Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s co-directors have discussed BioWare’s push to return to its roots in character-focused single-player role-playing games, after its recent struggles with both Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem.
Speaking on the My Perfect Console podcast, The Veilguard directors Corinne Busche and John Epler said BioWare had been supported by publisher EA in returning to what the studio had always done best, after seeing its focus diluted by chasing industry trends.
“I felt very supported through this by BioWare and EA,” Busche said, on Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s development. And I’ll tell you, it’s intimidating to buck the trends in an era where it feels like almost every game must be an open world.
“It’s [being able to say], you know what – that works for those titles. For us, the way in which we tell the best stories and stay true to our roots – a more handcrafted, intimate solution is appropriate. And just to have that support from within, around getting back to those elements we do best, was fantastic.”
Epler, a BioWare veteran of 17 years, said that the studio’s focus with The Veilguard had been a deliberate push to return to its “very real strength” in character-building and storytelling, after “projects that maybe didn’t centre that strength as well as they could have”.
“You know, I personally love Mass Effect Andromeda but there was also – we had open-world that was a big thing in the industry at the time and that starts to dilute your focus,” Epler said. “We had Anthem – live-service dilutes your focus.
“So for us it was really understanding what it is that people come to the studio to do – they work here for a reason, they want to make big stories that… allow you to be a big hero of your own creation, but also a focus on characters, a focus on that experience of living in a different world.
For The Veilguard we just wanted to get back to those things that made the studio what it was, that contributed to what I would call the Golden Age of BioWare, when there was hit after hit being turned out. The Veilguard was a very conscious return to that with a focus on characters, storytelling and being just this really bombastic single-player RPG.”
Dragon Age: The Veilguard had a decade-long on-off development and at one point was set to include multiplayer elements until EA and BioWare changed tack, resulting in the brilliant single-player RPG that ultimately released last month.
Story ideas for the game lasted throughout that time, however, as can be seen in some of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s earliest concept art, which has now been shared online. But perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising? After all, as we found out from Dragon Age creator David Gaider, BioWare knew the deepest secrets of Dragon Age lore 20 years ago, and locked it away in an uber-plot document.
A fantasy role-playing game of astonishing spectacle. This is the best Dragon Age, and perhaps BioWare, has ever been,” our Bertie wrote in Eurogamer’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard review.
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