Dragon Age Builder Event

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Shir'le E. Illios
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Dragon Age Builder Event

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

Over the past week BioWare held a Builder event for a select group of Neverwinter Nights community members (known for the content they built for past games). During this event BioWare showed them the various parts of the new toolset for Dragon Age and let them work together to make some simple modules.

This was the second such event, larger than the first. And now the various members who attended it have come back with all kinds of exciting details.

BioWare is reporting on the event in their [url=http://blog.bioware.com/:2ujnwtvv]BioWare Blog[/url:2ujnwtvv].

The [url=http://blog.bioware.com/2009/07/09/drag ... /:2ujnwtvv]first post[/url:2ujnwtvv] just gives a short introduction. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2ujnwtvv]Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw kicked things off with a short demonstration of Dragon Age and introduced the vision and basic themes of what the team was trying to capture and explore. The group saw a beta of the planned website features being built to help builders start and organize projects locate the right team members and show off the content they create.[/quote:2ujnwtvv]

The [url=http://blog.bioware.com/2009/07/10/drag ... /:2ujnwtvv]second post[/url:2ujnwtvv] talks a bit about why BioWare is holding this event. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2ujnwtvv] What this means for builders looking to create full adventure modules is that they will now benefit greatly from a collaborative development approach – whereby individuals, each with some expertise in different editors come together to create a module. This is where this second [b:2ujnwtvv]Builder Event[/b:2ujnwtvv] really comes into play.
Having direct feedback and observing builders as they take their first steps in the DA toolset is absolutely critical for us to get this new builder community and toolset off on the right foot. But with this second Builder Event, we are actually going to group the builders into small teams and have them collaborate to create their first team-made module.[/quote:2ujnwtvv]

The [url=http://blog.bioware.com/2009/07/13/drag ... /:2ujnwtvv]third post[/url:2ujnwtvv] talks about how they unveiled the new community site to the builders and how they put the builders together in small groups to start working on a module as they were getting continual help and information from BioWare. Again, an excerpt:

[quote:2ujnwtvv] With all the essential pieces now in place the builders were presented their challenge. For the remaining day and a half they now had their groups and began working on a new module collaboratively, with the intent to show this up and running in the game before the event finished on the 3rd day.

Spread out over this remaining time, smaller side sessions were set up. Other BioWare devs popped in to dive deeper into specific areas of the toolset for 15 minutes or so at a time, and builders were able to take a break from their module to gather around if that topic interested them, or they were free to continue working on their module.[/quote:2ujnwtvv]

Personally I find the idea of a community site where people can share their content (similar to how people used NWVault for NWN I imagine), as well as collaborate and find people for projects and all that, quite exciting. This could be absolutely massive.

There’s supposed to be another post as well (the last one was labelled “Part 2 of 3”), but as of this writing BioWare hasn’t posted it yet.

But instead there is an [url=http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/dragon-age/ ... 9:2ujnwtvv]article on GameSpy[/url:2ujnwtvv] talking about the event and the various parts of the toolset as well. It’s quite a good read, giving a nice overview of the Dragon Age toolset. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:2ujnwtvv]As any kindergarten teacher can tell you, having fun isn't just about providing the pail, the shovel, and room to play. It's also about inviting other kids to the sandbox. That's why BioWare's builder community puts the emphasis on the word "community." It starts with the new BioWare Community Network site.

It's described as Facebook meets SourceForge, equal parts social networking site and software development/project management resource. The idea is that the BioWare community will have a single destination to meet and connect with other players, to discuss their favorite games, and to download and share original community-crafted adventures. The new community site will replace the existing forums and includes a variety of social networking tools, including blogs, polls, forums, and album creation.

What makes the BioWare Community Network unique is how it also presents the project management and content distribution elements. You'll be able to find community creations here, finished and unfinished, and take part in the building process by offering up your services. The site will also link to the extensive builder wiki, a comprehensive resource for module-creators that should expand with the community.[/quote:2ujnwtvv]
Very exciting stuff. :)

And last but not least I would encourage those interested in the toolset to head over to the official [url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewforum.h ... 0:2ujnwtvv]Dragon Age Toolset Forum[/url:2ujnwtvv] where a number of those who attended the event have started a number of threads to talk about it and the various parts of the toolset, such as:

[list:2ujnwtvv][*:2ujnwtvv][url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 0:2ujnwtvv]The Toolset: From Jasspers Point of view[/url:2ujnwtvv][/*:m:2ujnwtvv]
[*:2ujnwtvv][url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 0:2ujnwtvv]VFX, VFX, VFX (My experiences with the DA VFX Editor)[/url:2ujnwtvv][/*:m:2ujnwtvv]
[*:2ujnwtvv][url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 0:2ujnwtvv]Forum Discussion: Cutscene Editor[/url:2ujnwtvv][/*:m:2ujnwtvv]
[*:2ujnwtvv][url=http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.h ... 0:2ujnwtvv]Forum Discussion: Head Morph Tool[/url:2ujnwtvv][/*:m:2ujnwtvv][/list:u:2ujnwtvv]

I’ll keep you updated as more information is revealed. But in the meantime it seems you can already get a sneak peek at the (still quite unfinished) [url=http://social.bioware.com/:2ujnwtvv]BioWare Community Network site[/url:2ujnwtvv].


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Shir'le
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-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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