Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age III: Inquisition
There was a panel at PAX Australia 2013 recently where Chris Priestly, Cameron Lee, Patrick Weekes and Karin Week from BioWare answered questions about Dragon Age Inquisition. You can watch the full recording of the panel at Gamespot Australia, or read this nice Eurogamer write-up instead -- or neither. But anyway, here's a tidbit:
I, for one, am glad Bioware's trademark "difficult moral decisions" are in. Too bad about the glowing text though - it highlighted them in a manner that I thought was rather appropriate.
There was a panel at PAX Australia 2013 recently where Chris Priestly, Cameron Lee, Patrick Weekes and Karin Week from BioWare answered questions about Dragon Age Inquisition. You can watch the full recording of the panel at Gamespot Australia, or read this nice Eurogamer write-up instead -- or neither. But anyway, here's a tidbit:
The choices you made that were saved in other Dragon Age games will "absolutely come across" to the third instalment, Dragon Age Inquisition. [...] [Cameron Lee] was asked whether BioWare knew how it would tackle saved game imports in light of Dragon Age Inquisition also appearing on new consoles - new technology. "We know what we want to do," he said. "It will absolutely come across - your decisions carry [and] will matter." But he could say no more.
[...] How BioWare will right the wrongs of Dragon Age 2 is a familiar question levelled at the studio. But it wasn't all bad, as the team reminded us, and Dragon Age 2's finer points haven't been overlooked during the design of Inquisition.
"Both games had great points to them," said Patrick Weekes. "Both games had things people want an improvement on, and both games had areas where they excelled." The fast and fluid combat in Dragon Age 2 was one of those, for Weekes, and it helped move characters better around the space. "I wouldn't want to lose that," he said. "What I would want to do is make sure DAI still allows the more tactical options that Origins had."
However, he conceded with a wry smile, something like reused level art won't happen again. [...] Also, BioWare is wary about using something like those red (Renegade) and blue (Paragon) dialogue options from Mass Effect 3.
"The good news and and bad news was when you looked at the persuades, the highlighted red or blue text, the joke became 'oh, complex moral situation! Wait, does it have blue or red text? OK well then that's how you win'," said Patrick Weekes.
"What we want to do, at least on Inquisition, is we want to be aware of that. That doesn't mean we never use anything like that, because the idea of having some kind of pre-requisite-based dialogue option that allows you to get a more optimal outcome is cool. Whether that is something you get by putting points into a stat, or by having someone in your party, or by making choices earlier in the game that unlock that dialogue option - that rewards the player playing the game. I like that.
"What we don't want to do is have every difficult moral decision rendered moot by the presence of brightly glowing text."
[...] How BioWare will right the wrongs of Dragon Age 2 is a familiar question levelled at the studio. But it wasn't all bad, as the team reminded us, and Dragon Age 2's finer points haven't been overlooked during the design of Inquisition.
"Both games had great points to them," said Patrick Weekes. "Both games had things people want an improvement on, and both games had areas where they excelled." The fast and fluid combat in Dragon Age 2 was one of those, for Weekes, and it helped move characters better around the space. "I wouldn't want to lose that," he said. "What I would want to do is make sure DAI still allows the more tactical options that Origins had."
However, he conceded with a wry smile, something like reused level art won't happen again. [...] Also, BioWare is wary about using something like those red (Renegade) and blue (Paragon) dialogue options from Mass Effect 3.
"The good news and and bad news was when you looked at the persuades, the highlighted red or blue text, the joke became 'oh, complex moral situation! Wait, does it have blue or red text? OK well then that's how you win'," said Patrick Weekes.
"What we want to do, at least on Inquisition, is we want to be aware of that. That doesn't mean we never use anything like that, because the idea of having some kind of pre-requisite-based dialogue option that allows you to get a more optimal outcome is cool. Whether that is something you get by putting points into a stat, or by having someone in your party, or by making choices earlier in the game that unlock that dialogue option - that rewards the player playing the game. I like that.
"What we don't want to do is have every difficult moral decision rendered moot by the presence of brightly glowing text."
I, for one, am glad Bioware's trademark "difficult moral decisions" are in. Too bad about the glowing text though - it highlighted them in a manner that I thought was rather appropriate.
