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Interview BioWare Talks About Unreal Engine

Sol Invictus

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Tags: BioWare

<a href="http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=26165">HomeLan Fed</a> has set up an interview with <a href="http://www.bioware.com">BioWare</a> pertaining to their recent acquisition of the Unreal Engine 3. There's some VERY interesting stuff in that interview
<br>
<blockquote>All of our games are quite different yet they’re very similar in many respects – there is a core RPG layer which permits strong storytelling, character interactions, exploration and character progression. We’re currently building an RPG layer for Unreal Engine 3 to ensure that this title will have all of the great features that BioWare games are known for: a compelling story, entertaining character interactions and exploration, and strong character development aspects, and Epic has actually expressed interest in talking with us about the licensure of that RPG layer, which we own. Licensing the Unreal Engine 3 really allows one of our internal development teams to focus on creating a highly cinematic and immersive RPG in a relatively short amount of time, while our other teams continue work in parallel on future projects and on the next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engine.</blockquote>
<br>
With all of that PR stuff about BioWare's 'strong suits' aside, it's interesting to note that Epic Games might form some sort of collaboration with BioWare to develop a game. It's also interesting to note that BioWare has an engine known as Eclipse, which begs the question as to what engine Star Citadel will be using, and what else BioWare may have in store. In addition to that, HomeLan Fed has managed to sneak out the following from <b>Greg Zeschuk</b>:
<br>
<blockquote><b>HomeLAN</b> - With the UnrealEngine3 announcement, BioWare also announced it is working on its third original title. How does it feel to have three separate teams working on various games?
<br>
<br>
<b>Greg Zeschuk</b> - It’s really exciting for us to have so many great projects on the go. With Jade Empire and Dragon Age, as well as this new title, we are exploring new ground by developing our own intellectual properties to feature in the games. Also, a slight correction to your question, we actually have 210 people working across five internal teams at BioWare that are developing new products and technology. In addition to the three teams already discussed, we have one team working on technology (TAG) and a fifth team working on something else we’ll be talking about fairly soon. There’s a lot going on at BioWare right now! We also have a number of our own engine licensure projects on the go using the BioWare Aurora Engine and the BioWare Odyssey Engine (more on that later).</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
5 teams! Christ.
 

Stark

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you know, there's nothing indicating "star citadel" is not the fifth game, and Unreal engine is actually used for BG3 (assuming we're not wrong here).

the little bit about "seeing the fear in the eye of the orc when you throw a fireball" line smack too much of Unreal engine, which it is capable of.

of course, I may be totally wrong here, and the fifth project is just some continuing work on NWN content. they've talked about selling content/mods over the net.
 

Sol Invictus

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Well according to the interview they have these teams working on the following things:
1) Jade Empires
2) Dragon Age
3) Technology Architecture Group (TAG) - Engine Development
4) A title utilizing the new Eclipse engine
5) A title utilizing the new UE3 engine

This means that Star Citadel which we know is in development, though we do not know when it will be announced, or whether it will be the title that is supposed to be 'announced very soon' or whether it is the other title, will be using either the UE3 or Eclipse engine. I am willing to bet that Star Citadel will be a Deus Ex-like game since I remember Volourn or someone else mentioning that it might not be a 'classic' RPG like the ones they usually make, and will hence be using their newly acquired UE3 engine with an added RPG layer by BioWare.

Licensing the Unreal Engine 3 really allows one of our internal development teams to focus on creating a highly cinematic and immersive RPG in a relatively short amount of time

I doubt this describes Baldur's Gate 3, which is likely to be using the Eclipse engine, supposing they are the ones actually developing it. But then, the interview with that Atari guy about "seeing the fear in the eye of the orc when you throw a fireball" definitely describes a cinematic experience.

It's all up in the air at this point.
 

Stark

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to be honest I'm not too excited by yet another DnD rpg from Bioware, but given that there're so few commercial rpgs released this year any new rpg is good news for me.

anyone other than me think Bioware is getting too big and bloated? 200 plus staff in a software company!
 

Sol Invictus

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Better BioWare than EA. That, and they actually get their games released on time, unlike Blizzard - except for NWN which took forever and came out crap. Besides, PC CRPGs could use a boost, especially with Troika creating an FPS.
 

Surlent

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200 people ? Bio building an empire or something ?
Do they publish their own games ? If not, they should.

And since no developer is yet to announce to work with BG3, Bio might definitely be up to it.
They said they are going to announce new project soon. Guess we'll see then.
btw What's Star Citadel ? Bio's next title ? Scifi RPG ?
 

Sol Invictus

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Star Citadel is their sci-fi RPG from what I understand. I don't know what it entails, though. It could be a first person shooter in the same vein as Deus Ex, seeing that they just licensed the UE3 engine.
 

Mr. Teatime

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Does anyone see the parallels between Bioware's rise, and the rise of the empire in the new Star Wars films?
 

DemonKing

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Stark said:
a fifth team working on something else we’ll be talking about fairly soon

are you thinking what I'm thinking?

No - he's probably talking about the DD (Direct Download) service Bio have been hinting at.

A Bio team doesn't necessarily mean a team working on a game (after all, they have a Tech team). In fact, they've refered plenty of times to their "Live Team" in the past, so this is probably what he's on about.
 

Volourn

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"Dave Gaider says MMOs are stupid."

And? Gaider is a writer. he doesn't decide what games BIO makes, silly. He just helps write them.


"Star Citadel is their sci-fi RPG from what I understand."

No one knows this. BIo hasn't even officially announced anything on the name. The only thing known is that they registered it a while back after some geek found out. For all we know, it could be a bubblegum in the shape of a star... Though; if I were to hazard a guess a sci-fi RPG would be mine...


"200 people ? Bio building an empire or something ?"

Yet people have had the gall to say that BIO wans't capable of working on BG3 simply because they have 3 game sin the works already when much smaller devs can work on 2, or 3 games. R00fles! BIo most likely has 4 games/engines being worked on and maybe a 5th...


"BG3 for Xbox2 and PC, methinks."

Well.. One BIo dev said they weren't currently working on it; but of course that ultimately means nothing since it's just a dev. Until the bosses say one thing or another, who knows.


"1) Jade Empires
2) Dragon Age
3) Technology Architecture Group (TAG) - Engine Development
4) A title utilizing the new Eclipse engine
5) A title utilizing the new UE3 engine"

As mentioned above, one of those teams is probably the Live Team espicially since BIO supposedly has the DD in devlopment which is where WW comes into play..


" Q.First, how did the deal come about to license the UnrealEngine3 technology from Epic?

A.Ray Muzyka - This is something that we initiated – we felt that the Unreal 3 tech was the right tech for a specific title we are working on because of the type of gameplay inherent in that game. I can’t say anything more – yet! – about the game other than that it’s still a role-playing game at its core."

I like this answer. At least they should shut people up that BIO is using the URE for some silly action game. It's a RPG like they are known for. Game over.
 

Volourn

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Witches' Wake. Theya re working on Witches' Wake and its sequel, and other DD projects as well..
 

Mr. Teatime

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Whipporowill said:
Mr. Teatime said:
Does anyone see the parallels between Bioware's rise, and the rise of the empire in the new Star Wars films?

No, actually not?

I was thinking along the lines that Bioware are saying that they're really good... they're getting more and more people - almost an ARMY - but they're saying it's for our own good.... though there are overtones that intelligent people see that in fact they suck... and then before we know it they've taken over the galaxy....
something like that.
 

Sol Invictus

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DemonKing said:
Stark said:
a fifth team working on something else we’ll be talking about fairly soon

are you thinking what I'm thinking?

No - he's probably talking about the DD (Direct Download) service Bio have been hinting at.

A Bio team doesn't necessarily mean a team working on a game (after all, they have a Tech team). In fact, they've refered plenty of times to their "Live Team" in the past, so this is probably what he's on about.

No. If you read the interview he disclosed what all 5 teams are. God, I suppose this is how baseless speculation happens, isn't it? The man hath sayeth the following teams are in existence to work on the following:
1) Dragon Age
2) Jade Empires
3) TAG team - engines
4) Undisclosed game with UE3
5) Undisclosed game with Eclipse

I don't any mention of a "Direct Download" team.
 

Sol Invictus

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Volourn said:
As mentioned above, one of those teams is probably the Live Team espicially since BIO supposedly has the DD in devlopment which is where WW comes into play..
If there is a DD team (which I suppose there is, since it's been mentioned in the past) it's likely the same team as their TAG team which focuses on the development of Bioware technology and engines, of which DD is a technology.

I don't see why it's so difficult to fathom that they could devote two full time teams to work on two additional full-blown titles as opposed to some dinky free game add-on. Something like Witch's Wake would probably not require too much manpower, and it should also be taken into consideration that Bioware does in fact outsource development of such projects to smaller studios. I know for a fact that T. Elliot Cannon (aka Mischka) of Unreal fame has propositioned Bioware to give him a small project such as Witch's Wake to work on, and that was a while back. He might be busy at work right now - and his proposal was that the entire game be developed by him alone, provided they pay him a salary for his work.

" Q.First, how did the deal come about to license the UnrealEngine3 technology from Epic?

A.Ray Muzyka - This is something that we initiated – we felt that the Unreal 3 tech was the right tech for a specific title we are working on because of the type of gameplay inherent in that game. I can’t say anything more – yet! – about the game other than that it’s still a role-playing game at its core."

I like this answer. At least they should shut people up that BIO is using the URE for some silly action game. It's a RPG like they are known for. Game over.
Yes, it's clear that they're using Unreal Engine 3 for a title which will put it to full use - e.g. a first person or a 3rd person (much more likely) action RPG, probably like Deus Ex, or at least something twitch-based. It will definitely not be some stupid vanilla action game as some people have proposed. I'm personally hoping that it's a sort of sequel to Shattered Steel.
 

taks

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note, too, that it's been specifically mentioned that they have three ORIGINAL IP's in the works. that means there are likely a coupla licensed buggers, too.

hmmm, i'm beginning to favor the BG3 argument. odd that it would come back around to bioware after stating pretty clearly they wanted out of that realm. this really does work, too, since greg said (paraphrasing) "an rpg we can develop in a short amount of time." given that DA competes directly with D&D fantasy, i'd say a BG3 would be done in a year or so in an environment that requires only minor modifications (and tool learning curve). this way, most of the team would actually be concentrating on the story (hopefully!).

taks
 

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