This spooky season BioWare has given us a few morsels on the next Dragon Age. Today I’m very excitedly collecting the latest updates since August. We've got brand new sinister concept art, more Tevinter art designs, a Venturebeat next-gen statement, new staff hirings and job listings along with two departures, a few development tweets, a comment about Sandal’s future by his voice actor and the Game Awards 2021. So, let’s crack into it!
Red Lyrium Zombies Concept Art:
Of course, we’ve got to start this with that new concept art. Creative Director Matthew Goldman and Executive Producer Chrisitan Dailey revealed a brand-new, spooky Dragon Age 4 concept art piece. Christian tweeted, “Hey hey, happy Friday and Happy Halloween. It's been a bit since we posted, but all is well. Have a SAFE / fun weekend.” Followed with a beautiful, eerie piece of concept art that requires a little bit of dissecting.
So, my initial impressions on this artwork, I like it! It looks dark, like proper dark fantasy. It’s giving me a lot of Fallow Mire-like vibes with its midnight moon, swamp-like nature, twigged branches and flooded undead. Of course, sprinkled with plenty of red lyrium and a mysterious tower that stands to the left.
The previous concept art pieces that have been revealed this year each centred on a particularly relevant faction, from the Grey Wardens to the Antivan Crows. Whereas this piece is quite the pivot from factions, it’s straight-up sinister with its red lyrium zombies.
I don’t want to read too much into this one, because it seems pretty straightforward with its evil, red lyrium undead and darker ambience, but perhaps this artwork represents Nevarra, death mages, the Mortalitasi. Given the deathly nature of this piece and the Mortalitasi’s death-like culture, it seems quite fitting.
As we know, the Mortalitasi mummify and house the Nevarran dead in their Grand Necropolis. They bind spirits to undead corpses and have animated skeletons that serve the Necropolis as assistants. So maybe this piece is showcasing a faction, just rather enigmatically?
Or maybe it’s just demonstrating darker tones for the next game, showcasing grittier, evil themes and menacing foes and locales we may encounter.
Overall, this piece reminds me of a few midnight areas we’ve seen in previous game trailers, like the EA Play midnight snowy region and the red lyrium-infested area.
Most particularly, this new concept art piece reminds me of the red lyrium darkspawn concept art in a similar midnight moon atmosphere. So, are they potentially showcasing the same conceptual area?
Breaking the new artwork down a little bit more, the moon is the most interesting aspect of the piece in my opinion, we have a lot of symbolism with moons in Dragon Age. In elvhen tales, It is said that Mythal created the moon. Also, the Dread Wolf Rises mural featured what I thought at first was a moon right in the middle.
The sun, moon and earth each relate to an eclipse, like the current speculated title of the next Dragon Age. Once more, in elvhen tales, Elgar’nan is said to be the eldest of the sun, the moon was created by Mythal, and the earth is probably a Titan? Could we have some sort of eclipse disaster with Elgar’nan, Mythal and the Titans with some effect of the Dread Wolf rising?
“An Eclipse as Fen’Harel stirred.”
Who knows, but I do love a quick tinfoil. In any event, I’m loving the seasonal, spooky concept art. Hopefully, we’ll have a festival and Christmas inspired piece in December. In any regard, we’ve actually got more concept art to talk about.
New Tevinter Concept Art:
I’ll gloss over this Nevarran one first, a lot of us have already seen this image within BioWare’s 25 years book. However, Matthew Goldman shared an upressed version of this concept art piece. The 25 years book described this art as the Mourn Watch in their Grand Necropolis guarding Thedas from occult threats. This upressed shot shows off more detail in the artwork like the urns at the bottom. What could they store, I wonder? All in all, it’s a beautiful, spooky piece of art that’s perfect for showing off this time of year.
Moving on to brand new artwork, in late September, Matthew Goldman shared two World of Thedas styled Tevinter curiosities. When revealing the first artwork, Matthew tweeted, “We are having our house fixed up. The ideal was a more Gray and Pointy theme, but obsidian is very hard to get right now what with COVID.”
The artwork showcases many Tevinter furnishings and items, from scrying orbs to flags and puzzle boxes, we have a definitive look at Tevinter’s architecture and style.
When revealing the second artwork, Matthew tweeted, “We are having the inside fixed up to! Maybe some welcoming bas-reliefs in volcanic basalt? You could collect these in DAI but probably 99% of people haven't seen the whole collection. Designs by my good pal Marc Taro Holmes.”
As Matthew explained, the second artwork showed Skyhold’s collectable mosaics in an archaic Tevinter design, we can see: The Fall, Dragons, Subjugation, Invasion and Sacrifice. Each piece represents a moment in Tevinter history, for example, The Fall showcases the seven magisters who brought the blight back to Thedas. The Sacrifice mosaic regards Tevinter kinsman experimenting with the Qunari.
And then we have this inspector contraption. The figure in the middle looks like an experimented Qunari given the kossith-like horns and the human body proportion sizes. This leads into a theory that perhaps Tevinter magisters created the Qunari ages ago, but I think that’s a topic for another time.
Regardless, we have many Tevinter trinkets and curiosities that’ll no doubt feature in the next game, honestly, I’m really surprised and grateful for both of these reveals - it’s subtle details like this that paint the next Dragon Age in refined ways, putting on display the moods and themes of the Imperium. So, thank you so much Matthew Goldman for this sneak peek, onwards to the next story.
Next-Gen:
In late October, Jeff Grubb via Venturebeat revealed that Dragon Age 4 is heading to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S without cross-gen releases, the game will be next-gen exclusive.
Jeff confirmed this via a LinkedIn profile of a Lead Player Designer working on the next Dragon Age, so it’s pretty solid evidence to support this claim.
Even so, we’ve known since EA Play 2020 that the next Dragon Age is going to be next-gen, when John Epler tweeted, “Next gen!”
However, we merely suspected that the game would not release on previous-gen consoles, it seems now we have an actual confirmation. The reason I wanted to bring this story up is because I think this is a very good thing. Dragon Age: Inquisition was held back due to the previous generation of consoles, content was cut and drawbacks were made to suit both generations. With the next Dragon Age being a next-gen exclusive, this means the game can be as stunning as possible without any limitations for a previous console generation.
Of course, that means those who don’t have a decent enough PC or a new console will need to start saving their pennies up when there are more available. I'm also in that boat, because I’m still in the midst of trying to get a new console when possible.
No Sandal?:
Moving on to a sad story. Kirk McKeand, Managing Editor of GLHF interviewed legendary voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, who’s best known to us Dragon Age fanatics as the marvelous and mysterious Sandal in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2.
When Kirk asked if Sandal could be making a return in the next Dragon Age, Yuri said, “100%, I love that little guy. I love him so much. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn, but as far as I know, there’s no Sandal in Dragon Age 4.” Pause for a second, let’s bring out the sad, slow violins. Lowenthal explained, “If there is then it wasn’t played by me because I would have loved to have come back. I’m excited to hear about the new Dragon Age because Dragon Age is awesome, but I love Sandal.”
Yuri ended with, “Here’s what makes Sandal great. He could have just been a terrible joke, and he wasn’t. They gave him some turns that nobody saw coming. He’s a right badass. So God bless you, Sandal, wherever you may be. And a hearty enchantment to you.”
Of course, this doesn’t confirm that Sandal won’t be in Dragon Age 4, perhaps BioWare haven’t asked Yuri yet, or maybe Yuri is white-lying for obvious reasons, or maybe BioWare have hired someone else to replace Sandal. I do take Yuri at his word, and believe that he’s probably just not been asked yet. Maybe BioWare needs a new voice actor for Sandal because he’s finally going to reveal himself as the Maker, emerging from the clouds in a roaring thunder?
In any event, I had to chime into this conversation on Twitter with a pleading question, “enchantment?”
And surprisingly, Yuri actually replied to me with a very wholesome, “ENCHANTMENT!”
Please BioWare, don’t let this be the last time Yuri gets to say enchantment, please. Do it for Yuri. He’s such a nice man. With that, let’s move on to the next story.
New Hirings & Job Listings:
In September, two more people joined BioWare. Hurrah! Gaby Soto joined as a new Lighting Artist.
Derek Wilks joined the Dragon Age team as a Cinematic Designer.
I’m most certainly wishing both Gaby and Derek well and huge success at BioWare. In relation to these hirings, the BioWare jobs homepage received a small update. The homepage now has a piece of concept art, which I believe may represent an Executor agent, along with the slogan, “What role will you play? Creating worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story.”
Also, for anyone equipped, BioWare has a lot of open job vacancies, ranging from System Designers to Video Editors. I’ll post a link down below in the description if anyone is interested in applying, a lot, if not all of the job positions are remote too!
Departures:
In the same vein as recent hirings, two developers have left the Dragon Age team at BioWare. In early September, Principal UX Designer Asa Roos’ left the team. She most assuredly won’t remember me, but I actually met Asa once at the Animex Festival in 2017 and she was nothing but kind, so it is a shame to see her leave BioWare.
Also, in October, Associate Quality Designer Scott Chorel left the Dragon Age team. According to Scott’s LinkedIn, he worked predominantly on Mass Effect Legendary Edition, however, he did work on the latest Dragon Age focusing on Performance and Automated Tools in a similar capacity to above.
I’m not going to rave on about this, like I did last news update, but since early November 2020, there have been nine departures at BioWare that I’ve noticed, that’s nine departures in twelve months. I’m not going to make any assumptions because let's be honest, folks leave game studios all the time for a plethora of reasons. However, what I have noticed that is slightly concerning is the number of leads who’ve left. Casey Hudson, Mark Darrah, Arone Le Bray, Gabe Heiland and now Asa Roos’.
Melissa Janowicz (Gameplay Designer), Casey Hudson (General Manager), Mark Darrah (Executive Producer), Justin Masse (Experience Designer), Arone Le Bray (Narrative Quality Lead), Presley Hynes (Audio Artist), Gabe Heiland (Lead Product Director), Asa Roos’ (Principal UX Designer), & Scott Chorel (Associate Quality Designer).
Again, I’m not going to sit here and make any assumptions, but I am slightly concerned regarding leads leaving. It does leave a slight sour taste in my mouth, to be honest. All we can do is support the teams as they crack on, hope for the best, and try to build a positive fan base around that, I think. Moving forward, we have a few development tweets regarding production on the next Dragon Age.
Development Tweets:
Dragon Age Producer Scylla Costa replied to someone manifesting diverse body sliders for Dragon Age 4, Scylla said, “Taking notes.”
Dragon Age developer Jill Harrington tweeted, “You should see the fun places I've been making hair grow out of lately.”
Animation Director Mike Jungbluth tweeted a job posting with the caption, “Come help us bring to life diverse characters to smooch & wild creatures to pet!”
And Writer, Jay Watamaniuk tweeted, “Work rewrites this week. Getting closer.”
Even if just small tidbit tweets, I love just seeing the process come together. Finally, we’ve got to talk about the Game Award 2021 and Dragon Age Day 2021.
Game Awards & Dragon Age Day:
Currently, we have around five weeks until the Game Awards 2021, the show starts on December 9th, which is a Thursday. The times are normally not EU-friendly for people who live in Europe like myself, but that’s fine. Hopefully it’ll be a decent show regardless of staying up till 4am, and I will be streaming it live with Lucas from Fusselkorn, also known as “The German” in my comments section.
BioWare confirmed in a blog post last December that we’ll see more on the next Dragon Age this year. I suppose we have seen more concept art, so yeah, they have shown us more on Dragon Age, but like please, BioWare can I have some more? Dragon Age has a very good relationship with The Game Awards, so here’s hoping we could have another portion to finish 2021.
Last Dragon Age Day, which was fantastic by the way, a huge shoutout to my entire Discord server, we had so much fun chatting and celebrating Dragon Age, and I’m so excited to do that again this year. But yes, last year on December 4th, BioWare let us know that they’d be at The Game Awards 2021, so hopefully, we’ll hear from them again this year? Please BioWare? Just a title, that’s all I’m asking for, a title and a clown emoji?
“We look forward to sharing more about Dragon Age and Mass Effect, as well as the other titles the teams are working on here at BioWare in the new year.”
Even if they tell us that they won’t be at The Game Awards 2021, that’d be really nice just to save the clowning, like they did at EA Play 2021. But we shall see, I’m not setting any expectations on it, but it certainly would be nice just to end this year with a bang of Dragon Age news.
Anyways, if you’re craving more Dragon Age at the moment, please go and watch my new theory movie. I spent all of October putting that together, so please enjoy it. It’s good stuff, if I do say so myself.
Let me know your thoughts on today’s stories, how’re you feeling about the new spooky concept art pieces? Are you saving your pennies for a new console, or a new PC? What about Sandal? And of course, what are your expectations for a Dragon Age trailer at The Game Awards 2021? Will BioWare show up this year?
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