alix 💗💜💙 @marleysghost every now and then dragon age starts trending and I have a moment of panic that there's news
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I legit started panic-searching. "Did we leak something? Did >I< leak something? I have been so careful about not mentioning the unicorns!"
oh no
Bree (half of @kitrocha) @mostlybree me 5 minutes ago WHY IS DRAGON AGE TRENDING and it's apparently trending because people were trying to figure out why it was trending 20 hours ago???
Patrick explain yourself immediately and give me a unicorn
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Me to the Dragon Age social media managers: I swear, it wasn't me, it was like this when I got here!
David Gaider @davidgaider This brings back a lot of memories.
Bree (half of @kitrocha) @mostlybree ok but can we get dragon unicorn quest trending?
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes If we can't, it won't be for lack of trying. #dragonunicornquest
Dubious Space Hamster @dubious_space Dragon Age hot take of the day:
As much as I think a mage Hawke makes for a better overall story, I almost always choose a Rogue Hawke for the sheer joy of being able to launch myself clear across the screen to bury both daggers into an Ogre's eyeballs.
I really need Bioware to let us cross-class at some point.
Maybe I want to stabbity-stab AND fart fireballs, @patrickweekes. YOU EVER THINK OF THAT?
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Are you kidding me? I play a mage/rogue hybrid in every game that makes it possible. I think about it ALL THE TIME!
May not be something we can do for Dragon Age, but I'd love if we had that kind of character-build flexibility.
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah I love that Dragon Age continues to trend because: 1. People love Dragon Age 2. People are wondering WHY Dragon Age is trending. That’s good stuff
Emily C Taylor pentapod "Can we have everyone throwing burning daggers?" "And just passing random items to each other." "Except the characters are random heights that change each time." "Then everyone climbs up a ladder to change a lightbulb."
#TFW the meeting decides to troll the animation team ...
ALIX WILTON REGAN @alixwiltonregan It is an honour to announce that I will be playing the role of The Dread Wolf in the upcoming 🐉 DRAGON AGE 4 🐉
#ISuspectYouHaveQuestions
(It’s so great the way you can break your NDA on April Fools Day without actually breaking anything at all because everyone thinks you’re joking. Lols.)
BioWare Gear Store @biowaregear Enjoy your Solas: The Hierophant Tarot Statue, offering signs of good days ahead - of a thriving relationship and an abundance of love.
John Epler @eplerjc I try not to vague post about work stuff too much because I know it can be annoying, but sometimes you see something and the only thing you can think is 'holy shit holy shit'.
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw Hey @eplerjc, someone on LinkedIn direct messaged me because they want DA4 to have beautiful characters. They sent the request to me so I thought I would pass it on.
Think what fun you have in store for you. Such fun. Even years later. ;P
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw Hey @eplerjc, someone on LinkedIn direct messaged me because they want DA4 to have beautiful characters. They sent the request to me so I thought I would pass it on.
Think what fun you have in store for you. Such fun. Even years later. ;P
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Wait. Our characters should look appealing? SOMEBODY GET ME A PEN! Why did we not think of this???
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw I think it’s really got some potential.
David Gaider @davidgaider I was also recently informed that I needed to get my act together when it came to DA4's story. So @patrickweekes consider yourself on notice, I guess.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Why am I on notice? You're the one slacking on DA4's story.
David Gaider @davidgaider I'm delegating.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Are you going to let us have a dwarf romance this time?
Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw
Cmdr Katja Shepard - Waiting for DA4 news @muirnara Tbh I can't think of a non appealing character in DA except maybe Rendon Howe? Oh and Lord Erimond, lol.
John Epler @eplerjc How DARE you speak ill of Lord Livius Erimond.
Are you seeing this @patrickweekes
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes it hurts me when Erimond, my most developed character, my thoughtful tragic hero, the deuteragonist of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and dare I say the ideal of peak masculinity, is spoken of with this level of disrespect.
Ladyofc | The Dragon Age Oracle 🔮✨@ccclady1203 You mean the man I didn't hesitate to execute? He looks like the worst smelling cologne you can think of.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes He died as he smelled: by the Axe.
Amber ☥ ૐ शांति ૐ ᐰ @na0sglass Oh yes, because what's appealing to each player is somehow universal. <eye roll> 😂
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes The day that I saw a straight guy online saying he didn't want to romance Isabela, because the pantsless buxom pirate lady with the lip piercing and sun-kissed complexion was "too exotic," I realized that there was no way to win this, just many different ways to lose.
ladyiolanthe ladyiolanthe That would be a liberating lesson to learn. Just write who you wish to write. There will be someone who likes them. And in some cases, many someones.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Some people only want a romance specifically with exactly their ideal kind of character in appearance and personality, and honestly, in a certain type of game, that'd be valid feedback! But that isn't what we're making. We try to give options, but this isn't Build a Buddy.
If we wrote a character we intended as a romance, and nobody wanted to romance them, well, that would be awkward. But based on the telemetry I vaguely remember, Isabela did okay. ❤️ (And people who didn't like her could romance Merrill, Anders, or Fenris instead, plus Seb in DLC)
blip blop @blipblopwax The latest @spacelab9 newsletter announces a Dragon Age vinyl release alongside repressings of their Dark Souls 1-3 2LPs and the Fallout 3 box set.
This is a place for you, the BioWare community, to learn about the work we’re doing behind the scenes, to learn about the people doing that work, and even where you can learn about other members of the community.
BioWare Community Update - 12 April 2022 Hey, everyone!
We’ve talked recently about how we want to further pull back the curtain for a more transparent look into the process of making the games you love. So, as part of that mission, we’d like to welcome you to the new BioWare Community Update! This is a place for you, the BioWare community, to learn about the work we’re doing behind the scenes, to learn about the people doing that work, and even where you can learn about other members of the community.
You’re going to find a few new types of posts in this space, including a series called Developer Stories, where you’ll learn all about the people who make our games and the different roles they play. We’ll also provide dispatches in the form of Community Updates, where we’ll highlight contributions from the community, answer your questions, and keep you up to speed on what’s going on with our games. (You may notice that you’re reading one of those right now. Hello!) Stay tuned for more!
So let’s get things started by meeting two of our colleagues who are heading up two different areas of development for the next Dragon Age™.
Gary (he/him) recently shared a State of BioWare post highlighting some of the folks who will be leading the Dragon Age team: Corinne Busche (she/her) as game director, Mac Walters (he/him) as production director, and Benoit Houle (he/him) as director of product development.
In addition to this talented group, we want to (re)introduce you to two more people working on the game who you should know: John Epler (he/him) and Maciej Kurowski (he/him), who have both been working on the next Dragon Age game since its early days of development.
Maciej, the Dragon Age franchise’s technical director, joined BioWare almost six years ago and has spent over 13 years in the industry. John’s been at BioWare for close to 15 years; he’s worked on multiple BioWare titles and took on the role of creative director for Dragon Age last year.
For more about John and Maciej after you learn a bit about them here (as well as lots of other folks on the Dragon Age team), be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming Developer Stories blog series, starting this week!
Let’s start with you, John. Can you share with our community what exactly a creative director does?
John: A creative director’s job is about keeping an eye on the game as a whole, trying to make sure that the game maintains its “feel,” and making calls about where to focus resources on the project. It also means representing the IP as a whole and working with a team to define the “story” of the IP, past, present and future. [Editor’s note: “IP” stands for “intellectual property,” which refers to a whole franchise, in all its incarnations. Think of it as everything having to do with Dragon Age officially.]
So really, the core of being a creative director is being a really effective diplomat, especially as you get deeper into development. Early in a project, you might be able to make more big-picture decisions more independently, but you very quickly need to get good at identifying problems, knowing who to talk to, and then being willing to talk to those people. That’s the hardest part of the job, honestly, but your team needs answers, decisions, and all the things required to do their jobs.
Because really, the team is the most important part of all of this. And the Dragon Age team is the most talented group I’ve ever worked with. They’ve taken the vision set out at the beginning of the project and really made it their own. And what about you, Maciej? A technical director is in charge of all the tech for the game, right? How does what you do impact what the players see?
Maciej: So, the tech that goes into making a game can basically be divided into two different areas: the tools used by developers building the game, and the software that players interact with directly—what we call the “runtime” technology. And while the runtime is what the player actually sees in action, it’s actually the developer tools that can really make a difference in the quality of the final game.
At the beginning of this project, we came up with a few principles we wanted to rely on while building the game, and probably the most impactful one was having the right tools that best fit our game. I strongly believe that the developers are able to be at their most creative when we minimize the friction they encounter in their day-to-day work. So making the tools easy to use and dependable makes it easier for them to be creative, which ultimately makes the game a lot better.
We are always learning and pushing ourselves, and with every game we get better. But we can always improve. I can’t wait to talk more about some of the interesting things we have done on the tech side for Dragon Age. We take characters very seriously and do a lot of work to give them more personality than they have ever had in the past. I can't say more yet, but we will over time!
Anything else you’d like to say to the fans at the moment?
Maciej: We can’t wait to show you more of the game! It’s shaping up to be something amazing.
John: Agreed. There’s something special about Dragon Age, and there’s something equally special about the Dragon Age community. The cosplay, the theorycrafting, the streams, the fanfic—so much of it is genuinely incredible. You all humble us daily, and I can’t wait until we’re able to start sharing more. I think you’re going to love it.
In each of these posts, we’d like to devote some space to celebrating the awesome stuff you all do. Whether that’s art, videos, clips from a livestream, or anything else that’s creative—or meaningful to you!—we’d love to give you a spotlight.
As we share more across social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook), we look forward to hearing from you. Use hashtags for our games, like #DragonAge, and who knows? Your content might even be showcased in the Community Spotlight! (We’ll always reach out to the creator for permission before sharing, to make sure they’re properly credited.)
While we wait to see your creations, here are a few we’ve loved so far this year. Be sure to check out the artists and give them a follow.
"Blue Wraith" Fenris portrait Solas portrait “Blue Wraith” by Haverdoodle | “The cursed one” by Tsukioreo Grey Warden cosplay Hanar in an N7 hoodie Cosplay by Armored Heart Cosplay, photos by GeekStrong | Hanar in a sweater by Jess, original pattern by ishouldgo
We’re working on more than just Dragon Age, too. Our team is continuing to work on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and its recent Legacy of the Sith expansion, so be sure to check out the SWTOR website for more details about what’s coming! There’s also the next game in the Mass Effect™ universe, which is now early in development. It’s going to be a while before we can talk about it in more detail, but we can’t wait to show you what we’re working on!
But of course, scrolls are being inked for a new tale across the lands of Thedas and beyond. We know we’ve said it before, but we really are excited to share more about our next game when the time is right. Until then, we’re keeping our heads down and focusing on making your next big adventure the best it can be.
Melissa Janowicz deedlite Sharing because this is def a cool opportunity! I have worked with the DA enemies/creatures team before, they’re good people.
Sanshee will be at #PAXEast @teamsanshee Brighten up your days with our #DragonAge Golden Nug Plush and go from routine to regal in no time! From the most basic bedrooms to the glittering gilded halls in Val Royeaux, these limited quantity beauties will make your life a little more golden!
BioWare @bioware Get to know John Epler (@eplerjc), Creative Director for the Dragon Age franchise, in the first of our BioWare Developer Story series. x.ea.com/73361
Friends! Welcome to the first of many BioWare Developer Stories! In this series, we’ll be talking with our colleagues here at the studio about their histories, what they do at BioWare, what makes this such a special place to work, and all sorts of other topics.
Today’s lucky contestant is John Epler, Creative Director for the Dragon Age franchise. John’s been at BioWare since the late ‘00s, but he actually didn’t get his start on the creative side of things at all. In fact, before BioWare he was in a different field entirely: the audiovisual trade.
THE STORY SO FAR
“I was selling TVs,” John says. “I knew I wanted to get into games, though, and at the time BioWare was hiring term testers, which is a contract position in QA.” (That’s Quality Assurance, the folks who track down bugs and other issues.) “I got lucky enough to run into a couple of BioWare people at the store and mentioned that I’d applied. I got an interview, got the job, and I’ve been working at BioWare ever since.”
After a few years in QA, John started working as a cinematic designer on Dragon Age: Origins, which he describes as working with a huge library of animations to put together cinematic scenes. “It’s largely about knowing the animation library well enough to be able to go, ‘Oh, I need someone to walk backwards for three seconds; here’s the animation that does that,’” he says. “So you round up all the appropriate animations and stitch them into a finished scene.”
John remained a cinematic designer through Dragon Age: Inquisition, graduating to lead cinematic designer for Inquisition’s DLC. From there he moved into the narrative director role for the next game, which is more about the story and characters of a game as a whole. “You’re focused on narrative as more of a holistic experience,” as he puts it. And now, as creative director, he takes an even wider view, “keeping an eye on the game, and the franchise, as a whole,” he says, “and making calls about where to focus resources on the project.”
ON DRAGON AGE
With all this Dragon Age experience, you might expect John feels a strong connection to the series—and you would be correct: When we ask about some memorable moments from his time with BioWare, he goes right to the closing days of Inquisition’s development. “We were finishing out the Redcliffe scenes,” he says, “and one of our audio guys called me down to listen to what he’d been working on. I remember standing there, hearing the theme kick in, and thinking, ‘Oh, wow. We might have something special on our hands here.’ We’d put so much of ourselves into this thing, and it was finally coming together.”
It’s a scene where the player has to decide what their character believes in. And that kind of moment is one of the hallmarks of the series, John says. “Faith is a big theme throughout the games,” he explains. “Not faith in a religious sense, necessarily, but belief in something—whether that something is a wholly unknowable figure, or another person, or even just yourself. And the games look at what happens when that belief is challenged, or completely broken.”
John’s connection to the franchise extends even outside of the games themselves: He contributed to the 2020 short story anthology Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights. So naturally, we had to ask how writing a short story compares to writing on games. “Honestly, both have their own challenges,” he says. “Writing games has to consider interactivity, budget, branching, technical needs…so the actual writing is only a small part of the job. Fiction is easier in that I can write whatever I want because there’s never going to be someone building any of it. But I think you lose a lot of shortcuts that you get in games. Like, I hate writing fight scenes—but in a game, I can say ‘and there should be a fight here’ and I never, ever have to write another fight scene.”
ON BIOWARE
There’s a reason Dragon Age makes such an impression even on the people who help make it. “Dragon Age is really about the people,” John says. “The stuff with BioWare games that tends to get referenced the most—the things you hear people bring up time and time again—it’s almost never the big critical-path beats. It’s the character beats, and at their best, those critical-path beats and those character beats become the same thing. It’s about how those characters interact with each other; ‘family is where you find it’ is a pretty core theme for all of our games.”
And John’s introduction to the studio’s own cast of characters was an especially memorable one. “My very first day at BioWare was the day they held the Mass Effect launch party,” he says. “It was at our local science center, and they had the game playable on the planetarium screen! We had the run of the place after hours—it was pretty incredible.” He pauses. “It may have set the bar way too high.”
And what would John be doing if he hadn’t found his way to the studio? “Honestly, I don’t know,” he says. “I nearly ended up working at a paper supply company before I got the job at BioWare, so maybe that? There’s an alternate universe John out there somewhere that’s basically—I want to say Jim from The Office, but I’ll be honest and say Andy—and he’s living that life, and probably making games in his spare time. But it’s hard to imagine, honestly. I’ve been working here for nearly a third of the time I’ve been alive!”
John Epler is the creative director for the Dragon Age franchise. You can find him on Twitter at @eplerjc.
BioWare @bioware Do you want to be a part of the next Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Star Wars: The Old Republic games? Come work at BioWare! bit.ly/3HOnaCo
BioWare @bioware "We are the Dalish: keepers of the lost lore, walkers of the lonely path. We are the last of the Elvhenan, and never again shall we submit." -The Oath of the Dales
