I was struck by how much the premise of Inquisition seems to resemble Mass Effect 3's premise, where you have a bunch of factions, all at loggerheads, and a broad threat that nobody seems to be focusing on. How do you allow for shared DNA between the franchises without just regurgitating stuff?
Well, it's interesting that that's the impression that you got - it's not really the case. We have this event that occurs and the world is in chaos, sure, but in Mass Effect, you always knew what the threat was, you always knew that the reapers were there. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, whilst there is a humongous tear in the sky, and all these powerful factions and nations are in chaos - all this is happening at once, and that's a little too strange to just suddenly occur and be coincidence.So the player has more of an investment in uncovering what's going on here. And it's not necessarily about uncover some truths and get this person on side in order to deal with the thing at the end, it's a lot more complex than that. And you know, you are a force. Yes you're a character, but you lead this organisation, this inquisition, which has a really significant presence in the world, a presence and an influence on these different nations and factions.
So in Mass Effect you formed factions but it was mostly on a personal scale, whereas in Inquisition you're talking about having a personal impact, but mostly through these big crunchy, meaty decisions and impacts that the Inquisition can have on the world. It's kind of like the difference between being a Jedi, and founding the Jedi Order.
Where did the strategic side of Inquisition come from? Was that something that you were throwing around for Origins - the keeps and such?
I wasn't actually around for Origins, so I couldn't really speak for it, but I don't think so. In terms of striving to make a game that is this large and this detailed, that has this much depth to it, this overarching story has been [planned] from the very beginning. I know that, but the strategic part of it may have come in at a later point.
I think we've reached a point now where we have the technology on the gen 4 platforms, the higher platforms, and even on gen 3 when you downgrade some of the graphics and stuff like that, that, combined with the new engine which we've rebuilt the entire Dragon Age game in, it gives us the opportunity to bring some of these more interesting gameplay experiences in, so strategy, keeps, tactics, stuff like that, and throw it all into one big mix.
Which I find really exciting personally, as a hardcore RPG player - to have that really strong story, along with open world kind of experiences and bring in that sense of leadership over a keep and armies and stuff like that. It's pretty cool, I'm keen for it.
In terms of the Inquisitor, how do you define the character within the story while allowing him or her to be a completely customisable entity?
It's interesting, when you think about Dragon Age: Origins, it's a very similar situation to what we have in Inquisition, because there's an overarching narrative and story that takes place. In Origins you could pick your race, it's the same in Inquisition, you pick your classes, the sorts of decisions that you make across the board are very similar in terms of scope - in Inquisition it's probably a lot larger actually.
And there's much more customisation in Inquisition than there was in Origins, in terms of what you can craft, how you look, how you can look after your followers and all that sort of stuff, so I think there's more choice and more customisation and the ability for the player to feel like the character is their own.
Balancing that against the story is always interesting, but it's up to the player, because there's so much dialogue, so much story, so much involvement that the player has in the story, and once that the player feels that they have created their story, it works itself into the experience of ownership. Whereas DA2 was more like pick this character kind of thing. We see it as more of an Origins experience in that sense.
I've heard that BioWare has hired multiplayer designers for Inquisition. Do you have anything to declare on that front?
I have no idea at all in terms of hiring, but you know, the Mass Effect multiplayer stuff is really good, so we've certainly looked at options like that, but we haven't decided on anything in terms of multiplayer at this point.
It's presumably harder to make a multiplayer RPG than a multiplayer shooter, given that you've got to account for much more in the way of player customisation.
Shooters are really easy to make - well, not really easy to make, I shouldn't say that! But certainly there's a known quantity about what you want to try and create.
This has been delayed to a late 2014 release. You've said that you'll spend the extra time adding Qunari to the playable races. How else are you making use of that time?
That's a good question. I think we'll just do more of what we were doing originally - more space, more content. The scope of what you can give to the player is really important in terms of how much they can enjoy and get into the world, so we'll be able to do more of that with the time that we have. But the other thing you use time like this for in development is just to hone and polish so much more.
Taking something from 90 to 95 per cent is just incredibly difficult and it requires a lot of time and focus and energy to do it. So this extra time will allow us to do even more of that than we would have previously, along with bringing in playable races. And playable races have broad-reaching impact on game development. It fuses and ripples along the entire story and all the side bits and pieces as well, with recordings and such as well. It's crazy. So that was a pretty big shift, especially to bring in a fourth one as well with the Qunari.
That must be tricky to justify, putting a Qunari in charge of the organisation that polices the human realm from the shadows...
It's interesting. Tthere'll be people out there who understand the Qunari and their religious beliefs and how all that works. There is a valid reason why Qunari are sitting on the throne of the Inquisition, as there is for an elf. Elves have been persecuted in this world, so how would a human nation feel about having an Elven inquisitor come up to them and talk to them? So there are ways that all this fits together. David Gaider and the writers are hard at work putting that together. But it's interesting to see it all take shape.
Can you talk at all about skill trees and how they've changed?
I can't talk about the details. There will be skill trees, in terms of specialisations and stuff like that, for different classes. We want combat to feel a little more open this time around, in that we want people to have particular roles, and to fill those roles using different weapons and armour, etc, combined with that skill tree openness. And ultimately, I think players will be able to fill the roles in their party that they want to fill, which is very important to us.
One of the things I liked about DA2, and I can't remember if it was in Origins as well, was the fact that each character had two or three skill trees that were very specific to their storyline, like Varric's crossbow. Is that the sort of thing you're aiming for?
We haven't really decided on it in terms of that specific an unlock system, we do want to make sure that people feel unique, so no doubt we'll look at something, but yeah, details we're not sure yet.
Can you talk about the difference between Orlais and Ferelden in particular? That seems to be the big cultural split for the Inquisition world. I know some people aren't that fond of Orlais because - and I quote - "it's too French".
Yeah! There's a new novel coming out by Patrick Weeks, centred around Orlais, so that'll be a great place for information but, Orlais it's very - it has a thin veneer of splendour to it, but there's a lot of underbelly as well. Ferelden is more, I guess, in your face about its different classes and social statuses etc and what it's trying to accomplish. Of course there's also Tevinter, which is north of Orlais, that's a big factor in Dragon Age and is talked about a lot.
That's the old empire that used to run the universe, isn't it.
That's right. It was eventually pushed back over the course of years so you certainly uncover a lot of Tevinter ruins and things like that as you explore through the world of Dragon Age: Inquisition. So there are those three big parts but then there are other nations as well, like the Qunari are another big force off to the sides. There's Aktiva and things like that. There's so much depth and rich lore in the world of Dragon Age that you can kind of get lost into it, and big fans actually do - it's interesting to see how much they know about it.
(not counting PS:T anti-romances)
