Tag Archives: BioWare

2010 Holiday Wishes from BioWare to our Community

Posted on by

by The BioWare Grinch, Evil Chris Priestly

Bah Humbug! It is the holiday season once again and BioWare is ready to celebrate the holidays. While some of our staff will be working over the break (we have Dragon Age II coming in March and Mass Effect 3 gearing up for next holiday season so everyone is busy), we will all have  time to do whatever it is we each do over the holiday break. Some folks go skiing, some folks spend time with their families and each of us has our own traditions or plans over the break.

I asked the staff to pass along any holiday wishes they had to our Community. Two people even contributed some awesome art based off Mass Effect and Dragon Age II for your holiday viewing.  Here are wishes from our staff to you for the holidays.

All the best to our fans and your families.  I can’t wait to show you everything we’ve got in store for 2011 and beyond. -  Aaryn Flynn, Studio GM

Thanks to everyone for all of your support.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! – Allan Schumacher Dragon Age QA

From our top secret fortified IS bunker to yours, happy holidays! – Neal Gray, Information Systems

Here’s hoping all you BioWare fans have a great winter holiday, and enjoy DA2 come the new year! :D   -Matt Powell, QA Tester – BioWare.

To all the people that loved and continue to love our games: may you have the most profoundly beautiful Christmas holiday! You deserve it! – Dave Feltham, Senior Designer ME Team

Happy holidays to all our great and dedicated fans we could not have done it without you, I hope you are as excited as we are for our 2011 line up. – Patrick Demkiw aka Miracl3 Work3r QA

Everyone out there, you make coming to work that much more special. I know I plan to spend some of these holidays playing some of our games, and I hope you will as well, you know in your warmer climates… Bryan Johnson ME team QA

Happy Holidays to everyone! Even the people who adore Varric’s chest hair. And, yes, even the Talimancers.  – Patrick and Karin Weekes, Design, ME3 and DA-II (Mostly Karin)

Holiday customs inefficient. Far easier to simply give a gift card, allow me to purchase appropriate reading material. Have already read the book you were going to get me anyway. Regardless, appreciate the thought.” Dr. Mordin Solus, BioWare Medical R&D (Also by Patrick and Karin Weekes, Design, ME3 and DA-II (Mostly Patrick)

Happy Holidays from one of many BioWare elves working diligently on your late Christmas present! Dragon Age 2 will be yours this March! Zu allen unseren Ventilatoren in Deutschland… Ein frohes Weihnachtsfest und alles Gute zum neuen Jahr! – Tony Evans, Dragon Age 2 team

Hey folks, thanks for all of your love and support.  I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. – Scott Mitchell, Lead Animator – Mass Effect 3

Hope I get the Sandal Saves Santa DLC for Christmas. – Matthew Eades Dragon Age QA (maybe next year Matt)

I dearly hope your holidays are filled with warm temperatures and people who think you’re awesome. I mean, *I* think you’re awesome, but I was thinking maybe, like, *other people* thinking you’re awesome might mean more to you. Not that I would be hurt, and maybe crying on the inside, if you didn’t value my opinion. – Jay Watamaniuk, Writer, Mass Effect 3

Wishing all of our fans a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season. Eat lots, hug your family, and be excellent to each other.- Stan Woo – QA Ninja

During this holiday season, eat more than you should, live like there’s no tomorrow, and do a good deed for your fellow man.  Happy Holidays!  – Robert Girardin DA Tech QA

Graag wens ik iedereen in onze community een warme en gezonde kerst en jaarwisseling toe. - Jos Hendriks Level Design Mass Effect

Merry Christmas to all of you! – Randy Hildebrand, Studio Ops

Meri kurisumasu minasan! Anzende tanoshii horideeshizun wo motte.  Atarashii geemu ga dete kuru toki 3 tsuki 11~nichi o shinbouzuyoku matte kudasai. -From the lovely-est of lovelies – Celeste Phillips QA

I lurk the forums occasionally and I see a lot of anticipation and enthusiasm.  Some trepidation and uncertainty, but a lot of positivity too!  I’m excited about Dragon Age 2, and I’m working hard to deliver the best game I can for our fans.  Our whole team is.  Thanks for caring and participating in our community: have an awesome holiday and a happy New Year! – Michael Hamilton Dragon Age Programmer

From all of us to all of you, a happy holiday season. Wishing you the most delicious of egg-nogs and/or hot chocolates, – Nathan Willis, DA Team’s QA Audio Listener Monkey

Hope you enjoy the many varieties of cheese available to you over this holiday season. And ham, turnip and fish. – Sheila Nash Dragon Age Level Team

Merry Christmas everyone, and especially to Bean ^_^ - Owen Borstad Dragon Age Programming

I hope your holiday season is filled with thoughts of Hurlocks and Krogans rampaging joyously through your snow covered snowscapes.  – Kevin Loh – Dragon Age II Team

Last Christmas holidays, I spent enrapt in DA:O. This Christmas, I’ve got my Ultimate Edition and some quality time lined up for all the DLC. I hope you too have time this Christmas to do whatever it is you love. Joyeux Noël!  - Jeanne-Marie Owens, Nerdherder

Thanks to all of our staff who took a moment out of their busy days for the holiday wishes. And special thanks to Matthew Clark for the “Santa Varric” picture and to Cameron and Jackie Winston for “Mass Effect Christmas”.

And now one last wish. Thanks for being part of our Community here at BioWare. My job is much easier because we have the best fans on earth. Whether you love Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars, our past games or what we are coming up with next, we have the best community. Sometimes you applaud us, sometimes you boo, but we know you do it because you care. I hope you all have a great holiday season. I wish you health, happiness and an excellent 2011 with many more great games coming from BioWare. See you next year. – Evil Chris Priestly, BioWare Community Team (whose heart grew 3 sizes while writing this blog).

Facebook Friday Week 9 – Jeff Vanelle

Posted on by

By Evil Chris Priestly

Bonjour! Bienvenue à un autre BioWare Facebook vendredi. Deux pampelmousse! Qui a coupé le fromage? Ok, that’s enough really bad french out of me (can you tell I don’t speak french?) I was trying to speak french as this week’s update features an employee who not only speaks french, but actually comes to BioWare from France! BioWare employs the best staff from all over the world and Jeff is an awesomely talented individual, so we brought him from sunny France to icy Edmonton. I did ask Jeff for a real french language greeting for our french speaking fans. If this translates to something like “Priestly is a doofus” I shall hunt him down and crack his aces at the next poker game.

Fans de BioWare des quatres coins du monde, bonjour a tous! Voici mon profile, je suis un des rare francais a BioWare. Etant donne la majorite de fans Anglophone, je continue en anglais. Bonne lecture!

Name:
Jeff Vanelle

Where are you from?
I am originally from Dunkerque, in the North of France, 20 minutes away from the Belgian border, which is probably where my taste for good beer comes from. I’ve been away from home for 13 or so years now, spent 7 years in England, and the last 6 years in sunny Edmonton.

Favorite movies:
Tron, it’s gonna be a great one right? Right???!! Recently, I really enjoyed “The girl with the Dragon tattoo”, “Inception”, “Red”. Oh, I nearly forgot: “Skyline”! Ahaha! Nah… kidding.

Favorite TV:
Anything except cable TV, I much prefer watching documentaries on any topics.

Favorite books:
Hyperion’s saga from Dan Simmons, Carion Comfort from Dan Simmons, The nine princes of Amber from Roger Zelazny.

Favorite pizza toppings:
Ask any Famoso in town, they will tell you that good cheese, with some extra gorgonzola, mushrooms and basil is my sweet spot.

Job or title at BioWare:
It says “Principal Technical Lead Artist” which is way too convoluted to my taste.

How long have you worked for BioWare?
Very close to 6 years now.

What does a Principal Technical Lead Artist actually do?
My job title itself doesn’t do much. Ask anyone “Go talk to the Principal Technical Lead Artist”… you will most likely get an answer along the lines of “Who? The what now?”. Day to day conversations sounds much more like “Your stuff is broken, go see Jeff, he’ll help you out”. In a nutshell, I sit somewhere between the artists and the programmers. At the end of the day, I am a game developer generalist, spending most of my time figuring out problems, better work flows, teaching whatever I know to the content creators, and fixing their problems because they don’t read my documentation.

What is your average day like at the office?
I come in the office early, to secure a couple of hours of uninterrupted work on longer term tasks. When 10am rings, the day becomes highly unpredictable, and random requests start pouring.

Favorite BioWare moment Game related/thing you are most proud of at BioWare:
Obviously, the completion of any of our games is something to be very proud of as a team, but I love the excitement and the sense of achievement we get out of a small prototype, whether it is a new project or a new feature we introduce.

Favorite BioWare moment not game related:
Definitely too many to list here, and since I tend to organize a number of social activities with the BioWare crew, there are many, many great stories to be told (although, most should remain confidential). Given the diversity of personalities we have here, any sort of gathering outside work will generate a storm of hilarity. It is awesome to see the game’s team behaving as a team outside work.

What do you do to relax/do you have any hobbies:
You won’t see me at the gym, I hate it! But I get involved in a number of sports activities such as Volley Ball, Dragon Boat, Squash, Dodgeball, Skiing, Skydiving.

I also do a fair bit of photography, feel free to browse!
I am just putting this site together, so there is only a small selection of my work. For the whole thing check HERE

What game are you losing sleep for right now (that you are not working on)?
Super Meat Boy. This game makes me realize that even though I am an old school guy who grew up playing extremely punishing platformers, your reflexes don’t get better with age!But I refuse to let that damn game beat me!

What is the most “nerdy” thing about you?
Did you just call me a nerd???! Meet me in the parking lot once the sun is down.

If you didn’t work in video games, what would you be doing?
Full time pro photographer.

What do you want people to know about you?
I live through my friends, the more the better! Stop by say hi!

Edit: Evil Chris here again. Jeff didn’t mention it, but he was also the winner of the office’s Movember fund raising contest to see who could grow the best mustache. Below, I present to you Jeff’s awesome “Full Head Mo”.

Facebook Friday Week 8 – Matt Rhodes

Posted on by

by Evil Chris Priestly

Let me start off by thanking Derek Larke for posting the past 2 weeks’ Facebook Friday updates. I was on vacation and Derek valiantly stood up and got the blogs out to you readers while I was away. Now, not to complain, but he didn’t get them 100% right in that he forgot to include pictures of the 2 staffers, Nick Thornborrow and John Winski, who contributed their updates. So, just so you know who you were reading about (in case you meet them at a convention or something), here are Nick and John.

Nick Thornborrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Winski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, on to this week’s Facebook Friday where we have stolen Matt Rhodes away from his art tablet for a few moments to provide you with his thoughts and experiences here at BioWare. Even if you haven’t met Matt in person, if you are a fan of our games, or the lithographs available on the BioWare store, you have probably seen his work at some point. Matt’s latest lithograph, The Kirkwall Gate, is currently on sale if you are looking to decorate your room or cubicle with some awesome Dragon Age II art.

Name:
Matt Rhodes

Where are you from?
Calgary Alberta

Favorite movies:
At the top of my list are The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, The Prince of Egypt, Dark City and The Fifth Element.

Favorite TV:
Hands down it’s The Venture Brothers.

Favorite books:
Bought used for the awesome Frazetta cover art, The Moon Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs has become my favorite book of all time.

Favorite pizza toppings:
Meat, with some meat stuffed in it.

Job or title at BioWare:
Associate Art Director

How long have you worked for BioWare?
It’s getting close to six years.


What does an Assistant Art Director actually do:
I’m a concept artist but I help out any BioWare project that needs me, rather than working on a single title.

What is your average day like at the office?
Coffee, draw, coffee, draw, coffee, draw…etc… Occasionally it’s broken up with meetings about drawing.

Favorite BioWare moment Game related/thing you are most proud of at BioWare:
I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in the design of some high profile BioWare characters. It is always great to see those designs take on a life of their own. Fan reaction is particularly inspiring, from fan art to cosplay.

Favorite BioWare moment not game related:
During my first week I overheard a conversation in the halls. While waiting outside a closed office to speak with the occupant, the waiting employee said “I’m just camping his spawn point.” It was then that I fully understood I worked in a tree-house making videogames with a bunch of fellow nerds.

What do you do to relax/do you have any hobbies:
I draw a lot. It’s my day job but I love it too much to leave it at the office. If I can find the time my favorite thing to do is head out to the mountains with my lovely wife.

What game are you losing sleep for right now (that you are not working on)?
I don’t get a lot of time for games these days, there’s just too much to draw. The last game that really kept me up was Fallout 3. Since I don’t have a PC at home (or any consoles) I was staying late at the office to play it. How sad is that?

What is the most “nerdy” thing about you?
I get paid to draw spacemen, dragons, aliens, wizards, etc… Also, I’ve read The Lord of the Rings over a dozen times.

If you didn’t work in video games, what would you be doing?
I’d have to choose between film and comics. I can see the allure in both.

What do you want people to know about you?
I want people to know that I really care about the visuals in these games. We all do here.  The videogame industry is still young and exciting and in many ways we are still learning and experimenting with what can be done. In my opinion, the best art in the industry is the stuff that gets out of the way of the story. If we are doing our jobs right, you shouldn’t be distracted by visuals because you’ll be so invested in the narrative. You won’t even notice that you’re watching the story unfold. We stress over this stuff every day because we care.

Facebook Friday Week 6 – Nick Thornborrow

Posted on by

by Evil Chris Priestly

Hi everyone. Welcome to another BioWare Facebook Friday. This week, I have asked concept artist Nick Thornborrow to tell us what his life is like here at BioWare.

I have to say, I am doubly impressed with Nick when it comes to his skills. I have long thought that I can write (not as well as our writers, but not too badly either). I’d also like to think I am smart enough that if I went back to school, I could learn the basics of programming. However, I know that I absolutely cannot “art”. I wish I could. I grew up reading comic books and longed to be able to draw them myself. Sadly, I have no skill. I have so much “no skill” when I took introductory art in college, my professor suggested I transfer to Drama. So I am doubly impressed by Nick, not only because he can do “the art”, but because he illustrates comic books and graphic novels. Check out Nick’s blog below, and check out Term Life, in comic shops soon.

Name:

Nick Thornborrow

Where are you from?

I grew up in Waterdown, Ontario; a suburb of Hamilton.

Favorite movies:

The movie that affected me the most was almost certainly JURASSIC PARK. I was ten when I first saw it, and became obsessed. I started collecting any information and watching every making-of special that I could and learned about special effects wizardry and animation. My tastes have changed since then of course, but JURASSIC PARK remains in my influence cannon. Others are THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE PROPOSITION, UNFORGIVEN, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and our family has a long standing tradition of watching MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL every holiday so I have to include it as well.

Favorite TV:

I actually don’t watch much TV. I tend to pick up the dvd’s of shows I’m interested in. But DEADWOOD (are we sensing a western theme here yet?) is my favorite series. I just started going through THE WIRE and it’s superb. No spoilers please. For lighter fare, I look no further than THE OFFICE.

Favorite books:

ASTERIOS POLYP by David Mazzucchelli, IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER by Italo Calvino, anything written by Kurt Vonnegut. I have a soft spot for Craig Thompson’s BLANKETS, and finally  Scott McCloud’s UNDERSTANDING COMICS is probably the most read and re-read book on my shelf.

Favorite pizza toppings:

A simple margheritta pizza does it. Flat crust, olive oil, sea salt, sliced tomato, fresh basil and mozzarella.

Job or title at BioWare:

Concept artist.

How long have you worked for BioWare?

3 ½ years now.

What does a concept artist actually do:

We design all of the characters, costumes, set pieces and anything you see in game as drawings and paintings. As for what I do specifically, I do the bulk of the 2D artwork that appears in Dragon Age, such as the fresco sequence seen in the prologues of Dragon Age: Origins, and Awakening.

What is your average day like at the office?

Coffee and check email. Pick the tunes for the day. Most of the time I’ve been assigned something specific to work on, such as designing a load screen. Usually it’s pretty open ended how we approach whatever it is we’re tackling, but sometimes the art director will have something very specific in mind. I get away from my desk at lunch with work mates. After lunch I’ll come back to my desk to find that I left my computer unlocked and someone has drawn something unsavory on whatever art asset I was working on. Control – Z.

Favorite BioWare moment Game related/thing you are most proud of at BioWare:

When I first started at BioWare, I was working on Sonic Chronicles. It’s probably not the most fondly remembered BioWare title, but the enormous world map paintings that we did for that game are still a lot of fun to look at.

Favorite BioWare moment not game related:

There are many. So here’s one: In mid-summer, late in the development for Dragon Age: Origins, the power suddenly went out. It was startling how quickly the ensuing nerf gun war escalated. Truly a massacre. The veil that divides us from barbarianism is thin indeed.

What do you do to relax/do you have any hobbies:

I write comics in my spare time. I camp and hike in the summer. I try to get to Crossfit twice a week. We play a lot of board games. CATAN is one of my favorites. Also my girlfriend and I like to cook, but she possesses far more skill than I do in that department.

What game are you losing sleep for right now (that you are not working on)?

Civ V. Although things are so busy I’ve only managed to play through one campaign.

What is the most “nerdy” thing about you?

My vocabulary.

If you didn’t work in video games, what would you be doing?

I’d be making comics. Right now I do both so it’s the best of both worlds.

What do you want people to know about you?

Well, if you’re into comics, that’s what I do with the lion’s share of my spare time. I’m one of the editors of a comic volume called THE ANTHOLOGY PROJECT. The second volume of that is coming out in the spring, and you can order the first volume here: http://www.theanthologyproject.com . If you’re familiar with FLIGHT you’ll find this to be a treat. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve got a gritty, hard-edged crime noir graphic novel called TERM LIFE that is coming out in January. That one is written by COWBOY NINJA VIKING’s A.J. Lieberman and it’s available for pre-order right now.

Evil Chris note – Term Life received a very positive review from Ain’t It Cool News the other week. Check out the review.

Facebook Friday Week 5 – Christina Norman

Posted on by

by Evil Chris Priestly

This may come as a shock to some, but there ARE women in the games industry! *GASP* And what is even more shocking, they can be just as “nerdy” as the men. *GASP GASP*. Now, before you go and get all “over gasped”, you should also know that they’re not only nerdy, they’re also really talented. I’ve been really fortunate in that I have been with Christina when she has talked with the press or with our fans and she is among the most knowledgeable people I know. I will say one thing though, when I took the pictures with Christina she would only stand to the left of the pictures as she’d accidentally spilled coffee on her shirt this morning. I mention this as no matter how knowledgeable, smart, nerdy or whatever you are, we’re all human.

Name:
Christina Norman

Where are you from?
Ontario, Canada

Favorite movies:
The Crow

Favorite TV:
Right now I’m enjoying the Anime “Hellsing Ultimate”

Favorite books:
That’s a hard one! The overwhelming theme has always been fantasy.
• As a child I loved the Freddy the Pig series as well as the 30+ books in the Oz Series
• As a young adult I enjoyed anything by Piers Anthony or Margaret Weis
• Recent stuff I’ve enjoyed includes the Wheel of Time series and Labyrinths which are kind of on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Favorite pizza toppings:
BBQ Hanar

Job or title at BioWare:
Lead Gameplay Designer

How long have you worked for BioWare?
5 of your “earth years”

What does a Lead Gameplay Designer actually do?
My team builds all the gameplay systems for the Mass Effect series of games. What is a gameplay system? It’s basically anything you can do in more than one place, like fire a gun, or level up, or use a power, or enter cover. We micro-polish each of these activities until they are ridiculously fun!

What is your average day like at the office?
The great thing about being on the gameplay team is every day there is something new and interesting to review. Whether it’s changes to our cover mechanics, or a new combat animation, a new creature, a new power, or a new programming system for weapons every single day I see something new and awesome that will likely make it into our next game. I tend to spend more time reviewing work done by others and providing feedback, but I also manage to sneak in dev time on my own features.

Favorite BioWare moment Game related/thing you are most proud of at BioWare:
The improvements we made to weapons and cover for Mass Effect 2 are probably my favorite accomplishment. That was a big change for Mass Effect 2, and it ended up affecting the gameplay of the entire game, but I’m incredibly proud of the work my team put into those changes and the end result.

Favorite BioWare moment not game related:
I love hanging out with other developers at BioWare and discussing games in general. For me games are not just my job, they’re a way of life. If I’m not building games at work, I’m playing games at home, and then talking about that with friends at work. I also enjoy playing games with other BioWare employees, like doing random Starcraft 2 team laddering.

What do you do to relax/do you have any hobbies:
I’m very interested in social networking. My name on twitter is truffle, feel free to follow me!

What game are you losing sleep for right now (that you are not working on)?
Fable 3 and The Old Republic (which I’m an alpha tester for) are my main obsessions right now. I also just finished playing Game Dev Story a really awesome iPhone game.

What is the most “nerdy” thing about you?
Wow what isn’t nerdy about me? I spend all my time playing games, posting to twitter, watching anime and programming.

If you didn’t work in video games, what would you be doing?
The fun answer would be to be a writer, I’ve always enjoyed writing short stories, novels, and fiction.
The practical answer is I’d probably be building internet based software which is what I did before I got into games.
I think I’ll stick with games.

What do you want people to know about you?
I love talking with the community so feel free to send me a message on twitter or social.bioware.com. I can’t reply to everyone but I read every message that is sent my way!