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[DextroDNA]

4 months till E3 and the inevitable ME4 reveal. So close!

[Lady Sif]

Jos HeN7driks ‏@Sjosz
It's nice being in Montreal to meet in person with the people I'm working with on the next Mass Effect with. They're good people.

[rallyfan]

Anyone else get the feeling that NME reveal is coming soon? There just seems to be a lot of hype right now.

Modifié par rallyfan, 12 février 2014 - 07:49 .

[JeffZero]

Does anyone have a decent idea of who exactly all the writers currently assigned to NME are, exactly? And how big a chance there is of folks like Patrick being moved over to continue work efforts on it once their roles with Inquisition are complete? Just curious. I'm more than willing to give the new blood at Montreal a chance, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit some of my issues with the Omega DLC don't linger in the back of my mind. I realize it's apples and oranges, but they're both fruit, you know?

Anyway, I'm only giving an E3 NME reveal 50/50 odds.

[InterrogationBear]

JeffZero wrote...

Does anyone have a decent idea of who exactly all the writers currently assigned to NME are, exactly?

Not really, but I think/know that Joanna Berry, Ann Lemay and Jay Watamaniuk are writers at Bioware Montreal and most likely Mass Effect.

[ElitePinecone]

JeffZero wrote...

Does anyone have a decent idea of who exactly all the writers currently assigned to NME are, exactly? And how big a chance there is of folks like Patrick being moved over to continue work efforts on it once their roles with Inquisition are complete? Just curious. I'm more than willing to give the new blood at Montreal a chance, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit some of my issues with the Omega DLC don't linger in the back of my mind. I realize it's apples and oranges, but they're both fruit, you know?

Anyway, I'm only giving an E3 NME reveal 50/50 odds.

Jay Watamaniuk, Ann Lemay and Mac are the only ones who I know for sure are working on it, but I'm not at all familiar with Montreal so there are probably a bunch of writers there that I missed. Some of the Edmonton ME writers have moved on to Casey's IP, and some have left the company entirely (John Dombrow, Chris Hepler). 

It's hard to say whether any Inquisition writers would move back to NME, since they could also either stick around to do DLC for that game, or move onto the new IP - which is, after all, in development of some sort now at Edmonton. 

Originally I thought Bioware were giving the impression that Montreal would be basically singlehandedly developing the next ME, but it sounds like a lot of staff from Edmonton are still helping out. Also, we don't yet know how the company is prioritising the projects, or which of MENext or the new IP will be announced/developed/released first.

This is the first time, I think, that the RPG studios at Bioware have had three games at once in development. 

[aznjoez]

How much do you wanna bet at E3 2014 it'll be a teaser for the teaser. A date for when the teaser occurs with maybe the new logo for the new ME.

[JeffZero]

Oh yeah, Ann and Jay I know about. Far as I can tell they're both good writers! Don't think I'm familiar with Joanna, but regardless of what I end up thinking I'm sure at least some folks will be thrilled, haha.

John and Chris will be missed. Thanks for all that reminder info, EP. Yeah, three new games... Yeesh. I really wonder what that new IP is dealing with. Educated guessing tells me it probably won't be set in space nor will it be appropriately described as dark fantasy. Even if I'm right there, that still leaves a world of possibilities. Looking at what's remotely hot right now hardly narrows things down. It's a diverse market with all kinds of potential opportunities. Steampunk? Near-future dystopia? Time travel? That'd be an intriguing one to tackle with the patented "BioWare attempts player agency" mechanics, wouldn't it?

[SwobyJ]

MENext looks more and more like a game in 'transition'.

As in, Edmonton trilogy people are working on it, but less than before, and they could very well be leaving the franchise more securely into Montreal's hands after that.

I'm just guessing here though.

~~~

As for the new IP, ideas I've heard and had, range from 'modern' to time travel to an outright crossover multiverse between Dragon Age and Mass Effect (and more).

Yeah, I know, that's *silly*. But so far, we have very little to go on, and probably won't know until 2015, or maybe even 2016 (latest?).

[ElitePinecone]

JeffZero wrote...

Oh yeah, Ann and Jay I know about. Far as I can tell they're both good writers! Don't think I'm familiar with Joanna, but regardless of what I end up thinking I'm sure at least some folks will be thrilled, haha.

I also had a lot of misgivings about Omega, but it might be a bit premature to be concerned about MENext just because of one DLC pack - especially when Montreal have worked on ME2/ME3 for years, and many devs at Edmonton are working on NME. 

(Also, we don't know the circumstances of Omega's development, or why they chose to make some of those design decisions...it might've just a case of misjudging what people wanted at that point.)

[Lady Sif]

Jay Watamaniuk ‏@JayWatamaniuk
Interesting day working the knots out of a plot. Writing generally comes down to solving problems. Unless you're Sharknado. Because shut-up.

[B.Shep]

lots of activity today... it's geting a bit hard not to believe we are close to see some kind of teaser....

Modifié par B.Shep, 12 février 2014 - 11:26 .

[felipejiraya]

Yeah, a teaser on E3 is possible but don't think it will be anything substantial since it seems they're still on a pre-alpha stage of production.

[EatChildren]

rallyfan wrote...

Anyone else get the feeling that NME reveal is coming soon? There just seems to be a lot of hype right now.

GDC tease at the earliest. E3 the safest bet.

ElitePinecone wrote...

Originally I thought Bioware were giving the impression that Montreal would be basically singlehandedly developing the next ME, but it sounds like a lot of staff from Edmonton are still helping out. Also, we don't yet know how the company is prioritising the projects, or which of MENext or the new IP will be announced/developed/released first.

Fairly certain the Edmonton IP is the furest away, as ME would have entered the earliest stages of pre-production before ME3 shipped, and going by the tweets we know it's in full production now. Dragon Age > Mass Effect > New Edmonton IP, I'd think. Though you might see some other stuff come from BioWare before the latter too.

And yeah, Montreal was supposed to handle this independantly, but I think this is a drip feed kinda thing. As in, going by the job postings Montreal is still gearing up as a studio. I'm guessing since this is their first in-house Mass Effect they're still partially working with Edmonton for support, just to ensure they get it right and know what they're doing, and by the time Mass Effect 5 rolls around they'll be fully equipped to handle it themselves.

[DextroDNA]

felipejiraya wrote...

Yeah, a teaser on E3 is possible but don't think it will be anything substantial since it seems they're still on a pre-alpha stage of production.

Well, they've got the plot and characters down. They've been working on level design and actual gameplay for a few months, so I think they're actually well into development.

Methinks an E3 teaser is definite.

[Shermos]

RussianZombeh wrote...

felipejiraya wrote...

Yeah, a teaser on E3 is possible but don't think it will be anything substantial since it seems they're still on a pre-alpha stage of production.

Well, they've got the plot and characters down. They've been working on level design and actual gameplay for a few months, so I think they're actually well into development.

Methinks an E3 teaser is definite.

Agreed, but it might not use in game footage. It could be a CGI trailer like the Big Ben one to give us an idea of when the Next game will be set and what kind of story we'll be playing. I could be wrong about that of course. As it is, I'd be happy with some screen shots.

[knaus86]

So if they are in the middle of writing still, does anyone know what part of the process the writings usually finished in a game? It obviously needs to be done before voice acting etc, so are we still in the first half of development?

[EatChildren]

knaus86 wrote...

So if they are in the middle of writing still, does anyone know what part of the process the writings usually finished in a game? It obviously needs to be done before voice acting etc, so are we still in the first half of development?

Writing runs parallel to the entire game development as the writing is frequently dependant and contextual to what the player is experiencing. Plans may be made earlier for chunks of gameplay that require dialogue, later cut or changed because they didn't play very well or the team ran out of time, and thus the writing needs to be reworked and adapted alongside it. Even narrative heavy games like Mass Effect are not written as screenplays before development starts, or in the early stages and locked down. Ideas and an overall vision are laid out, but the nature of game development and the necessity to adapt to changes within the design require writers march alongside the designers almost assuredly right up to the last moments.

Voice acting is generally done in the last half, latter stages of development as you want to make sure you don't have to call back actors for late written dialogue. It does happen, but devs/pubs try to avoid it because it's a costly, time consuming process, getting those actors back on schedule and into the booths.

[ElitePinecone]

Shermos wrote...

Agreed, but it might not use in game footage. It could be a CGI trailer like the Big Ben one to give us an idea of when the Next game will be set and what kind of story we'll be playing. I could be wrong about that of course. As it is, I'd be happy with some screen shots.

At least for Dragon Age, the team have expressed a desire to use in-game footage whenever possible. They don't need to use CGI, because Frostbite 3 can be made pretty enough to stand in for pre-rendered footage. 

I expect the same thing to be true for Mass Effect - what better advertisement for how good the game looks than to say the trailer is fully in-engine? 

[EatChildren]

Agreed, especially since EA desires Frostbite to be a bit of a brand name itself, so "Powered by Frostbite 3" can be used in marketing and send the message impressive visuals are guaranteed. Inquisition's teaser trailer was all in-engine (), so I expect Mass Effect 4 to be the same.

[knaus86]

So we don't really have any indication how far along we are then. I saw someone mentioned they are doing motion capture. I imagine that's done fairly early on too? Although they did mention it's already in playable form. So I'm assuming they just use generic movements to get it in playable form, then add the mo cap details in later?

[EatChildren]

knaus86 wrote...

So we don't really have any indication how far along we are then. I saw someone mentioned they are doing motion capture. I imagine that's done fairly early on too? Although they did mention it's already in playable form. So I'm assuming they just use generic movements to get it in playable form, then add the mo cap details in later?

Motion capture would be used for all sorts of animations, from gameplay to dialogue sequences to scripted cinematics. But BioWare, like any dev, would use stock animations during early development as they're testing stuff.

End of the day, we just don't know how 'far' into development the game is. Game development isn't a step-by-step process, but more like a bunch of dudes working on the same block of stone chipping away to forge a sculpture. They'll almost all work on it from start to finish in various capacities, but no one field is gotten out of the way immediately to move on to another. The designers will test and tweak and build and scrap right ot the end, and the writers will shape the narrative alongside them. Stuff will get built, scrapped, rebuilt, reconceptualised, scrapped again, and so on. Only thing mocap tells us is that they're probably ~middle development. Maybe, where getting mocap animations set, tweaked, and programmed in is viable.

In the grand scheme of things the only thing we know is that Mass Effect Next exists, and part of it is in playable (though far from finished) form. The team is at the stage where they can properly engage with the 'play' of the game, testing and tweaking from there, which would indicate core systems are built and active.

[dead_goon]

rallyfan wrote...

Anyone else get the feeling that NME reveal is coming soon? There just seems to be a lot of hype right now.

You think this is a lot of hype?, ive yet to see any thing that amounts to hype, look at the run up to Leviathan, Omega, or Citadel, thats hype, this is just directionless chatter.

Modifié par dead_goon, 13 février 2014 - 08:48 .

[ElitePinecone]

B.Shep wrote...

lots of activity today... it's geting a bit hard not to believe we are close to see some kind of teaser....

It's a month until GDC, four months until E3, and more than that until the other conferences. 

Still a while to go yet, I think.

[Lawrence0294]

Even if the game is in pre alpha, the first teaser will propbably be in CGI.