It is no secret that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had a bumpy development, to say the least, and the fact that it shipped as a complete, technically sound, and overall solid entry in the beloved franchise is remarkable. Such long and tumultuous development cycles have been the ruin of many a poor game, but that wasn’t the case here. That said, the game has undergone several iterations and changes since its initial concepts – back when Dragon Age: The Veilguard was originally and internally codenamed Joplin. One of the most interesting changes is its companion hub.
The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is available on Amazon, gives fans an intimate look at how the game’s conceptual work changed throughout its time. It’s divided into three sections: Post-Inquisition, Joplin, and Veilguard. The first section covers ideas made before Inquisition shipped until it was officially codenamed Joplin, the second section covers the ideas for the game until the team pivoted to Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the third was all the ideas developed under the codename Morrison. Along the way, Dragon Age: The Veilguard dropped its live-service element, several ideas for features like “Scoundrels,” conceptualized various different companions, and for the longest time, considered a completely different hub from the Lighthouse.
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Reveals Scrapped Companions
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s art book reveals some possible companions that ultimately never made it off the cutting room floor.
One of the earliest ideas for Dragon Age 4‘s companion hub was a mobile base: a ship. Not only is there plenty of art depicting how the ship would have looked and areas on the ship, but there were story beats surrounding this ship. For example, one concept art details players having their ship stolen, with players having to go into enemy territory to retrieve it. This idea continued to develop once it was Project Joplin, where another page talks about how the ship would have been a great backdrop for interpersonal conflict. Furthermore, there was at least an idea at some point that the ship was a scrappy fixer-upper procured for the players by returning Dragon Age character Isabela.
From Ship to Submarine to Veil Whale to Lighthouse
At another point, the ship even had a name: The Dumat (after the first Archdemon). However, ships were not great for the spy theme of Dragon Age: The Veilguard at the time, so the team event went so far as to consider a submarine. This, of course, brought up challenges for the Dragon Age team: how would a submarine fit into a fantasy setting? This meant several iterations to try to adjust the submarine and hub, with the art book showing one that looked more like a sea monster (called the Dragon Sub) that was made in Tevinter, an underwater mansion on the back of an actual sea creature, a castle on the back of a giant Veil Whale (that swam across the Veil), and Xenon’s island. As the story solidified and the team decided Solas would be trapped in the Fade, it made the most sense to grant players access to his base of operations – and the ship idea was no more.
It was a long road to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and its excellent art book is accompanied by ideas that probably wouldn’t hold water, ideas that could have, and things that made it into the game or got left on the cutting room floor. Right now, BioWare has no official plans for Dragon Age: The Veilguard DLC, though that hasn’t stopped many fans from asking. Whether BioWare sticks to this plan or changes its mind remains to be seen, but the silver lining is hopefully that fans don’t have to wait a decade for the next game.
- Franchise
- Dragon Age
- Released
- October 31, 2024
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong