Developers Profile - Colin McComb
 
really loved broken hills (even the flower) but hated san fran
seems like a nice guy and good writer this collin - wouldve loved to hear more about his stuff on Torment !
 
radnan said:
wouldve loved to hear more about his stuff on Torment !
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That occured to me too - I kind of regretted that I wasn't running a Planescape: Torment fansite, when talking to him. He's obviously a pretty good cRPG developer, even if his work on Fallout 2 isn't too popular (when talking to him a bit more, he did mention San Fran was simply way too rushed, by the way)

Maybe Dhruin or VDweller would be interested in a looksie-backsie interview with him?
 
Really cool, if one would get him to talk on an interview with less rigid parameters I wonder what might come out of it.

Good work, powerful Mentok.
 
Fun stuff, enjoyed reading it!

I really like Broken Hills, but not to big on San Fran. Could've been much better if it had felt a bit more finished. Feels so empty at the moment.

And man, I really should get around to actually finishing Planescape: Torment. I remember how I was salivating at how excellent the atmosphere in Sigil is, the lengthy texts, etc... I think I stopped playing because there was a bug or something that would constantly crash my game. I think it was related to the cranium rats if I remember correctly.

Anyways, looking forward to reading the upcoming interviews as well.
 
On the other hand, some fans are a little TOO interested in the development of a game and aren't willing to see the slightest deviation from their vision. The fact is that game studios have to develop games for the widest possible audience, and catering to the loudest isn't always the best way to ensure success
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I wonder who he is talking about?

Do any of you know?

:roll:

Nice read. San Fran was a bit... empty, indeed.
 
In my opinion SF was evidently hurried... According to 11 months-long development time it is not surprising for me.
 
You know, I did not have a problem with San Fran... I felt a little, depressed at the Broken Hills area and did not enjoy my time there as much as I did other locations. San Fran had the fun cult and what not... I did love sheriff Marcus and all but, *sighs* I don't know... I'll be sure to ask AJ707 or what ever his designation was when I see him.
 
I guess that explains why SF (and BH) felt rushed and why these places were so empty.

This guy worked on Torment éh ? Kudos to him for that one.
 
If I were to guess (via the interview), MCA was a total dickwad. I don't know if it was supposed to be tongue in cheek humor or he really was just an ass hole but his whole interview was real hostile (though it did have some interesting information).
 
MCA = Chris Avellone? If so, what's the M? Also, if it's Chris, yea, he was a dick and tried too hard to be funny. It was just like an annoying Frat Guy using vulgarity as his pathetic attempt at humor.
 
Master Chris Avellone.

MCA has a long history of joking around with us. Especially after the New Reno and the Fleet of Cars riots we kind of lost the special place in his heart we gained with our co-operation with the Fallout Bibles...

Nah, seriously, he's a good guy, he just loves to joke around a lot, and my remark was yet another counter-joke.
 
Meh. Maybe it's funny to you, since you're in on the joke, but it's not all that funny to me. Guess I just sort of feel like I'm outside teh funny, looking in.
 
Chris Avellone likes to write things the same way I do. :P

But yeah, I laughed a bit while reading his interview. Certain portions like the clown and other tidbits were quite funny. :wink:

Edit: Here's the quote in question:

Chris Avellone said:
If you write or ask me or call me, I will become angry and shout (or e-shout) at you, using filthy words that would make your mother’s ears curl and her eyes roll into the back of her head, much like she does when she has sex with a clown.

--

It was great! Wow! It was the best! Man, the times we had! The hookers! The blow! It was a non-stop orgy!

But aside from the hookers and blow, I wasn’t part of the original Fallout team. I was asked, but couldn’t join at the time. One of the worst decisions of my life.

Being on the Fallout 2 team was ”cool” in the same way as being one of the survivors who stormed the beach during the Normandy invasion was ”cool.”

--

My most vivid memory was listening to the recording where Ron Perlman threatened my life, my dog (I don’t have one), and my family while attempting to read the lines for the endgame sequences in Fallout 2. That was cool. I have no idea where the audio file is to this day, but I’m sure it’ll turn up eventually in some archive. It also made it really uncomfortable meeting him for Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter and explaining to him that he was going to play a transvestite dragon.
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Edit2: After reading Question #14; I feel really saddened that Van Buren never saw the light of day. The part about the agricultural center made me remember a movie called Titan A.E where they tried to re-create a destroyed Earth using samples of DNA from animals.

Chris Avellone said:
I also liked the Nursery, which was a homage to the Agricultural Center in Wasteland. The Nursery was a secluded environmental shelter that still held samples of seeds and animal DNA that the player could use to try and restore a small section of the gameworld, if they wanted to. The problem was, the different isolated ecologies in the Agricultural Center were hostile to each other, and the animals and plants would tear into any hostile ecology or critter they could get their claws into... player characters included.
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