Chris Avellone

Reader's Guide

Avellone's design for Planescape: Torment began with a vision document that was warmly received by Interplay's studio head Brian Fargo, who nonetheless asked Avellone to promise he could actually deliver on it. The game used the Infinity Engine, the isometric engine in BioWare's Baldur's Gate, which was then still in development — meaning the programmers had to learn how it worked while building Torment, since 'Baldur's Gate 1 was still going on.' Avellone's approach was to use the Planescape license, which Interplay had recently acquired the video game rights for, to create a story where the player character was an amnesiac immortal. He recalled the design ideas he had shared with O'Green in his hiring interview and used them as the starting point. The game was developed by Black Isle Studios, Interplay's role-playing division headed by Feargus Urquhart, who had asked Avellone if he was interested in being the lead designer on the new project.

Did You Know?

• Avellone initially titled the game Planescape: Last Rites, but the name was changed because 'Last Rites' was already trademarked by another company.
• During his hiring interview with Mark O'Green, Avellone said he would design a Planescape game by starting 'at the death screen, and just tell the story of what happens after that' — which became the core concept for Torment.
• Avellone's pre-production team for Torment consisted of just five people: himself, lead programmer Dan Spitzley, lead artist Tim Donley, and two other artists, all sharing one office.
• When Colin McComb joined the project in April 1997, Avellone already had a broad outline of the entire game from start to finish, with all major characters sketched out.