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[OPini]

The Israeli website www.vgames.co.il has conducted an interview with Yaron Jacobs, DA2 lead level designer (before the game was released). The interview is entirely in Hebrew so I assumed most people here never saw it (and if I'm wrong and it has been published here before then forgive me). So for the people here interested to hear about some more developer interviews I translate here some of the most important parts of the interview:

Q: Who are you and what is your job on the DA2 team?

A: Hello! My name is Yaron Jacobs, lead level designer of the game. I'm Israeli and I've been working here at BioWare for 8 years.

Q: How was the development process of DA2 different than DAO?

A: First of all, we started with a working engine this time. It enabled us to create content much faster and earlier during the development process. Nevertheless, there were still aspects of the game that have changed since DAO so we faced a few challenges along the path.

Q: What were the main designing objectives for DA2?

A: Everyone were very enthusiastic about creating a game which will be more accessible for a wider audience, without giving up the core components of the original game, while trying to add to the player pool for this game those people who felt intimidated by elements of DAO - such as the UI.
This is especially true for the console version of DA2 - we wanted to make the game more responsive and fun when you use a controller.
Another main objective was to improve the look of the game. DAO was in development for a long time and was lagging behind a little in the graphics field when it came out. We tried to improve all of the game's graphical aspects including textures, models and animations, while giving the game a more unique art style.

Q: It seems that DA2 has learned a few things from its stepbrother, Mass Effect. If that is true, can you provide examples?

A: In contrast to popular belief, only few design elements were borrowed directly from ME. One is the talking hero and the other is the dialogue wheel. All other changes and refinements were completely independent, although a few of them may look similar, such as the customizing options for the hero and his companions.

Q: It seems DA2 abandons the free origin choice and its predecessor's variety of powers in favor of a defined and dubbed main character. What was the thought line behind this change?

A: In this game we wanted to tell a specific story, more personal. A talking hero is a very strong thing and so is a specific man with a history and family of his own. This is a different approach which meant we had to give up the freedom of the character designs. The team believes that overall this approach is better and developes the genre towards more interesting directions.

Q: Kirkwall is a very small area compared to vast Ferelden we could play during the first game. Have you prefferd giving the city more depth over creating more places where you can hang around? Can you give an example?

A: This time we tried a different approach - enable the players to investigate only one main area, which has more depth and responsiveness. You can compare it to GTA game, where you are always in the same city, or maybe even compare it to Assassin's Creed to a certain degree. The player gets the chance to learn about the history, characters and secrets of one place instead of visiting a place briefly once before moving on to the next destination in his journey. It also enables a story arc which has a central link - a lot of things happen during the same time and not a long and flat timeline of events.

Q: Why are the city's streets not as crowded as one can expect from a city as congested as Kirkwall? Is it due to technical limitations?

A: Yes, this is completely due to technical limitation. We had more people crowding the streets in early stages of development but we had to cut the number to be able to cope with the limitations of game consoles and low-end computers.

Q: Could prolonging development time for the game result in a better variety within the city itself and avoiding reused areas, as seen in the game?

A: Obviously, more time would enable more areas and bigger variation. Honestly, we did not expect this to be such a big deal, but it seems the subject gave rise to a significant number of complaints by both critics and players alike. We listen to the reviews and we will try to address the issue in future games.

Q: Does every battle consist of enemy waves? What is your answer for all those people that claim the lack of ability to know the number of waves and where they will pop up causes a battle that consists of reactions instead of tactics and planning?

A: Part of the tactical game is adapting to changes. The waves might feel different, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. I do not agree with those that think the wave pattern is terrible as of itself, but I do agree that there are things it's possible to do in order to improve the use of the waves. We can use them less often and improve the breeding mechanic, for instance. All in all I think the waves are an excellent addition to the game.

Q: Why is the tactical game view unavailable in this game? Is the reason technical, aesthetic or a design problem?

A: Support for upper angle of view means creating the graphics in such a way that'll enable cutting the upper parts of the geometry, when you use that option. This causes a decline in quality because it's impossible, or at least very hard, to create the same environments in this way. In short - it was a difficult decision but we believe it was right.

Q: Blood Magic is a forbidden art in the world of DA2, but the main character uses it freely during the game against civilians and Templars. How is that logical?

A: Well, sometimes you have to give up perfect inner logic to make the game more fun. This is one of these cases. Anyway, this can be explained by the fact that the champion is someone who can do whatever he wants. No one is bold enough to lecture him about that. This is kind of like when the authorities ignore certain crimes because the criminal's aid is of great importance.

Q: Why is it no longer possible to manage your party's gear? Why is it that an armor worn by Hawke cannot be given to other characters?

A: There are many benefits of keeping a unique appearance for the companions: it gives them presence during cutscenes and dialogues and it's even useful during combat - they're easier to tell apart that way. I know it limits the possible customization but there are still many other elements you can upgrade such as weapons, accessories and even upgrade the main armor's stats.

Q: How much content is in DA2? Does it even get close to DAO's 100 hours of gameplay?

A: Everyone plays the game differently, and so the game's length varies greatly. In the end, DA2 is very long and can be prolonged by replays. It may not be as lengthy as its predecessor, but it is certainly epic RPG, far longer than many other games out there in the market.

Q: How were DAO's DLCs accepted? Did it influence your plans for such content for DA2?

A: The DLCs have been very popular. We broke all kinds of inner records at EA in this area. Of course DLCs are now an integral part of the game. We want players to continue enjoying the game as long as possible and DLC is the best way to achieve this goal.


OK that's it! Lengthy post but I think the community deserves to know these things, especially since each interview discussion around here gets quite a few reactions.

Link to the original article: http://www.vgames.co...icle/14565.html

[addu2urmanapool]

"

Q: Blood Magic is a forbidden art in the world of DA2, but the main character uses it freely during the game against civilians and Templars. How is that logical?

A: Well, sometimes you have to give up perfect inner logic to make the game more fun. This is one of these cases. Anyway, this can be explained by the fact that the champion is someone who can do whatever he wants. No one is bold enough to lecture him about that. This is kind of like when the authorities ignore certain crimes because the criminal's aid is of great importance."

Weak!

[Galad22]

Thank you for translating this!

[ALVIG824]

addu2urmanapool wrote...

"

Q: Blood Magic is a forbidden art in the world of DA2, but the main character uses it freely during the game against civilians and Templars. How is that logical?

A: Well, sometimes you have to give up perfect inner logic to make the game more fun. This is one of these cases. Anyway, this can be explained by the fact that the champion is someone who can do whatever he wants. No one is bold enough to lecture him about that. This is kind of like when the authorities ignore certain crimes because the criminal's aid is of great importance."

Weak!

*facepalm*

[Whammo]

A: Support for upper angle of view means creating the graphics in such a
way that'll enable cutting the upper parts of the geometry, when you
use that option. This causes a decline in quality because it's
impossible, or at least very hard, to create the same environments in
this way. In short - it was a difficult decision but we believe it was
right.

I hope I'm not reading this answer correctly, because he seems to be saying that it's better to make gameplay worse in exchange for prettier graphics.

[Korusus]

OPini wrote...



Q: Could prolonging development time for the game result in a better variety within the city itself and avoiding reused areas, as seen in the game?

A: Obviously, more time would enable more areas and bigger variation. Honestly, we did not expect this to be such a big deal, but it seems the subject gave rise to a significant number of complaints by both critics and players alike. We listen to the reviews and we will try to address the issue in future games.

Not possible.  There's no way they didn't know this would be a huge glaring flaw.  I refuse to believe they're that obtuse.

[Galad22]

A: Part of the tactical game is adapting to changes. The waves might feel different, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. I do not agree with those that think the wave pattern is terrible as of itself, but I do agree that there are things it's possible to do in order to improve the use of the waves. We can use them less often and improve the breeding mechanic, for instance. All in all I think the waves are an excellent addition to the game.

This is my biggest issue. They can't honestly think this was excellent addition.

Terrible is exactly what this is.

[DoctorCuddles]

Made for interesting reading, thanks for translating. I just wonder if the designer really believes some of the stuff he is saying.

Modifié par DoctorCuddles, 22 mars 2011 - 11:45 .

[Herr Sovereign]

addu2urmanapool wrote...

"

Q: Blood Magic is a forbidden art in the world of DA2, but the main character uses it freely during the game against civilians and Templars. How is that logical?

A: Well, sometimes you have to give up perfect inner logic to make the game more fun. This is one of these cases. Anyway, this can be explained by the fact that the champion is someone who can do whatever he wants. No one is bold enough to lecture him about that. This is kind of like when the authorities ignore certain crimes because the criminal's aid is of great importance."

Weak!

It's pretty funny how my Hawke badmouths blood magic, yet he uses it! Oh the irony.....
But seriously, it is getting pretty tiresome how they play the "gameplay mechanic > logic" card.

[contown]

God, this is bad...

[aphelion002]

The lack of reflection and introspection in this and Mr. Laidlaw's interviews gives me a very bad feeling about the future of this franchise. At least he is much more frank than Mike Laidlaw though, that guy just has the PR/marketing vibe all over him.

[KennethAFTopp]

They didn't think reusing the same enviroments over and over would be that big a deal?

[CRISIS1717]

Level Designer?

must have been tough to copy and past the same maps over and over.

[kelsjet]

Wait... lead level designer?
So this guys was responsible for the 4 repeating levels we had in the game??

Q: How was the development process of DA2 different than DAO?

A: First of all, we started with a working engine this time. It enabled us to create content much faster and earlier during the development process.

Ah so this makes sense. They could make more levels, much faster, so to leverage this ability, they decided to... make fewer levels and just repeat them instead?


Takes "getting jewed out of content" to a whole new level this interview does.

[Stckysixx]

A: In contrast to popular belief, only few design elements were borrowed directly from ME. One is the talking hero and the other is the dialogue wheel. All other changes and refinements were completely independent, although a few of them may look similar, such as the customizing options for the hero and his companions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What about the cutscene when you order a drink from the hanged man? This is an exact copy from me2. The music sounds like a recycled me2 soundtrack remixed especially in act 2. The gameplay is just mash A to win. A simpleton could do this. That's why people who can't play any videogames love this horrible abomination. It lets you win. Playing the whole game in Kirkwall made da2 almost completely unbearable to play. Sometimes even after 5 minutes of play I had to go do something else like: stare at a wall for instance just to get away from this snooze-fest. Anyone of the names under credits who ensure this bug-fest's quality needs to be shot.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Dammit! Someone got to interview the level designer and didn't bother to ask any questions about level design.

I find DA2's levels to be quite linear. Even those environments where you can walk around in a circle, each part of that circle usually only has two routes in or out, so it's basically linear. DAO did a better job, I think, of allowing the player to approach encounters from multiple directions.

[OPini]

Filament wrote...

The "breeding mechanic"?

And I don't see how they couldn't have expected the extent to which they recycled environments to damage people's opinions of the game.

kelsjet wrote...

Takes "getting jewed out of content" to a whole new level this interview does.

classy...

Sorry, perhaps a better translation would be "creeping mechanic" or at least something like that. In hebrew these words are almost similar, hard to tell the exact translation.

[kelsjet]

Filament wrote...

kelsjet wrote...

Takes "getting jewed out of content" to a whole new level this interview does.

classy...

Learn to keep up with urban slang my friend

[Edli]

Whammo wrote...

A: Support for upper angle of view means creating the graphics in such a
way that'll enable cutting the upper parts of the geometry, when you
use that option. This causes a decline in quality because it's
impossible, or at least very hard, to create the same environments in
this way. In short - it was a difficult decision but we believe it was
right.

I hope I'm not reading this answer correctly, because he seems to be saying that it's better to make gameplay worse in exchange for prettier graphics.

Sadly that's the reason. I can't believe they had to remove the iso view only because of slightly better graphics.

[Stckysixx]

Korusus wrote...

OPini wrote...



Q: Could prolonging development time for the game result in a better variety within the city itself and avoiding reused areas, as seen in the game?

A: Obviously, more time would enable more areas and bigger variation. Honestly, we did not expect this to be such a big deal, but it seems the subject gave rise to a significant number of complaints by both critics and players alike. We listen to the reviews and we will try to address the issue in future games.

Not possible.  There's no way they didn't know this would be a huge glaring flaw.  I refuse to believe they're that obtuse.

Lmao you thought forcing us to play the same 4 foot of dungeon 300 times instead of making a real game wouldn't be such a big deaL? There it is: Bioware officially wants your money and doesn't care about the fans any longer. I'm sorry Bioware you lost a long time fan. I was looking forward to me3 but there is no way im ever going to play it after this.

[Icinix]

 

Q: Why are the city's streets not as crowded as one can expect from a city as congested as Kirkwall? Is it due to technical limitations?

A: Yes, this is completely due to technical limitation. We had more people crowding the streets in early stages of development but we had to cut the number to be able to cope with the limitations of game consoles and low-end computers.

I call bull****.  There is a huge number of games out there where there is massive numbers of people in areas. Hell, N64 and Ocarina of Time had about the same amount of people in areas...

Not even going to mention Assassins Creed, GTA, Mafia 2...oh wait...

This has always been an annoyance for me in BioWare games...just populate the damn world will you? PLEASE!

[Stckysixx]

Filament wrote...

The "breeding mechanic"?

And I don't see how they couldn't have expected the extent to which they recycled environments to damage people's opinions of the game.

kelsjet wrote...

Takes "getting jewed out of content" to a whole new level this interview does.

classy...

I was laughing