Way too much of a Coincedence

[Death Knight]

Ive been looking through some of my old games that were mostly infinity engine games and there was just too many coincedences now that I think of it.

 

Its almost like each trilogy is a game series that jeff based his games on.

 

1-Planescape Torment-Geneforge series easily. The different factions, different ways of going about solving something, though not so much as geneforge. Different dialog which can be affected by your charisma/wisdom. The whole game is very much like that series so I guess thats why Jeff based it on it. Note, I do see some deus ex here too.

 

2-Avernum 4-6-This is most definitely Icewind dale 1 and 2. Its got the same way about it, go to this captain and then solve their problems. Its mostly linear like both the games for the infinity engine too.

 

3-Avadon-This one is in my opinion more like baldurs gate than Dragon Age. Ive played a little dragon age, and that game is still a baldurs gate homage as well. Avadon also has recruitable party members like bg and dragon age. No contest where he got the inspiration.

 

4-Avernum1-3: This one is the only one that stands out. It has might and magic written on it and very much so.

 

So what seems to be made of this, is that Jeff is like the indie version of bioware, even if he doesnt like that label. Dont get me wrong, all of his games are entirely original but I am starting to wonder how to decides what he is going to base his games on.

 

Does anyone think that he uses new and inventive game ideas (that work) on how he decides what his next games will be, because it seems that way.

[Randomizer]

Jeff plays lots of games and comments on some in his blog.

 

Avernum 1 to 3 had recruitable party members that could replace player generated characters, but he didn't add dialogue from them until Geneforge 3 with Alwan and Greta.

[Keolah]

I think you're seriously reaching here and listing elements that are common to the genre in general. It's like saying that (insert FPS) is like (insert another FPS) because they both have ammo...

[Lilith]

Between his blog and the readme files of his games, pretty much all the games you mentioned have been listed by Jeff as inspiration at some point, along with a bunch of others.

[Alorael at Large]

But while all of these have been influences, I don't think you can really make it as direct as you say.

 

Planescape has the factions, but they play far less of a role in the game than Geneforge's. They're more elements of backstory and world. Use of charisma or other social stats is found in plenty of other games. Really, I think there's a stronger case to be made (facetiously) for the game being based on Pokémon, what with the influence on controlling monsters.

 

You're attributing a basic setup for RPG quests to Icewind Dale when it's far older. And the quest-giver type is affectionately called "Bob" in Blades of Exile/Avernum parlance. This one goes back before computer RPGs entirely and all the way to the earliest tabletop "you all meet in an inn" games, probably.

 

Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate share a lineage, but the former much more directly and proximately influenced Avadon's development. In particular, the non-optional party members, leaked experience, cooldowns, and role as special agent in some way outside the law are all more reminiscent of Dragon Age than Baldur's Gate, though of course BG is an influence on all Jeff's games. But then you can trace it back farther to Ultima, which is a kind of grandfather to the whole RPG lineage.

 

A1-3 are really just E1-3 remakes, and in the originals you can really feel the Ultima 3 influence heavily.

 

—Alorael, who is pretty sure Jeff would be more than pleased to be called indie Bioware. He has come out and said that everyone should play the Bioware catalog.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Yeah while there might be coincedences , there aren't way too much of them.

[Juan Carlo]

I've always seen the Geneforges more as fantasy takes on "Fallout" than "Planescape." They are (mostly) non party based RPGs, turn based, and the factions and decisions in the Geneforge games are more similar with the way you interact with factions and make decisions in the Fallouts (especially Fallout 2---which I think has more influence on the Geneforges than any other game).

 

Avernum is more "ultima" than anything else, I think. I don't think they are story or character focused enough to compare with most of the infinity engine games like Baldur's Gate, etc.

 

Avadon is very much inspired by Bioware, though. Just the basic party structure and way that you recruit and interact with your party (e.g. they all have their own missions, etc), is straight out of a Bioware game.

 

Anyhow, I actually don't like the idea of describing Spiderweb as an "Indie Bioware" as they've only ever really made one overtly Bioware-esque game, I think (Avadon), so it shortchanges the diversity of their games somewhat (I like that Spiderweb varies its formula between its franchises--from Ultima, to more Black Isle type Fallout-esque games, to Bioware).