Christopher Avellone
USABiography of Chris Avellone
Early Life and EducationChris Avellone is an American game designer, best known for his work at Interplay and as one of the founders and directors of Obsidian Entertainment. Avellone completed his high school education at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. He then obtained a bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary.
Early Career
Avellone began his career by writing campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games. In 1997, he joined Interplay and worked briefly on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. That same year, Avellone participated in the development of Descent to Undermountain, which he later described as a disappointment. In 1998, Avellone contributed to the development of Fallout 2 and continued to work on subsequent installments of the series. Concurrently, he led the development of Planescape: Torment. Avellone was involved in the creation of all the Icewind Dale games released between 2000 and 2002. As a designer, he also worked on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001), Champions of Norrath (2004), and served as the lead designer for the canceled project Van Buren before leaving Interplay.
Obsidian Entertainment and Recent Work
After leaving Interplay, Avellone co-founded Obsidian Entertainment. He worked on role-playing games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (2004), Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006), and Alpha Protocol. Avellone also contributed to the development of Fallout: New Vegas (2010) and South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014). He was involved in collaborative projects with inXile Entertainment, including Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity.
On June 9, 2015, Avellone departed from Obsidian Entertainment. As of 2017, he is currently working at Arkane Studios. He has also been announced as the lead writer for the project Pathfinder: Kingmaker by Owlcat Games.
