Oof, big ones. Let's see if I can break this down.
- How have the development cycles changed since BG and BG2?
I don't know what I can say about dev cycles, but we're constantly learning. BG2's definitely did not match its relative size, and it was pretty brutal on the team. We've certainly done shorter games that had more breathing room in the schedule, but some with perhaps a bit too much. Darrah used to have a sign on his wall that said "Show me a game with infinite resources (schedule, etc) and I'll show you a game that never ships." The finish line for creative things is necessarily artificial, because you're never done, there's always something you want to make better. But eventually you have to send little Gamey out into the big wide on his own and hope he does well.
- Did you ever feel gated or bottlenecked by other departments?
Sometimes. And sometimes I'm the block, especially early on in a project. Around here, writing is often first in, first out, but things happen. And at the other end, sometimes you have to cut because there just isn't time to make something work, whether that's editing time, art time, recording time, cine, or just plain old rewriting what didn't turn out like you thought.
- Can you describe the sort of direction you get as a game writer? What sort of editorial control is there?
It varies. Sometimes it's explicit from the Leads, sometimes you just have the in/out: the info that feeds the section and dictates where it has to end up to make the next part make sense. There are a huge number of dependencies attached to every word that you try to anticipate, but sometimes they are already in place and you're just filling a slot. Generally, the bigger the moment and more resources attached, the higher the degree of oversight. In all cases there are multiple stages of review, both inside and outside the team.
- What sort of scoping constraints did you apply to the writing of characters like companions?
For followers, we decide on a structure and budget ahead of time because standardization is the only thing that makes implementation and testing possible. It's easy to go off the rails if you don't have good limits. You get in their heads and just want to let them talk, but that's a recipe for getting your stuff cut by someone else's schedule. Sometimes the limits are out of everyone's control. I wrote Joker for ME2, and after writing was complete, we learned we had a very small window for recording with Seth Green. I had to cut his lines by a literal third, but I had a week to do it, so he became a sort of "greatest hits" that was much tighter. It was painful, but the result was way better than the wordier version. And then the initial recording went so fast, it looked like we might not have enough lines to fill the sessions, so I brainstormed the "stand behind him" one-liners with the rest of writing the day before the last booking. A little chaotic, but you have to be able to adapt.
- In the first Mass Effect, there was nothing in the dialoge or plot that I ever saw that established Garrus as a dedicated sniper.
I think you'll find that there are rarely any lines that lock any character into a particular mechanic, weapon, or style of play. Combat balancing must be free to move as the game needs it. If a character is totally defined by a mechanic, his entire reason for existing can disappear overnight. Like the player character, the followers have to be somewhat modular.
- Do the guys who work on Dragon Age work on Mass Effect in the same capacities?
The Leads are usually specific to one project so there is a consistent vision, but there's a lot of crossover below that as the project ebbs and flows. Staggering the development schedules is a big strength, and ensures a lot of sharing of experience. Depends on the size of the team, though. As far as writers go, I think I've logged the most time crisscrossing projects.
- who stickied the my little pony thread?
I don't know nuffin 'bout nuffin.
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