Anthem Twitter Thread

Please talk me down off the ledge. Secret IP is an original IP, right? No way it could be a licensed job?

No way it could be another attempt at a Star Wars action-RPG, right? RIGHT??

What put that horrible thought into my head? This vid, though it says absolutely nothing even remotely close to that. Just the weird wiring of my brain put 2 and 2 together:

I think you've missed the point - the issue isn't that the game ain't planned or written. The issue is that this is a series with an on-going story (we've basically stopped now in the middle of it) and a potential next chapter or resolution could potentially be way too long away for them to make any sense to construct the thing the way they did.

Aside from book series (and even that is fairly rare) it's simply not done, and especially not today: you don't put as much of a gap in a series in the middle of telling a story... especially one that has pretty much ended on a cliffhanger 

And no, I'm not underestimating anything. I'm aware it takes a heck of time to produce games now, especially RPGs. But as much as I myself think I may be optimistic about the schedule, I think you may underestimate how much work has already been done... with DAI itself. The underlying structures are there. The systems are there. The modules are there. Crafting systems, combat system, conversation system, assets. All is there and is further expanded with team working on other games (MEA shows a lot of DAI dna there... heck, even FIFA has DAI dna in it with its story mode). Even if there'd be differences, most of these things will be built on things that are already there, rather than having been built from the scratch, or close to that.

Actually, from what Gaider said, a lot of time of development for DAI wa spent learning and adapting to new engine. So we can cut significant time of DAI development on that, and by THAT I mean original first 2 years. What was added in additional year they've gotten is flavor to the story, rather than significant gameplay features - in fact, some of those had to be cut due to limitations of old gen consoles.

Also - how intimately the devs knew the previous engines doesn't really matter in the whole equation, plainly because modern engines like Frostbite are more powerful and allow for way more than old engines did, and that's aside from all other tools devs can use now and way more powerful hardware on player's side. Add to that the fact that right now we can safely assume that whole of Bioware is working on Frostbite... in fact most, if not whole of EA, is working on Frostbite. Heck, FIFA used RPG tools that DAI devs had to create for themselves, to give the last game their first-ever story mode. That allows for, what I think, is a vastly unappreciated flexibility between teams, plainly because of sheer amount of accumulated experience and knowledge (and modules and assets accumulated for a single engine from more than one game company).

Improved side-quests doesn't necessarily means more cinematics - there were no more cinematics in JOH than there were in base game, yet people have noticed side-quest improvements in that DLC.

As for cinematics... considering how many people confuse close-ups to characters as "cinematics" in games like DAO or Witcher3, I don't think they'd have much problem producing those.

As for combat - unlike how it was during development of DAI, the combat system is already there, and while the whole of team is not working on improvements yet, I can think of at least one dev that may be cooking something already in preparation for full production 

I'd also be very surprised if they also didn't base a lot of things on elements from MEA. Just like...

We already saw a fairly large, organic-looking city in preview for MEA, and we have no clue if they aren't honing their city-building skills in Secret IP. As it stands, building a massive city for DAI will likely present way less of an obstacle than we might think, plainly because the skills and underlying infrastructure is already there.

I mean... there's a reason why Witcher 3 team has managed to add another massive city in a DLC - that's because it's basically redressed Novigrad. And I'd be terribly shocked if we wouldn't have such 'redressing' between BW games, even if the cities on the surface will look very differently. And yes, they'd have to create architecture and landmarks and basically a whole map, but aside from possibility that there might be people working on that already, they don't have to worry now what they can or can't do (or do on time, or are limited by old hardware) same way they did in DAI.

Basically, I think you may be underestimating a little how much these new games are built on one another, especially seeing how much of MEA carries DAI dna - from the looks of it, even in case of writing (they seem to have abandoned the ME approach towards romances and choices in favor of DA ones). I'm aware that that doesn't mean that they won't have to work hard to differentiate the game or add new things as they go, but from the (amateur, of course) vantage point of where I'm sitting, they seem to be working towards streamlining production for future games on a massive scale and for years to come.

That's sort of my hope for the earlier release date than it's assumed here, actually. If they're past technological hurdles that have hampered them before, they can basically focus on implementing the story right away, cutting the development time fairly significantly.

I get your point, midnight tea , and I'm sure their familiarity with the engine and tools available to them will help, but I still think you're seriously underestimating the sheer amount of time required to produce a game of ambitious scope and overestimating how much of DAI production time can be written off as learning Frostbite. Not to mention, I think we can expect many of the systems, especially combat, they developed in Inquisition to undergo a significant revision, so it not like all they have to do is import it.

As to the gap being too big for the story, maybe it is. That doesn't mean the game will be done any faster. Maybe that's why Bioware is releasing new comics this year and we could see some sort of spinoff title, they want to tide us over for the time being.

You are assuming logic that is not in evidence. It doesn't matter if the narrative has a humongous cliffhanger at the end with a strong implication of continuation, or how much was already written, planned, roadmapped and scripted. If you don't have the headcount and budget to get the game out until 2019, it won't come out until 2019. If you think that turns DAI into poor planning and a cheap shot at fans, you wouldn't be alone.

It's not like there isn't a precedent in the game industry for sequels or cliffhanger resolutions getting delayed or indeed never appearing at all. Talk to any Half-Life 2 fan about Half-Life 3.

Well, that's not the evidence I meant -- I meant evidence that state of the story has anything to do with urgency of release, as demonstrated by the historical track record of game devs not delivering on cliffhangers (per the link) -- but in any case, yes, we don't know the detailed plans and balance sheet of Bioware. But we can make reasonable guesses supported by what we do know, and we know that they have 3 major games in the works (at least, that's conservative!) and only enough labor to work on 2 at once. That's completely supported by available evidence. We also know the launch date of MEA and have some idea of how far along SecretIP is. While it still is speculation, it's speculation based on facts, not wishful thinking.

Kyle Scott ‏@hoboindustries
.@bio_Warner needs me to give a presentation. Was wondering when I could bust out 'Professional man with a mustache and borrowed polo' again

great another train delay first it was the wrong type of leaves now it's the old Bridge is broke excuse

Jay Watamaniuk ‏@jaywatamaniuk
Technology is not helping me today. #sigh

well I don't remember it from the film course I took well I am off to ask for my money back