BioWare officially revealed in-game footage of Dragon Age 4 at EA Play just last week, as I sure you all are aware. With that reveal, we’ve got plenty of news, tweets and tidbits to delve into since! Of course, I have already extensively broken down the few seconds of footage in our tinfoily fashion, so check that video out if you haven’t already!
Before we jump into all the new information regarding the footage teaser, I want to briefly share why the majority of us clowns expected to see something this EA Play.
Y’see, we weren’t clowning EA Play just for nothing, but because of many recent indicators and BioWare developer teases like: the timely rehiring of EA/BioWare’s Product Manager, a lot of developer suggestive tweets, the release window for the next Dragon Age, and heck, even Chris Anderson’s fortune cookie tweet alluded to something....
However, the biggest tease we got was from BioWare developer, Luke Barrett who is working on RPG/Progression for Dragon Age, he said on the unofficial BSN: “Get ready for all the very ambiguous tweets coming (just wrapping a big showcase meeting)”.
Seeing that comment made all of us clowns lose our minds! Not to honk my own nose, but I am glad we did see something this EA Play as I predicted. I had a lot of people diminish my predications, calling me stupid for expecting to see something. All I want to say to those people is - I don’t put these reveal predictions out there just to get the “hype train rolling” and leave the fans to their doom, I state them because it’s a fair assumption to make given the news I’ve collated at the time.
And, honestly, I don’t want to sound cocky at all when I say this, but I’ve been right twice now. The Game Awards 2018 (when no one/few people believed me), and now at EA Play 2020. So, you can trust in me when my Dragon Age senses are tingling for a new reveal.
Tech Trailer:
With that said, let’s get straight into this! We’ve learned a great deal since the footage reveal.
According to Narrative Director, John Epler: Dragon Age 4 is “Next gen!”. So, get saving up for a new console, or spare that money for a PC upgrade because each of us are going to need it judging the graphical fidelity of Dragon Age 4’s early footage.
According to Editor, Karin Weekes, the 12 second footage was a surprise to them too... some of BioWare’s own employees didn’t know about this reveal: “Honestly, we are SUPER EXCITED when something like this happens! Our marketing and communications teams work really hard to create these presentations, and I cheered when I saw - it was a surprise to me, too!”
Perhaps the footage was an executive level decision and not many developers other than the ones who captured and worked on the footage knew? Karin is in the Writing department I believe; maybe only specific departments knew about the teaser?
In any regard, I wonder if Hillary Heskett, BioWare’s new marketer captured the footage for this reveal considering she created a lot of Inquisition’s marketing videos.
Moving on, Associate Animator, Chelsea Fariello shared her enthusiasm for the 12 seconds of Dragon Age 4 footage, saying: “We revealed like 12 seconds of our game last night at #EAPlay :D” In another tweet, she said: “I wish we could show you guys more!”
This sort of keenness to show off more Dragon Age 4 content is certainly a company spread attitude. A lot of the developers wish to show each and every one of us more of this game-in-progress.
Patrick Weekes replied to @Ashlyn, saying: “The idea of people one day getting to play what we're working on is one of the big things keeping us going. 😊"
Patrick Weekes also replied to Erin asking if they’re excited for the project they’re working on. Patrick said: “I keep trying to answer vaguely and then realizing I’ve still said too much, so: yes yes yes very.”
We’ll come back to discussing future news and BioWare’s eagerness to show something off later on. For now, let’s get back to looking at updates on the footage reveal.
Laura Miele, EA’s Chief Studio Officer announced when showing the Dragon Age footage: “BioWare imagines and creates worlds where you become the hero, and we’re using this next generation of technology to make those fantasy worlds your reality."
Just wanted to point out the ‘where you become the hero’, because that statement alludes to a single-player experience, hopefully that’s still in store for the next game.
Product Director, Gabe Heiland tweeted a poll about the old tree we saw in the in-engine footage, asking the fans how’d they find it to their liking, more specifically, would they date the tree?
“As some here have learned, my job is data and giving the team feedback on what the people crave. So, I feel like I should find out, do you want to date the tree?”
1. Yes, the tree is hot!
2. If it has a tragic past
3. Tree & I are just friends
4. Rivalmance only
Honestly, I don’t know what’s more representative of BioWare and their fanbase than this tweet. Of course, my vote goes to “yes, the tree is hot!”, there’s just something about ancient, wicked trees.... y’know.
Technical Director, Jon Renish replied: “As long as the tree doesn't have a sappy backstory, I'll explore all the dialogue branches to learn its roots.”
Game Designer, Emily (Domino) Talyor also tweeted separately: "I did not imagine yesterday that today I would type "spicy tragic treemance" but that happened" #overheardintheoffice.
Emily Taylor said in another tweet: “Based just on the image we've seen; it sure looks as if "sexy romance tree" from the EA Play trailer might be infected with one of these fungi or similar diseases causing a phytohormone imbalance!”
And there were plenty more tree puns for days, with some kinky tree romance ideas thrown around Twitter, a lot of the Dragon Age team shared their input on romancing this tree. It certainly sounds like things are getting pretty thorny in the BioWare offices.
With the first in-game footage of Dragon Age 4 teased, perhaps we have our first romanceable npc in Dragon Age 4? Jon Renish did tweet back in March that romances were looking randy... and I don’t know what’s more wild then romancing an old, wicked tree…. I kid of course, but it wouldn’t be Dragon Age if there wasn’t already an established open dialogue on romancing whoever/whatever when an official tease comes out of the woodwork.
Future Teases:
Although this tease was small, we may have something soon, depending on when soon is. According to EA/BioWare’s community manager, they said: “Soon BioWare fans, soon.” followed up with “I mean... my soon always comes with a ™. So, who really knows.”
Perhaps the next official tease will be a title reveal? That’s what I’m thinking at least when I hear a trademark is involved. Following that, Karin Weekes said: “info on upcoming games is planned at a very high level, and we all work together to follow those plans.”
So, that to me sounds like more than just a title reveal trailer and something very substantial to all Dragon Age fans. And at least there’s a plan for that already in the pipeline. So, again: soon BioWare fans, soon.
Regarding that planned Dragon Age tactics title that was teased in 2016, Mark Darrah confirmed that no such strategy game for the Dragon Age franchise has any plans at the moment: “One of my most viral tweets ever was a poll by me asking about different styles of strategy game and the DA franchise. We aren't planning anything ATM.”
Although a tactics game would’ve been nice to play as we wait for the next game, at least Dragon Age 4 can take centre stage of production with all hands-on deck for that game’s production.
Development:
Speaking of Dragon Age 4’s production, I’m going to rapid speed through the development updates we’ve had so far in June.
Mark Darrah retweeted @GillianDN’s tweet asking: “How's the development going during this (world situation) corona crisis though.” Mark said: “We are holding it together. It's a mixed bag. We have some processes that definitely work best with being able to gather people together. But we keep pushing.”
Justin Masse was promoted to Experience Designer, Junior no longer. Jon Renish was promoted to Technical Director.
The G0reWh0re asked Mark Darrah and Patrick Weekes: “Please give us just a crumb of Dragon Age 4 info”. This created a huge thread with many BioWare developers responding with updates. Patrick replied with: “One of the current plot names is a Muppets reference that Mark hasn't noticed yet, or at least hasn't made me change.”
Gameplay Designer, Melissa Janowicz continued this thread with: “I made a scary thing go smashie smashie today.”
Patrick replied: “WHOAH HANG ON SAVE SOMETHING FOR THE DEV INTERVIEWS, JANOWICZ!”
Melissa said: “No, the public deserves to know this epic scoop!!! It also made a lot of grunts and screams!”
Audio Artist, Presley Hynes added to the thread: “I made things make sound. :D”
Melissa said: “Its true - without her im relying 100% on stock sounds and my untrained ears and trust me when i say we dont want to live in that world lmao.”
Patrick added: “Remember the very brief period when I did storyboards? When we ship, I want to show my work to everyone who doubts that story artists are trained (goshdamn) goddamn professionals.”
And Melissa said: “Aww! It couldnt have been that bad... The story and concept artists we have are so phenomenal. I would happily pay for a book just outlining storyboards and concept art vs final scenes for this game tbh.”
Jon Renish added to this thread: “We recently completed an engine integration.”
Principal UX Designer, Asa Roo’s added to the thread: “I made a flowchart!”
Allan Schumacher said: “I made a thing show up on a webpage today. It was very exciting.”
Applications Development, Chris Anderson said: “I tracked down a set of IDs needed to make a thing build, then wrote a bunch of documentation.”
Karin Weekes said: “I tracked down a bunch of old things to use for reference when making new things. Maybe.”
Lead Producer, Scylla Costa added: “I may have played a video from Harry Connick JR during a team meeting with the entire studio. I can't 100% confirm or deny this information.”
In another tweet, John Epler tweeted: “I got to reference this in a meeting today and I feel my career has peaked.” Followed with the statement: “The Shred Wolf.” ….. My lord....
Melissa, who has a lot of experience with creature design tweeted: “Me, playtesting my own content” with a picture of Gundam Wing shouting: “I’m right over here so come and kill me!”
And wrapping up the swift development updates, Emily Taylor tweeted: “I just spent at least half an hour googling for images of cockroaches with fungal infections.”
For those who’ve read Tevinter Nights, you should be shivering in your seat, this makes me very afraid.... we should expect diabolical-insectoid monsters in Dragon Age 4.
Fandom Toxicity:
Now we grace the final topic of this video, for those who’ve stayed this long, this is quite the disheartening conversation that needs to be addressed.
Patrick Weekes tweeted a thread about what interactions are and aren’t acceptable for them, setting boundaries for everyone asking questions about the next Dragon Age. More than that, this thread is about the abuse the developers have endured since EA Play.
The reception of EA Play’s footage hasn’t exactly satiated the entire fandom. While a lot of people are very much content with having actually seen Dragon Age 4 shots, there’s a large chunk of the community that are very much disappointed and upset with what was shown.
I think regardless of how you feel about the footage, BioWare can’t win with a lot of people in the general gaming culture. I’m not calling anyone out, but there’s a lot of clicks online for anyone who creates a negative deep-delve poking holes at BioWare’s effort, questioning Dragon Age 4’s competence.
Yet, they’re the same people who praise how smart Cyberpunk has been since its announcement teaser in 2013 and how they're completely fine waiting 7+ years for a ‘polished game’. It’s hypocrisy.
If BioWare reveal a tiny tease, people get upset and demand to see more. If BioWare don’t show anything, people get angry and demand something. It’s a lost and torturous battle for the BioWare teams.
However, we did see something, and that is better than nothing.
But for a lot of people, that’s not enough, their hatred has to be heard by all, and they’ve decided to go the extra mile and harass the developers personally by any means they can.
This toxicity is something I personally don’t tolerate. I’ve had my fair share of unwarranted hatred recently. Ironically, in that same video aspects of the community harassed a BioWare developer to the point of quitting her dream job.
It’s very sad to see this same hatred happen again for ridiculous, frankly selfish reasons. These are people with lives who’re going out of their way to tweet and talk about their love for the game their creating, and some people are ruining that experience for them.
The BioWare developers DO NOT have to share or engage with so many in-studio things on Twitter that make up my videos, but they do, because they care and want to interact with their fans that they hold dear.
You don’t see this level of interaction with any other games company as far as I’m aware. Look at Bethesda, are you excited for The Elder Scrolls 6? Yeah? Me too! But we’re not going to hear a peep from anyone working on that game until an official trailer/tease and then release.
But, BioWare are different. Dragon Age 4 hasn’t received an official title yet, however, the developers understand our longing for this game, and help with the wait by answering many lore questions, revealing development tidbits and sharing partial updates.
It’s incredibly refreshing and something no one should take for granted. I certainly don’t, my videos wouldn’t exist if the dev’s decided not to tweet so much insightful information to us.
It’s okay that you wanted to see more, it’s understandable. Initially, I wanted to see more too, and I was slightly upset. But there’s a constructive way to address that without going ballistic on people who pour their heart and soul into the next game and publicly put themselves out there.
For those who don’t care for my words, a few of the developers had somethings to say.
Patrick Weekes said: “Please assume I am as frustrated as you are that we have not yet shared more, and that when we DO announce something, I will not be subtle about letting you know.”
John Epler tweeted: “Y’all, the moment we’re able to speak more about what we’re working on, we will. We love nothing more than sharing that work and seeing you all get excited. We make games for all of y’all. So of course, we want you to see what we’re up to. But that’s not something I can choose to do by myself. Nor can pretty much any of the other developers you know from Twitter. We’re here because we like you all, not because it’s in any way part of our duties. Well, I’m also here to secure that @arbys sponsorship.”
In his kind fashion, John Epler replied to me asking about his go-to order at Arby’s, he said: “I’m a simple man. Medium beef and cheddar, curly fries.”
Melissa tweeted: “If i dont answer ur question its not because i want you to suffer its because i literally cant answer it yet. And as a life-long hardcore gamer i do know how you might be feeling, big time. But u also know im right in that you will know eventually anyway.”
Chris said: “One last note on all of this. We're lucky to be able to talk about work, even in a limited capacity. A lot of the time companies limit that to social media specialists, or to dedicated work accounts. These are our personal accounts, and we engage because we care.”
There you folks. From the people working on this game themselves. At the end of the day, we got something that’s telling of the game’s atmosphere and tone.
The majority of us were dressed as clowns anyway because we knew that if we didn’t see anything, we’d be okay with that because we trust and respect the developers, who need all the support they can get as they create the next Dragon Age game.
If you’re not in that camp, that’s fine, but leave the developers to their work, and respect those who do love and support these games. Let’s build each other up, instead of tearing each other down, especially in the current real-world situations.
Spread some positivity and love for BioWare and their developers in the comment section below, so that we can be a community that truly represents the amazing aspects of this fandom that loves and supports the folks who’re creating this game.