Dragon Age News Thread

seb hanlon @hanlsp
Dragon Age: Inquisition launched 6 years ago today.

My strongest memory of the launch, though, was the week before—Nov 11—when the review embargo came off. I was in Montreal at a conference, all nerves, refreshing between panels on my phone as reviews and scores went up.

Fresh in my mind was the DA2 launch; the kind of thing that carves a groove in your memory.

DAI had been 3 years of heavy sledding—1st BW title on Frostbite, first on Gen4, 1st on 5 platforms, 1st open world at scale. So many steps to climb; so many chances to slip and fall.

… and then the lights go down, the curtains part, and the team holds their breath.

What’s the world gonna say this time?

I was standing in the Palais de Congres, scrolling and refreshing, watching the reviews and scores come in.

It looked good! Was it safe to hope?

… more reviews. More scores. It’s holding. Holy smokes…

I texted some pals back in Edmonton.

“We did it, guys.

We’re home.”

It was a hard road for the team to get there, and just as hard personally—leaving marks I’d still be finding over the following years—but we made it.

There’s blood, souls, joy, tears, and muscle burned for fuel in every inch of that game. We launched it with every stick of fuel we had in the shop.

It’s the game that made me a lead, made me a designer, and it started for me coming back 3 weeks after my son was born.

For some folks, it’s their favorite of the DA games; others prefer DA2 or Origins, for personal reasons. Each game does things a bit differently.

Inquisition’s the only one I can whistle the title melody to, though. There’s bits of that game under my skin I’ll never get out.

Happy 6th anniversary, DAI; happy anniversary to the comrades who made it so, through the flood, fire, and famine.

Happy anniversary, most of all, to the players we made it for. I’m glad you liked it.

*Clinking glasses*

seb hanlon @hanlsp
As an after-dinner mint, here’s @alixwiltonregan delivering some of my favorite lines in the entire series. Why won’t anything stay fixed?

David Gaider @davidgaider
Mixed feelings on this particular anniversary [DA:I]. I miss the team and recall this project being one where everyone was firing on all cylinders. It’s also where Dragon Age ended, for me. I’ll never know whether that was the right decision.

Either way, I’m glad so many loved it.

Every time I see the DAI subtitles on the trailer, where it says "LEAD THEM" and then a moment later says "OR FALL", a perverse part of my brain keeps expecting it to instead say "OR DON'T".

Which would be a much more underwhelming subtitle, I grant you.

An example of HOW punchy crunch makes you: the writers once joked we should make a Paris Hilton edition of DAO. It'd add a "that's hot" option to every hub -- if taken, the NPC would stare at you blankly & then move on.

We thought this was the BEST idea for, like, five minutes.

BioWare @bioware
Battle tactics according to Iron Bull.

bioware twitch stream for dragon age day: 9am EST

mia @trashtabby
ancient image that's forever relevant



Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes
Solas:
Writing: Me, @davidgaider, all other writers in some places
Editing: @genevrael

Voice: @pancheers

Art: @nthornborrow concept, team for implementation
Performance Direction: Caroline Livingstone and team
Animation: Johnathan Epp, @eplerjc, and team

Always a team effort.

(And even this doesn't count the level designers who made his logic work for which scenes fired when or his personal plot, the Quality Analysts who caught all the bugs, the audio devs who processed vocals, and a hundred other things.

Everything in Dragon Age is a team effort.)

David Gaider @davidgaider
Yeah, I was always uncomfortable with the way some people equated me with DA just because I was a name they knew. Even the setting has been added to so much there no way, by this point, it could be attributed solely to me.

Michael Gamble @gamblemike
There's ONE person who is having a good day. That is the PR person who has to monitor @biomarkdarrah twitter to make sure he's not telling secrets. Wait. It's gonna be worse now? Nevermind, then.

BioWare @bioware
Happy Dragon Age Day! Let's kick off the celebration with some new short stories, penned by the team at BioWare.
Read more here: bit.ly/39V98ll

DRAGON AGE: THE WORLD OF THEDAS MAP
$59.99

direct.darkhorse.com/products/dragon-age-world-of-thedas-map



Dark Horse Direct and BioWare are back this Dragon Age Day releasing a very special, limited-edition The World of Thedas Map print! Featuring the gorgeously detailed art of Francesca Baerald sized to a 24x17” lithograph print. A limited run of just 300 units, adorn your home or office with this sophisticated and collectible piece of Dragon Age decor!

WHAT’S INCLUDED
Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Map 24x17” Fine Art Lithograph Print

ADDITIONAL DETAILS AND DIMENSIONS
Limited Edition of 300
Cover Art by Francesca Baerald
Lithograph Fine Art Print, Hand Numbered, Bronze Foil Stamped Logo
Shipping to Customers: December 18th, 2020
Order Limit: 2 per person
Product + Packaging Dimensional Weight: 2 lbs
Print will ship rolled and tubed.

Dumped, Dalish and #DragonAgeDay (She/Her) @drunkdalish
Hooray for #DragonAgeDay! Here are some juicy and wonderful questions and answers (some silly, some not silly) with the talented Sylvia Feketekuty!

dumpeddrunkanddalish.com/2020/12/sylvia-feketekuty-answers-silly.html

Brianne Battye Bat @bbattye
Art for The Next One is by the talented Ramil Sunga!
You can see more of his art here: artstation.com/doe