The Canadian studio blows the candles with a new title of the Dragon Age saga on the horizon and some unknowns about its future.
Sic Parvis Magna, greatness is born of small beginnings, as Nathan Drake would say, protagonist of the Uncharted saga. BioWare was born in a loft, as were many other studies of the time. He did it almost with his robe on, as its three founders, Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muyzka and Augustine Yip were doctors by profession. It happened on February 1, 1995, which means that 25 years have passed since BioWare took its first steps in the city of Alberta, Canada.
More than two decades separate Anthem, his most recent title, from Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn, one of the most successful role-playing games in history. Since that time, it has always been said that there is a BioWare DNA, but what is the playable formula that has given so many joys to users? Are the romances or perhaps the moral system that shows? It may be the combat system, the characters, the story, or a set of elements that interweave to form a recognizable and palpable style by their fans.
In 1995 young BioWare began the incredible journey of game development. Thank you for sharing worlds, stories, and companions with us over the last 25 years. Join us for the next 12 months as we celebrate the amazing work done in our studios and by our inspiring fans. # BioWare25 pic.twitter.com/gNW89dbMuq
– BioWare (@bioware) February 1, 2020
Recognizable mechanics
The role of BioWare is born directly from board games. Both Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights use the rules of Dungeons and Dragons to reproduce the combat. In practice, it is an RPG with a complex shift system that takes into account the attributes of the characters. That complexity decreased in later video games, although the creators of Divinity, Larian Studios, who are in charge of the development of Baldur's Gate III, have managed to recover it. Be that as it may, it will incorporate a more action-oriented or strategy-oriented combat system, all BioWare products have worked on combat, dialogues and the construction of characters, both plot and in their intrinsic characteristics.
The second part of Baldur's Gate introduced many new mechanics, including romances. David Gaider, a former BioWare member, says the idea came when they thought about creating arcs for the characters. He states in an interview with ShackNews: "Then the idea of the romances came up. At the beginning we were going to have 6: three female and three male. We were interested in it, but how would they be," they asked. "I don't think we knew, we didn't have any address. We just wanted to tell a great story." Next, Gaider sat down and began writing them one by one, until the stories flowed.
Baldur's Gate II.
Neverwinter Nights had no romances, but other features of the developer, such as the moral system and the adaptation of the rules of Dragons and Dungeons. "The key element of a pencil and paper game is a fun group, a DM that can tell a good story and that has enough attractions to last until dawn," says Trent Oster, one of the key members of the Neverwinter Nights team. , in an interview with GOG. "I think that playing with friends in a video game can move it well."
In this production of Atari, the campaign passed to a more secondary level, but the community had in its hands the tool to build new stories with the game engine, a proprietary technology known as Aurora Engine. "I think we focus on a very simple plan: give value to users' money. Everyone who buys Neverwinter Nights receives a fun game, the tools to tell their own stories and the power to manage their own server. When we launch new content. , players get a new expansion with unprecedented history for a player, new resources, monsters and objects, "he recalls.
Neverwinter Nights
The adaptation to consoles
At present, the conversions of this type of videogames, so linked to the PC, are not strident. However, BioWare pioneered productions such as Jade Empire or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which premiered on the first Xbox. It is true that these two video games did offer less playable keyboard and mouse gameplay. But even if we ignore these products, Canadians also knew how to adapt a video game of the complexity of Dragon Age: Origins to the needs of gameplay with command.
The following games in the Dragon Age saga simplify their mechanics. What is not usually taken into account when criticizing Dragon Age II or Dragon Age: Inquisition is that both projects suffered difficulties, for different reasons. The first one had to be developed in record time, which caused BioWare to decide on a main stage and a more action-oriented combat system and without so many mechanical flourishes. His next project faced technological difficulties, as they were responsible for adapting and building the tools of Frostbite, the graphic engine of EA DICE, so that it could be used in a third-party role-playing video game. This is recognized by the developers in Blood, Sweet and Pixels, the book by Jason Schreir of Kotaku.
Dragon Age Inquisition
The BioWare formula has always been well present in the Mass Effect saga, a franchise that is also worthwhile because it was able to combine RPG and shooter mechanics. It is true that as the deliveries progressed, the gunplay began to take center stage with respect to RPG mechanics. In fact, the fighting improved in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, although it was not neglected either in the narrative plane.
Kotaku sources report that a new installment of Mass Effect is under development. It is no secret that BioWare has said publicly that there are still many stories to tell in the Mass Effect universe, as in the Dragon Age universe. In the latter case, there is official confirmation that a new chapter is underway. It was announced through a teaser trailer at The Game Awards 2019. Of course, the production will not be gold until in a few years.
Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem
When Anthem was announced during E3 2017, not even the developers themselves were familiar with that name. The title chosen by the study was Beyond, but due to legal problems with rights, they were forced to back down and opt for another option. “Well, this makes no sense. What does it have to do? ”Commented a former developer in statements to Kotaku. According to the US website, the study quickly invented context information to support that name. In the end, he justified himself by saying that the Creation Anthem was a mysterious force that brought the cataclysm to the world.
In the study there was a tacit belief in the so-called magic of BioWare, a power as mysterious as the Anthem, although more superstitious. It happened in the original Mass Effect trilogy, also repeated in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age Inquisition. They define it as the feeling that it doesn't matter how bad the production is going, since although the pieces do not fit and nothing works, in the last months of development everything will go smoothly. Until then it had been like that, but neither Anthem nor Mass Effect: Andromeda achieved the expected results.
Dragon Age II
In the case of the most recent delivery of Mass Effect, the problem was its premature release, which prevented developers from debugging the game, which caused hilarious memes. In less than a week, the teasing spread through the network, to the point that the failure led to Electronic Arts deciding to give the project a folder. All history DLCs were canceled, which in practice meant that the saga was entering an evaluation phase, fallow. Except for the patches that corrected their technical problems, Andromeda looked like a black spot in the BioWare file.
Anthem does not repeat the problem of animations
According to Kotaku, that Mass Effect: Andromeda became the object of chaos by Internet users was taken into account by Electronic Arts. In order to avoid something like this happening at all costs, all the Anthem dialogue scenes were carefully constructed through motion capture sessions. However, that guideline caused additional problems. Recording scenes with motion capture was very expensive, so that all the sequences that were recorded had to be perfect from the first take.
Mass Effect Andromeda.
But one of Anthem's peculiarities is that the project leaders did not have a clear idea of the concept, so the changes were constant. "There are small fragments of dialogue, small moments in these scenes interpreted with motion capture, which if you stop to think do not make any sense," a developer admitted to Kotaku. "The reason they don't make sense is that they changed some of the gameplay later, but it was impossible to modify" the sequence.
An example of that inconsistency is reflected in one of the missions, when the Dax Sentinel refers to the destruction of his halberd. However, none of that happens in the game. The explanation is simple: the mission was subsequently altered and the dialogue remained unchanged. "Well, it won't be destroyed," recalls the developer who told himself about what was going to happen with the exotraje. "Wait, that makes the lines of dialogue meaningless." Another of the employees interviewed confirms that version of the facts. “Why couldn't they change it? It is not that they did not want, what happens is that when we marked the way with these enormous resources, sometimes we were stuck with them. ”
Anthem
The build was sometimes so unstable that it was very difficult to test the game for bugs. "I think there was a week in which I couldn't do anything because there were problems with the servers," says one employee. The development process was so cumbersome that shortly before its launch there were still important things to close. At a specific moment, they realized that it was not possible to see the characters' equipment even though they had introduced a monetization system based on cosmetic objects.
Beyond defects and problems, Anthem's own concept differs from what BioWare had done to date. Not only did they opt for an online product (a land they had explored with Star Wars: The Old Republic), but they left behind many of the formulas that the studio had used since the time of Baldur's Gate. There was, therefore, a disconnect between what BioWare fans expected and what they found.
Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Not only do intentions count
The genre of the looter shooter, in the heat of Destiny, marked a new opportunity to launch a video game of this genre, but covered with the narrative benefits of a study studied as BioWare. In the statements of the directors, the promise that it was something that had never been seen before was revealed. Casey Hudson himself, general manager of the company, shared his enthusiasm in an official blog post. He went on to say that the sensations felt in the study were similar to those felt at the time of Baldur's Gate:
"These days, the energy that is felt in the office is very similar to what was breathed a long time ago at Baldur's Gate, when the team began to discover the magic they had created together." That mixed, he continues, “with the enthusiasm of finally being able to launch it in the world. There is still a lot of work ahead, but everyone knows what they have to do and they are working with a level of passion that is truly inspiring. ” The reality, however, was very different. Shortly after the launch, the study recognized the problems. Later, they admitted that changing structural points that did not work in Anthem will take a long time.
From the air.
And it is that despite the promises, in plot terms the pieces do not finish greasing, especially the end. So far, BioWare had always stood out for reaching very high levels of quality in its stories, something that Anthem does not achieve. Being a video game so focused on multiplayer, the narrative focuses on Fort Tarsis, the city where survivors gather. In all the company's video games, the characters forge relationships, which are sustained through a more or less complex moral system (the Mass Effect, for example, has a more Manichean and simple structure than Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights)
If the player performs according to what actions, it is possible that one of the team members feels alluded to and clashes with their moral convictions. Minsc, at Baldur's Gate, will have no qualms about leaving the group if he detects that we chose to take the path of evil. That complexity of the characters is undoubtedly part of the BioWare DNA, as are the romances. It is not that Mass Effect or Dragon Age invented it, but it is an element that has been present since the first games, although Neverwinter Nights also dispensed with them. In any case, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire exploded that feature again.
Emerging Narrative and Flight
Jade Empire
In an article published by central Windows, the team shares its vision, which seems to clash with what has truly been offered. As they stress, "the core of the game has always been the same." They wanted to tell an "incredible and immersive story in a mysterious and beautiful world, with characters that were identifiable." But then, "do that in a shared world when you play multiplayer." In that context, "they experience history together, but not only the main argument, but the experiences they build between them." This is the emerging narrative, an aspect that BioWare had not contemplated in the past.
That a product as a whole does not finish curdling does not mean that there are no elements that do. Flight mechanics is an example of this. In an interview with PC GamesN, Zachary Beaudion of BioWare says: “We have a lot of experience building worlds and creating video games. What has really been a challenge this time is the introduction of flight as a transverse mechanic, because many games, ours included, are practically like a 2D plane. There are some differences in height, but you always look at the world as a human. ” When they introduced the flight, he says, they realized that "part of the world was not interesting," so they meditated on how to design worlds that had "a lot of verticality." In addition, they took into account the fight to offer a more innovative approach.
Partners in heaven.
Every studio has the right to produce different games, regardless of the line they follow. Even so, each developer has strengths and weaknesses, and in a company like BioWare, which has always stood out for its stories and characters, it is still paradoxical that this advantage has not been sufficiently exploited. History, characters, romances … are three of the features that work within the productions signed by BioWare, but not the only one. No one becomes an RPG master without a good playable system.
The BioWare formula, its DNA, is nothing more than a combination of attributes that are repeated in each of the games, it is modulated according to the aspects that are enhanced, but in essence, almost all of them include recognizable ingredients linked to history and The game mechanics. No one knows what the future holds. And yet, Electronic Arts has underpinned BioWare's structure with a new study in Canada. According to Hudson, there is no stronger evidence that EA has them. As in everything, they must work hard to reverse the crisis situation to which they have been subjected in the most recent projects. History will tell if the necessary changes occur. They will have to choose correctly, as in their video games.
