Folks, we've got a mid-April Dragon Age 4 News Update! BioWare has just released a new Community Update on the BioWare Blog, we’ve got an update on EA Play 2022, there’s been another staff departure on the Dragon Age team, and there’s a small tease by Patrick Weekes themselves that I need to go over. But kicking this off, let's go over this brand new BioWare Blog: The blog post is titled, "Welcome to the BioWare Community Update."
We’ve talked recently about how we want to further pull back the curtain for a more transparent look into the process of making the games you love. So, as part of that mission, we’d like to welcome you to the new BioWare Community Update! This is a place for you, the BioWare community, to learn about the work we’re doing behind the scenes, to learn about the people doing that work, and even where you can learn about other members of the community.
You’re going to find a few new types of posts in this space, including a series called Developer Stories, where you’ll learn all about the people who make our games and the different roles they play. We’ll also provide dispatches in the form of Community Updates, where we’ll highlight contributions from the community, answer your questions, and keep you up to speed on what’s going on with our games. (You may notice that you’re reading one of those right now. Hello!) Stay tuned for more!
So let’s get things started by meeting two of our colleagues who are heading up two different areas of development for the next Dragon Age.
Gary (he/him) recently shared a State of BioWare post highlighting some of the folks who will be leading the Dragon Age team: Corinne Busche (she/her) as game director, Mac Walters (he/him) as production director, and Benoit Houle (he/him) as director of product development.
In addition to this talented group, we want to (re)introduce you to two more people working on the game who you should know: John Epler (he/him) and Maciej Kurowski (he/him), who have both been working on the next Dragon Age game since its early days of development.
Maciej, the Dragon Age franchise’s technical director, joined BioWare almost six years ago and has spent over 13 years in the industry. John’s been at BioWare for close to 15 years; he’s worked on multiple BioWare titles and took on the role of creative director for Dragon Age last year.
For more about John and Maciej after you learn a bit about them here (as well as lots of other folks on the Dragon Age team), be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming Developer Stories blog series, starting this week!
Let’s start with you, John. Can you share with our community what exactly a creative director does?
John: A creative director’s job is about keeping an eye on the game as a whole, trying to make sure that the game maintains its “feel,” and making calls about where to focus resources on the project. It also means representing the IP as a whole and working with a team to define the “story” of the IP, past, present and future. [Editor’s note: “IP” stands for “intellectual property,” which refers to a whole franchise, in all its incarnations. Think of it as everything having to do with Dragon Age officially.]
So really, the core of being a creative director is being a really effective diplomat, especially as you get deeper into development. Early in a project, you might be able to make more big-picture decisions more independently, but you very quickly need to get good at identifying problems, knowing who to talk to, and then being willing to talk to those people. That’s the hardest part of the job, honestly, but your team needs answers, decisions, and all the things required to do their jobs.
Because really, the team is the most important part of all of this. And the Dragon Age team is the most talented group I’ve ever worked with. They’ve taken the vision set out at the beginning of the project and really made it their own.
And what about you, Maciej? A technical director is in charge of all the tech for the game, right? How does what you do impact what the players see?
Maciej: So, the tech that goes into making a game can basically be divided into two different areas: the tools used by developers building the game, and the software that players interact with directly—what we call the “runtime” technology. And while the runtime is what the player actually sees in action, it’s actually the developer tools that can really make a difference in the quality of the final game.
At the beginning of this project, we came up with a few principles we wanted to rely on while building the game, and probably the most impactful one was having the right tools that best fit our game. I strongly believe that the developers are able to be at their most creative when we minimize the friction they encounter in their day-to-day work. So making the tools easy to use and dependable makes it easier for them to be creative, which ultimately makes the game a lot better.
We are always learning and pushing ourselves, and with every game we get better. But we can always improve. I can’t wait to talk more about some of the interesting things we have done on the tech side for Dragon Age. We take characters very seriously and do a lot of work to give them more personality than they have ever had in the past. I can't say more yet, but we will over time!
Anything else you’d like to say to the fans at the moment?
Maciej: We can’t wait to show you more of the game! It’s shaping up to be something amazing.
John: Agreed. There’s something special about Dragon Age, and there’s something equally special about the Dragon Age community. The cosplay, the theorycrafting, the streams, the fanfic—so much of it is genuinely incredible. You all humble us daily, and I can’t wait until we’re able to start sharing more. I think you’re going to love it.
So much of it is genuinely incredible. You will humble us dearly, and I can't wait until we're able to start showing more. I think you're going to love it. Honestly, I'm super humbled by John's words on the community as a consecrate to myself. But also the fanart is out there and the streamers and the cosplayers and and fanfic and everybody else.
It's amazing that we have developers who actually care and engage that community to the level that, by the way, I do. So thank you guys so much for engaging as much as you do. Honestly means everything to me and it means everything to the community.
We’re working on more than just Dragon Age, too. Our team is continuing to work on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and its recent Legacy of the Sith expansion, so be sure to check out the SWTOR website for more details about what’s coming! There’s also the next game in the Mass Effect™ universe, which is now early in development. It’s going to be a while before we can talk about it in more detail, but we can’t wait to show you what we’re working on!
But of course, scrolls are being inked for a new tale across the lands of Thedas and beyond. We know we’ve said it before, but we really are excited to share more about our next game when the time is right. Until then, we’re keeping our heads down and focusing on making your next big adventure the best it can be.
Two days before my birthday and there's also another blog coming this week, so I am absolutely being spoiled on my birthday week. I really appreciate it! But I do want to touch on the final note that where BioWare said 'lands of Thedas and beyond.' Like what is going on. Super excited to see what they mean by this. It could literally just be a phrase that ended on, but maybe in the next game we are going to over lands than just Thedas? The Fade? Ancient Arlathan? Executor's Land?
A few of the thoughts I have on this blog. it's just super great to see the developers who are working in this game and hear more about them actually being interviewed this time. You know, last time I referred to a Mary Kirby tweet that referred to what a creative director is, what a creative director should be doing, and what a creative actor shouldn't be doing. And it seemed at the time that maybe that was an inference to what Matthew Goldman and his creative director vision. We don't know and I don't want to assume, but I'm really glad that John has came out here and shared his exact vision of what a creative director should be doing and what makes a good creative director. And it sounds like he is the perfect man for this job.
All in all, this is a fantastic way for BioWare to start marketing of Dragon Age 4, dragging its game for social media blog posts. It won't be too long before we have another BioWare blogpost coming out, and we'll be talking about that probably early next week. Moving on to another new story, EA Play 2022 has been cancelled.
EA's annual live show typically took place just ahead of a three each summer, but today the publisher has confirmed that there will be no such event this year. PCGamer went on to say that essentially this year things aren't lined up to show you everything on the one date. We have exciting things happening at our world class studios, and this year it will reveal much more about these projects when the time is right for each of them.
We look forward to spending time with you throughout the year, so essentially it's just confirming what BioWare are already doing. They may not be ready for a June or July EA Play 2022 trailer reveal, however, they are ready to start revealing more about the game via blog posts - but, I know for a fact that a lot of us would still love a trailer this year.
So, if you are part of the clown brigade like myself, you know we've got still got Gamescom 2022, Summer Games Fest and The Game Awards 2022 where we may see something, not sure. All we know right now is that we are at least getting blogs from BioWare.
Moving on to the second final story, we have a staff departure from BioWare, 13 year-veteran Allan Schumacher has left the company.
Allan tweeted: "end of an era. For me today is my last day at BioWare. I was offered a very interesting opportunity at Epic Games, which I start on the 18th of April after a short break to rest and take care of some stuff around the house will remain in Edmonton area. It's bonkers to think that I've been here for just a shade under 13 years."
During Allan's tenure at BioWare, he spent a lot of time on the quality assurance team for Anthem and all the Dragon Age games, as well as working on the programming and engineering aspects of Andromeda. Absolutely wishing you the best on your future endeavours, Allan, and really appreciate all the hard work you have spent 13 years at BioWare.
Let's move on to the final story I have for you, which is a surprising tweet I actually missed back in January. Patrick Weekes tweeted: "May 2020 to be kinder to us all in countless happy ways, both great and small." The most interesting thing about this tweet is May 2022. Now does this mean that we may get Dragon Age news in May? Is the 22nd of May 2022 going to be the day we get news?
What does Patrick mean by this tweet? Well who really knows. I just thought it was an interesting fun tease to put in there. It probably means nothing, but I still think it's fun to talk about these things and get excited for the next Dragon Age, even if it means nothing.
At the end of the day at least we have these blog posts that are starting up right now, following us through 2022, which is super exciting!
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