Dragon Age Forum News (Feb. 27, 05)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

Engine vs Story

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Simply put, when writing the story the designers do not worry about how spells, or combat works. They are concerned with what happens between key incident points. Programmers do not worry about who says what to whom, or what makes up an encounter, but do need to add code so that the game has a usable interface for party control, and new party-based systems.

The Technical designers live between them, the implement the scripting and encounters as planned by the designers, using commands enabled by the programmers. The tech designers also start planning the combat, spell, and skill systems and work with the programmers to get them in the game.

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So it sounds like the way it works is that you've got writers who create the major plot points, characters, plot-related dialogue, etc., and those people are separate from the guys who actually design the maps and encounters and such. That's gotta be a weird line. I mean, do you call in a writer to jot out lines like "Give me your gold or Krog smash!" and "Find me twelve Silver Runes and I can make you a sword!" for really minor NPCs, or does that go to the tech designers?

It seems like the best RPGs try to combine plot and gameplay as seamlessly as possible. For me, at least, the most frustrating experience in RPGs is when you get that "disconnect" between gameplay mechanics/abilities and plot-related gameplay/mechanics (e.g., the high-level cleric NPCs in NWN don't just True Resurrect all those tragically dead characters we're supposed to lament). I mean, how am I supposed to feel tied to this plot when there's no consistency to the game experience?

Seems like you'd have to have a REALLY focused "vision" for the project to keep these disparate teams on the same lines. Good luck with that...

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The writers work with the technical designers in creating the levels, they don't work in isolation from each other.
Also the writers are fully aware on how the combat system works, so they can utilize that information if they need, but they don't say things like "You need to have +3 damage to open that lock to save the princess." That just sounds dumb.

And you're correct that some spells/skills can create disconnects in social logic. We manage that by having an overall vision of the use of magic and how it works in the world, and then using that for parameters for spell/skill creation. So we don’t have a “destroy world spell”.

On the other hand, if the writers want to introduce a very power spell, they can justify it’s existence by questing the player to find the scroll. Once the player does the research and things for that spell, they now have it in their spell book. We can use the same kind of thing to grant villains spells and abilities the player doesn’t have and cannot choose.

Using the spell as an example, it would begin as an idea the writers have, then they would tell the technical designers how they want it to work, the technical designers and programmers make it work in the game engine and scripting language. Art then looks at the spell and comes up with a nifty visual effect for it, and then Audio puts a kick-*** sound effect to it. Through scripting and writing it is implemented in the story, and once the player triggers all the appropriate events (finding scroll, getting herbs, mixing in cauldron with proper incantation, doing the jig, etc) the code adds it, or unlocks it in the Spell book user interface, and it becomes an icon the player can put on their quick bar and cast it.

Now go away, I’ve got to identify department dependencies, and coordinate sync meetings.

Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

Dual core CPUs
Here is an interesting article on CPU speed and multicore CPUs.

Click Here

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

16 Feb 2005 - 10 Years of BioWare, Part 1

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Well, I'm one of the guys that have converted so far to BioWare, that I'd buy almost anything if it has their name on it.

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Yes! My "Pants Pants Revolution" game idea has a market! Now if I could just draw pants...

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Quote: However, he's right. If I can choose between two shooters, I know their gameplay won't be much different, so content may pull me to one side or the other.

What the industry really lacks these days is diversion in genres. Some old genres like classic graphic adventures are sorta dead, which is a pity, because most of us have enjoyed them a lot. And personally, I can't just swap a good graphic adventure to an action adventure or something, it's not the same.

Having said that, I still need to play the Syberia games...

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Syberia is one of those highly underhyped adventure games that everyone who's into adventure games should play. It's like the Sierra adventure games "all growed up," with fancy graphics, great voice work and a pretty darn immersive story. Unfortunately, due to time constraints (and some pretty small buttons that I couldn't find), I gave up on the game early so as not to be uber-disappointed at having to stop playing at a really tense story point.

I will return to it, as I'd love to see how the story plays out, and how it leads into the sequel.

Wow... 10 years of BioWare, and I've been here for almost half of that. It's been great to see the company grow in my 4 years here, and I can't imagine how the "old-timers" must feel, seeing their little company become the world-renowned gaming juggernaut it is today! Greg and Ray must be so proud!