Though some fans started to see the warning signs withMass Effect 3, for many,Dragon Age: Inquisitionrepresented the last great video game built by BioWare magic – a phrase that formerDragon Ageproducer Mark Darrah loathes, as he reflects onInquisition’s development and how it heralded BioWare’s problems that came after. In many ways, thesuccess ofDragon Age: Inquisitionwas an unlikely miracle as the developers struggled to adapt the Frostbite Engine to fit a fantasy role-playing game mold.
Players often wondered why the developers at BioWare chose to buildDragon Age: Inquisitionon Frostbite, with many speculating that Electronic Arts forced their hand, while others thinking the decision was made of BioWare’s own accord. According to Darrah in his new video, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. BioWare was encouraged to use Frostbite due to Patrick Soderlund’s stance on Electronic Arts having its own in-house engine, and the publisher offered to either fully supportDragon Age: Inquisitionon Frosbite, or to have BioWare build it on the Eclipse Engine used forDragon Age: Origins. With no easier alternatives made available such as Unreal Engine, BioWare’s path forward was clear.
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Adapting to Frostbite Engine tasked the development team severely, asInquisitiondidn’t even have a save game system in the entirety of its Alpha. Darrah went on to say that developing the tools for Frostbite took up about a third of the project’s development time, and that having to support PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions ofDragon Age: Inquisitionended up being more trouble than it was worth. Curiously, BioWare agreed to completeInquisitionby 2013, fully knowing that Electronic Arts would have to delay the game by a year because the production on Frostbite demanded so much.
Therein lay the problem, as the tools developed forDragon Age: Inquisitionon Frostbite were never used forMass Effect: AndromedaorAnthem. The development teams in charge of those two games eschewed the work built by theDragon Ageteam in favor of creating their own tools, but unfortunately the miracle (and long hours of crunch) which allowedInquisitionto emerge as 2014’s Game of the Year didn’t translate to the BioWare games that came after.Mass Effect: AndromedaandAnthemwere declared disappointments, and BioWare found itself at a crossroads.
WithDragon Age: Dreadwolfin the middle of its development, Darrah believes that the tactical camera featured in the franchise will not be making a return to the sequel, nor willInquisition’s vast, yet often empty open world. The developers ofDragon Agelearned too late that quantity did not always translate into quality, and chasing the size ofSkyrim’s playable area ultimately causedDragon Age: Inquisitionto feel diluted at times. There is a lot of optimism thatDragon Age: Dreadwolfwill take the lessons learnedfrom the development ofInquisition, andthe tools built forAnthem, as opposed to relying on BioWare magic to succeed.
Dragon Age: Inquisitionis currently available on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
