Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone
Chris Avellone in Manila in 2009
Born	September 27, 1971 (1971-09-27) (age 40)
Nationality	American
Occupation	game designer

Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer who worked for Interplay and currently works in Obsidian Entertainment.

Early life and education

He is an alumnus of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA.^[1] He went on to study at The College of William & Mary, graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.^[2]

Career

Working initially as a freelancer in the two years after college, Avellone wrote campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy role-playing games.^[2] 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.^[3]

Interplay acquired the rights to produce a role-playing video game set in the Planescape campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons with the development led by Avellone. The 1999 game Planescape: Torment removed character death as a motive and also won acclaim for its narrative.^[3]

Avellone worked on all the titles of the Icewind Dale fantasy role-playing game 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 cancelled Fallout title Van Buren, after which he resigned from Interplay and joined 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.^[3] 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 DLC.^[1]

Notable game credits

• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1997)
• Fallout 2 (1998)
• Descent to Undermountain (1998)
• Planescape: Torment (1999)
• Icewind Dale (2000)
• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (2001)
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001)
• Icewind Dale II (2002)
• Van Buren (Fallout 3) (2003 - canceled)
• Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003)
• Champions of Norrath (2004)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004/2005)^[4]
• Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006)
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (2007)
• Alpha Protocol (2010)
• Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

Comic book credits

Star Wars comics

• Unseen, Unheard (2005)
• Heroes on Both Sides (2006)
• Impregnable (2007)
• Old Scores (2007)
• Graduation Day (2007)

Fallout comics

• All Roads (2010, part of the Fallout: New Vegas collector's edition)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Chris Avellone's LinkedIn profile". http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisavellone. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Chmielewski, Dawn C. (August 15, 2000). "The writer Chris Avellone, senior designer, Black Isle Studios". The Orange County Register: p. K7. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Chris Avellone: Dark Knight". Edge. April 20, 2009. http://www.next-gen.biz/features/chris-avellone-dark-knight. Retrieved November 14, 2009. 
4. ^ Tsao, Jennifer (March 2005). "Afterthoughts: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords; Behind the scenes with the real Jedi masters", Electronic Gaming Monthly (189): 52–54.

External links

• Chris Avellone's profile at MobyGames
• Chris Avellone at LinkedIn
• Chris Avellone on Myspace
• Chris Avellone at The Vault, the Fallout wiki
• Chris Avellone on Twitter
• The Guardian interview with Chris Avellone

Persondata
Name	Avellone, Chris
Alternative names
Short description	American video game designer
Date of birth	September 27, 1971
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death