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[Elhanan]

You need to freshen up your resume with writing info, Stan! Good stuff!

[Stanley Woo]

We had a fencer on our side, Flooba Dave, his name was, who used to charge in with a pool noodle in one hand and a chairback-shield in the other. We called him Flooba because his hair looked like it'd been cut with a Flowbee, but we was all laughing too hard to say Flowbee. Ended up coming out something like Flooba, and it stuck.

Poor kid, he had his whole life ahead of him. Showed me a picture of his girl back home, said he was gonna ask her to marry him after the Nerf war was over. Such grand plans in his head, he coulda been the guy to cure cancer or find out where that pesky sock disappears to in the dryer. So many things could have been...

We lost Flooba Dave on a Tuesday, raiding 526. Someone musta tipped them off, cuz they knew we were coming. Set themselves up a line of chairbacks splitting the office in two. Our bullets poofed harmlessly against 'em, and suddenly testers popped up from behind, firing like crazy. Then the office across the hall opened up, and a few guys in a table fort hit us from behind. Flooba Dave was among the first up and over, but by the time he engaged, we were all turning around to deal with the backbiters. Flooba Dave turned, and then the RPG thwocked. Poor kid never saw it coming.

We still see Flooba Dave from time to time, ghosting through the halls like he was still in 2009, like he was still working on Dragon Age: Origins. The docs say there's nothing we can do but make sure he doesn't try to check an altered file back into source control. We've patched the game since then. The Padre comes near to cryin' when Flooba Dave asks what we're all gonna do when the game ships. The rest of us, well, we tell 'im that we're gonna take a nice, long break and look forward to Dragon Age II. Flooba Dave always smiles and says he hopes they'll put him on that project. We ask about his girl, and we nod dutifully when he tells us he's gonna ask her to marry him when he gets home after the war.

Poor kid...

[Ryllen Laerth Kriel]

Who was responsible for writing Cespenar? And was that person a closet Jarjar Binks fan? If I were Bhaal, I deffinitely would of killed Cespenar.

[Rzepik2]

1. Do you have some kind of archive for concept art etc? I'm asking just out of curiosity:ph34r:

2. Who wrote Irenicus (best villain ever)?

3. Any interesting facts about things abandoned during development?
Especially stuff about BG2 companions, like Imoen's death in Spellhold or Yoshimo being Tamoko's brother.

Modifié par Rzepik2, 16 juin 2011 - 11:18 .

[Seagloom]

What?! Cespenar was freakin' awesome! Leave him alone!

Those nerf stories were hilarious. I have no new questions to ask. Just wanted to point that out. Also, thanks to Lukas Kristjanson for answering my previous question.

[Stanley Woo]

Rzepik2 wrote...
1. Do you have some kind of archive for concept art etc? I'm asking just out of curiosity:ph34r:

2. Who wrote Irenicus (best villain ever)?

3. Any interesting facts about things abandoned during development?
Especially stuff about BG2 companions, like Imoen's death in Spellhold or Yoshimo being Tamoko's brother.

1. We have archives of all kinds of stuff, like any creative entity.

2. I don't know for certain.

3. Things are abandonded or changed during development all the time. It would be impossible to name them all. Usually, things are cut in order to make the game better, to reduce the scope of work required, or it simply doesn't fit. Some changes or deletions can be made early on, some can be made during production, and some happen near the end of a project. this is one of the main reasons we try very hard not to "promise" anything, and why we might be hesitant to talk about our games--things can change, sometimes severely, at any point in the process. What might have been true a month ago may no longer be true today.

The main campaign in Neverwinter Nights was changed radically late in the project, so the story that you followed in that game was not the original story concept. It required a heck of a lot of work to put everything back in its place, however, which made that project more difficult for some of the developers than it otherwise might have been.

There was an idea for one, possibly more, additional planets in an early Knights of the Old Republic. These were likely shelved early in development. The only major changes I can remember from the project is the splitting up and cutting of areas that didn't fit within memory constraints. That forced designers to change the plot flow and move plot characters and triggers around a lot. Some levels ended up okay, while others were drastically reduced.

And, of course, Dragon Age: Origins originally had three or four origin stories that didn't make the cut. Some were cut early, like a couple of related origins whose art assets wouldn't be used anywhere else in the game, or an origin whose story just didn't strike anyone as being epic enough, not even after several different concepts were tried.

the folks who actually createe or plan this content could tell you more. I'll see if I can wrangle anyone.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Stanley Woo wrote...

Rzepik2 wrote...
2. Who wrote Irenicus (best villain ever)?

2. I don't know for certain.

Dave wrote most of Irenicus.

[upsettingshorts]

Hmm, this is more of a criticism framed as a question, but the answer would interest me nonetheless.

While replaying KOTOR1 I noticed a great deal of the dialogue, especially with but not limited to Carth and Bastila, is primarily composed of the character explaining why they, well, can't have a dialogue with you. They have their reasons of course, and we do get a bit more out of them every time, but - and I'm failing to come up with a better way to word the question - was this a result of intentional stalling or padding? Did the way/order in which the conversations triggered dictate this to an extent? Contrasted with say, the front-loaded exposition of DA:O where you can begin peeling back the layers immediately, or the "episodic" character developing conversations and stories in DA2 - it stands out a bit as being a bit, well, different - and not in a way I think I ultimately prefer.

I do enjoy all the foreshadowing though, given that I've already played and know about the big twist - so it's not as if I dislike the dialogue, just sometimes the pace bothers me. Like a slow burn TV show that's more fun to watch when it's out on DVD than when you have to wait a week for the next show.

Also, thank you for supporting this thread, Stan and Luke! 

Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 16 juin 2011 - 11:59 .

[Blood-Lord Thanatos]

Who wrote Loghain's character?

[Cutlasskiwi]

I'm curious about who wrote Kivan. That person has a special place in my heart since Kivan is my all-time favorite character from a game.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Upsettingshorts wrote...

Hmm, this is more of a criticism framed as a question, but the answer would interest me nonetheless.

While replaying KOTOR1 I noticed a great deal of the dialogue, especially with but not limited to Carth and Bastila, is primarily composed of the character explaining why they, well, can't have a dialogue with you.

• Eh, I could break down pacing and the Grande Plan of plot weave and info drip and blah blah, but you're also looking at an ongoing evolution. That difference is maybe not so much a style choice as an early stage of the process of figuring out what our style choices actually could be. Or something.
• Loghain was mainly Mary.
• Kivan... took me a bit to even remember him, but then we had 24 party members in BG. I wrote a lot, but I think James Ohlen had a hand in Kivan. He's now lead designer on one of our obscure side projects.

[HoonDing]

Who wrote Jan Jansen?

And how long did it take to come up with his "magnum opus", i.e. his story after beating Melissan:

It's nice to hear you eager, for once. It's not every day that a gnome finds himself in the middle of the Abyss fighting an avatar and talking to a solar, you know. I haven't done that for at least a year, now... although to be honest, the last time was only in the company of Aunt Patty and we all know what a pushover her Larry was... and it's nice to see that my tribulations in this party are recognized. Anyway, it was during the Time of Troubles that I'd run afoul of some Banite cultists who accidentally mistook me for Bane's earthly avatar. Don't ask. Maybe they didn't have a picture. I wasn't sure what to think, myself, and resolved to spend more attention towards my breath in the future. It wasn't long before I was worshipped by thousands on a regular basis. They made good stew and the constant chanting wasn't unpleasant, so I decided to play along. No one grows turnips under threat of eternal torment quite as well as a Dreadmaster, and I'll stand by that statement to this day. Well, it wasn't long before the whole Time of Troubles thing was over and suddenly little old worshipped me found myself up in the heavens before the Overfather, himself. Seems they were short of death gods at the time, and it didn't seem like such a bad gig, so I took him up on his offer. Plus, the dental plan was extraordinary. Being a god isn't what you'd expect, though. Sune was all over me from day one... I hear she developed a thing for turnips about a decade ago. She just wouldn't leave me alone! There were parties at all hours of the night, Lliira would get plastered and fall into the lily pond and eventually Torm would start a brawl with somebody. Did you know what it's like to have Helm pounding on your door at three in the morning? I could never get any sleep at all. If it wasn't one thing it was getting slapped by Umberlee or hit on by Loviatar. All night long... and in the morning, all the gods would be in a foul mood. Terrible. I couldn't find anything good about the experience at all. No wonder Ao kicked them all out. He probably had to catch up on his housekeeping, of all things. Well, after all of that I was more than happy to let Cyric have the job, eager puppy that he was. Left it behind me for a turnip farm and a nice pension, and gladly... although I eventually traded the pension for some stock in a Spelljammer trading cruiser, which was a bad decision but all us mortals aren't immune to that, of course. Lost the farm, too, in a game of checkers to Uncle Fibbert. But that turned out all right, as the turnips got a bad rot that year and Uncle Fibbert died of too much intestinal gas. Poor man. Anyhow, I hope all my experience has been of some help. Ummm... feel free to accept other opinions. Ummm... no need to stare, now. Move on, move on.

(I really liked the Spelljammer reference, btw)

Modifié par virumor, 23 juin 2011 - 07:02 .

[Nerdage]

Poor Mr Ohlen, to toil in such obscurity..

Don't suppose you know who wrote Alora? Even though she only had a handful of lines she was one of my favourite characters from either BG, I'm still naming characters after her now (I'm bad at coming up with names).

[Lukas Kristjanson]

• We all loved writing for Jan (This was one of mine because it was with Jaheira). I think Dave was the primary on Jan, but it could have initially been Kevin Martens(Lead Content Designer on Diablo 3 these days). Pretty sure the story after Melissan is Dave's, anyway. He's off or I'd ask him.
• I wrote Alora. James named her though. Many characters were drawn from old PnP games he ran.

[mesmerizedish]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

This was one of mine because it was with Jaheira

That's brilliant. I regret I could never find room for Jan.

[Nerdage]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

• We all loved writing for Jan (This was one of mine because it was with Jaheira). I think Dave was the primary on Jan, but it could have initially been Kevin Martens(Lead Content Designer on Diablo 3 these days). Pretty sure the story after Melissan is Dave's, anyway. He's off or I'd ask him.
• I wrote Alora. James named her though. Many characters were drawn from old PnP games he ran.

Then you're awesome, I don't care what they say. And thanks for the answer.

[Ryllen Laerth Kriel]

Was Aribeth from NWN 1 supposed to be a serious character? And who wrote her? It would be funny to hear, because Bioware writing is one of their strongest areas usually. I loved NWN, the editor and the game mechanics were all great. But the OC story was pretty harsh.

[LiquidGrape]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

Oi. Yes, I wrote Jacob, among others. You keep this up and you'll never get loud and spill some drinks on the Citadel. (but yes, I think the meme is funny too)

Ah...! Thank you so much for the reply!
But honestly, as much fun as the meme might be, I do genuinely think Jacob is one of the most upstanding characters in the series so far. I especially liked how you allowed him to inquire about Shepard's present thoughts and feelings, something only Kelly and Liara in her Lair of the Shadow Broker incarnation seemed to do otherwise.

...any chance you could prod your fellow writers into doing more of that stuff?

[Eternal Phoenix]

Ryllen Laerth Kriel wrote...

Was Aribeth from NWN 1 supposed to be a serious character?

Yup. Obviously. It's Aarin Gend who you should be questioning.

"The name is Gend, Aarin Gend."

This is a very informative thread BTW.

[upsettingshorts]

I was checking the credits for Jade Empire - which, despite what my memory had told me, I'm enjoying more than KOTOR - and it shows the lead writers as Luke and... Mike Laidlaw. Is that correct? I had presumed he was and always had been a designer.

That said, I love the sort of tongue-in-cheek attitude in so many conversations and so many characters in Jade Empire, it's, well, refreshing and fun.  Which isn't to say serious stuff doesn't happen, or that the story isn't one to take seriously - but the game is filled with characters. 

...also I wonder if anyone at BioWare recognized the combat in The Witcher 2, recalled Jade Empire, and thought "hmmm" to themselves. Because I did. Bigtime.

/this thread shouldn't die

Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 01 juillet 2011 - 03:28 .

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Upsettingshorts wrote...

I was checking the credits for Jade Empire - which, despite what my memory had told me, I'm enjoying more than KOTOR - and it shows the lead writers as Luke and... Mike Laidlaw. Is that correct? I had presumed he was and always had been a designer.

That said, I love the sort of tongue-in-cheek attitude in so many conversations and so many characters in Jade Empire, it's, well, refreshing and fun.  Which isn't to say serious stuff doesn't happen, or that the story isn't one to take seriously - but the game is filled with characters. 

Mike joined BioWare as a writer at the tail end of the “new guys have to build their own desks” years. He and I split duty on Jade, weighted roughly lead/writing for him and writing/lead for me, if that makes sense. It was a lot of fun. Wuxia is a genre full of strong personalities, and Jade was almost a love letter to the form. We drew heavily from classics like Outlaws of the Marsh, and of course every movie we could get our hands on. Jade’s resource library was one of the most fun just to browse through.

[upsettingshorts]

Thanks for the response! That's interesting - both about Mike Laidlaw and about the references (I know next to nothing about Wuxia).

Also I'm about to do the arena in my replay, but I might need to embiggen my character a bit first on some sidequests before I start.

Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 02 juillet 2011 - 03:25 .

[aimo_ahmed]

Watching Upsettingshorts play JE is bringing all kinds of nostalgia, and it got me thinking of what might-have-beens etc. So I have a question for Lukas: If there was a Jade Empire 2, where would you have wanted to bring it story-wise? Considering that JE's tale worked as a standalone, would the sequel have continued the Spirit Monk's adventures, or something different altogether?

[erynnar]

Okay, Upsettingshorts aimo, and Lukas are all making me crave to play JE. Must find it on Steam I think.

[AtreiyaN7]

How did you end up getting David Warner as Irenicus?