First, thank you to all of our fans around the world for making Dragon Age: Origins a crushing success. BioWare and EA are thrilled to have now launched Dragon Age: Origins worldwide. Customers, fans and critics alike love Dragon Age: Origins and are having a great time playing it as well as using the newly released Dragon Age Toolset. Fans are using the BioWare Social Network to discuss the game on our forums, uploading screenshots to their profiles and blogging about their experiences in game.

Here are what a few of our critics are saying:

Gamespot.com – Score: 95 -
“…The fantasy RPG you’ve been waiting for…”
Game Pro – Score: 100 -
“BioWare has once again struck RPG gold”
GameZone – Score: 99 -
“This game is of a level that has never been seen before. It is the new benchmark.”
Game Informer – Score: 90 -
“…one of the most addictive and expansive RPGs of its kind.”
1up.com – Score: 100 -
“It’s the best RPG of the year — and maybe the best of the HD era.”
USAToday.com – Score: 4/4 -
“…Dragon Age: Origins, a masterfully crafted adventure that offers a lot of bang for your buck.”

While most customers have been playing Dragon Age: Origins without any problems, a few customers have experienced issues that have prevented them from fully enjoying the game. As you already know BioWare has always been committed to providing high quality games to its fans and we are just as committed to providing an ongoing gaming experience free of quirks and hiccups. With that said we would like to announce our Patch 1.01 which you can find here. We really appreciate the feedback we have been getting from fans and encourage you to let us know of any anomalies you find with any part of the game or our website. Your help allows us to build stronger patches to release on a regular cadence. You can keep us informed and get help using the following links:

Patch:
http://social.bioware.com/game_patches.php
Dragon Age Customer Support:
http://help.dragonage.com/
Dragon Age: Origins Technical Support:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/58/index
BioWare Social Bug Report:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/6/index
BioWare Points Bug Report:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/59/index

Thanks again to all our fans for making this such a successful launch!

Derek Larke
BioWare’s Online Marketing Manager

JOIN US IN THE DEEP ROADS @ Dragon Age Journeys

Growing up in the days before the ubiquity of broadband internet, I can remember how excited I was each month to receive my copies of Next Gen, PC Gamer, EGM and other gaming magazines. I poured over each tome feverishly. I was so devoted to videogames that I’d read strategy guides for games I didn’t own and never planned on purchasing. I’ve often cited PC Gamer’s famous Gaming Gods issue as the moment I realized that I could actually fill my dreams of making videogames for a living. I still have this issue today and even got Richard Garriott to sign the front cover.

Before we first got a 26k modem in the house, I could never imagine speaking with one of the makers before a game came out. Nor could I imagine that such a conversation would have the ability to affect what got put in the final game. Now, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Forums, etc. it is routine to have those sorts of conversations with media creators of all types. Thanks to the freshly launched Bioware Social Network I’ve been doing some Q&A with the Bioware faithful over the past week. I’ve been getting questions about features I didn’t anticipate, and with what little time we’ve had left we’ve tried to alter the game to accommodate your wishes. I thought I’d repost some of my favorite questions here and also treat you to some screens of the monster’s you’ll meet in the future chapters of Dragon Age Journeys.

From Servant of Nature:

Q: “Is it true you can get in-game items for playing Dragon Age Journeys?”

A: This is one of the things I am most excited about, and I’m pretty sure that you will be too. By completing certain accomplishments in Journeys, you can unlock 3 items for use when you purchase a copy of Dragon Age: Origins for the PC, Xbox 360 or PS3. By playing DAJ while signed in with your EA account, these items will automatically be added to your inventory in DA:O when you sign in with that same account. These entitlements work across all three platforms.

Q: “Are you aware how awesome you and your team are?”

A: *blushes* Thank you so much for the complement. We’ve been very lucky to work with a ridiculously talented crew on DAJ. Dan Stradwick, Adam Phillips and Andrew Sega are great indie game talents and working with them has been an incredible experience for the EA 2D team. We’re very happy with the job Marcelo Poppi has done of taking Dan’s story and fleshing out the characters and dialog. These are the people who deserve all the credit for DAJ. For those of us on the EA 2D side, it is not our job to be awesome, but to work with talented developers like these to help them reach their full awesomeness potential.

Darkspawn Await

From willtraverse:

Q: “Do we create our own characters, or recruit them through the story? If it’s the latter, how many different characters are there to recruit?”

A: You do both. Just like in Origins, you begin your adventure by creating a character, choosing between 3 races and 3 character classes. As the story progresses you will also recruit up to 6 companion characters. You can bring 2 companion characters with you as you fight the darkspawn in the Deep Roads. 3 of these companion characters can be recruited in Chapter 1.

Q: “Do the characters from chapter 1 carry over, or will future chapters feature a new cast?”

A: By saving your game while signed into your EA account, you’ll be able to play with your character across all 3 chapters.

From Triggerwolves:

Q: “Since there is a lot of lore to be had, is there a codex in the game?”

A: There is a codex in the game, but right now it serves mostly as a repository for help information. We may be able to fit more lore into the game before launch, depending on how vigorously I whip my minions as they slave away to bring you this game. But remember, if Journeys is the appetizer, then we don’t want to ruin the feast of Origins by giving too much away.

Q: “What is your opinion on the difficulty of the battles to be encountered?”

A: Having experienced the level design and balancing process on a number of games, I can tell you that developers always run into the same problem on the when finishing a game. When you look at a game and play it day in and day out for weeks on end, the concept of difficulty flies out the window. The closer you get to your game, the further you get from a first time user’s experience. The more you play the same encounters over and over to make sure they are perfect, the less objective you become. Given that, we strive to make the game challenging but not punishing, and it is our opinion that we have met that goal. The nice thing about being a flash game is that we are able to track players’ progress and if anything is too easy, too confusing or too maddeningly hard, we’ll actually be able to make dynamic fixes to the game and improve your experience with it. It’s one of the great luxuries of working in flash and being dedicated to listening to our audience.

From JonKenden:

Q: “Are there specializations and how are they implemented in the game?”

A: The first chapter of Journeys has 3 companion characters that can join your party, each with a specialization. 3 more companion characters, each with their own specialization, will be available in future chapters.

POSTCRIPT: Just so you know, this isn’t where the DAJ team’s discussion with you ends. In our mind, this is only the beginning. Here at EA 2D it is our mission to listen to our fans with both ears. As creators, we are here to serve you. We will listen to your feedback and incorporate it not only into The Deep Roads, but all future Journeys content including the next two chapters. So keep the postings, tweets, emails and emoticon laden squeals of delight coming, because hearing from our fans is what we live for.

Part 3 of 4 by Ethan Levy

Dragon Age Journeys

At its heart, Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads is a tactical RPG. We employ a hex based combat system reminiscent of the classic Heroes of Might and Magic series, but instead of giant armies of units, you control up to three heroes with stat systems and talent trees taken directly from Dragon Age: Origins. Over time, these heroes gain experience, level up, learn new talents, get new loot … all the familiar RPG elements. This allows you to take on bigger and badder enemies from the Dragon Age world, such as darkspawn monsters Genlock Alphas and Ogres.

The hex based combat system took great inspiration from the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games

In each battle, units take turns moving across the field, using ranged and melee attacks, casting spells, drinking potions and using talents. The basics of the combat system have been set since early in the project, but we were feeling that our combat wasn’t deep enough and didn’t force you to work strategically. So, we took the time to iterate on this system and eventually hit the sweet spot where there’s a combat system that is both tactical and engaging.
It wasn’t any one major feature, but a number of small touches stacked on top of each other that resulted in the recipe for success:
• Monster Secondary Attacks: We added two special attacks to each type of enemy, so that they were no longer only using a basic ranged or melee attack.

Ogre Charge and Slam

• Movement Rules: We changed the rules of movement. Previously, on your character’s turn, they could move once and then attack, use a talent, drink a potion or end their turn. Players would frequently make a misstep and wish they were able to undo their move. Now, on a character’s turn, they can move freely anywhere within their walk radius before using talents or attacking.

• Talent Animations: We pushed the talent effects and the animations further, so there are more options and the results pay off in spectacular fashion.

Bard’s Song of Valor

• Obstacles and Line of Sight: Throwing randomly generated obstacles onto the battlefield, combined with line of sight rules for ranged attacks, forced players to move around the field strategically, instead of getting into a base line duel.

Game Changing Obstacles

• Back Stab and Flank: We added damage bonuses for performing backstabs and flanking maneuvers, further emphasizing the importance of strategic placement of characters.

All the little things added up to create a deep, tactical combat system

By combining all of theses features together, we ended up with a deep, strategic combat system that really delivers on the potential that Dragon Age Journeys has shown all along. We are confident that with this game, we are taking a huge step forward compared to previous flash-based RPGs.

Join us in “The Deep Roads”

Part 2 of 4 by Ethan Levy

Dragon Age Journeys

One of the two leaders of our group here at EA 2D is veteran super producer turned VP of Development Pete Hawley. Pete’s career highlights include being executive producer of Burnout Paradise, serving as development director at Sony, heading production at Lionhead and producing Driver. Simply put, Pete is one of the most accomplished producers in the game industry.

We recently had to decide on a name for the game, as the placeholder Dragon Age 2d wouldn’t hold. As we were clearly banging our heads against the wall, Pete told us a story about the naming session for Lionhead’s flagship franchise. At the beginning of the night that with a gang including Hawley and Peter Molyneux, Pete and a few others made the suggestion that they go with the short, simple descriptor that fit their storybook heroics, Fable. As with any meeting that involves a handful of creative friends working on a problem with no clear solution, the night went long, and soon the clock read 3am and then someone says, “Enough. I’ve got it. Jesus 2000. He’s back, and this time, He’s pissed!” But the answer had been staring them in the face all along.
Our naming session began with Dragon Age: Journeys as one of the top contenders. But the naming session stretched on, we got increasingly exasperated and our suggestions became a string of gaming nerd in jokes, such as:
• Ages of Dragon Age
• Dragon Age: Origins’ Origins
• Dragon Age: Origins: Origins
• Dragon Age: TitNS (This is the New Sh*t)
• Heroes of Dragons and Magic
• Paper Dragon Age
• Dragon Age: Tactics Advance Online
• Dragon Age: Sexy Browser Adventures
• Dragon Age: Age of the Dragon
And of course:
• Imagine: Dragonz Age Fun Time Babyz Party

But, the more we went back to it, the more true Pete’s advice rang and the better Dragon Age: Journeys started to sound. The problem was that we already planned on releasing three separate chapters of single player gameplay to start, and more in the future. How would we differentiate each forthcoming chapter?

The solution was simple. We had to move the colon. Dragon Age Journeys was our brand name. It’s the umbrella under which we’ll release all of our browser based offerings. This freed us up to give each chapter a name indicative of its story, and gives us the freedom we’ll need for our future plans.

Today we announced that Mass Effect 2 will be shipping Jan 26, 2010 and that you can reserve your copy an receive exclusive in-game items! Here are the details:

Terminus Assault Armor and the Blackstorm Heavy Weapon

In North America, pre-order bonuses* include special-ops armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. At GameStop, Terminus Gear is available with pre-orders, which includes the powerful Terminus Assault Armor and the Blackstorm Heavy Weapon:

• The Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo.
• The M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass, and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.

Terminus Armor and Blackstorm Heavy Weapon

Inferno Armor

Players that pre-order Mass Effect 2 at other retail outlets in North America will receive the potent Inferno Armor, which is used by officers to monitor battlefield conditions by recognizing elevated heart rates, and regulates sub-systems with extreme efficiency to allow for greater response times – together these abilities translate in-game into a negotiation bonus for Commander Shepard and an increase in run speed and augmented damage from combat powers.

Inferno Armor

Now to figure out which armor set to get for which platform…

~dlarke

by Evil Chris Priestly

I am a huge comic book nerd. I have been collecting comics for the past 27 years and have a basement full of long boxes and shelves full of issues I still need to put in bags with boards.Taking up a lot of space in my collection are comics from Dark Horse. Even if you haven’t heard of Dark Horse, I bet you know some of their titles. Those cool Hellboy movies? Based on a Dark Horse comic. Did you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That is now a Dark Horse comic. If you like Aliens, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian or a TON of other great comics from some of the most talented artists and writers in the industry today they are a part of Dark Horse.

So, as a comic nerd, I was super excited to learn that BioWare would be making a Mass Effect comic book with the excellent people at Dark Horse. Mac Walters, the Lead Writer for Mass Effect2, has taken on the task of also writing the comic. Along with Mac are Artist Omar Francia, Colorist Michael Atiyeh, Scripter John Jackson Miller and Cover Artist: Daryl Mandryk. Together, they are doing some amazing work that I know people who are fans of Mass Effect, or just fans of a great comic will absolutely love.The story (exclusive to these comics) will have the commander’s companion Dr. Liara T’Soni undertake a deadly mission of extraordinary importance in the Milky Way’s lawless Terminus Systems.

As a special treat, the fine folks at Dark Horse have given us a sneak peak at the first 7 pages of issue 1 of the Mass Effect comic. Check out the amazing art and get your first taste of the story that will be the Dark Horse Mass Effect comic.

The Mass Effect comic from Dark Horse will be available January 6 at comic shops near you. Check with your favorite local store and make sure you pick up your copies of Mass Effect.

Part 1 of 4 by Ethan Levy

Orzammar, under the mountains to the west of Ferelden, stands as one of the last great Dwarven cities. 1,000 years have passed since The Blight last drove the proud dwarves to seal their roads and abandon their fallen colonies. Though forsaken and all-but forgotten by the men and elves who walk the surface, the Deep Roads still teem with darkspawn. Amidst the rise of dark omens you head into peril, into the depths, into the Deep Roads.

Dragon Age Journeys

And so begins Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. Hey there BioWare fans. My name is Ethan Levy, I’m a producer with EA 2D, and I’m very proud to announce our newest game Dragon Age Journeys. At EA 2D it is our mission to create blockbusters for the browser; some will be original games created by our teams and some will be games within other EA franchises, such as Dragon Age Journeys. We broke ground on Journeys back in November 2008, and after so many months of blood, sweat and tears, we can’t tell you how excited we are to finally start talking about the game.

Dragon Age Journeys has been a collaboration between EA 2D, BioWare, and some of the hottest indie talent from the flash developer community. Over the coming days, we’ll be introducing you to the game, the talented team of developers behind its creation and some of the day-to-day craziness that goes into making a game. More than anything, we want you to get a feel for how much fun and passion goes into creating a game for the browser that can live up to the high standards set by BioWare’s illustrious history.

We have some big plans for Journeys. The first piece that we are currently building is a 3 chapter, single player, tactical rpg delivered in Flash. Right now we’re hard at work finishing the first chapter, Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. The game will introduce you to the dwarven city of Orzammar and the Deep Roads surrounding it where the dwarves face a persistent threat from the darkspawn hordes.

BioWare has been incredibly supportive in providing us with materials to work with in the creation of The Deep Roads. They have given us pages upon pages of reference materials, story documents, concept art and screenshots. We get invaluable feedback and insight on the game from members of the Dragon Age team, including Drs. Ray and Greg. The Deep Roads features character classes, talent trees, sound effects, music and user interface taken directly from Dragon Age: Origins. Thanks to all these resources and input from the BioWare team, it will serve as a solid introduction to the world of Dragon Age.

The leading force behind The Deep Roads is Daniel Stradwick, creator of the excellent flash rpg series Monster’s Den. Art and animation has been created by the illustrious Adam Phillips of Bitey Castle fame. Additional programming is being done by Andrew Sega, who created the Magic the Gathering inspired flash card games Mytheria and the multiplayer Armor Wars. The story is being penned by first time game writer Marcelo Poppi. You’ll learn more about them and the talented team at EA 2D in future posts.

***UPDATE***
Servers are melting… if you are looking for other download spots try here:

Atomic Gamer

or

File Planet

So if you haven’t heard already we are releasing the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator TODAY! What is awesome about this little tool is that it was extracted directly from the game and any character you create can be saved on your PC and loaded into the actual game.

If you dont have the Character Creator yet you can get it here:
EN – FR – RU – PL – ES – IT – CZ – HU – DE

As a little bonus we are also giving away an exclusive in-game item for those folks that upload their newly generated character into BioWare’s new community platform: BioWare Social Network. Upload your character and come Nov 3 Get ready to slip on The Lucky Stone:

Lucky Stone

This old stone, set in a golden ring, has been an aid and companion to dozens of adventurers across innumerable years. Its trip to Ferelden was long and convoluted. Some say it has a life of its own.
Stats:
~ Adds +1 to all all stats.

You can check the new BioWare Social Network here: http://social.bioware.com

~dlarke

by Evil Chris Priestly

Recently Gamespot did a 5 part series of Documentary videos on the making of Dragon Age: Origins. Each part is a video interviewing members of the Dragon Age team about some of the different elements that have gone into making Dragon Age: Origins. They have kindly allowed us to post them here in the BioWare Blog in one handy location for our fans to watch.

Writing an Epic

In this video members of the Dragon Age: Origins team discuss the writing that has gone into making the game. Project Director Mark Darrah, Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw and Lead Writer David Gaider discuss what Dragon Age is and why Dragon Age is both familiar and unique for the fans.

Music of Dragon Age

This documentary features the music featured in Dragon Age: Origins. Composer Inon Zur, Vocalist Aubrey Ashburn and BioWare Studio Director Simon Pressey talk about how the music helps set the darkness and how epic the score really is.

Creating a Living World

This video explains how the development team has brought something new to the Fantasy genre through the art and level design. Senior Concept Artist Matt Rhodes, Art Director Dean Anderson and Lead DLC Designer Ferret Baudoin show off some of the amazing art even showing some of the original concept work done in the Neverwinter Nights engine.

Creatures of Dragon Age Part 1.

In Part 1 of the feature on the Creatures of Dragon Age Senior Concept Artist Matt Rhodes, Senior Artist Matt Goldman, Lead Character Artist Shane Hawco and In-Game Animator Clove Roy show off the concept art and animation process for creating the evil creatures encountered throughout Dragon Age.

Creatures of Dragon Age Part 2.

Part 2 of the Creatures of Dragon Age explains more about the process from concept art through animation till the creature is complete. Senior Concept Artist Matt Rhodes, Senior Artist Matt Goldman, Lead Character Artist Shane Hawco, In-Game Animator Clove Roy and Lead In-Game Animator John Santos illustrate their discussion with the fearsome darkspawn ogre.

Part 2 of 2, by Jay Watamaniuk

“Shake them like Christmas elves until the missing string references fall out”.

And thus, my final day of my first week began. Every morning we have a quick stand up meeting for the design folks working on Mass Effect 2. We assemble in a big meeting room and go around summarizing, in about three words, what we are working on for the day so the Lead Designer gets an overview of what is going on with the team in detail. Once we have gone around the room, he gives some announcements to the entire team or deals with critical issues. When he is done, we scamper back to our offices and begin tapping on our keyboards.

I have spent my first week chiefly doing four things:

1. Trying to get a handle on all the new software on my computer that involved filing bugs, document security and game engine-related things used by developers. This also included the game itself which is more interesting by far then the the other stuff

2. Giving feedback on my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2. Things like loading screen hints, journal entries and general gameplay. This feedback is valuable because it is impossible to reproduce initial impressions from people that been working on the game for years

3. Wrangling something called ‘string reference numbers’ which didn’t involve colored yarn but are codes that are associated with every piece of text in the game. There are many, they hide and come from nearly all disciplines working on the game

4. Working on the wording of the achievement list

Working on a project right at the very end has its advantages for the new guy. I’m not really expected to know much about what is going on and everyone else has been doing this for years and can answer just about every question with absolute certainly. This disadvantage of coming in at the very end is people spend a lot of time running screaming down the hallway only pausing long enough to be set on fire. This leaves little time for showing the new guy the ropes.

I’ve been here a week and it’s overwhelmingly been about the mechanics of getting writing into the game more than the writing itself. I have a clearer understanding that there is a huge technical side of being a writer at a video game company; certainly far more then one would expect. I see no writers with giant quill pens, and sheets of parchment, breathing through a perfumed handkerchief, reclining on overstuffed chairs, while servants bring peeled grapes, and shade them with palm fronds. I’m O.K. with that because that image is pretty creepy in any case.

I hope the technical stuff can be learned so well it effectively disappears from view. I know I have a lot of learn about writing itself from the veterans here and would rather have anything obscuring my view of that goal removed while I still have the luxury of being an amateur. I suspect it will be a few months of a steep learning curve on technical stuff followed by a few rather nerve-wracking months of…y’know…writing.

I will be sure to record my thoughts along the way if you’re interested in reading how it all turns out. But if you’ll excuse me, I have to see a guy about some delinquent elves.