#game dev interviews

[arimiadev]

this month I got to sit down with @blacktabbygames to talk about their approach to developing Slay the Princess and how they market visual novels!

read it here:

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[felassan]

New interview video from TheGamer: 'Exclusive Interview with The Directors of Dragon Age: The Veilguard'

"Will there be returning characters? Will the light prevail against the darkness? Will our comic book and graphic novel knowledge of Dragon Age finally come into play?"

[source]

The video has some footage from the DA:TV booth at SDCC.

Info from this video:

More will be shown of the skill trees over time

"We have 700 new unique characters to talk to"

This may be the biggest game they've ever made

"Rivain, that more tropical feel. Something we've never really been able to do before in Dragon Age is, what does the coast of Rivain look like?"

Lots of love has been poured into how the areas look. They all look and feel different, but also coherent and consistent with the style of the game as a whole

The writers did a good job of finding the light in the darkness of this story

Just after timestamp 5 mins 0 secs, John says Emmrich's surname Volkarin aloud

Emmrich's character design is kind of like the more classical, Hollywood actor type

On returning characters, they're excited for people to see them, especially in the context of how 10 years have passed in-world since the last DA

Each choice in the game, especially the major ones, has significant consequences on gameplay, what content is available to you, and also how characters in the world regard you. "No choice should be easy, we never want to make players feel like there's a right choice. There's always going to be a consequence, some that you don't expect, and some that change the world in real ways"

On casting - Ashley: "Casting is a collaboration. The ensemble that the companions create was basically where we started. We put the character art on the wall, we saw the writing, we auditioned vastly and we assured that the cast was very dynamic and complimenting, and opposing, to each other. We spent a lot of time in getting those companions the juiciest they could possibly be"

The acting talent was cast across 5 years

[project-sekai-facts]

Pre-broadcast station commentary

The next Broadcast Station will be on the 29th, featuring Yukki, Yuichan, and Furirin! No VOCALOID Music SEKAI segment was announced, so it looks like the main stream will be starting half an hour earlier than usual. There is a reason for this, which we will get to.

Next month will be the Virtual Singer WLE! It will be held towards the end of the month, with chapters being 2 days long instead of 3 this time around.

There's room for one unit event next month, which is looking very likely to be Airi's 5th event. Due to its proximity to the vsinger WLE, the lineup will be entirely MCs. I reckon Shizuku for one of the other rateups, since she's behind on 4*s, and got spammed with lims last year so deserves some perm cards as a break. I reckon Minori could be the other 4*, since her only rateup on an Airi event was back in 2020.

This month's mixed lim event is likely to be either kamikou fes 2, or emu mixed 2. If it's the first one, I reckon the lineup could be Mizuki/Toya (maybe with An, Ena, or Rui as the other card), and serve as the 2-B mixed event. If it's Emu, Haruka/Nene seems like the most likely rateup. Next month's lim is hard to call, but will likely have a Rui lim unless he ends up on this month's event. If he isn't July or August, he's fes.

Now onto why the stream's starting earlier. I'm sure everyone has heard about the teaser for a new project already, and this is scheduled to be announced at 8pm JST, aka halfway through the stream. Given the heavy use of Miku in the promo, as well as this being retweeted by the official Miku account, it's pretty likely this will be vocaloid/piapro related. CFM has already said they'll be announcing vocaloid 20th anniversary stuff soon. PJDiva also turned 15 recently, and while that series is, let's be honest, dead, a PC/console game in the same vein but under the project sekai franchise wouldn't exactly surprise me? It's still a franchise beloved by many, so a rebrand of sorts wouldn't hurt.

A lot of people on twitter have been bringing up colopale's job listings, but imo it's not pointing to anything. Clpl has been vagueing about working on more mobile games for years, job listings confirm some sort of RPG, and there's some listing that suggest it could have a gacha. kinda like genshin? Based on images from their blog posts and job applications for a costume and armour designer, we're talking medieval-ish which. doesn't seem in-line with this teaser at all. though some of their job listings seem to be for multiple different projects, so i might be talking about two different games here. it's worth noting that colorful palette is not bound to CFM and Sega and they are free to work on their own projects outside of prsk, and very likely already are. feel free to laugh at me later if we do get miku rpg or miscellaneous other game that could be either a platformer or open world or something else entirely.

[daka-d3monb0y]

*SLAMS HAND ON TABLE*

I LOVE THIS MAN-

LOOK AT HIM! AHHHH!

How did I only recently hear about this game?!?!

HE'A COOL AND SCARY!!!

(Thing is he's basically Darkiplier- ;-;)

BUT YOOOO HE'S COOL!

Gotta love this completely Normal Guy

He doesn't fit my description of a void demon 1 to 1 at all...

(Seriously how is he literally 1-1 my exact definition of a void demon!? That's fascinating.)

Anyways have a nice day. :>

[jessyabeb]

check out my interview with the fabulous @insertdisc5 about in stars and time and other things like life and culture and mental health and and and

[midorikawawas]

There's a version of Nahyuta that lives rent free in my brain, something normal, but whenever I stumble across the original design and I'm faced with all the details my brain misses at times I'm overcome.... like why is this peak character design??? @ Capcom how did you decide to make a "Holy" character and just nailed it?

[bossuary]

[pickedpiper]

What in gods name does Toby Fox possess to summon Kikiyama out of whatever realm they were hiding in and ask for their Denny’s order

I both fear and admire this man to a ridiculous degree

[bestlaidplansproductions]

We thank the amazing journalists at Otome.com for conducting this amazing interview with us on our upcoming villainess-themed romantic dark comedy murder-mystery game, Save the Villainess!

If you want to know more about our game, our team, and our creative process, check out the Youtube interview or the print interview - which contains exclusive behind-the-scenes production sketches.

It was amazing to talk to them about our process of creating the game, the mysteries surrounding our characters, the deeper themes behind our game, and how we give our players different tools to be detectives that solve the mystery of this strange world.

Thank you again to Otome.com for their support. Please check this amazing team out for many more fantastic game reviews and developer interviews!

[folkdevilism]

I'll always have a soft spot for Dishonored 2, but I still occasionally wonder what kind of game we could have gotten if it had been allowed to focus solely on Emily instead of trying to accommodate two playable main characters.

[dapper-lil-arts]

FELLOW PRE-SEQUEL ENJOYER!!!!!!! Best game in the series tbh. So fucking fun I LOVE playing Athena because I love the aegis. Also because she’s pretty. Wilhelm and Timothy are close seconds tho

yeah fr I think it's so underrated, always makes me sad when someone parrots that the game is 'trash' just because its the prequel one. Like my god it perfects all of the game mechanics, the vault hunters are impeccably designed and cool, each of them feel so damn unique, and holy cow Athena is cool. Like she seriously works as a PoV character for the entire series, she is present in some of the most important plot heavy moments in the series and the fact that she's playable feels so natural now? That shield is SO satisfying.

[lulu2992]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I want to analyze the dates revolving around the project at eden's gate, I remember seeing one of your posts where you mentioned a note in game that says the cult arrived in hope county 9 years prior to 2018? I also vaguely remember something like that too, but... my search results have been entirely fruitless DX would you be able to direct me to where I can find that information/where it is because I forgor

Yes! The note in question is titled “Devoted’s letter” and can be found at the Sacred Skies Youth Camp :) It’s dated and mentions Eden’s Gate, so we know thanks to it that they had already arrived and established themselves in Hope County in August 2009.

[felassan]

Article: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard took "so long" as BioWare "wanted to make sure we got this one right" - that, and "it takes a long time to record 700 characters" and 140,000 lines'

The Veilguard is "the best version" of itself that it could be

Excerpt:

"BioWare reveals why Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been in the works for a long, long time - and it sounds like the upcoming RPG is downright massive, from dialogue to voice acting. The 10-year wait for a new Dragon Age is coming to a close as the fall season approaches, meaning that excitement for the game is at an all-time high. Why did The Veilguard take "so long" to come to fruition, though? Speaking in an interview with GamesRadar+, creative director John Epler and creative performance director Ashley Barlow explain why work on the beloved RPG series' soon-to-come entry was seemingly slower. "We had other projects going on at BioWare as well," Epler says. "We wanted to make sure we got this one right." The developer continues, calling The Veilguard "the best version" that the new Dragon Age "could possibly be." Barlow then chimes in, describing how she's been working on the game for five years now alongside its cast of actors: "We started casting five years ago. The team, the talent has been on for five years." And, according to Barlow, five years isn't that long considering the amount of work the cast had to do: "It takes a long time to record 700 characters, you know - 80,000 lines or 140,000 lines with all the Rooks. It just takes time to make good."

[source]

[brightoakgame]

Spooktober Streaming + Dev Q&A

Hello again, dear friends! I'm still working my way through entries before assembling a comprehensive list of my personal favorite games from this year's jam, but if you're itching to get a taste of what is out there, my lovely partner MisterShins is streaming Spooktober Visual Novels every Wednesday this month, followed by interviews with each game's developers.

For reference, here's the VOD of his stream of Tell It Slant (interview starts at roughly the 3:19 mark):

Some of the other fantastic games he has streamed so far are:

Sunk (stream VOD here, with Incredulous Interactive dev interview at around the 2:18 mark)

A Witch is Getting Married (stream VOD here, with Featherboy and Eli Hersh interview at about the 1:26 mark)

Tonight (10/16) at 10pm Pacific, he will be streaming the monstrously stellar game The Stars Under Lockehurst, as well as the delicious, bite-sized Paddy Makes Breakfast. Each game will be followed with a dev interview, so please feel free to tune in and ask any questions you may have!

Happy Wednesday to you all, and I hope you're enjoying the spooky season!

B.

[reliquarian]

Mo have you seen the sphinx from the Dragon's Dogma 2 trailers?? Her design seems right up your alley tbh.

So, incidentally, i saw this concept art of a dragon's dogma online sphinx recently and thought she was beautiful!

BUT i havent seen the stills from the dragons dogma 2 trailer. She's so scary and beautiful, i love herrr. They really tilted hard into a more unnerving creature.

Dragon's Dogma is one that's always skated under my radar but this is some really fun art direction. Always love seeing what people do with sphinxes.