Part 1 of 1, by Jay Watamaniuk
We have a few guests here at BioWare HQ this week.
Some had worked with each other for years and yet this was this first time they had a chance to meet in the person. Some were from Edmonton, some came from further away like Toronto and California. Some traveled even further to be here from Germany, Scotland and even Denmark. All of them are very talented and very dedicated builders or modders who all had created some of the best content for fans of Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 to enjoy. We wanted them to get some hands-on time with the Dragon Age Toolset and learn the tricks directly from BioWare developers.
Everyone, apart from an unfortunate Scotsman who encountered weather delays and mechanical trouble, managed to arrive the night before for dinner and discussion. The Scotsmen did arrive Wednesday morning free from the burden of proper night’s sleep but on time and ready to go.
Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw kicked things off with a short demonstration of Dragon Age and introduced the vision and basic themes of what the team was trying to capture and explore. The group saw a beta of the planned website features being built to help builders start and organize projects locate the right team members and show off the content they create.
Technical Designers David Sims and Joshua Stiksma were tasked with an introduction and overview of the toolset, creating simple plots, scripts, and dialogue. The final lesson of the day was a look at combat and abilities by Technical Designer Grant MacKay.
And that’s only Day 1 of 3.
Tags: dragon age, toolset
July 9, 2009 at 9:09 am |
Any chance these sessions were recorded and might be released once the game and toolset are out?
July 9, 2009 at 5:20 pm |
Yup, we will be bringing the developers back to run through and record their tutorials in a more controlled fashion and cut out the questions/pauses/delays etc. to deliver a better video tutorial.
July 9, 2009 at 1:20 pm |
Awesome!! Well done…what a great even and a great idea!
July 10, 2009 at 5:55 am |
Man, once DA is out I will have to get that Toolset and make some good mods only to be invited to the next event.
Greg
July 10, 2009 at 7:14 am |
Can’t wait to see the videos!!
July 12, 2009 at 4:14 am |
Man, I want to go out and buy a gaming PC just for these tools. I never thought I’d find myself wanting a game for PC over Xbox 360.
July 15, 2009 at 9:08 am |
As one of the lucky few that got to participate, I can tell you the tools are excellent. I would highly recommend the PC version simply for the tools. The tutorials we went through will be excellent resources for the community. After 2 days of instruction, I’m already more familiar with the DA toolset than the toolsets from NWN and NWN2.
August 16, 2009 at 11:56 am |
I never thought I would want a tool for a game over the game itself… I already started creating some first sketches, writing down quest ideas and NPCs, so I can directly start as soon as I get my hands on that editor!