TheGamer @thegamerwebsite In our latest Dragon Age Week interview, Alix Wilton Regan - voice of the female Inquisitor in Dragon Age and Samantha Traynor in Mass Effect - compares BioWare's two behemoths.
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
Interview: Nicholas Boulton On Bringing Dragon Age's Hawke To Life BY STACEY HENLEY PUBLISHED 2 MINUTES AGO Dragon Age 2's leading man on his time defending Kirkwall.
ティナ Tina Sanchez @teanah How much have you achieved because of spite?
John Epler @eplerjc My entire career is because of two separate occasions where I was rudely told I had ‘no narrative ability’ and that I should maybe consider another career.
My dream is to encounter this person in a professional setting and then tell them ‘I’m sorry, who are you?’
Spite rules.
(It’s not all because of spite, but spite has certainly played a major role in it)
Every so often I read the rejection email to pump myself up.
I try to be inverse of them in every way. Compassion instead of harshness. Humility instead of arrogance.
Bad people can set an example too. Just not the way they think.
David Gaider @davidgaider I'm honestly trying to imagine someone being that obtuse. You were possibly the narrative designer MOST in tune with the needs of the narrative, while I was there.
John Epler @eplerjc The first one was before I worked at BW - the second was when I’d only been there a year and a half (was still in QA).
It sucked a lot! But I still look forward to being intensely petty someday. I’ve -earned- it.
And thank you. That legitimately means a lot coming from you.
David Gaider @davidgaider Well, I doubt your narrative ability just sprang out of nowhere the moment you joined the cinematic design team, so whoever said those things was a dolt. Smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes
And you're welcome. It was always a pleasure to work with you, John.
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
on sharing tech (or lack thereof? ) between the DA team and ME team during the early development of the earlier iteration of DA4, Joplin, is pretty interesting and feels a bit spicy
TheGamer: The Oral History Of Dragon Age: Origins We talked to nine developers who worked on Dragon Age: Origins about where BioWare's legendary fantasy series all began.
This features interviews with nine devs, which amounted to almost 40,000 words' worth of transcripts. It tells the story of what is probably the most pivotal game BioWare ever made, connecting the likes of Baldur's Gate and NWN to Mass Effect and, later, Anthem
Huge thanks to @davidgaider, @danielaerickson, @dantudge, @jbhepler, @dcfedor, @inonzur, @stubbygb, @digitalcyclops, and @ideaplague for speaking to me for this. I hope DA fans enjoy reading about where their favourite series came from, and all the passion that went into it
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
David Gaider On The Creation Of Dragon Age: Inquisition's Dorian BY CIAN MAHER PUBLISHED 1 HOUR AGO Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider talks to us about the importance of Inquisition's Dorian Pavus.
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
Interview: Nico Lennon On Playing Carver, Dragon Age's "Gooseberry" BY STACEY HENLEY PUBLISHED 16 MINUTES AGO Meet the man behind the man you left in the Deep Roads.
Sarah Arellano Blue heart @thesugarvenom A thing that those “hire fans!” people don’t understand: the question, “But how will it work in German?”
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw This is truth.
David Gaider @davidgaider All those times we thought we could cleverly give the player a genderless title and save on alt lines, and along would come localization each time: "what do you mean, genderless?"
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw Have you heard of a little something called "ROMANCE LANGUAGES" ?!?!
Seb Hanlon @hanlsp *waves through a mirror in RTL*
Pronk On Melra _f_lem *waves in date, time, currency, and distance conversions, then cries in Spanish*
David Gaider @davidgaider "Odette!" *cue snickering in Spanish* (Odette was Vivienne's original name. - Hrungr)
Pronk On Melra _f_lem Oh my god, the day I had to tell you about that
Worst. Day. Ever.
iamleyeti @iamleyeti asking for a friend: WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF NARRATIVE DESIGN
(wrong answers only)
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw Narrative de-sign is when you realize how hard it is to translate text on fixed textures, so you go around your game with the level artist and get rid of all the hanging or attached placards that have words on them..
Rach @rachiguess @biomarkdarrah and @davidgaider how much fun did the two of you have writing Isabella's dialogue in da2? cause it feels like a lot 😂
David Gaider @davidgaider Isabela is primarily @sherylchee's doing, and she primarily listened to the fun yet mischievous imp on her shoulder while writing... as Sheryl normally does.
Matthew Goldman @sergoldman Happy Blue Monday! Here is a montage of Qunari Stuff from DA2 and DAI. Artists and dear friends: Matt Rhodes, Kasper K, Ramil Sunga and Marc Holmes.
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah There are many things that are worth CONSIDERING when you name something.
Find out more on Thursday and join me for the Premiere
David Gaider @davidgaider Oh god, not naming things. This is why I had the Three Rules. I maintain that naming anything in a game is the most aggravating thing you can do.
Well, actually Two Rules and Two Laws. I talked about it here:
May as well make this its own thread. First, the Laws of Naming Things, written after many long years during which naming *anything* in the game was the most contentious thing the team could ever do.
Example 1: "Qunari". At first, everyone hated it. "It sounds too much like canary". "The Qun is way too difficult to pronounce." Etc. etc. 6 months later, no-one wanted to change it. That's what they were called... what else could they be?
Example 2: The DA world was not supposed to be called "Thedas". That was a temp name: "THE/DA/Setting". But we left it too long, and when we sat down to give it a proper name... nothing else sounded right. In our minds, the name had stuck.
Eventually the laws led to my Rules of Naming Things, which was how I made naming stuff not make me want to tear out what little hair I had left.
My favorite is #2. We can't agree on a name? Okay, let's leave it with the one you hate... just for now. We'll revisit it in 6 months. Worked every single time.
Example? "Grey Wardens". Some of the team bosses HATED that name. It didn't drip with enough blood. Sadly, for them, they brought up their objections six months too late. Brent Knowles, knowing my laws, wisely said "let's put it to a team vote" and they agreed.
Brent had the result of the vote posted above his office door for YEARS.
"Blood Knight Brotherhood" - 1 vote "The Lords of War" - 1 vote "Disciples of Pain" - 0 votes (!) "Grey Wardens" - literally everyone else on the project
Brent knew: the name had already stuck.
Just one caveat: for the love of God, don't use temp names that you don't want to risk sticking. Name it "Purple Monkey Screwball", something you CAN'T POSSIBLY use. Because if it can, it will. This is the Side-Rule of Thedas.
Naming thing... What could be simpler, right? If you want to have a meeting where everyone has an opinion, no one agrees, and no answer is reached, try to name something in a videogame. But, at the end of the day, you can probably chill
Let's talk about what you should think about. Then I'll walk through some examples and ruin all names for you forever...
Things that are harder? More like impossible.
Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:20 Criteria 0:50 Understandable 1:46 Memorable 2:47 Pronounceable 4:50 Mouth Feel 6:11 Ownable 7:47 Wordform 8:31 Sequels 10:55 Acronym 11:41 Baldur's Gate 12:30 Dragon Age 15:17 Mass Effect 16:47 Assassin's Creed 17:34 Anthem 18:34 Destiny 19:37 Skyrim 20:45 Elder Scrolls 21:30 The Fast and the Furious 22:28 Star Wars 23:42 Name + Time = Fine 24:36 Thedas 25:33 Special Thanks
John Epler @eplerjc Every time I'm asked to come up with names I am reminded of how bad I am at naming things.
Good writers: 'I named this character something that spoke to their character, to the person they are - and want to be.'
Me: 'I named this character after the first good name I saw in the name generator.'
It is weird to talk about writing sometimes because I still struggle to see myself as a 'real writer', but I am comfortably aware of the things I am Real Bad at.
Publisher Electronic Arts and developer BioWare are seriously considering using Unreal Engine for the next game in the Mass Effect series. This information primarily comes from an EA job listing for a technical director for Mass Effect 5. That post says the publisher is looking for candidates who have “experience with Unreal Engine [or higher].” I’ve confirmed through multiple sources that this is because everything is on the table when it comes to tech for a new Mass Effect — and that includes potentially replacing EA’s in-house Frostbite engine with Unreal.
BioWare is currently working on Dragon Age 4. That game is still on track for a 2023 release, according to my sources. That would likely mean we wouldn’t see Mass Effect 5 until at least 2025.
Jeff Grubb @jeffgrubb Tiny scoop. A job listing says that EA is looking for a Mass Effect tech director who has experience in Unreal Engine. I've confirmed that the studio is strongly considering Unreal for Mass Effect 5.
At present, EA and BioWare are really considering all possibilities for Mass Effect 5. And a tech director is important to oversee that process. The company wants to embrace next-gen visual tech, and by 2023, when ME dev starts in full, Frostbite could be far behind Unreal.
So while Unreal is a strong strong possibility, it's also possible BioWare could be looking at Unreal to inform what it needs in Frostbite if it were to stick with EA's in-house tools. But in that process, it seems likely that devs will probably just want to stick with Unreal.
"So I know we have this whole "dread" wolf thing, but hear me out..."
Can You Pet the Dog? @canyoupetthedog A recent update for Ghost of Tsushima added unique fox animations. Now the foxes happily tap their feet in anticipation of pets, and players can also enjoy brand-new belly rubs.
) between the DA team and ME team during the early development of the earlier iteration of DA4, Joplin, is pretty interesting and feels a bit spicy 
