Dragon Age News Thread

John Epler @eplerjc
The rhythm didn’t get me, but Covid did.

Fairly mild all around, and so far the kids are entirely fine, but we’re all isolating.

(Fairly mild meaning that the truck that hit me was small)

Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes
Please take the time you need to recover for yourself and for your family. Nothing is more important than that, not even you staying in the office to stop me from sneaking a musical number into the game. 💜

#team #caring #hereforyou

Yup. I'd learned a few years ago from a former BioWare employee that they often do re-make assets from scratch for every new game and I had to ask them "Isn't that a colossally unnecessary expenditure of time, especially if you're working in the same engine?" To which they agreed. I'm not sure why there are gamers who demand that everything be brand-new. It makes zero sense to me if you want the next installation in a game series to come out quickly. Nor does it make sense for a series set in the same place/time... the architecture should NOT vary wildly from game to game in that sort of scenario.

- A very helpful DA Fan has pointed out this recent interview with Mark Darrah...



Mark - "I was the Executive Producer for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. I came onto Anthem to land that project in the last sixteen months or so, and then I came back to what is turning into Dragon Age 4. And then I resigned in late 2020, leaving in early 2021."

Q: Is the Inquisitor playable in the next game?

Mark - ''I am not working on the next game. I imagine it will continue to go with a new protagonist. Will the Inq show up, I don't know. I mean, they don't have an arm, so, uh."

Q: Was there ever any talk about bringing back the HoF?

Mark - "So, it's been discussed on and off, the problem is that's a very quantum character, you could be dead. But there has been conversations about like - probably never as a PC, but bringing them back in the same sort of way that Hawke shows up in Inquisition, to sort of have them as - to close that loop - it was discussed. I don't know if it'll happen or not, I don't know where the story for Dragon Age 4 is, at this point. But yeah, it is a conversation that's been had. The one thing is that it's a silent character, so it's like, if you bring them back as a cameo - do you voice them? Do you not voice them and then explain why they don't talk? It's not really clear what the right path is there, and often when you end up in situations where all answers are going to make a significant percentage of people mad, then those things tend to not happen."

Mark - "One of my pitches in the early days of Dragon Age 4, when we were trying to convince EA to do/make a toolset for DA4 was to find a talented modhouse, like a group that's doing mods, and essentially uplift them and turn them into a studio that could then rebuild Dragon Age: Origins. But [with] Origins, [out] of all of them [the DA games], you also have to really think about remaster or remake [and the differences between them]."

From the EA Investors Conference Call...

They did say they were looking into "scripted entertainment" (read: TV/Movie series) possibilities for their franchises, and BioWare was name-dropped as one with franchises they're looking into. Apparently not so much as a profit driver on their own, but as a way to boost those franchises.

For more info on EA's latest Financial Quarter: ir.ea.com/home/default.aspx

And for the sake of completeness, a kindly DA fan transcribed all the times BioWare was mentioned during the Investor's Conference Call.

"Our pipeline further amplifies our strength. In addition to our core franchises, we are building new experiences in some of the biggest enduring IP in entertainment. Last week we announced a new agreement with Disney and LucasFilm Games to develop new experiences in the Star Wars universe, continuing our collaboration of more than a decade. [?] is leading the development of the next game in our action-adventure Star Wars Jedi series, as well as two additional Star Wars titles. This adds to our deep pipeline of announced and unannounced projects, with our wholly-owned IP, including Need For Speed, our BioWare franchises, The Sims, Skate, Dead Space, and more."


Q: "In light of the announcement that you guys are working on those three new Star Wars games, can you talk a little bit more about your vision for that IP, and is it fair to say that going forwards you're planning to lean more towards investing in your own IP, and if so what are some of the potential pros and cons of that as a strategy?"

A: "Yeah, the very strength of our business is our balanced portfolio. We have both a deep and a broad portfolio, and what we've demonstrated over the best part of four years is to really develop both our own IP over time - Need For Speed, The Sims, Battlefield, Apex Legends, our BioWare franchises, we have Skate in development now, Dead Space on the way - so an incredible portfolio of own IP that has an extraordinary following across the industry. [...] And so if you think about our strategy going forwards, and the strength of our company, it really comes down to our ability to develop and build and publish industry-leading owned IP, and also [...]"


Q. "Paramount Plus dropped a pretty expensive-looking Halo trailer over the weekend, and Netflix has had some success with The Witcher and League of Legends on their streaming service. There's absolutely ravenous demand for content right now from half a dozen or so streaming services, and you guys have some IP, particularly within BioWare, that I think would be pretty good as a basis for a show. Are we finally at a point where video game IP has some trans-media opportunities or do you think that's still more a theory than a reality?"

A. "No, I think, based on exactly what you just said and what we've experienced, you know, video game IP or interactive entertainment IP is now some of the most culturally relevant IP in all of entertainment. And I think that's going to continue to grow. When you think about hundreds of millions of fans engaging in and around the IP we create, like Apex, like The Sims, like Need For Speed, like our BioWare franchises, like Dead Space, like Skate, it's not unnatural for that to spawn kind of a scripted entertainment element. I think traditionally, the scripted entertainment elements in our industry have not been big revenue drivers in and of themselves, but where they have been of high quality, they have lifted the overall engagement of the franchise more deeply, so there's kind of a one-two punch that drives growth in the business. I think as we think about our future, we do believe that this thing that we do, that is interactive entertainment, is becoming more and more important on a daily basis to all fans, and that our fans are going to want to experience that in many different modalities and some of that might be scripted entertainment in nature. And you should expect that we're looking at any and all aspects that allow us to extend and expand our brands for our fanbase. But that we're doing it very thoughtfully, and, again, as part of our strategy, doing it profitably."

Corrine Busche @corrinebusche
I often wonder if the #DragonAge fan base is aware of the positive impact y’all have on game development. Making games is a difficult, complex, often messy endeavor; Waking up each morning and seeing the stunning fan art and content you create is so energizing.

(Corrine is a dev on Dragon Age.)

Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah
If you were wondering how much quantum there is in DA followers

andarateia andarateia
DRAGON AGE COMPANIONS - WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

A series outlining the current whereabouts of our favorite friends from Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening, II and Inquisition.

HavenConTX @havencontx
Guess who's back, guess who's back... joining us for HavenCon2022 is @karinweekes!
Karin is Lead Editor at BioWare, where her credits include 3 Dragon Age games, 3 Mass Effect games, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Her fandoms outside of games include singing and cosplay.

BioWare Gear Store @biowaregear
"You wear the grey better than I thought, Ser Rainier."

Channel a notable Warden-Constable's looks, attitude & armour with your #DragonAge Thom R-ahem, Blackwall-inspired Grey Warden Hoodie. Forked beard optional.

gear.bioware.com/products/blackwall-inspired-grey-warden-hoodie

BioWare @bioware
“Magic thrives on use. A mage who fears her magic cannot master it. When the demons come calling, she will not have the strength to deny them.” #dragonage #cosplay

A generous DA fan gifted this transcript of Jeff Grubb's recent podcast:

Here's what he had to say about DA & DA4...

"Let's touch on Dragon Age. This is something that people ask about a lot and I think in recent weeks someone said, hey, is there a chance of a Dragon Age Legendary Edition, a Dragon Age trilogy, similar to the Mass Effect Legendary Edition? And I think I answered, well, they probably wouldn't do that for a couple reasons. For one, the games aren't as linked as the Mass Effect Trilogy is, where it's one complete story. Also, they move around from engine to engine. I think like, Unreal Engine at some point, maybe, were the early [DA] games on Unreal? I don't remember. But I know that the later game was on Frostbite and that was an engine change. So there's not like this obvious path of, okay, we're gonna make these improvements to Unreal that we can apply to all three of these games at once. They would have to give each game individual attention and that creates extra work for this thing that isn't one big, necessarily, cohesive story. I looked into it and yeah, Dragon Age Legendary Edition is, there's no plans for that still. And those reasons seem to be the case, where it made a lot of sense for Mass Effect, it got a lot of goodwill with Mass Effect, but now, to go put that same effort into Dragon Age, they're not gonna do that, they're just gonna focus on Dragon Age 4.

And that brings us to Dragon Age 4 which I've heard is in very good shape. I think that there was a lot of concerns around this game because, like, what is happening in a lot of studios, there was some key talent that left and stuff like that, I think a Creative Director left, but we are in that environment like I've said a million times now, where key people at games studios are gonna leave because there's a million opportunities for them and they're gonna try to get those right now while the getting is good, and so games are just gonna have to continue with these key pieces leaving. And the word is that Dragon Age 4 is in very good shape, with all that stuff in mind. Now, "very good shape" for a video game in development means, yeah, there's problems, and there's headaches, and making games is very hard, and everyone looks around and says 'hey, making games is hard right?', and everyone looks at each other and says 'yeah this is tough', but it's the normal sort of, making video games is really hard-sorta thing that they're dealing with. And overall, when they look at where they're supposed to be at, they are hitting their milestones, they are hitting where they're supposed to be, and the game is on schedule. Now, what is that schedule? When is that game - if you've been watching this show for quite some time you are fully aware not to expect that game this year. It is still at least eighteen months out from today. So not early 2023, maybe late 2023, maybe. Like that seems to be sorta, the earliest you can begin to expect it. The second half of 2023 is kind of where we're looking at, but even that seems y'know, pretty aggressive, but that's the earliest time frame. So Dragon Age, in good shape, but they aren't rushing it out, they aren't super deep in development to the point where it could come out later this year. But also, eighteen months is not that long in the grand scheme of things, like, if you think about it, like, y'know, eighteen months ago is kind of right around the time we were talking about Mass Effect Legendary Edition and then we got that like almost a year later after I started talking about it. So time will fly by and before you know it we'll be at Dragon Age 4. So if that's the game you're waiting for, well, it's on it's way."


Also, the Q&A touched a little on Mass Effect...

"'With the time frame you're saying for Dragon Age 4, is the New Mass Effect anything more than that teaser?’ [that was submitted question from a show viewer]

Not really, it's mostly that teaser. It's in pre-production, there are artists who are dedicated to Mass Effect coming up with ideas, there's definitely people building out concepts for what the game could be, but it's pre-production. It's pre-production for Mass Effect still. It'll be in a situation where, once Dragon Age 4 is done, and it gets its updates, the team will be ready to quickly move into actual production of Mass Effect, but don't consider it in anything but pre-production until then."

BioWare @bioware
An update on Dragon Age production and more from GM, Gary McKay.
bit.ly/3t0Q254

Game Update: Dragon Age in Production
by Author -BioWare - Posted on February 23, 2022

Hello,

Last month you heard from me as we reflected back on 2021 and looked ahead to 2022 with the goal to communicate more often with our community and fans around the world. With that in mind, let’s start with the next game in development: the new Dragon Age.

As you may know, there are a few different stages to a game’s development. First are the Concept and Pre-Production phases, when a team works on the creative vision for the game and starts laying down the technical foundations – basically creating the conceptual and technological blueprint for the game. Iteration and flexibility are key here, as ideas and game mechanics are proposed, tested out, and refined. Once the blueprint is complete, the Production phase begins. Production is all about executing on the blueprint: taking those ideas and turning them into a working game. Eventually, a team hits Alpha and then Beta, where the polish happens, and the things that are special really come to life.

For the next Dragon Age, we are right in the middle of Production, which is a great feeling. Our blueprint was completed last year, so we’re now focused on building out our vision: creating amazing environments, deep characters, strong gameplay, impactful writing, emotional cinematics – and much more. The blueprint for the game is well understood and the team is focused.

As we continue our journey, we wanted to wish Christian Dailey a heartfelt farewell from BioWare. Christian started with us back in 2018 and has been a big influence on our games and leadership team, most recently as Executive Producer over Dragon Age’s development. The games industry is ever-changing though and sometimes folks want to go and try new things – we understand, but we will miss him as a friend and as a colleague.

A strong leadership team of industry and Dragon Age veterans is in place to carry us through Production and beyond. The game’s Production Director is Mac Walters, who recently led the development for Mass Effect Legendary Edition and has an 18-year history with BioWare. Corrine Busche, who has been leading the design direction for Dragon Age, is our Game Director. She has a wealth of experience, including 15 years at EA, and a passion for the franchise. Benoit Houle is the Director of Product Development, and he brings an in-depth understanding of the franchise thanks to having worked on every single Dragon Age game – starting over 16 years ago on Dragon Age: Origins. I will also be working more closely with the Dragon Age team as they go through production while continuing to guide the studio.

Later this year, you will start to hear more from the Dragon Age team in the form of blogs and social content. As we move through development we’ll also be in regular communication with players who sit on our community council. As passionate fans like you, we take their feedback seriously. We are also listening to all of you as you share your thoughts and experiences, so keep talking to us!

On other fronts, our Star Wars™: The Old Republic team led by Keith Kanneg, recently celebrated 10 years of amazing storytelling with the launch of our latest expansion, Legacy of the Sith. The team hasn’t stopped with just launching the expansion, and is already focused on more updates to continue the celebration all year long. You can see our launch trailer for the new release here; which was a creative collaboration with Industrial Light and Magic, and we absolutely love it.

And of course, we’re also working on the next Mass Effect. The team, led by Mike Gamble, is made up of a team of veteran developers as well as some new, really talented people. They are all actively prototyping new ideas and experiences. AAA next-gen games take a long time to make – and we know our fans may want them sooner. But our Number One priority needs to be quality, and that simply takes time to get it right.

As we embark on a new year of adventures, we’re excited to share more with you. Until then, thank you once again to all our fans. Here’s to a great 2022!

Stay well.

Gary McKay