Last week, one of the most trusted insiders in the gaming industry, Kotaku editor Jason Schreirer, published an article about Anthem's development problems. The rather sharp reaction of BioWare, which called such articles βharmful to the industry,β did not prevent the journalist from presenting an equally bleak report on the production of Dragon Age 4 a week later. According to him, the new part of the series is similar to an ambiguous multiplayer shooter: Electronic Arts instructed to make it kind of like a service game.
Dragon Age 4 was announced in December 2018, but the game is still in early development. As Schreyer found out, BioWare's desire to work on several projects at the same time is to blame for this: in October 2017, the project was restarted in order to have time to finish Anthem. Due to disagreements with the leadership of Electronic Arts, which ordered the RPG to be made into a game-service, the company left the creative director of Dragon Age: Inquisition Mike Laidlaw (Mike Laidlaw). Now BioWare Edmonton is trying to combine a vivid storytelling and a service format in one project.
In 2017, development was progressing well, with BioWare having the tools, the ideas to "inspire the whole team", and the leaders who tried to avoid the mistakes made when creating Dragon Age: Inquisition. The production of the 2014 game, which was distinguished by high sales and many awards, was also problematic: it was made for as many as five platforms on the new Frostbite engine, and even with multiplayer support, and with all this, the organization of work in a team left much to be desired. Laidlaw and executive producer Mark Darrah decided that the development of the next part should be approached more responsibly: it is better to work out the concept and explain it to the staff as accurately as possible.
After the release of the Trespasser add-on, some of the employees were transferred to Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the rest (several dozen people), led by Darra and Laidow, began working on the new Dragon Age, codenamed Joplin. They were going to use ready-made tools and methods that they had become accustomed to during the creation of the Inquisition, and the leaders did everything possible to optimize production and prevent debilitating rush jobs.
Former BioWare employees told Schreier that Joplin was slightly smaller than the previous game in scope, but placed more emphasis on user decisions and was overall deeper and more immersive. The gamer ran a group of spies in the Tevinter Imperium. The missions were made more branched, and the number of boring quests in the spirit of "go fetch" was reduced. The innovative narrative mechanic allowed players to extort items from the guardians or persuade them, with each such scene automatically generated rather than pre-written by the writers.
At the end of 2016, BioWare "froze" Joplin and sent the entire team to finalize Mass Effect: Andromeda. In March 2017, when the failed Andromeda came out, the developers returned to Dragon Age 4, but already in October, Electronic Arts completely canceled the game - it was necessary to urgently save Anthem, which was stuck in problems.
After that, the βtinyβ team started the development of Dragon Age 4 again. It was already another project, code-named Morrison, based on the Anthem technology base (it was her teaser that was presented at The Game Awards 2018). The new version is described as a game-service: it is focused on long-term support and will be able to generate profit for several years. Schreier emphasized that this was exactly what Electronic Arts needed, which did not consider Joplin an important project, primarily due to the lack of multiplayer (more precisely, its possibility was simply not discussed) and monetization. Following Laidlaw's departure, Dragon Age: Inquisition Artistic Director Matt Goldman took over as creative director. Darra remained in the position of executive producer.
Schreier does not know if Dragon Age 4 will be exclusively online and how much of a role multiplayer will play in it. Several employees informed him that the label "Anthem with dragons" that had already been put on the project was not quite correct. Now the developers are experimenting with the online component - a lot depends on player feedback about Anthem. One of the informants explained that Morrison's main storyline is being created for single-player mode, and multiplayer is needed for long-term retention of gamers.
Users are rumored to be able to join other people's sessions as companions via a drop-in/drop-out system, similar to old RPGs from companies like Baldur's Gate. The development and outcome of quests will be influenced not only by the player himself, but also by users from all over the world. Schreyer notes that all these rumors may not be confirmed in the end, as the project changes. One of the current employees told him that in the next two years the game will be transformed "five times". Darra describes the current crew as "a pirate ship that will only reach its destination after long journeys from port to port, during which its crew will try to drink as much rum as possible."
Schreier also admitted that he had to omit some "very sad and devastating" stories from employees, otherwise the picture of working at BioWare would have turned out to be too unpleasant. Many complain of constant stress and anxiety, which are attributed not only to overwork, but also to the inability to express their opinion and the constant change of goals. BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson recently pledged to the team to "make BioWare the best place to work."
Source: 3dnews.ru