Dragon Age Central

A developer talks through some combat in the Tower of Ishal, where siege weapons are used against the party.

More camcorder footage of combat gameplay: the much seen ogre battle, this time resolved pretty easily by the party members.

Camcorder footage of combat gameplay.

A video interview focused on party members inter-cut with brand new in-game footage. Seen for the first time are a dwarf, a desire demon and some other creatures.

[transcript will follow]

A video mixing old footage and extensive new footage that introduces us to some of the characters and creatures in the game.

[transcript will follow]

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Members of the Bioware team talk about the Grey Wardens, interspersed with previously seen as well as some brief clips of new game footage.

[transcript will follow]

A rendered cutscene of a battle (well, mostly its aftermath), focusing on a solitary Grey Warden. It is slightly reminiscent of the opening battle sequence of Lost Odyssey (but not as good, to be fair). There is no dialogue.

A video interview with a number of Bioware employees, intercut with previously seen footage. Transcript follows:

[ray muzyka, ceo] Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, which is also from Bioware. First off it’s got tactical combat which feels very similar to the way that the tactical combat worked in Baldur’s Gate, except in Dragon Age it’s full 3d so you can pull the camera back, adjust it around and have full control over the experience. Pause & Play as well, if you really want to direct the actions of your party. The story, the narrative and the dialogue, the way that flows, is going to be very remeniscent of Baldur’s Gate; so fans who love that kind of story line are going to enjoy ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ as well. And, the team is the same. A lot of the same members that worked on Baldur’s Gate, Never Winter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Jade Empire - some of the great games you love from Bioware - are working on ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. Like, the world is going to feel really remeniscent as well, the dark heroic fantasy, Baldur’s Gate it had a taste of that in that game, we’re taking it to a whole new level in DAO, and of course it’s from Bioware, so it’s the next fantasy RPG from Bioware and we’re going to make it our best game yet.

[stan woo, quality assurance design analyst] I’m a fantasy role-play gamer from way back, and ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is exactly the kind of fantasy role-playing adventure that a gamer like me has been wanting for a number of years. We’ve got henchmen that are so well realised you want to talk with them all the time - you want to get their stories, you want to get their reactions to things - and they’ll give it, they’ll give their opinions, they’ll give their reactions; they may yell at you sometimes. And of course the romances, you’ve got all the combat, you’ve got a huge huge story that I haven’t seen since Baldur’s Gate 2, and I love Baldur’s Gate 2.

[bruce venne, quality assurance design analyst] The world that the writers have made is just so fully developed - the history and religion and the politics...

[chad de wolfe, quality assurance tester] When you actually become one of these great heroes and everything like that, they have all these interactions with all the different cultures, and you get to make choices based on how you are, not on how the populace is, and you actually have some sort of an influence on that.

[david gaider, lead writer] There is a certain amount of darkness in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ that players will be subject to. And it’s not always clear cut as to how you should respond.

[greg zeschuk, vp development operations] It’s interesting when you sit down with the folks and they compare what you did back then in the Baldur’s Gate days to what we’re doing now. It’s amazing having that connection back to the game, I think that’s in many ways what forms the foundation for being the spiritual successor.

[ray muzyka] And really taking it to a whole new level, sort of the next-generation interpretation, bringing it to really a technology enhancement, making the tools better, it’s got user-generated tools, a whole bunch of cool things we’re adding to the experience, that will enhance what we did in Baldur’s Gate in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’.

[stan woo] There is just so much to do, so much to see, so many people to talk to, and it’s just a beautiful, beautiful world to play in.

[greg zeschuk] It’s in many ways a return to Bioware’s classic past. How the game play plays is very much like we used to do in Baldur’s Gate with the very carefully choreographed combat: they’re almost like a chess match you have to figure out and try and solve, so really it’s very intellectual and exciting game at the same time. And something that you don’t see in other games right now, the industry has moved to sort of different areas yet there’s still a ton of people - ourselves and folks at Bioware and lots of fans - who want that traditional style of gameplay we did in the Baldur’s Gate series, and ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ brings it back in great super-high-tech-awesome presentation.

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Dan Tudge [dt] narrates a video with previously unseen footage that shows how the different origins can affect the game. Transcript follows.

[dt] Hello, my name is Dan Tudge, and I’m the executive producer and project director on the Dragon Age franchise. Today I’m going to introduce you to Bioware’s dark heroic fantasy ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. In this video we’re going to introduce you to origin stories. We’re going to explore the King’s camp and show you how origins affect your story. The choices you make in your origin story will change the way you perceive the world, and the way the world perceives you.

Now we have taken the path of the human noble origin story. Let’s see how the dialogue plays out with this quarter master.

[quarter master] Have you seen an elf running about? Young woman, red hair, carrying a suite of chain.

[player choice 1] Can’t say I have, no. [chosen]
[player choice 2] What if I have?
[player choice 3] I need some supplies, actually.

[quarter master] Blast it, where did she go? That suite better be patched up before she gets back or by the maker I’ll... Ah, parden my manners, my troubles are no concern of yours I’m sure. I’m the quarter master. Did you come for supplies?

[player choice 1] Do you need help tracking this girl down?
[player choice 2] What kind of supplies to you have?
[player choice 3] Let me see what you have.
[player choice 4] I should go. [chosen]

[quarter master] Maker be with you in the coming battle, friend.

[dt] So that’s a fairly simple exchange, and we’re not really interested in helping him find the missing elf. But it seems like he’s not very happy with her. Now in the world of Dragon Age, elves are often treated as second class citizens; almost as slaves. Let’s head over here for another conversation - we’ve got someone that’s got himself into a bit of trouble.

[prisoner in a cage] Someone finally comes and talks to the lone prisoner. I don’t suppose you’ve come to sentence me?

[player choice 1] No, I haven’t.
[player choice 2] You haven’t been sentenced? [chosen]
[player choice 3] And if I have?

[prisoner] No, they put someone like me in a cage until someone important has time to decide what to do with me. I don’t suppose you have a bit of kindness in you? All I want is food and water. They haven’t fed me since I was locked up and I’m starving.

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] Why would I want to help you? [chosen]
[player choice 3] Tell me why you’re in there, first.
[player choice 4] That’s horrible! Why haven’t they fed you?
[player choice 5] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] Because you might want something I don’t need. Them circle wizards got a chest they keep things in. Magical things. And I stole the key. That’s why I’m here. I got one of them drunk, took his key and tried to sneak to the chest... they assumed I was deserting. I can’t use it from here, but I’d trade you for some food and water.

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] They didn’t find the key when you were arrested? [chosen]
[player choice 3] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] I swallowed it. But it’s come back into my possession since then, so to speak.

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] I’ll take that. (Kill him and take the key.)
[player choice 3] That’s disgusting! [chosen]
[player choice 4] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] Yeah, well, do you want the key or not?

[dt] ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ gives the player the opportunity to make moral choices that can have ramifications down the road. For my human noble character, I’m not going to play nice.

[player option 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] I’ll take that. (Kill him and take the key.) [chosen]
[player option 3] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] What?! But, you can’t do that! Argh, guards!

[player kills prisoner]

[dt] Making a choice like this may catch up with us later on. Now that we’ve shown you a bit of the human noble experience, we’re going to switch to a new character with a different origin story. This time we’ve chosen Catriana, a female elven mage, from the mage origin. Now let’s see how this plays out, based on the player’s origin.

[quarter master] You there, elf. Where’s my armour? And why are you dressed so preposterously?

[player choice 1] Are you mistaking me for a servant? [chosen]
[player choice 2] Because I am here to become a Grey Warden?
[player choice 3] How dare you address me so, human!

[quarter master] What? Oh... err... you’re the one that arrived with the Grey Warden. I... please, forgive my rudeness. There are so many elves running about, and I’ve been waiting for... ah, well it’s simply been so hectic... I never thought... please, pardon my terrible manners, I’m just the quarter master, a simple man, no one special.

[player choice 1] You are forgiven, human, for now.
[player choice 2] Perhaps you should treat your servants more kindly. [chosen]
[player choice 3] Don’t worry about it.
[player choice 4] What kind of supplies do you have?

[dt] Now as I mentioned before, city elves are considered to be second-class citizens, and the quarter master clearly fumbled on his words when he realised that we were actually a grey warden, and not some common elf. ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ really tells your story; you will control how you play and experience it. We’ve just come up to the prisoner who we chose to kill when we were a human noble. Now let’s play it a little differently.

[prisoner in a cage] Someone finally comes and talks to the lone prisoner. I don’t suppose you’ve come to sentence me?

[player choice 1] No, I haven’t.
[player choice 2] You haven’t been sentenced? [chosen]
[player choice 3] And if I have?

[prisoner] No, they put someone like me in a cage until someone important has time to decide what to do with me. I don’t suppose you have a bit of kindness in you? All I want is food and water. They haven’t fed me since I was locked up and I’m starving.

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] Why would I want to help you?
[player choice 3] Tell me why you’re in there, first.
[player choice 4] That’s horrible! Why haven’t they fed you? [chosen]
[player choice 5] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] I expect nobody thought of it, with all the battles and such.

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do.
[player choice 2] Why would I want to help you?
[player choice 3] Tell me why you’re in there, first. [chosen]
[player choice 4] Forget it. I need to go.

[prisoner] I’m a deserter, or so they think. I bet there’s no arguing them out of it though. Armies are funny that way.

[player choice 1] Did you desert? [chosen]
[player choice 2] And I bet you’re as innocent as the sunrise.
[player choice 3] They certainly are.

[prisoner] I wasn’t deserting. But when you catch someone sneaking around camp in the middle of the night, what else are you going to think? Does it matter? All I want is a bit of food and water!

[player choice 1] I’ll see what I can do. [chosen]
[player choice 2] It matters to me, if your cause is just.
[player choice 3] If you weren’t deserting, why sneak around the camp?
[player choice 4] Why haven’t they fed you?

[prisoner] Just ask my guard for his. He’s still got some dinner. I saw him put it in his coat.

[dt] So this time we’ve decided to help the prisoner.

[guard] Lucky dog. You Grey Wardens get to ride with the King while I’m left with the drudgery of guarding this deserter. They should have just hanged him, put his head on a pike as an example.

[player choice 1] I should go.
[player choice 2] Who is this prisoner, exactly?
[player choice 3] Why did he want to desert?
[player choice 4] It seems a waste for you to guard him all day.
[player choice 5] I had a chat with him, actually. [chosen]

[guard] Don’t expect it was an enlightening conversation.

[player choice 1] He asked for some food and water. [chosen]
[player choice 2] I should go.

[guard replies, inaudible]

[dt] Now this character has a high persuade skill, and we’re going to actually use that skill to persuade the guard to give use his food.

[player choice 1] (persuade) So you miss one meal -- this man could be hanged soon! [chosen]
[player choice 2] Then I guess I’ll go.

[guard] All right, all right. I guess the poor fellow could stand to have one meal in this belly before he hangs. Don’t know why you care. I had nothing to do with it though. If anyone asks why he’s burping, I’m going to say it was you, just so you know.

[player returns to the prisoner]

[prisoner] So, brought me some food have you? I’m so hungry I could faint dead away.

[player choice 1] Here’s some food. (Give the food to the prisoner.) [chosen]
[player choice 2] Why would I want to help you?
[player choice 3] No, I haven’t brought you anything.

[prisoner] Much obliged... [inaudible]

[dt] So we’ve helped the prisoner, but we were completely unaware that he even had a key. What’s interesting here is that the moral choices you make affect not only your story, but the items you can receive. We helped him out, felt good about it, but never actually acquired a valuable item. Sometimes, being nice doesn’t always get you what you want. Let’s continue to explore the camp.

[wynne, a female mage] What do we have here? I heard the new Grey Warden recruit was from the circle. I don’t believe we’ve met, but I’ve certainly heard a lot about your talent. My name is Wynne, and I congratulate you on your harrowing. Marvellous work; the fade is a dangerous place.

[player choice 1] I found it terrifying, to be honest. [chosen]
[player choice 2] Yes, I know all about that.
[player choice 3] It wasn’t all that difficult.

[wynne] [reply inaudible]...

[dt] Even though we’re playing as an elf, not all faces are unfriendly.

[wynne] ... So, a Grey Warden fighting alongside the King. Not too shaby for someone just out of apprenticeship.

[player choice 1] King Cailan thinks the battle will go well.
[player choice 2] I am confident in my skills. [chosen]
[player choice 3] I hope I don’t disappoint anyone.

[wynne] [reply inaudible]...

[dt] Wynne has recognised you as a mage that has undergone the harrowing. This is a sacred right of passage that is required by all mages. The harrowing is one of the things that you would have experienced in your mage origin story.

[player choice 1] You’ve faced darkspawn before?
[player choice 2] Do you know much about darkspawn?
[player choice 3] I should get going. [chosen]

[wynne] Well don’t let this old mage distract you from your duties. I’m sure ... [inaudible]

[dt] You can see that by selecting to play the mage origin story, my experience throughout the world will be very different. As a human noble warrior, you would have never had this conversation with Wynne. Now let’s meet the Ash Warriors as an elf.

[ash warrior leader] You there, elf, what’s your name?

[pick, the elf] Ah, it... it... it’s Pick, sir.

[ash warrior leader] Go tell Teyrn Loghain that the war party’s ready to begin scouting. We’ll send word if we find anything amiss.

[pick] Yes sir, right away sir.

[ash warrior leader] Maker’s breath, not another elf. What do you want?

[player choice 1] I just want to talk, that’s all.
[player choice 2] I happen to be a Grey Warden, human, not some servant.
[player choice 3] You have a problem with elves? [chosen]

[ash warrior leader] Not in particular, except for them being so thin boned. You make good messengers, sometimes. Is there something you wanted?

[player choice 1] I will leave you to your business. [chosen]
[player choice 2] You don’t look like the other soldiers in the army.
[player choice 3] Can I ask you something?

[dt] You could see by the way the Ash Warrior treated both ourselves and Pick that he really has no patience or respect for elves. Clearly, he couldn’t see past the ears.

Now we’re heading into an area that hasn’t been shown publicly before [editors note: this was obviously created quite some time ago but only recently published]: welcome to the Korcari Wilds - a dense forest who’s beauty and serenity are contrasted by imminent danger and darkness. With the evolution of pause & play you can pause the action at any time; you can zoom out; you can pan around; you can actually play in this view just like Baldur’s Gate; you can zoom right back into the action.

So now we’re playing the human noble warrior again. The tactics for this battle’s going to change. It’s going to be very up-close and personal, and involve a lot of hand-to-hand combat. [fight ensures]

Next we’re going to introduce you to a character named Morrigan. There’s already been a lot of speculation about her. And as you may have seen, she’s the face in the blood of our logo. She’s a mysterious character that you are meeting for the first time. Let’s meet Morrigan.

[morrigan] Well well. What have we here? Are you a vulture, I wonder? Scavenger poking amidst a corpse who’s bones were long since cleaned? Or merely an intruder, come into these darkspawn-filled wilds of mine in search of easy prey?

[dt] We don’t want to give away too much of Morrigan at this point, except to say that she’s a very interesting character who will definitely have an impact on your story. You’ll learn more about Morrigan the close we get to launch.

We hoped you enjoyed this introduction to the origin stories. Be sure to stay tuned for more information on Bioware’s dark heroic fantasy ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. For more information, be sure to drop by dragonage.com

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Gamespot interviews Dan Tudge [dt], where he talks a little bit about Morrigan, confirming for the first time that she is a possible party member. [from other information we know, this effectively confirms her as romanceable as well] Transcript follows.

[dt] My name is Dan Tudge, I’m the executive producer and project director on the Dragon Age franchise. So really ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is the spiritual successor of Baldur’s Gate. Really, the team has spent a lot of time and effort really creating a great dark heroic fantasy epic. We’ve really taken everything we’ve learned from all our past games and really created, I think, a fantasy masterpiece.

It’s really the evolution of pause & play, so you can pause the action at any time, you can zoom out much like Baldur’s Gate, and you can zoom right back into the action to get great shots. You can move from hero to hero and really command anyone within your party and really make the tactical-based play that was made popular by Baldur’s Gate.

The party-based play is a key pillar of what we’re doing, and the dynamics within the party - both from how combat unfolds, but also how story unfolds - is a really exciting part. Now sure in Baldur’s Gate we definitely had a great interaction with all the party members, and that’s something we’re definitely holding true to with this game. We’re actually announcing exclusively that Morrigan, who we’ve heard a lot about, will actually be one of the players within your party. She’s a shapechanger and a mage, and of course tagging her with another mage is really going to create a dynamic combat system where you can use two mages together to create unique spell combos and really create a devastating magical party.

Morrigan is the daughter of Flemeth who is the legendary witch of the Wilds. She’s, as I mentioned, a shapechanger, and she’s also a mage, so very very exciting character. She also plays a key role within the story, so she’s definitely someone you’re going to want to include in your party and definitely a story you’re going to want to evolve and explore.

You start the game by choosing your origin. You set your character creation, you really define who your character is, and you actually play that character through your first 2-3 hours of gameplay, and that’s your origin. That’s unique to the origin that you pick, and after that throughout the rest of the game the world really changes and adapts to the way you played that origin and the choices that you played within that origin. So really you get your own unique story depending on your origin and how you play it. If you play one origin such as the human noble origin, when you come to a human town you’re going to be treated with a lot more respect than if you go to an elven town, because elves in Dragon Age are very mistreated, they’re treated as second-class citizens. Now conversely if you’re actually playing through as an elf origin, coming back to your homeland is going to be very well received and you’re going to get a very very different experience and you’re going to have a different feeling toward humans because you’re going to be very mistreated by them throughout the games.

Character customisation and progression is really a key pillar of a great core fantasy RPG and we’re certainly giving a lot of depth to that in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. So you definitely pick your character’s stats, you evolve those stats throughout the game, you pick your special abilities whether they be spells or talents or skills, and really cultivate those down the trees and the growth of which you want to develop not only your character, but your party as well. So you’ll want to make sure you balance your party members that you choose and their growth with your hero as well, too.

‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is coming to PC in early 2009.

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The sixth and final direct feed (high quality) video of the toolset demonstration given at PAX. Narrated by Fernando Melo [fm] and Ferret Baudoin [fb]. Transcript follows.

[fm] Welcome back. In this segment of the Dragon Age toolset presentation, we’re going to go right into the game, and have a look at everything we’ve created so far. So here we are in the starting location, where we placed our flag, and we’re facing the direction that we had rotated the flag to, and we’re facing our NPC, our quest-giver. Let’s go ahead an click on him. We can see the hair, beard, outfit and tattoo that we put on him. So we didn’t get a chance to record any VO for the character because all these lines were written at the last minute. However Ferret’s been kind enough to lone us his voice talent and voice the NPC lines.

[fb as quest giver ted] Welcome PAX 2008 attendees. Err... That’s a bit formal, isn’t it? So, do you want to do my quest?

[player choice 1] Tell me about your epic quest of daring-do.
[player choice 2] I’d love to help. Tell me more.
[player choice 3] A quest? What’s my backstory? My Motivation? [chosen]

[fm] Ok, I gotta admit I’m a little bit curious about my backstory and motivation here. Let’s go ahead and pick number 3.

[fb as quest giver ted] This is a toolset demo, not a bloody story synopsis. Your motivation -- if you don’t do this quest then the toolset won’t ship EVER. Now are you motivated? The community’s eyes are on you now. One false step and no more toolset.

[player choice 1] Well--
[player choice 2] But that’s not--
[player choice 3] All right-- [chosen]

[fm] Wow, quest-giver ted is really busting our chops on this one, but we gotta keep going. Lota folks are anxious to get their hands on this toolset. All right, number 3.

[fb as quest giver ted] Just one false step. That’s all it’ll take. I got my eyes on you. Ahem. So about my grand quest. Go over there and kill monsters. If it helps, they’re very mean and very evil. Imagine they killed your family, and you’re on your way for revenge!

[player choice 1] My family’s alive and well, thank you.
[player choice 2] Kill monsters. Is that the best you can do?
[player choice 3] Dead monsters coming up. [chosen]

[fm] Oh, those dastardly creatures, how could they? There’s gotta be something about this. All right, dead monsters coming up.

[fb as quest giver ted] Blood thirsty, anxious, I like it. You’ve got a promising future in the career of professional adventuring. On with the demo.

[fm] All right, so we can see that our quest is now updated on the bottom left here. Let’s go ahead and click on that, and we’ll see that we now have the journal entries that we saw in our conversation editor.

[journal entry:]
You have received the bestest, most awesome, most gripping quest ever. OK, not really. This is just to show a simple quest. But if you tear up on occasion and imagine little Oscar moments as you go it would be appreciated. Oh, and go kill the mosters.

[fm] We’ve now accepted the [reads quest title] "biggest most mind blowing quest ever". And if ever there was an appropriate name for a quest, that certainly would be it. Let’s go ahead and exit that. So now we should be able to click on Quest Giver Ted again, and he should recognise that we’ve now accepted the quest and now start to read the lines that we created.

[quest giver ted] Adding a new line.

[fm] So there’s "adding a new line". And of course only because I asked him nicely...

[quest giver ted] Since you asked so nice, sure. :)

[player choice 1] The Good Choice.
[player choice 2] The Wicked, Evil Choice. [chosen]
[player choice 3] Fine, Morally Grey.

[fm] And I’m pretty sure which choice people are going to go for. Let’s try the wicked evil choice. And we didn’t have any other lines after those choices, but you can see how it works. So the next thing that we’re going to do is we’re going to run over to our ballista, the object that we placed on the map... there it is. We can see what it looks like, we can angle the camera around, and you can see that it fits the contour nicely of the land; it looks like it actually belongs there and is placed well.

Let’s go ahead and run over to where our enemies are at now. As we approach, we’re going to jump into combat. There they are. And they’re equipped with the mace and shield, just like we set them up. We’re just going to go ahead and let Ferret do his thing and take care of our enemies here... nicely done. All right, so now we can see that our quest is updated on the bottom left here. Our script has recognised that all the creatures that we set up in team 1 are now dead. And it’s updated the status of our quest to say that all the creatures have been killed.

[journal entry:]
The epic battle is over. The monsters you created and placed are well and truly destroyed. In Ferelden they will selebrate this occasion every year and make a holiday out of it. Small children will say they want to grow up to be just like you. Or perhaps Michael Phelps.

[fm] Now that we’ve killed all the creatures, we should be able to go back, talk to our quest giver, and he should recognise that we’ve completed our quest. Let’s go ahead and click on him.

[fb as quest giver ted] The monsters are dead. The demo’s done. Goodbye now. This is an emotional moment for me. I told myself I wouldn’t cry.

[fm] All right, so our quest is done, we got some loot as well, great job by Ferret on VO -

[fb] It wasn’t ‘great’, it was marvellous.

[fm] [laughs] Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoyed our demo. This wraps up our presentation of the Dragon Age toolset. If you haven’t done so already, and are interested in creating content using the Dragon Age toolset, I’d encourage you to go and visit us online at dragonage.com. You can join the community there, sign up for the worldbuilder news letter to stay up-to-date, we’d love to see you on the forums. For myself and Ferret, thanks again.

[fb] Goodbye.

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The fifth of 6 direct feed (high quality) videos of the toolset demonstration given at PAX. Narrated by Fernando Melo [fm] and Ferret Baudoin. Transcript follows.

[fm] Welcome back. In this segment of the Dragon Age toolset presentation, we’re going to be talking about how we can add dialogue and a quest to our non-player character. The next thing we’re gonna to do is we wanna to add some dialogue to our character, to our NPC. He has to, after all, give us a quest. We’re going to go ahead and jump to the conversation tab, and in this case we’re going to load up an existing conversation; and we’ve gone ahead and pre-seeded this with some lines. Let’s go ahead and add some new lines, just so you can see how quickly and easily you can lines of dialogue to an NPC... maybe one more just for me... excellent. Maybe we can also show off how choices work. So once our NPC reads us that line these are the choices that would appear at the bottom of the screen for us. So we kinda have a good choice, a wicked evil choice - now in Dragon Age there really isn’t a concept of good and evil, so maybe we can add a third choice that’s a little bit more appropriate... very nice.

Alright, so the next thing we want to do is move that branch of dialogue that we just created and place it above the welcome line. The way that this is going to work when we attach this dialogue to our NPC, is he’s first going to read that "Welcome PAX attendees 2008" line. Within that branch of dialogue he will assign a quest to us, and we’re going to show that off in a second. The next thing that we do is we wanna make sure that the lines of dialogue that we’ve created will play after we’ve accepted our quest. The way that we do that is we jump to the plot flags, the plot tab here, at the bottom, and we’re gonna assign a plot script to this branch of dialogue. Now we’re going to cover scripting and plots and how all of that is going to work in much more detail over the next couple of weeks and months.

But for our purposes here we can just quickly jump to see what that looks like, just to give you an idea. We’ll open up our plot editor here. Now this plot, this quest, has three main states to it. The first one is when the quest has been accepted, and you can see that that’s set as flag 0. At the bottom of the screen you can see the journal entry - this is what would actually show up in our in-game journal text. The next plot flag, or the next state of our quest, is when we’ve actually killed all the creatures, and that’s set to flag 1, of course there’s an update to our journal at the bottom as well. Now this is when we’ve killed all the creatures in team 1, which we talked a little bit about when placing enemies. You’ll recognise that and update that we’ve killed all those creatures. And the last one is when the quest is done. So all the creatures are killed, we go and talk to our quest giver, he recognises it, and rewards it... hopefully.

Let’s jump back to our conversation. So again we’ve attached this plot and the next thing that we want to do is make sure that these lines of dialogue will only play when we’ve had our quest accepted. So let’s go ahead and pick ‘quest accepted’, and we’ll set this to ‘true’. So only when ‘quest accepted’ is ‘true’ will these lines of dialogue play. So what’s going to happen is, we’ll get this attached, we’ll talk to our NPC, quest-giver, he will assign the quest to us, he’ll then recognise the quest has been assigned, so the next time we click on him he’ll read our lines.

At the top you can now see the third set of lines which is set to only appear once we’ve actually killed the creatures. And we’ll be able to take a look at that as well. Let’s go ahead and assign this conversation to our NPC. We’ll go ahead and save. And the last thing we want to do of course is we’ll want to place our quest-giver in the map. Let’s go ahead and select him in the creatures tab, we’ll put him on our map the same way we did with our enemies and our objects. We’ll go ahead and place him near that flag, just so it’s easy for us to find him as soon as we jump into the map. Let’s go ahead and save that. So you can see how quickly it is that we can add some dialogue to an NPC.

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The fourth and final direct feed (high quality) video of the gameplay demo given at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Narrated by Dan Tudge [dt]. It has mostly been seen previously in low-quality cam-corder videos, but this is the first time we can very clearly see the inventory system, and what happens immediately after the Ogre in the tower of Ishal is killed. Transcript follows.

[dt] Welcome to episode 4 of the demo for ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: the Tower of Ishal. Now before we head into the tower, we’re going to actually swap out to a hero with a different origin. This one, an elven mage, is going to have a little more firepower. So we’re now in the tower of Ishal, and you can see here’s our elven mage. We still have the rest of our original party, you can see the blood and gore is still on them from the previous battles - this stays with you. By the looks of these barricades up ahead we may be in for a bit of a trap, but we’re going to head in anyway.

You can see our party’s been caught in grease. And that emissary up there, well he’s launched a fireball. That fireball’s lit the grease on fire. Now in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, spells can interact with each other. So in that vein, we’re going to use our mage, cast ‘Blizzard’, and hopefully put this fire out. So while we were putting out this fire with Blizzard, our advanced party tactics sent our warriors up here and started taking out these darkspawn. At any time you can move from character to character in your party. You can zoom out to tactical where you can issue commands, spells, special abilities... you can stay in this view, just like Baludur’s Gate, or you can zoom right back into the action. Now that pause & play really allows you to get up close and get a great shot of the action.

[new spell descriptions seen:]
Tempest
Cost: 60
The caster creates an intense electrical storm that drains the life and mana/stamina of creatures within it.

Flaming Weapons
Cost: 20
Upkeep: 10
When activated, the primary weapon equipped by each party member is engulfed in flames, dealing additional damage with each hit.

Glyph Of Paralysis
Cost: 20
The caster places a glyph on the ground which, when entered, explodes and paralyses the target for a short time.

Flame Blast
Cost: 15
A cone of fire shoots out from the caster’s hands, setting all creatures within the cone on fire.

[with the help of tempest and the warriors, the emissary is defeated]

[dt] Before we push on forward, we’re actually going to loot this emissary. He’s probably got a few items we could use. [items are dragged from a list of items on the corpse to a list of items held by the whole party; there is a 1000 item limit] We’ll certainly grab this Sword of Ogre Strength and this Flamescale Armor; I think they’re going to help us out later.

Now before we head through this door, we’re going to use a buff on our entire party this time. It’s called ‘Flaming Weapons’, and it’s going to add fire damage to all our weapons. We’re going to use the warrior to go through the door first. Now this room’s full of Hurlocks. These guys are a little more difficult. So we’re going to use a different tactic. This time we’re going to use ‘Glyph of Paralysis’, and hopefully we’ll freeze up one of these Hurlocks. Now we’re going to hit ‘em with ‘Flame Blast’. This is a devastating spell, so you’re going to have to be very very careful where you point it. Now clearly in this encounter the flaming weapons really helped out.

You can see our artists have taken a lot of effort in making sure that these environments are absolutely stunning. They’re very very proud of their work. Now that tower guard mentioned that the darkspawn may be coming up from the lower chambers; clearly this hole, it’s one of their entry points. Now earlier we mentioned that spells in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ can interact with each other. We saw the emissary light the grease on fire with a fireball. We’re going to try the same thing; we’re going to cast grease, and then light it on fire. And what we’re really talking about are spell combos. In ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, you can use spells together to create new devastating effects. Many of these will be documented, but a lot, you’re going to have to experiment with, and find out for yourself. Not sure if I like the sound of what’s behind that door, but we got a beacon to light, so let’s push on forward.

[mini ogre-meeting cutscene plays]

This is one of our more devastating creatures: the Ogre. Creatures like this are going to come with all their own unique abilities: Ogre hurl, pound... we’ve got Ogre grab (this is my particular favourite) - this is where he literally grabs a member of your party and pounds them. We’re going to have to throw everything we’ve got at this Ogre just to take him down. These encounters are going to be intense. They’re going to take every talent, every spell, every tactic you’ve learned.

[the ogre defeats all but one of the party members, then uses grab on him... then alistair is released and manages to defeat the ogre with a finishing move, with just a few percent health left]

Dark, heroic fantasy people, we don’t pull any punches here. Now we’ve got a beacon to light. Let’s see what happens.

[cut scene plays of loghain seeing the beacon, then another ogre grabbing king cailan before a fade to black]

[dt] So today you saw scalable combat, where you are always the hero. And through the story of the battle of Ostagar, you saw the decisions you made changed the way you perceived the world, and the way the world perceives you. And you saw Bioware’s return to it’s roots, with ‘Dragon Age: Origins’.

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The fourth of 6 direct feed (high quality) videos of the toolset demonstration given at PAX. Narrated by Fernando Melo [fm] and Ferret Baudoin. Transcript follows.

[fm] Welcome back. This is the Dragon Age toolset demonstration, and in this segment we’re going to be talking about how we create our non-player character, the quest-giver, and how we can customise how he looks. Now we’re going to need a quest-giver. Somebody’s going to give us our imputus to go forth and do good. Or not, as your choice might be. In Dragon Age there really isn’t a concept of ‘good’ or ‘evil’, there’s only choices and consequences.

We’re going to go ahead and add a new creature. This skin’ll load up our human male model. There he is, in all of his glory, as it were. And maybe the first thing we can do is give him some clothing. Any self-respecting quest-giver’s going to need some kind of clothing, or you wouldn’t take him seriously. So we’ve gone back to our inventory, and we have a couple of options for a demo here. Maybe we can pick one of those noble outfits... let’s go ahead and equip that. That’s not too bad, pretty spiffy. But I think for what we’re looking for I kind of like the servant’s outfit, actually. Let’s go ahead and add that and equip it. Pretty cool.

Alright, now he is still looking a little bit default, largely in part of the fact that he’s got a basic head. Now one of the things we can do is actually pull in any of the heads or faces from characters in the game. We’ll take a look at the appearances here; we have a limited selection for our demo. There’s Alistair. Alistair is one of the characters that joins you in the demo, if you’ve had a chance to look at that. We also have King Cailan. King Cailan, if you remember from the trailer, is kind of our young and idealistic King. He’d probably kill me if I put him in those servant’s robes, but touch cookies: we’re going to have in the servant’s robes. Alright, let’s go ahead and give him a name.

And, one of the other things we can do is, let’s say we’re not happy using one of the existing characters in the game, we can actually create a brand-new head-morph, a brand-new character from scratch. We’ll go ahead and create a new head-morph, and we’re going to choose our human male character, our base head from which all human male characters start from. And there it is. On the right hand side you can actually see that there’s several options available. And those are actually in several different categories; there’s actually hundreds of options in total. And when you combine that with the number of genders and races that we have, you actually have a nearly unlimited number of distinct heads that you can create using the system; pretty powerful.

For the benefit of the demo we’re actually going to stick to a couple of options that have some pretty dramatic
effects. Some of the sliders and options are fairly subtle, just to give you very finite control over what your character looks like. One of the cool things is that as part of the character creation process of the game itself, you’ll have something much more friendly that you can use to create what your player character is going to look like.

So maybe we can jump to the nose option. Have a little bit of a perspective view there. And why don’t we look at the up & down option, just to give a quick idea. We’ll just move that slider and you can see straight away the effect that it has. But again, given the hundreds of options that we have here, we think that you’ll actually have quite a lot of fun in creating very unique looking, very cool looking NPCs.

Let’s take a look now at what our hairstyles look like. We’ll go ahead and open up the hairs. And maybe we can just pick one of those default ones. That’s a little bit hard to see with the background; maybe we can change it to the blond colour. That’s a little bit better. Let’s take a look at a second hairstyle, so you get a feel for the different kinds of styles that exist. Here we are with a kind of ponytail with a braid. Looks pretty cool. Let’s take a look at another option... that looks pretty nice.

OK, so one of the other things we can show you is beards, or facial hair. Let’s take a look at some of those options now... that’s not bad. The last thing that we can show is actually tatoos. Now tatoo masks are something that you can apply - and all this also exists in the character creation process - each of the tattoo masks actually comes with different layers. So you can actually blend several of these together. And you can also see some options for some colours as well. For our purposes we’ll just kinda stick to the basic colour, but you get the idea. Let’s go ahead and save that. And the next thing that we’re going to want to do is attach that head to our quest giver. So you can see how easy it is to create an NPC and customise him. Let’s go ahead and save that.

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The third of four direct feed (high quality) videos of the gameplay demo given at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Narrated by Dan Tudge [dt]. This part contains the battle cutscene seen many times before, and the run up to the tower, also seen before in low-quality shaky cam version. Transcript follows.

[dt] Welcome to ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ episode 3. This is where the action really starts to ramp.

[battle cut-scene plays]

[duncan] The plan will work, your majesty.

[king cailan] Of course it will, the Blight ends here.

[cut scene continues: the blight rush the king’s camp]

[king cailan] Archers!... Hounds!... For Ferelden!

[cut scene ends, player runs across a bridge toward the tower of ishal]

[dt] The battle of Ostagar is underway.

[guard] Help me, they’re everywhere. They’ve taken the... you, you’re Grey Wardens, aren’t you? The tower, it’s been taken.

[alistair] What are you talking about man, taken how?

[guard] The dark spawn came up through the lower chambers and they’re everywhere. Most of my men are dead.

[alistair] Then we have to get to the beacon and light it ourselves.

[player choice 1] Come with us. We could use your help. [chosen]
[player choice 2] Get yourself to safety. Alisair and I will handle this.
[player choice 3] Just point us in the right direction.

[guard] Right, let’s hurry.

[dt] You’ll notice how easily we added this tower guard to our party. This choice is entirely ours. You’ll be faced with many choices like this in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. My guess is, being a tower guard, he may not make it. We’re about to have our first combat. With the evolution of pause & play, you can pause the action at any time. Now before we head into battle we’re going to use a special ability called a ‘talent’ on our warrior. This one’s ‘Berserk’, it’s going to send him into a frenzy at a cost of stamina. It’s time to take out some darkspawn.

[party battles a group of genlocks]

‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is focused on mature themes, and you can see by this action, we don’t pull any punches here. Now before we engage these darkspawn up this platform, we’re going to actually make use of a couple of additional talents: this one called ‘Shield Bash’, which is just that, and another one called assault, which is a flurry of four blows.

[also seen:]
Shield Pummel
Cost: 30
The character unbalances his target with a well aimed main hand attack, then slams his target with two powerful blows from his shield.

You can see these are very effective talents. For a warrior, effectively using your talents is going to be key to victory in any combat situation. Next time you’ll get to see the tower of Ishal, and our endeavour to complete the mission and light the beacon send Loghain’s troops into battle to crush the darkspawn.

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