So hows Mass Effect coming along? Whats the status of the game?
Ray Muzyka: Its going really well. We havent announced a final release date for it yet, but the teams entering the final push. Weve got a great team, theyre working really hard. There are 120 or 130 people working on it right now, and theyre working really hard on it. Theyre committed, theyre passionate, theyre hard working. Its an honor to work with them, theyre doing some great stuff. I just saw a video today of some of the near final levels and some of the gameplay stuff that we had recorded, that you guys will probably see. Hopefully well show some of that very soon to you guys. Its looking absolutely stunning, its the best stuff weve ever done at BioWare. I can say that with complete confidence. I think that its potentially the best game weve ever done. Its an amazing game. Its got exploration of all of these uncharted worlds, its got beautiful, beautiful characters. I think the way were doing dialogue and story is really accessible, and yet the depth is there, too.
So, its got tremendous depth in terms of the way the progression systems work, and customization, it flows naturally from dialogue to story to exploration to combat, back and forth. And I think its very fluid, very accessible in real time. But its going really well, were in the final push.
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How is working with Microsoft? Youve worked with them before, and youve done a lot of different projects with different groups.
Ray Muzyka: I have nothing but good thing to say about them. They really do care about the games developed for the system that they want to be showcases. They want them to be stand-out titles, and theyre doing everything they can to support us. They contribute resources on the dev side to help us get the max out of the hardware. The marketing and PR folks are working hard to maximize the outreach, and thats going to ramp up really big in just a short period. The fans are going to start seeing more assets and cool stuff. I think theyre a great publisher. The good thing about being first-party is that you have the commitment from the hardware manufacturer themselves to maximize the return on the game.
You look at what they did for Gears of War last year, and theyre planning a sort of similar thing for Mass Effect this year, and its great to be part of that.
You mentioned the exploration elements of the game, and how you can go and find all of these uncharted worlds. Whats the breakdown going to be between the core storyline and just exploring the universe?
Ray Muzyka: Yeah, thats a good question. I mean, it really depends on just how much you want to do on the uncharted worlds. I think its going to be about 40 hours or so for the main story, so its going to be a good-sized BioWare RPG just for the core part. Off the beaten path, theres probably another 20 or 30 hours or so of stuff, or more, depending on how much you do and what order you do it in and all of that. Its this non-linear exploration of uncharted worlds. Youre flying around this vast universe with hundreds of locations, where ones a derelict spacecraft from which you get this distress call. Another might be an uncharted world with a full backstory, multi-hour storyline that youve got to explore and go on the surface and sub-surface and explore and find some new locations that send you off to a new location. You might be flying through space on your primary quest when you get this distress call or you hear some message. The planets on sensors, so do you want to explore this now or do you go back later? Its all non-linear. The gameplays there for people who just want to have some fun for a couple hours and go off the beaten path. You know, upgrade the character, get in the rover, explore the world, get out of the rover, go find some quests or some combat, get some new items. Then you can go back to the main game and find a rich, compelling, deep storyline with amazing characters and incredible, beautiful graphics.
Are you still planning on Mass Effect being the first part of a series?
Ray Muzyka: Thats our goal. Weve always thought of the storyline as part of a long-term franchise, and thats actually more challenging for our writers, because theyve got to think long-term. Theyve got to not only build the underlying foundation, kinda like an iceberg, where theres so much of the base that you dont see. But that gives the IP a weight, a gravity that makes it feel more real. And the same thing is true here. Downstream, youve actually got to plan out where the storyline is going. It has to be a really satisfying, climactic conclusion to the main game, but then there has to more beyond that for the second or third game. And also the episodic content between installments. Post-release content, were planning that as well.
How does this compare as a project to the previous games youve done?
Ray Muzyka: Out goal at BioWare is pretty simple. Our fans are really smart, and we always want to make something thats better than anything weve done before. As a goal, thats simple to state, but hard to achieve. Were always trying to make each game better than the last, and were always trying to innovate. So Mass Effect is pushing what weve done in every sense, in every area. Exploration, for instance. Weve never done exploration to this extent before.
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Theres a huge universe to explore, an epic place with hundreds of locations to go to. The storyline itself is a refinement of everything weve done before. If you liked the storyline in Knights of the Old Republic, a lot of the same writers and designers that worked on that game are working on Mass Effect, and theyve learned from that experience. Theres tons of stuff that theyre like, What if we could do this? Well, theyre doing it in Mass Effect, everything they could think of. Because our turnover is really low, all of the guys who worked on Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic, and their ideas cross-pollinate.
Every game that we release, we try to make the best possible and use the best people. Digital actors, and the way were conveying the story, and the dialogue system itself is different than anything weve done before. Digital actors really push the envelope, its seamless how they convey emotion and use facial expressions and gestures, well beyond anything weve ever done. The dialogue system, the way you choose the dialogue and go in a certain emotional direction. If you want to play it and choose angry responses, you can do it. If you want to play the nice guy, you can do that. Or if you want to mix it up, you can, or just skip past all of that if you want to get back to the storyline and the action.
Well continue our interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka on Monday morning, so check back to learn more about Mass Effect and some of BioWares upcoming titles!
Das wird so ein Godgame! 
