Bioware pop quiz at XBN
Bioware pop quiz at XBN
Company News - posted by Vault Dweller on Tue 20 April 2004, 05:17:56
Tags: BioWareXBN posted a <a href=http://www.xbnmag.com/article2/0,2053,1569337,00.asp>thing[/url] where developers are shown screenshots of games, asked to identify them, and to comment on their relevance to a project in question. Sounds stupid, but it's a console thing. Anyway, Bioware's good doctors Ray and Greg talk about games and stuff:
XBN: It's Ultima VII. How did the Ultima series influence you as RPG developers?
RM: Yeah, they were great games, and it's interesting to see, more than anything, the evolution of how Origin sort of gradually changed the different elements. From Ultima (Alkalabeth) to Ultima I, II, III, and beyond—to see how new elements kept being added in every couple of years through the '80s and the '90s, and then see the evolution into Ultima Underworld, which was one of Greg's and my top five favorite games of all time
XBN: Action games versus RPG: Which are more difficult to make?
RM: Both? There are different kinds of challenges. From our experience making both types, these are very different kinds of games to make, and they both pose significant challenges if you're going to do them well. In an RPG, some of the challenge is the sheer number of assets, the ways they interact, the nonlinearity, and testing all those different permutations of quests.
XBN: What do you think of it [Deus Ex]?
RM: The original game was one of our favorites. The sequel was kind of cool, too, in that the quests would branch when you set out to do a certain goal. The mutually exclusive nature of the game quests was interesting, too; you could follow only one of the paths to conclusion.Bio likes Deus Ex 2. Makes sense.
XBN: It's Ultima VII. How did the Ultima series influence you as RPG developers?
RM: Yeah, they were great games, and it's interesting to see, more than anything, the evolution of how Origin sort of gradually changed the different elements. From Ultima (Alkalabeth) to Ultima I, II, III, and beyond—to see how new elements kept being added in every couple of years through the '80s and the '90s, and then see the evolution into Ultima Underworld, which was one of Greg's and my top five favorite games of all time
XBN: Action games versus RPG: Which are more difficult to make?
RM: Both? There are different kinds of challenges. From our experience making both types, these are very different kinds of games to make, and they both pose significant challenges if you're going to do them well. In an RPG, some of the challenge is the sheer number of assets, the ways they interact, the nonlinearity, and testing all those different permutations of quests.
XBN: What do you think of it [Deus Ex]?
RM: The original game was one of our favorites. The sequel was kind of cool, too, in that the quests would branch when you set out to do a certain goal. The mutually exclusive nature of the game quests was interesting, too; you could follow only one of the paths to conclusion.
