Dragon Age Inquisition, Side Quests, Two Future Games, And More

Bioware director Mike Laidlaw spoke at length on the development of Dragon Age Inquisition. Among the things he touched on are the side quests, the removal of bars for a more intuitive reaction system, how they handle the franchise’s lore, and the game’s future.

Bioware added small quests for psychological effect. Bioware was aware that the larger quests can appear daunting, so those were added in so that they didn’t feel as pressured. However, only completists may have known that playing those smaller quests connects you to bigger and broader quests that gives you bonuses back in the main game. Case in point, if you do the ram meat quest, and the quests that follow it, you will eventually recruit a new member to the Inquisition who will make progression far easier.

There was a bar that made it easy to tell what mood an NPC was in after interacting with you, useful for events that occur offscreen. However, for this game Bioware deliberately designed the game around in such a way that the bar is unnecessary. None of those said events occur offscreen anymore, and you are pushed to intuit how your party members and other NPCs react to your interactions.

Bioware has an internal wiki that helps ensure the Dragon Age world is consistent and there are no contradictions between games. A group of four editors work with an actual internal reference, and only they have access to this insider information. They helped make the World of Thedas books with Dark Horse as well.

As for the future, there are at least two Dragon Age games’ worth of stories on the horizon, even though other details, such as gameplay innovations, haven’t been worked out yet.