Friday, February 23, 2007
Reader Q&A
Casey Hudson, Project Director
BioWare
Time for another update! So whats new in the world of Mass Effect? Well, Mass Effect is really taking shape as a polished game experience, and one of the things were doing to achieve that are meetings that we call dailies. Every day, we get the leads from each of the various disciplines (around 20 or so) into a room with a big plasma TV and surround sound, and we play the game as its meant to be played. We have fun with it, point out areas where it needs to improve, spot bugs, and by the end of each dailies meeting we have a big list of work that needs to be done in time for the next one. Its been a great way to push the quality of the game experience forward. And its exciting to see how every day the game gets better.
-Click here for larger image
Because so many new things go into the game each day, we often see things for the first time in the dailies and todays meeting was pretty inspiring. The opening sequence was working better than ever before, cutting between panoramic shots of space and scenes inside the Normandy as Commander Shepard makes his (or her!) way to the bridge. Today was also the first time weve heard the opening sequence with the final music, which builds to a thundering power as the Normandy picks up speed.
Some of the latest improvements to the combat controls were up and running, showing how Shepard moves smoothly against cover objects, allowing you to take aim, then lean out to fire at will. The level designer controlling the game in this meeting ran through a grove of trees under a red alien sky, and dropped Shepard into cover behind a large rock. His squadmate threw a distortion wave of dark energy past him and into a cluster of flying drones in the distance, sending pieces of them flying outwards in a shower of sparks. Its amazing that we can still be caught off guard by how cool it is when all the details of these sequences come together.
-Click here for larger image
But enough about that lets get to some questions. There was a lot of great feedback from the last blog, and some really good questions too. Ill try to answer a few that Ive seen here and on our forums at the BioWare site:
Does Mass Effect fit on one disc?
Yep, but just barely. This is a monstrous game. In fact, there was a time not too long ago when we pretty much scoffed at the idea of fitting onto one disc. But, theres an art to optimizing the data that goes on a disc plus we have a few programmers that seem to pull off magic tricks right when we need them.
How far can you go customizing Shepard?
Commander Shepard represents the specific kind of experience you can have in Mass Effect: serious situations, important decisions, and the feeling that you can kick down any barrier that stands in your way. But how you do it, and what kind of character you are is up to you. So you can be male or female, change the details of your face and hair to look however you want, and then youll decide what kind of character you are: soldier, tech specialist, user of dark energy powers, or some combination of those. Youll also be able to decide what your starting skills will be. And throughout the game youll get new weapons and equipment that you can use, further modifying your appearance and capability. You can also buy or find mods that can be used to enhance your weapons and equipment. So your character is quite a bit more customizable than in KOTOR for example, but youre also adjusting things that seem more tangible or real-world.
-Click here for larger image
Do you care if players use a custom sound track?
This is actually a controversial subject, as most game developers dont like the idea of people replacing their carefully crafted audio experience with random songs. But of course, players dont have to use that feature, and I think most players dont especially in this type of game. And if the feature didnt exist, youd still be able to adjust your sound settings to mute the music and play your own music on a stereo. So we dont mind supporting it. Having said that though, my last update was all about the huge original score thats going into Mass Effect, so you wont want to miss out on that part of the experience.
Well thats all for now. Keep the questions coming!
der mann is so genial XD und soooo leicht vorhersehend is es au nich 
