Jos Hendriks @sjosz I'm sorry @eplerjc, my cat is delaying the thing I'm building. I hope you understand.
John Epler @eplerjc I am always sympathetic to cat-related delays. Mine pulled my headset cable out today mid-meeting.
Jos Hendriks @sjosz Mine twice sat on the keyboard while I was building geometry for [thing I presented you last week], and once on my hand while said hand was holding the mouse, presumably to show me proper form, or something.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Game Writers, Imagined: And then players reach this moment and feel the ludonarrative synthesis by which their accomplishments are their avatar's accomplishments!
Game Writers, Actually: I need a new way to write, "This door is sealed shut. We should look around for a key."
Jos Hendriks @sjosz I'm sorry Patrick, next time I'll collapse a bridge across a bottomless chasm instead.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes "That chasm is too far to jump. We'll need to find another way across." "We should look for a way across that chasm." "There's got to be some way for us to get across." "With the bridge collapsed, we'll need another way over the chasm." "That chasm isn't getting any narrower."
Honestly though, collapsing a bridge sounds pretty awesome.
John Epler @eplerjc Me, sweating: 'How the fuck do I end this conversation'
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes "I should go." Works in any situation, in any franchise.
Mary Kenney @maryknews Oh god I need another way for the PC to say “yes, I will do the thing” h e l p
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I am imagining this amazing Twilight Zone hell that is every clarity-requested ambient line I have ever written firing in an endless hallway.
Dark Horse Comics @darkhorsecomics At SDCC2019, we partnered with @bioware on a live drawing stage at our booth. Art by @cattifer @benjamindewey @toddnauck @phillipsevy @tonyparkerart resulted in a $10,000 donation to the Canadian Red Cross’ Australia Wildfire Relief Fund earlier this year! bit.ly/2KnSXPi
FuzzyFreaks 🕷 @fuzzyfreaks This Saturday at 9pm BST / 3pm CST We'll be joined by Martha Wells, Patrick Weekes and i'm delighted to announce our final guest is poet, spec writer and Rhysling Award nominee May Chong!
The show will be live on
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I'll be doing a reading. Not sure from what, though. I could read from FEEDER, from one of my Tevinter Nights stories, or something from novel-in-progress. I have... two days to figure that out!
Help me decide!
Feeder: Came out in 2018, YA SF with interdimensional... stuff. Tevinter Nights: Short stories in Dragon Age universe. First Draft: Look at my possibly terrible unedited first draft! (Fantasy novel, not tied to work in any way.)
John Epler @eplerjc Where I land on the 'planning vs. improvisation' scale WRT storytelling is perhaps best answered by me renaming this conversation five times based on where it currently falls in this plot.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I'll be doing a reading. Not sure from what, though. I could read from FEEDER, from one of my Tevinter Nights stories, or something from novel-in-progress. I have... two days to figure that out!
Help me decide!
Feeder: Came out in 2018, YA SF with interdimensional... stuff. Tevinter Nights: Short stories in Dragon Age universe. First Draft: Look at my possibly terrible unedited first draft! (Fantasy novel, not tied to work in any way.)
1. Feeder 2. Tevinter Nights 3. First Draft!
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Looks like I’m reading a bit from one of my Tevinter Nights stories. Hope to see you all Saturday!
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Getting ready for my reading and confirming that I have been pronouncing “Wyvern” incorrectly for my 40+ years on Sweet Andruil’s Earth.
“Read it OUT LOUD? The entire reason I wrote it was so that people could experience this story I’d thought of without me having to say it out loud!”
Sa 🏳️🌈 @sa_roux oh no which way have you been pronouncing it? (also there are TWO valid ways to pronounce it, so it's possible you're NOT wrong!!)
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I’ve been saying WIH-vurn, and apparently it’s always supposed to be WHY-vurn.
Cori Nicole @genevrael I don't accept this.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes RIGHT?
Sa 🏳️🌈 @sa_roux ahhh yes, the why-vern is most modern pronunciations (its root etymology is toe-to-toe with "viper") BUT you can make a case for the short-i in WIH-vurn (or, more closely, WAY-vern) depending on the native language of the speaker (which, sadly, ain't usually English)
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Ooooh, if I can make a case, I will TOTALLY stick with it! Heck, I still say “octopi”.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Reminder: 2pm today Mountain Time! (They say after checking the time zones eight separate times to be absolutely SURE they aren’t screwing it up.)
As an added attraction for today’s stream, my hair was bad, so I let @karinweekes give me a bi/pan undercut. She’s also getting dye, apparently.
Electronic Arts #stayandplay @ea EA Play Live goes digital in 2020! See you on June 11th at 4pm PST... World premieres, news and more! www.ea.com/eaplay
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "I'm actually working on something extremely confidential so I try not to work on it when the kids are in the room. And I told them if they see it, I'm going to have to kill them." "I mean, death threats are always good." #overheardintheoffice #workingfromhomeproblems
John Epler @eplerjc Sometimes writing is a pleasant and affirming experience, and sometimes it's plummeting down a mountainside towards a cliff built out of your own creative choices, while screaming over a radio for someone to put a shitload of pillows at the bottom.
daddy victus @sophie_price27 Can you imagine the chaos when bioware eventually properly announces DA4? I for one know that I am going to go crazy when it happens, I think Dragon Age twitter might actually explode.
...
I'm Disabled And Refuse To Be A Eugenics Casualty @chaosfay They're sadists and I refuse to believe otherwise. Kind of like fanfiction writers but with more power.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes We would LOVE to be able to say more. We are really excited about what we’re working on. But we can’t share anything right now. Sorry!
MidnaighteRose @midnaighterose I have a Dragon Age related geographical question, if I may. What is the relative size of Thedas as a whole? Is there a real world or fantasy-related nation that is close to or comparable in size?
Dumped, Drunk and Social Distancing Wolf face Upwards arrow @drunkdalish AT LAST! My final interview segment with the wonderful @karinweekes & @patrickweekes !
Read on for some tabletop gaming memories, their personal game choices, who they'd romance, whether they'd say katoh—and more! #DragonAge #SaveFelassan #BioWare
ControllerLyfe @controllerlyfe hey just out of curiosity, how come I haven't seen any like relationship/romance focused dlcs? Would be nice to go for a cup of coffee or shop with your bae.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Good question! When we make DLCs for post-release content, what we usually go for is something that meets the following criteria:
1) Most people who like the game will consider buying it.
2) Can be done with a smaller team, since a lot of the team from the main game has moved on to other projects.
3) Uses most of the members of that smaller team.
Let's look at how a date/coffee-break DLC would go.
Q1: Would most fans of the game get it?
A: MAYBE. While some folks LOVE our romances, players who do ANY ROMANCE AT ALL are actually a minority. The DLC would have to be about friendship-coffee-breaks for each follower, plus a romance branch, not just romances.
Q2: Can it be done with a smaller team?
A: NO. Conversations are one of the most expensive parts of the game. You'd need a lot of cinematics people to do a scene or two for each follower (45 minutes of content), while a new wilderness area or mission could be done with fewer.
Q3: Would this use most of our smaller post-ship-content team?
A: ALSO NO. While the cinematics team would be worked hard, the level-design team would hook up the conversations and then be twiddling their thumbs. If we re-used existing areas, same goes for level art.
So that's why on ME3's Citadel or DAI's Trespasser, we included new follower bits as a small part of DLC that includes new missions. More people buy it, it doesn't crush the cinematics folks (as much), and it uses our level design and art teams.
Follower scenes alone didn't.
And to be clear, if things change, and next time after ship, we find ourselves with fewer level designers, but we've got a tool that makes conversations easier to do inexpensively? That would change the math!
Matthew James @mattyofkingness That stat really stands out [players doing any romance at all being a minority]. Would this imply that the majority of players are barreling through the game and ignoring a lot of the side stuff e.g. romances and follower quests. That's not a criticism but seems curious given that's such a focus of the genre?
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes It stands out to us as well, and we always question it, given how important they seem to folks online. But that's what the folks who track telemetry tell us.
Samhain @towardsdawn Wait, what? I always felt like "the relationships you have with companions are so good you'll want to play the games multiple times" was ME/DA's biggest selling point. It's so bizarre to realize it's not what most players choose to do
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes The folks who DO play the game multiple times are the same folks who do romances, I suspect. But those are a minority.
Dave *DurGhan* Wilson @durghan Speaking of which, what tool does your team use for writing branching storylines/conversations? Something internal? If so, do you have a tool you could recommend for the average joe? I've been trying to learn Articy Draft, but something isn't clicking for me with it. Thx.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes We have a proprietary tool that works with Frostbite. If you're looking at learning branching dialogue, Twine is free and, while it won't do it prettily, can handle all the conversation branching we use. That's what I've used to teach folks the basics in the past.
ladyiolanthe ladyiolanthe @patrickweekes @eplerjc Hopefully this is something you're able to answer- just wondering how your team pronounces "Executor" internally? Is it ex-EC-utor or EX-ecutor? It's an interesting heteronym.
John Epler @eplerjc I think we usually pronounce it ex-EC-utor
hilary heskett @hilaryheskett Big news time! I’m happy to announce I’ve rejoined the @bioware / @ea family. There is so much incredible content being created at the studio. I’m excited to help inspire the world to play!
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah You’re my minder now... Muahahahahaha... I mean welcome back
Jos Hendriks @sjosz Am building an exciting thing for work and now I am too excited to sleep because I get to continue the exciting thing tomorrow. I'm guessing it being an engaging thing to figure out has me latching onto it as a way to not think about self-isolation. Or because it's fun. Or both.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard Prime Posts: 3,912 Prime Likes: 9733 Posts: 2,894 Likes: 12,961
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard
Heroes of Dragon Age @heroesofda Where will you be when The Dread Wolf Rises? Are you ready to have your questions answered? Find out in this week's quest event!
But those are a minority.
