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The next DRAGON AGE: Behind the scenes at BioWare
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
Theyre working in an at home enviroment during the middle of a pandemic, not only that, the game is still in the middle of development, any resources they take to polish footage for showing takes away resources from active development. The game is at least 2 years away from launch and i have no doubt theyll release the game when they feel ok with it. From what ive heard the team has a clear vision, Anthem and Andromeda had inumerous development problems thats wont be present in this project.
Inquisition had issues with quest design in a number of its regions and design issues from limitations of having to be cross gen, but no, it wasn't a mess.
Are you an engineer in any particular field? A full-fidelity showcase of a game requires (especially 2 years advance) dedicated work and time to build something specifically for that showcase that would likely get thrown out after.
Calling it a mess was unfair in my part. I'd call the game fine if the DLC hadn't been SO damn good.
I can't speak for games since my dev/engineering is at a financial company, but my understanding of game software is that having something that is full-fidelity for an end-to-end trailer/showcase/video requires you to "complete" a non-trivial amount of the game programming and features to actually have something look like an actual game or in my case functional software. Or fake it, at which point it's not better than WIP footage.
I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand Dragon Age is one of my favorite series, I'm all in on it, read the novels and comics and all that. But it makes me uncomfortable seeing a fluff piece about how much everyone loves working on the new Dragon Age when we know a lot of the people working on the last one left the company because of how terrible working at Bioware is. Not to mention the fact that this is the, what, third iteration of "Dragon Age 4" they've begun work on? I'd have rather they just not shown anything than show THIS.
The development was certainly a mess and it turned what could have been an all-time great into a good-great game imo, so we're not in total disagreement.
Here's inquisition a year before release
30 minutes of Dragon Age: Inquisition Gameplay Leaked
Over 30 minutes of Dragon Age: Inquisition gameplay has leaked online. The off-screen gameplay footage was captured at the Finnish show DigiExpo. The game is clearly in pre-alpha, which can be seen in the video below. Dragon Age: Inquisition definitely looks good and is bright and colourful...www.nerdbite.com
They go from wireframes to that in a year?
okay.gif
Isn't this the Demo that was created to show something off and was basically fake? Lol
I think you're confusing that with the first Anthem demo, which, indeed, was not the game actually running but rather a target to demo the flying mechanics.
The demo in the article is this one:
This was shown behind doors. It's what appears to be an early version of Crestwood, that featured a different quest line and the presentation promised some features that didn't make the cut. But it wasn't fake, it was actually a WIP of the game.
The last we heard of work conditions at BioWare was about a year ago, and that was when Casey Hudson was promising changes in how projects were managed. It's not impossible that things are better now, given quite a few devs were already satisfied with the way Joplin - DA4's first iteration - was being handled.
Morrison is the current iteration of Dragon Age 4, and according to the last piece of information Jason Schreier provided, has been in development since they dropped Joplin in late 2017. So this is an iteration possibly almost three years in the making already.
We have no information that Morrison was ever rebooted since then, so for now, this is only the second iteration of the next Dragon Age. Regardless, games tend to go through multiple iterations anyways, so I don't see that as a problem.
Given Bioware's track record and their shitty DLC practices unless they blow people away as witcher 3 did I'll just wait for the complete edition bargain bin on this one I think. DA2 + ME3 was such a sucker punch of eroding my faith in the studio and honestly it saved me from andromeda(haven't touched it) and anthem(played one of the open betas). Let's keep the streak going of good decisions.
The map and assets were real, but the gameplay wasn't, it was entirely scripted. That what Jason Schreier wrote in his book if I remember correctly.
Have you seen the video? None of that looks scripted, it plays exactly like what Inquisition turned out to be. What people complained about was that it missed features and choices from that presentation. It's a very different Crestwood, but it's not fake gameplay.
The shitty DLC practice of releasing big expansions for a fair price?
As annoying as Carth was he actually had a point lol.
But Carth was marginally less annoying since you could insult him as femRevan so...maybe that's something you can't do on male Revan?
The shitty DLC practice of finishing off main game story points in your DLC. Inquisition is a much lesser game without trespasser and pretty sure the next game is going to assume that trespasser happened. I'm sure to fans that seems like a defendable thing for whatever reason but I honestly don't care when other games I like aren't doing that and feel that much better for it.
Having Companion content as DLC feels shitty as well to me.
Paying full price for Bioware DLC would just make me feel shitty at the value/price proposition every time. Meanwhile other games hand significant content out for free or make sure that it will feel worth it by basically being expansions. The way for example Witcher 3 handled itself with that type of stuff felt a lot better to me.
Basically Bioware never made me feel good about buying their games at launch since forever and the quality of recent titles doesn't justify itself to me to get over that fact vs just waiting stuff out and get a full package at bargain bin price.
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I agree companion DLC at launch is shitty, but I don't get the other stuff. If they can't have story DLC, then they can't have books, comics, etc. And I won't presume to know that they could have had trespasser content ready for launch.
Also a good example of why developers don't like to show things off early since much of those questing choices and environmental damage had to be changed or cut.
I'm probably in the minority but I actually wish they'd soft reboot the story. Trying to connect all these different threads from all the different games, some of which are massively impactful on the world, seems like more of a negative than a positive at this point. I just wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a fresh start where they can craft a more cohesive narrative without worrying about how The Warden, Hawke, The Inquisitor, Morrigan, etc. all fit in. Though I guess it would probably upset a lot of people if they did that.
Yeah I remember there was some concept art from DA:I where Anders was a hermit in a cave with one arm after the events of DA2 and people got so pissed off that they would even think to draw such a thing. Like it didn't even make it into the game, but people got mad anyways. I love seeing all the concept art though, inject it into my veins.
Hm, I would honestly prefer they close out Dragon Age with this one than that. I want them to get a chance at a proper conclusion to the story, and they have a great track record with new IPs aside from Anthem for whatever new fantasy endeavor they'd do.
That's my fault, I was going to do it when we migrated to Resetera in the first place, but breaking into the dev world at the same time took me away from it. Helped me find my SO though! I thought I saw something about Delphine working on it now but I could be wrong.
DUDE! You entered an incredible industry and literally found your SO. That is amazing. And easily the best excuse for not creating a forum thread on the internet that I have ever read.
I'll ask Delphine about it! I bet that'd mean we'd have one heck of a good community thread.
Thanks bud, miss the discord. It's fintech not gamedev, but that just means I get to spend more time with loved ones.
If anyone needs help with a community thread, I'll do what I can.
Witcher 3 had story focused expansions that felt satisfying on their own and weren't places where they solved main story things in. They were exciting side adventures. There is a difference between that and what Bioware did with Trespasser. I'm all in favor of story DLC it just shouldn't make me feel stupid for buying the full game on launch don't think that's a wild ask but to each their own.
Delphine has been working on it for a while now. They told me to @ them if they forgot (or got too busy) again. Well, good as time as any.
I still maintain that while Origins is a good introduction...
The world didn't really get "interesting" and more unique until Inquisition, hell even for all of it's faults, 2 introduced a lot of interesting and weird stuff to the series. Made it go a long way from just being "dark fantasy #12043392"
Totally with you on this. I love Origins, but 2 and (to a greater extent) Inquisition were where I truly fell in love with Thedas.[/USER][/QUOTE]
Inquisition I'd argue made the setting, world building, and writing of Origins and 2 retroactively better.
ME Andromeda was a SP game. Yeah, there was an MP component but DAI had one too.
Considering video game stories approach religion long enough to say "KILL GOD GENERIC CHURCH EVIL" Inquisition's discussions about organized religion and heroic symbols are head and shoulders above any other game writing on the topic. It's too bad most discussion about Inquisition's plot gets written off as "oh you're the world savior again"
How you feel about the quality of the DLC is irrelevant to it being a shitty practice or not. Every expansion BioWare released since Mass Effect 2 has included a good amount of content, the DLC for Inquisition being exceptionally packed. It's not just Trespasser, Jaws of Hakkon included an entire new region with its own quest line and side quests.
I'd love to see what non-F2P and MTX-free game is releasing big DLC like that for free.
BioWare just gets more shit in general than other companies. CD Projekt Red cut out one of the main two love interests from Witcher 1 in Witcher 2 and then reintroduced her only in a paid expansion for Witcher 3. Imagine if Shadow Broker was the only time Liara was in the story after ME1.
No what's irrelevant is your opinion vs mine on MY purchasing decisions for Bioware games.
Me feeling their DLC practices are shitty is VERY relevant to my decision making on buying their games on release and my judgment has served me well on not falling for anthem nor andromeda nor inquisition release. I've been extremely happy so far with how me stopping first day buying Bioware games after ME3 has turned out. And that was the context I was discussing stuff in cause why would I be interested in trying to justify to other people if the DLC is shitty or not? It was you who questioned why I considered their DLC practices shitty, I simply answered. You don't have to agree I don't really care. :) Feel free to think Bioware does the best type of DLC ever. That's cool for you. Not really relevant to why I will continue to not buy their games at launch.
Dunno if you were actually wondering what games I was referring to at the end or if you're going to use my example to come up with some nonsense to disqualify it in your eyes but Monster Hunter World and Iceborne post launch support which was entirely free has made me a very satisfied customer of the franchise.
Witcher 3 does all that in their expansions without making me regret giving them full price money like bioware games make me regret purchasing them at full price do, as I already said above. :)
And I've been very happy with the value/price proposition for all witcher 3 content not a single regret.
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I mean, if you don't want DLC to extend world building, lore, and overall narrative, you do you.
It... objectively doesn't do what I said though, it adds new areas to the world- ala Jaws of Hakkon, but has nothing analogous to Trespasser.
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For what it's worth I agree that Trespasser is "necessary" as the conclusion to Inquisition's story, I just feel bitterness about the vanilla game's incompleteness is a consequence of Corypheus being done poorly and Solas being done extremely well rather than an error in DLC philosophy.
Example: Mass Effect 2 and Arrival. I don't think anyone finished Arrival and was bitter it wasn't included in ME2. ME2 just finished strongly (and Arrival wasn't that great). Same idea though.
Example: Mass Effect 2 and Arrival. I don't think anyone finished Arrival and was bitter it wasn't included in ME2. ME2 just finished strongly (and Arrival wasn't that great). Same idea though.
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Yes Witcher 3 indeed avoids paywalling mainstory payoff through DLC if that's what you meant yeah def not a fan of that and any game that does that I definitely would be inclined to just wait for bargain bin complete edition. I prefer to have the main game deal with the main story and have DLC be exciting sidestories.
So you just don't want main story content. That's obviously bad, and it's what makes Inquisition and it's subsequent content so compelling. I didn't get W3 content until it was on sale since while good, there wasn't anything as compelling as continuing the story of Inquisition.
Only if there can be a discussion about what qunari sweat tastes like......
god that thread was the weirdest thing i've ever experienced on the internet at that time. (it was about tali/her race and it was bioware's forum for context)
Yes I don't want main story content in my DLC I'd prefer if they keep that for the full games. It's cool if you disagree for me it just always makes me feel shitty for buying a game at full price where I have to then shell out more for the DLC to get the full context before jumping into the next game.
You don't really need to? It was exciting content, but contextually for the following game there's little that needs to be explained that couldn't be done in a single conversation or less. I guess they didn't have to do it, but that just means the content wouldn't have outright existed.
I'm still highly interested in this series, but the behind the scenes didn't do anything for me. With Inquisition, it wasn't until the character bios were released and more information about the world/story came out that I really got excited again.