Dragon Age: Origins - A Couple of Interviews

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Shir'le E. Illios
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Dragon Age: Origins - A Couple of Interviews

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

I've got a few Dragon Age: Origins interviews with the developers for you, as well as a few other tidbits.

First there is [url=http://www.thegamereviews.com/article-1 ... l:2si4zdcj]The Game Reviews[/url:2si4zdcj] who have an interview with Executive Producer Mark Darrah. Do note though that the article contains some spoilers for both of the dwarf origin stories. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

[quote:2si4zdcj][b:2si4zdcj][John Laster]:[/b:2si4zdcj] So I was told all the platforms have been built from the ground up. What are some of the bigger differences I would see between the three versions?

[b:2si4zdcj][Mark Darrah]:[/b:2si4zdcj] It is the same story on all three platforms. The big, major difference is from the interface perspective. The PC is designed for the mouse and keyboard. Mouse and keyboard is really good at doing a very large number of things relatively slowly. It’s good for doing more tactical things, pausing the game, pulling out, looking around and issuing orders. The consoles are much better at giving a very small number of commands very quickly. So the controls are much more geared at keeping the action fast, letting you play the game with less pausing and more quickly. [It focuses on] less tactical, more action oriented gameplay, which I think is the biggest single difference you will see. The interface was done completely from scratch. So you will see a more paper based interface on the PC. The consoles are cleaner, quicker and sleeker designed more for the fact you don’t have a mouse, you have an analog stick.[/quote:2si4zdcj]
Particularly interesting, perhaps, is how Mark confirms (again) that they're planning to keep supporting Dragon Age: Origins with downloadable content and such for two more years: "Yeah, we have plans that stretch out for basically two years. And it’s going to be everything from really small stuff like item packs up to larger quests that might last an hour or two up to even fully fledged expansion packs. Really it’s a broad long term support plan for the game."

Second up is [url=http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/d ... l:2si4zdcj]GamerZines[/url:2si4zdcj] who have (part one of) an interview with Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw. Here's an excerpt:

[quote:2si4zdcj][GamerZines]: As early as May you said the PC version was pretty much done with regards to content. What have you been doing since then?

[Mike Laidlaw]: It's funny, the PC version was heading towards done and we were nearly wrapped when we received the extra time for consoles. So I pulled together a small strike of our most veteran guys and said "Okay look, I think we've got a few more weeks here." So what we ended up doing was a pass through and adding in more content- more little side quests, lighter battles and a few random encounters, which adds a nice layer of filler. Anywhere where there was a bit of a lull we had more time to put something in. So doing that we bought the Quality Assurance team in and had them do their pass through as well. Because we had that extra time we wanted to take advantage of it, and just see what we could put in... and of course working on DLC. So a lot of the team is moving over to start working on The Stone Prisoner expansion and other downloadable content that's coming out.[/quote:2si4zdcj]They also have a (pdf) magazine that you can download for free with a look at Dragon Age, but it is a fairly old issue (from December last year).

The third and final interview is one that [url=http://www.strategyinformer.com/xbox360 ... l:2si4zdcj]Strategy Informer[/url:2si4zdcj] had with Mike Laidlaw. Here's an excerpt:

[quote:2si4zdcj][color=#606060:2si4zdcj]Dakota Grabowski:[/color:2si4zdcj] [color=darkorange:2si4zdcj][b:2si4zdcj]What was the reasoning behind the decision to put forth so much blood in Dragon Age: Origins and how did the team come to the decision to keep blood on the faces of the characters while speaking with non-playable character or to teammates?[/b:2si4zdcj][/color:2si4zdcj]

[color=#606060:2si4zdcj]Mike Laidlaw:[/color:2si4zdcj] Well, from the very beginning we decided to create a game that was more mature. It spoke to the way and kind of culture of Bioware that has gone from the “young bucks that are 20-year-olds and are ready for anything and able to stay up till 4 a.m.” to “people with better scheduling so that they can live their lives and have kids.” You know, it’s a whole better quality of life. Also, the gaming industry itself is growing up as well. It’s basically moved from everyone that was in their 20’s ten or so years ago and are now in their 30’s and are still pretty hardcore gamers. People are staying passionate about it for much longer, you know?

[color=#606060:2si4zdcj]Dakota Grabowski:[/color:2si4zdcj] [color=darkorange:2si4zdcj][b:2si4zdcj]Definitely, the gamers aren’t just moving on to another medium due to growing up.[/b:2si4zdcj][/color:2si4zdcj]

[color=#606060:2si4zdcj]Mike Laidlaw:[/color:2si4zdcj] Yeah, we feel like there’s a bigger audience for more mature content and titles. Part of that, making a fantasy-RPG as opposed to a first-person shooter or futuristic stuff is that they aren’t buddy-nature, or in other words distant. What’s more up close and personal than getting to see the blood splatter right on your character’s face? So keeping it within the dialogues and seeing it persist – even though it does disappear over time – to my mind, is a way to add one more level of urgency. Having come right out of a battle and, say you are playing a human noble, and there are bad guys breaking into your mom’s bedroom and she looks at you and screams, I would realize that this would be the same reaction I would have too.[/quote:2si4zdcj]
Unrelated to Dragon Age an interesting note here is what he has to say about a possible Jade Empire 2: "It’s pretty much no comment. But, you know, we will certainly announce it if it’s going to be coming out. At this point, Jade Empire is a staff favorite and a lot of us love it, so we’d love to revisit it at some point. But right now, we are very focused on Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2."

That's not quite all though. With the release of the Character Creator [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/95313-g ... l:2si4zdcj]GameBanshee[/url:2si4zdcj] has set up a database with all skills, talents and spells (listed under talents). Here's their description:

[quote:2si4zdcj]With the Dragon Age: Origins character creator in our hands, we've updated our subsite for the game with all the information we could extract out of it. In addition to a fully searchable [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]skill database[/url:2si4zdcj] and [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]talent database[/url:2si4zdcj], you'll find that we've added new [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]class[/url:2si4zdcj], [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]race[/url:2si4zdcj], [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]origin[/url:2si4zdcj], and [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/dragonageori ... p:2si4zdcj]attribute[/url:2si4zdcj] sections. We'll be adding information about the class specializations in the coming days, too.

Enjoy![/quote:2si4zdcj]
And finally an update from BioWare as they've added four more tracks to their Dragon Age Music Sampler, namely:
[list:2si4zdcj][*:2si4zdcj]Human Nobility[/*:m:2si4zdcj]
[*:2si4zdcj]Ferelden at War[/*:m:2si4zdcj]
[*:2si4zdcj]Ruins of Ostagar[/*:m:2si4zdcj]
[*:2si4zdcj]I am the One[/*:m:2si4zdcj][/list:u:2si4zdcj]Unfortunately I can't link straight to their news item, so I'll just link straight to the [url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/assets/min ... f:2si4zdcj]Flash player[/url:2si4zdcj].

I particularly like the last one ("I am the One"), but they're all very nice. :)


[[url=http://www.thegamereviews.com/article-1 ... l:2si4zdcj]link[/url:2si4zdcj]] to interview with Mark Darrah at The Game Reviews.
[[url=http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/d ... l:2si4zdcj]link[/url:2si4zdcj]] to interview with Mike Laidlaw at GamerZines.
[[url=http://www.strategyinformer.com/xbox360 ... l:2si4zdcj]link[/url:2si4zdcj]] to interview with Mike Laidlaw at Strategy Informer.
[[url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/95313-g ... l:2si4zdcj]link[/url:2si4zdcj]] to Dragon Age: Origins database at GameBanshee.
[[url=http://dragonage.bioware.com/assets/min ... f:2si4zdcj]link[/url:2si4zdcj]] to the Dragon Age Music Sampler.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le
F'sarn natha tithaur wun l'su'aco.

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