Chris Avellone was formerly a creative director at Obsidian, and while he's now working on projects like Respawn's Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, VG247 sat down with him at the Reboot Develop event to talk about the split with Obsidian in 2015, and what went on with the company.
"So there's a few things," he said. "I think the most important thing is just communication on all levels, because what was really strange is that - even amongst the owner's circle - there might be two owners who might actually really know what was going on with a certain project, with a certain issue, and the others might be in the dark. And that would happen at all levels."
"When that information isn't disseminated, sometimes you make bad choices. Say you're having a problem with the art for a game. Maybe you should bring in the art director and make them part of the conversation, versus having the art director be the last person to know that you're going to change all the art in the game. But because you haven't talked to the art director, not only are they in the dark, but they also can't inform you as to why those decisions may have been made. It might completely change your mind, versus you suddenly coming in and doing something."
Another issue was the lack of standardised salaries, which would cause "a lot of imbalance and morale issues", as well as what Avellone refers to as nepotism. "I don't think nepotism ever works in the game industry. Even if your friend or your family member is the best at their job, bringing in someone like that causes problems. Other people will view them differently. They could be the most well-behaved person in the world, but they'll assume that because that person has connections to the CEO, or the executive producer, the person has more weight over your future, whether they do or not."
"One complaint that kept popping up was that, often when there were layoffs - for Sega, for Armored Warfare, whatever it happened to be - there would always be some people that were always retained, and those would usually be in the nepotism circles," he continues. "You might even actually have a good reason for keeping that person, but that connection, that's going to be employee favouritism, so it's best to just remove that from the equation entirely."
Despite these complaints he says he would work with some of the developers again, but just not for the management. "I don't bear them any ill will, it's just that I don't think their management style is healthy. However, the developers who left Obsidian, I still work with them, and the ones that are there I definitely would work again, because they're a hardworking bunch," Avellone explains.