53 réponses à ce sujet

[Grand Admiral Wong]

 Thus far, we know very little of Mass Effect 3. As far as I know, no trailers for Mass Effect 3 have been released yet, so we don't have an inkling yet, unlike the first Mass Effect 2 trailer, which had the ominous Geth wearing Shepard's N7 armour and the database saying that Shepard is dead.

The estimated release is stated to be either in late 2011 or early 2012. So I'm wondering what stage of development or amount of work has been done yet. I'm pretty sure development started since March, maybe in February after the success of Mass Effect 2 was ensured once it was released. Are they still on the drawing block in terms of story, artwork and gameplay? Or would they have finalised the storyline by now and moved on to gameplay design?

I wonder how is Bioware's methodology, or the gaming industry in general. For Blizzard, I'm almost certain they start with the gameplay then work the story around the units and balanced gameplay. For Bioware however, they excel in single player story epics which they spared no effort to make spectacular since the days of Baldur's Gate 2.

So is the game's story still in the works, or would they be designing gameplay at this stage? Or maybe even simultaneously?

[AdmiralCheez]

I know next to nothing about game development, but I wouldn't be surprised if they already have the basic plot outlined. At the moment, I suspect that one team is fleshing out the story while the other is working on tweaking parts of gameplay that were an issue in ME2. Both are probably nowhere near complete.

[mad825]

well first of all we would have to consider the fact that ME2.5 isn't finished yet....is it?

[Grand Admiral Wong]

hmmmmm, I wonder how much of the storyline is set in stone. Any idea how long the window of development takes, before it moves to beta testing, so to speak?

[Loerwyn]

mad825 wrote...

well first of all we would have to consider the fact that ME2.5 isn't finished yet....is it?

By that I assume you mean the DLC? Look at DA:O - DLC production didn't mean DA2 wasn't being made, so why would it be true for ME2/ME3?

I don't know where ME3 is in terms of development, but I'd wager they're doing pretty well.

[Fredvdp]

They were already working on some gameplay mechanics a while back. They gave it a code name but didn't give any info at all about what it is. I think it's also interesting that ME3 hasn't even been announced yet. I guess they want to release Dragon Age II before they start hyping their next project.

[morrie23]

I think it was about March time when Christina Norman mentioned she had started 'Project Wombat' for ME3. (For reference, the ammo system in ME2 was called 'Project Sasquatch'). So that part of ME3 has been in development for about 8 months.

[Grand Admiral Wong]

Project Wombat? what's that?

[morrie23]

No idea, as it was Christina who mentioned it I assume it's some sort of gameplay system (which could be literally anything, from new RPG systems to changes in the shooting mechanics). But whatever it is, it's been in development for a while.

Modifié par morrie23, 08 novembre 2010 - 11:56 .

[KenLyns]

According to a dev post in the old forums (I believe it was from Patrick Weekes), the overall story arc was completed by Karpyshyn before ME2 even shipped.

[StowyMcStowstow]

Basically, I'm assuming that ME 3 isn't even at a stage that would be presentable until next years E3. I would not be surprised if the game isn't released until 2012 (or the end of 2011). ME2 took about 2 years, so Mass Effect 3 should take about the same; and considering they have the engine and story all figured out, most of what is going on is probably designing and reworking somethings that were in ME2, and you know, the whole rest of the game.

This is assuming they started working on ME3 either shortly after or right after the completion of ME2. 

Basically, don't expect anything until next year's E3 at the earliest.

Modifié par StowyMcStowstow, 08 novembre 2010 - 04:29 .

[SimonTheFrog]

Yeah, i guess they work on stuff simultaneously. Because the team consists of all sorts of artists and specialists and you don't want to pay half of them for just watching.

There's a lot you can do while the main plot is still w.i.p. Especially if you already nailed a couple of hubs and places. You can start to work in content there.



Ah about wombat, i just recently had the idea that wombat is got to be space battle. They added a test-run of the mechanic in LotSB and i'm pretty sure we'll see more of that later. I'm thinking death star like trench-runs.



Halo Reach did it too so they know it's fun

[JockBuster]

KenLyns wrote...
According to a dev post in the old forums (I believe it was from Patrick Weekes), the overall story arc was completed by Karpyshyn before ME2 even shipped.

Makes sense to know the beginning and ENDING. Roughly quoting Legion, "There are many paths to the end," getting there (how X millions) play the game differently is the challenge. Filling in the middle part, ME2 + DLC, is the challenge for the devs etc. Iv'e also noticed that the DLC (so far) occur between Shepard's death and the Collector Base battle, because if you do them after the SM the dialogue gets really messed up. The same goes for the recruitment and loyalty missions. So, maybe, after LofSB we're still waiting for more "bridge DLCs" from ME2 to ME3?

[scottelite]

ME2 would have went gold a month or two before it came out so its probably been in production/pre-production since early this year.

[Atilius the Hun]

This is just a wild guess, but I think that the development cycle will be shorter for ME3 than it was for ME2. The story arc is already complete and the dev team fixed allot of the issues in ME1. I'm sure they've learned from past ME development experiences and therefore improved with the speed of creation (i.e., fewer mistakes and higher efficiency) for this third and final instalment. All of this might be shot if they take the time they've saved and use it to add a whole bunch of added content than the last two might not have had which wouldn't be a bad thing, IMO.

[kalle90]

+ Basic story script was surely done before ME2

+ Apparently ME2 nailed the gameplay (even planet scanning was uber fantastic)

= I can't believe they wouldn't have started the real development yet

[Kaiser Shepard]

Atilius the Hun wrote...

This is just a wild guess, but I think that the development cycle will be shorter for ME3 than it was for ME2.

Most likely, but probably only by a little due to the PS3 version of ME2 slowing the process down.

[casedawgz]

I suspect it will be shorter, mostly because I doubt that the game will be completely rebuilt like ME2 was compared with ME1. What we see next will probably be pretty close to what we've already seen in terms of graphics and gameplay.

[OMFGitsthatGUY]

assuming they are still using the unreal engine most of the groundwork such as code is already done so all that they really have to focus on is refined gameplay/story/tweaked graphics but most of their effort is probably put into making an even bigger dlc then lotsb before they focus on me3

[Commander Raiden]

Even a teaser trailer would be great for christmas or something..

[Da_Lion_Man]

What's a Mass Effect?

[Jaron Oberyn]

Grand Admiral Wong wrote...

hmmmmm, I wonder how much of the storyline is set in stone. Any idea how long the window of development takes, before it moves to beta testing, so to speak?

They announced December, right after the emargo lift I believe, that they had already begun writing the story for ME3. So I'm sure they have that done by now, and are working on producing the content.

-Polite

[masterthehero]

I believe they're focusing on the PS3 version right now and probably haven't committed too many assets into ME3. If anything they probably have some storyboards and pre-production things completed, and probably a small amount of VG assets. Also if they're not going to change game engine or anything like that, they might have some skeleton framework already built too. But nothing worth presenting.

[Jaron Oberyn]

masterthehero wrote...

I believe they're focusing on the PS3 version right now and probably haven't committed too many assets into ME3. If anything they probably have some storyboards and pre-production things completed, and probably a small amount of VG assets. Also if they're not going to change game engine or anything like that, they might have some skeleton framework already built too. But nothing worth presenting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Christina Norman said a small group was working on the port. Not the whole team. ME3 is definitely in production, but it's unclear when they actually started working on compiling the game, instead of writing the script which allegedly began in December.

-Polite