Dragon Age Central

Chris Fields [cf] interviews Dan Tudge [dt]. Transcript follows:

[cf] We’re really fortunate here today to have one of the busiest people here at Bioware available for a podcast here today. Maybe you can tell us a little of who you are and what you do here at Bioware?

[dt] My name is Dan Tudge and I am the project director and executive producer on the Dragon Age franchise. Today I’m going to talking about Dragon Age: Origins.

[cf] Which is the next great game coming out for Bioware. Maybe you can explain a little bit about what a project director is, and what your responsibilities are here at Bioware?

[dt] Yeah, basically I am the guy in charge, responsible for the entire project. I work with the great team, and manage them to completion.

[cf] Uh, well, let’s get right into it. Can you tell the people listening a little bit about what Dragon Age is and what it its all about?

[dt] Well Dragon Age is really Bioware’s return to its roots. It’s a dark, heroic fantasy; something we’ve been working a long time on and are very proud of.

[cf] And it brings us right into kind of the next question: why has it taken so long to get ready? This project has been in development for many many years now. I’m really happy that we’re finally starting to talk about it because I know how cool it looks, but what has taken this long?

[dt] Bioware has always been known for its high quality standards. We have always taken the time that it needs to make that we exceed the fans expectations.

[cf] Recently it was said in the press that Dragon Age is a game about Dragons. Is this true?

[dt] Well, the name ‘Dragon Age’ literally means the time frame in which dragons existed. But dragons do play a role in the game; we’re not really going to talk about that right now.

[cf] Yeah, let’s not give away game secrets just yet, but, yeah, that’s great. So, it is dragons, you will see some dragons in Dragon Age, but, you know, let’s move onto another question here. Another comment that was made: Ray Muzyka himself said that Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate. What does that really mean?

[dt] Well as I mentioned earlier it’s really a return to our roots for us; in fact a large part of the team was the Baldurs Gate development team. So there’s really a lot of roots within the team as well as within the IP. Critics and fans have long held Baldurs Gate as one of their favourite RPGs and it’s certainly one of my favourites. And it was both critically and commercially successful. What we mean with Dragon Age being the spiritual successor is that the game is set in a fantasy setting and we’re taking a lot of what we’ve learned from Baldurs Gate and our other titles and will deliver everything that the fans expect.

[cf] You mentioned already that Dragon Age is sort of a dark fantasy. What exactly makes Dragon Age dark?

[dt] We refer to it as dark heroic fantasy, so there’s heroic elements as well as dark elements. What this means is it’s very gritty, bloody... I use the word ‘carnage’ quite often... it’s epic with very mature themes. It still has some high-fantasy elements: there’s heroes, villains, magic... but we’re not really pulling any punches with Dragon Age: it is definitely mature and it is definitely dark and gritty and, as I said earlier, ‘carnage’ - a lot of carnage.

[cf] Speaking a little bit - you say it’s more an adult game, a little more blood and gore - does that mean there’s still going to be the fantasy elements that people like for Bioware games: things such as romances, that sort of things?

[dt] Well one of the staples of Bioware stories has always been a romance plot, which you can choose to pursue or not. You’ll find that there’s a potential love interest that you can choose to develop a relationship with, but we really don’t want to give away any spoilers here, so I think we’ll leave it at that.

[cf] You mentioned that this is kind of a return to Bioware’s role-playing game roots, the fantasy roots. Does that mean its a turn-based role-playing game?

[dt] Dragon Age is really... not really turn based - we call it pause-and-play tactical. And really what you get is to pause the action at any time, zoom in on the action, issue commands for combat, issue spells, talents, abilities... and really control the battle field - either from the tactical view or right in close on the action.

[cf] It’s been said that Dragon Age is really going to be a fantastic single-player role-playing game experience; why will it not feature a multi-player aspect?

[dt] When designing Dragon Age we really wanted to focus on a story-driven single-player experience. I really left multi-player as a feature that actually hindered the development of that experience. Origins stories, for instance, are a big example of a feature that really we only needed to include in a single-player version, where you can actually choose and then play the origins of your character. Again, driving towards a deep story-driven experience.

[cf] Dragon Age has a lot of very classic RPG elements: a fantastic story, combat, gameplay, all that sort of thing. What is the plan to make it appeal to a really broad audience?

[dt] Dragon Age features a lot of really classic RPG elements that I really think our core audience will really latch onto and enjoy. But the experience is very cinematic - it’s very large and epic - and I think really that the main stream users will find the visuals very compelling, they’ll find the story very compelling, and as well the treatment of the game as a whole.

[cf] What was the inspiration for Dragon Age? Was it more ‘Lord of the Rings’, or was it more ‘Baldurs Gate’?

[dt] Well we’re certainly huge fans of Lord of the Rings. I mean I don’t think you can be a fantasy junky and not be a fan of Lord of the Rings. Basically there’s a lot of IP that we’ve drawn upon for inspiration. Baldurs Gate is certainly a big piece of it. But really it’s a new and exciting direction for us that really is our own.

[cf] Let’s talk a little bit about Dragon Age and its potential future. Is it going to be a series of games like Neverwinter Nights was?

[dt] Dragon Age is really a universe in which all kinds of great entertainment can exist. ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ is really just the beginning.

[cf] The key question that I know a lot of fans are going to have: when is Dragon Age going to be released?

[dt] Currently we’re aiming to have ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ out this fiscal year; more details will be coming soon.

[cf] And, I guess that kinda leads into the last question. I know you’re really busy and heading off into E3 where we’re going to be showing Dragon Age. When are we going to be learning more about Dragon Age?

[dt] Well there’s going to be a whole lot more coming on ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ in the next few months: stay tuned for lots of announcements. But really we’ve got a lot of exciting things to talk about from now until release.

[cf] Thanks very much Dan!

[dt] Thank you.

Here we have a top-down view of the party battling an ogre. The PC is a male mage casing a fire spell at the ogre. An archer stands safely in the distance, attacking. A dog party member crouches near the ogre, as if ready to pounce. However one party member lies dead at the feet of the ogre. Strangely there seems to be another dead party member (shown on the mini-map as a friendly yellow dot), but he has no portrait.

From the mage’s quickbar we can see the variety of spells he can cast. These include fire, acid, ice and lighting spells. One of the spells may be related to increasing weapon power, or creating a weapon. Another may be related to healing.

Another gameplay shot featuring 4 party members and a dog viewed from the isometric-style camera angle. Strangely there are only character portraits for 3 of the party members and the dog.

All of them have earned enough experience to level up, as indicated by an up arrow symbol next to their portraits.

Except for the currently selected character, all portraits have red faces. The meaning of that colouration isn’t clear.

The graphics are sumptuous, with the soft lighting giving the room a painterly feeling reminiscent of Baldurs Gate.

A man with a shield strapped to his back stands in tall grass with trees in the distance.

The UI is shown, and this character has earned enough experience to level up.

A well-armoured fighter looks on as his dog attacks an enemy who sprays blood everywhere, coating the dog in blood as well.

Outdoors, in a field of grass, a mage casts a dangerous looking spell as 2 fighters rush him.

The second shot of the gameplay interface. Similar to the first, this time the camera has been angled down to a more over-the-shoulder viewpoint behind the 4 party members as they ready themselves before a large glowing mass of magical energy.

A fighter stands amongst magnificent columns and archways with light streaming through them and flags waving in the breeze.

A male fighter with 2 swords strapped to his back walks down the street of a slightly ruined town. Following him is a dog.

Outdoors, with mountains in the distance, a female magic user holds a huge staff aloft as she casts a spell.

An orgre holds one party member in one hand, easily lifting him far off the ground. As the ogre readies to beat this hapless fighter, 3 other party members and a dog circle around the orgre, preparing to fight back.

Our first good look at what the interface might look like whilst playing. The game is seen from an angled top-down perspective zoomed out quite far away so that many characters and plenty of the location can be seen at once.

The mini-map top right indicates party members with yellow dots and enemies with red dots. The currently selected party member has an extra yellow ring around his dot. The field of view of that party member is shown with an arc, but this does not correspond to the field of view of the camera, which may (or may not) have a fixed rotation. A red arrow is also displayed, but it is unclear what this represents.

Party member portraits are shown to the left of the screen. These are live 3d models representing current character state, not hand-drawn art. One of the party members is dead, indicated by his portrait being grayed out. Each circular portrait is surrounded by 2 bars. A red one on the left half of the circle represents health. The female magic user has a blue half circle on the right representing her current reserve of mana. The other two characters have yellow half circles instead, representing stamina.

At the bottom of the screen are a set of buttons for activating special abilities (the currently selected character, ‘Daveth’, seems to be an archer with arrow-related skills). There is a button that might be used for quickly changing weapon configuration, and a multi-segmented bar that may indicate current experience level.

At the top of the screen are a set of standard icons for opening up character, inventory, quest, map, configuration and help screens. Two more icons here are of unknown function, but may open windows for magic, fighting or other special skills.

A magic user with a bald head casts a spell that surrounds his left hand in blue energy. He faces an evil looking creature who is recoiling from an attack, blood spraying from his body.

A view from within a ruined building looking up at the full moon in the night sky.

A screenshot from the first teaser trailer, his majesty in golden armour the features a dragon head engraving stands with his army.