Dark Horse Comics @darkhorsecomics Get ready for #DragonAgeTheVeilguard with a special bundle of Dragon Age books and graphic novels now via @humble, all while supporting @cpcharity!
The sale runs through November 11 and includes Dragon Age: The Missing, a comic prequel to The Veilguard, and more:
This Halloween, let Emmrich and Manfred guide you through the blighted lands of Thedas in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This artwork by @massiveface is so killer, it's bringing the dead back to life.
If you’re a Dragon Age fan, stay tuned for more artwork coming your way in celebration of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
BioWare @bioware Hey everyone, We have our first patch for #DragonAge: The Veilguard coming later this week to all platforms! This patch will include some bug fixes, minor balance changes, and some crash mitigations. Full Patch Notes will be available with the patch! Some examples include: - Fixed an issue where some customizations were not applied to the Inquisitor correctly in one scene. - Fixed an issue where DLSS options could end up “grayed-out” on a 40-series Nvidia GPU. (PC only) - Fixed an issue that caused Companion Skill Points to reset.
While Creative Director John Epler would like it to happen, he doesn’t see it likely. In an interview with Rolling Stone around the game’s launch, Epler was asked about seeing the first three games remastered in some way.
“I think I’m one of about maybe 20 people left at BioWare who’s actually used Eclipse,” Epler told the outlet. “It’s something that’s not going to be as easy as Mass Effect, but we do love the original games. Never say never, I guess that’s what it comes down to.”
Dragon Age @dragonage Happy #N7Day! Make sure you download the latest patch for #DragonAge: The Veilguard - there's a gift waiting for you 💫
Instructions: - After patching, you’ll find a chest next to the Workshop - Chest appears after completing the Harding Mission “The Singing Blade” - If “The Singing Blade” is already completed, the chest will be available the next time you visit the Lighthouse
Watch Rook take on foes where every strand of hair moves with lifelike realism. Frostbite and BioWare pushed the boundaries of visual fidelity with advanced Strand Hair technology in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
David Gaider @davidgaider.bsky.social CHARACTERS - DAY THREE: Flemeth
I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore.
One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth.
Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly.
I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that.
I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough).
I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building.
Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it.
Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though.
Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own.
I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it.
I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit.
Asked me, the dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie who had stuck with Voyager even through the admittedly lean years?
The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅
I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack!
It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell.
I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*.
I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON.
When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO.
But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly.
I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠
Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line.
I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried.
"Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go." "How could you? We're going so fast!" "I'm a speed reader."
Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁
We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love.
She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene.
You know the one. With Solas.
It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears.
I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered).
I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️
David Gaider @davidgaider.bsky.social CHARACTERS - DAY FOUR: Alistair
Ah, Alistair. Depending on who you ask, he's the adorable woobie with the biggest heart or the irritating, over-used man-child. Yes, he is indeed all of those things. Good characters have flaws to go with their virtues. Ugly spots. That is literally their humanity.
He was a bit of a bear to write, at the outset. James (Ohlen, the first creative director on DAO) had this idea he needed to be a grizzled Warden veteran - older, distrusting.
Everyone hated him instantly. I call this the Carth Onasi Problem, and suggested to James that maybe I try something else.
My observation says that the characters who are generally liked the most are the supportive ones. Enthusiastic. Funny? Sometimes, sure, but that's *not* required.
I need to digress. See, at the time James had this (regrettable) period where he believed everything could be derived from a formula.
He even sold this idea to the founders, Ray and Greg. Google 'BioWare formula'. Anyway, how this relates is because James thought the DAO cast needed a Minsc: a comedy character who would become super popular and, ideally, the icon of DA.
"Isn't that Alistair?" you ask. "Arguable," I say, "but no."
James had me to up a huge list of 'comedic archetypes' and I wrote some possible dialogue for each one. Then he had the team vote. The winning archetype? The Buffoon - like Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin.
James was pleased. I was not. "The problem," I said, "is I don't find the Buffoon funny." 😅
"But you're a professional."
"Sure, I *can* write him... but comedy isn't science. I need to find him funny. If I write him, the only comedy I'll mine is where he makes fun of himself."
James took that on board and then passed the character onto someone else. The result? Oghren.
I rest my case.
So back to the supportive character: that was my thought for a new Alistair. It was a special case, after all - the DAO PC was thrust into a terrible situation. They needed someone who had their back. A bud. A *likeable* bud.
I was watching Buffy at the time, and my thoughts drifted towards Xander.
Now, I know Joss Whedon is persona non grata these days, but this was 2006, OK? I was watching Buffy and thought, "man, Xander is such a wasted character" and considered how to fix him. Then I realized this might work for Alistair.
Plus, I wanted to see if I could replicate the Whedon vocal patter.
That was the new Alistair: a more useful and likeable yet equally dorky version of Xander. We had very strict rules in DA about language: no modern speech styles, colloquialisms, any words that came into use in our world after 1900 got severe side eye... but Alistair? Alistair got a blanket pass.
Was it great that the lead writer's leading man got to break the rules? I guess not, but it's my opinion that you can break those kinds of rules - selectively, in small doses. Too much and you break the illusion.
And it worked. Alistair was an instant hit. Not just with the team, but with the fans.
Confession time?
Yes, I knew Goldanna wasn't meant to be Alistair's mother. But neither was Fiona, originally.
I think fans caught wind of some revisionism at work, and OK it's true. I had a more Arthurian idea for his birth but I stopped liking it... yet not soon enough to go back and make edits.
Should I have just left it be, left Goldanna as his mother? Maybe. It was one of those writer things I just couldn't let go of and I probably could have used someone to sit me down and go "Gaider, please. Just stop."
I still like Fiona, and where I took it. But I probably shouldn't have gone there.
Casting Alistair was SUCH a chore. He required a weird mix of devilish charm, but with enough sincerity and adorkableness it didn't come off as smarmy.
Every audition went full smarm... until Steve Valentine up and appeared out of nowhere. In the midst of a batch of audition files, there he was.
We brought Steve in "just to try out", and he pulled it off. Even the "frog time" line, which (seriously) nobody else could. And when he got to the romantic lines, Steve's voice turned into pure butter without, again, sliding into "oh, he's slightly creepy". Both Caroline and I were sold.
And he was so gloriously easy to write. It's a well I'd probably return to... a bit too often, maybe? Maric, then Anders in Awakening, and then Alistair kept popping up in future games and the comics because, yes, he was pretty much the breakout comedy character of DA.
Which still makes me happy. 😁
CORRECTION: Goldanna was someone Alistair thought was his *sister*, and her mother his mother.
Post by Bondari the Reloader on Nov 24, 2024 5:46:54 GMT
David Gaider @davidgaider.bsky.social
CHARACTERS - DAY FIVE: Zevran
I was going to skip over Zevran, honestly, as I felt like I didn't have a lot to tell in the way of stories about him... but I know he still has some (ardent) fans. Plus, on reflection, I thought maybe I DO have a few things to say. 😅
Sooo we'll see how this goes.
Zevran came along much later in the DAO process, as we were trying to round out the cast of party members. Alistair and Morrigan were well underway (as "main" characters, they were concepted very early) and I'd just started to consider who our Rogue followers might be when... things changed, a bit.
See, BioWare had released a game not long beforehand called Jade Empire. It had included some same-sex options in its romances - not obscured like the way Juhani's "romance" had been hinted at in KotOR, but explicit. To this day, I have no idea who on the Jade Empire team was behind it, or why.
More to the point, the same-sex options had received a lot of attention and praise - almost universal praise, in fact. In 2005, everyone was just pleasantly surprised.
And I don't recall if I went to James and asked about it or if he came to me to suggest DAO should include it. The latter, I think.
You might ask "Aren't you gay, Dave? Weren't you already pushing for this?" And the answer to that is, emphatically, "no, not at all".
It might seem odd looking through the lens of 2024, but there was no talk of 'representation' or 'diversity'. Not at any level where we were aware of it, anyhow.
Today, fans argue about how MUCH representation to include and whether it's done well enough... the idea that, less than twenty years ago, it being included *at all* was very much in doubt feels so far away.
But, back then, I'd always assumed my private life and my work in games would never meet.
So I think it was James who brought it up, because I remember being startled. Pleasantly so, of course. Now I had to look at our two rogues and figure out how this would apply. I sketched out the female of the two (who was taken on by Sheryl Chee) and then looked at the male - he who became Zevran.
I'd been reading about the CIA and one thing that stuck with me was how they'd (allegedly) recruit gay men as assassins because they rarely had familial ties.
Zevran wasn't going to be gay (bisexuality wasn't a question of representation, but a cost-benefit compromise) but that was the inspiration.
Then there was the question of how "flamboyantly" I was writing this character, whether that might be too stereotypical? I don't remember how it arose, but I had too many "flamboyant" friends to do anything other than double down. This character was gonna be Zorro the goddamn Gay Blade, that's what.
So that's how Zevran happened. Fun, a bit nihilistic, maybe a bit too overtly flirty for today's audience but very confidently *sexual*. Everything I'm not, so I'll admit it was an interesting exploration to dig down and find that voice somewhere inside. He was the anti-Alistair, and I needed that.
Casting him was difficult. Caroline always tried to go for authentic accents, when we could, but for some reason this was getting us nowhere.
I think back, and I suspect it's because I hadn't yet learned the lesson to not use terms in casting descriptions I thought were universal... but were not.
What do I mean by that? Well, there was one write-up that said "drow elf". Now, I know what a drow elf is. It wasn't even important to the description, but the director saw the word "elf", and you know what we got back?
A Keebler elf. Like a leprachaun, high and sweet and cutsie. Can you imagine?
In this case, I think it was the use of the word "assassin". Combine that with the sorts of roles many Hispanic actors in LA probably are asked to play, and all the auditions we were getting were 150% dark, mean, and gritty. 🫠
So we widened the casting call a bit, and this led us to Jon Curry.
I knew Jon wasn't Hispanic, but what I wasn't prepared for when I flew down to meet the DAO actors was that he's this extremely tall, extremely Nordic looking dude who just happened to do the most amazing Antonio Banderas impression. Watching THAT man channel Zevran was... more than a bit surreal. 😅
And he had fun with it. As soon as we gave him the go ahead to play the fun and flirtiness to the hilt, that's exactly what he did.
Over the few days where we found Zevran's voice, it totally supplied me with something I could hold in my head when I went back to Edmonton and finished writing him.
Zevran was funny enough that the fans liked him. The only part of the reception I thought odd was the occasional comment by a male player who felt "tricked" into having sex with Zevran.
"You mean... that part where he invites you to his tent for a sensual massage?" "Yes! I was expecting a massage!"
"He literally says the massage is sensual." "Well he wasn't clear enough!"
This is where I first came to the conclusion that a certain number of our players just don't know how to people. And that maybe an adjustment to the way we approached the messaging (or massaging lol) of romance was in order.
If I could go back, would I change anything?
Maybe I'd remind the systems team Zevran should really be able to pick a lock. And maybe not allow him to die. We had no idea we'd need to import these choices into the future - we kinda thought DAO was "one and done". Not so much, as it turned out. 😁
Don't mean to step on Master Hrungr's toes, but these threads are so good I didn't want today's to get missed!
