After many setbacks that cut short the studio’s ambitions for Anthem, BioWare will bring its two main licenses back to the fore in the years to come, Mass Effect and dragon age. It is the latter that interests us now, with the aptly named Dragon Age: Dreadwolffourth episode which will have the task of succeeding Origins, Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. Its title had been formalized last June, with some details about this famous relentless wolf what is Solas, with the promise of learning more before the end of the year. Well, yes, we just heard from her and it’s pretty good.
The one who will be called in French Dragon Age: The Relentless Wolf (a first for a title to be translated for the license) has just come out of its alpha phase and can be played from start to finish, but it will still be a long way before it lands on our consoles and PCs. A long post from Gary McKay has been posted on the license website to explain in detail the current situation.
Good morning !
In my last blog post, in February, I announced the start of the production phase of the next Dragon Age. We have come a long way since! The team is even very happy to announce the next step in the development of the game you now know as Dragon Age: The Relentless Wolf: We have just completed our Alpha phase!
We worked hard on the different parts of the game, but it wasn’t until the Alpha phase that the game started to take shape. For the first time, we have an overview of the entire game, from the first scenes of the first mission until the end. Everything is now visible, audible, playable and forms a cohesive experience.
AND NOW ?
If the game is obviously not finished yet, the Alpha phase is one of the most important in the development of the game, and for several reasons. First of all, we can now tackle the aesthetic realism of the final form and the recovery of the gameplay characteristics. The big question now is: “Where should we focus our efforts? » To answer this, we consult feedback from a variety of sources, including Community Council members, who each have their own experiences and perspectives, our quality review team, and the findings of our extensive internal testing. Collecting feedback from different sources gives us a better idea of how much time and energy to put into improving the experience.
Furthermore, we are now able to assess the rhythm of the gamehow relationships develop over time, progression through the game, and narrative consistency (essentially how the plot takes shape). Starting from the story, as we wrote it, we study if the way in which it is served by the characters, the dialogues, the cinematics and the progression in the game, is in line with our expectations. Now that we have the ability to play a full game, we are able to rehearse and polish the points that our community values the most.
The beginning of this Alpha phase being for the whole team the culmination of a lot of effort, we are taking advantage of this new level to mark the occasion together. So we organized a small hybrid party with people “in person” and others “virtually”, during which the team was able to present their work to the entire BioWare staff. We even took the time to organize a little virtual escape game during which we had to work together to help someone find a way out through the camera. We had a great time, and from their respective places of connection, the members of our development teams enjoyed sharing this moment.
FROM BEGINNING TO END
After a few hours spent discovering the game in its entirety, I admit that I have a weakness for the characters. Whether it’s followers, allies or enemies, their integration into the game is in line with Dragon Age’s DNA, the stories are character-driven, around a concept that is still going up a notch. notch. The characters help us contextualize the game world and the stakes, and I look forward to discussing them in more depth.
It is a real pleasure to finally be able to introduce our fans to parts of the world we only glimpsed but never got to fully explore, like Minrathia, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. We have already talked about Minrathia in previous games. Well now you will finally be able to visit it! The identity of this city built by magic has a rather spectacular visual identity compared to the cities already seen in Dragon Age.
As I said before, the Alpha phase is extremely important, but we still have work to do. And as we want a certain transparency with you, our community, we will keep you informed of our creations. We hope you enjoyed this Relentless Wolf development information, and you will receive more in the future.
TO FINISH
Of course, The Implacable Wolf is not the only work in progress at BioWare! Our team is hard at work imagining what Mass Effect’s next single-player game will look like. We’ll also be honoring our community next month on N7 Day. The SWTOR team is also continuing to work on their next update, so keep an eye on SWTOR.com and associated social media for updates on the upcoming update.
The news is therefore rather busy at BioWare! We still have a lot of great things to show you. In the meantime, thank you again for being part of our community. We couldn’t have done anything without you.
Be well!
Gary McKay
General director