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[Kantr]

The article on Kotaku about the pax video is very interesting. It's really a shame that none of this stuff made it into the final build.
 
http://kotaku.com/dr...dium=Socialflow
 
 
 

At PAX Prime in early September of 2013, BioWare showed off a 30-minute demo of the newest Dragon Age game. It was our first time really seeing it in action, and what we witnessed was spectacular: a big, beautiful RPG that tasked you with making important, tactical combat decisions like burning boats to prevent your enemies from escaping or smashing down a rickety bridge to take out the enemies standing on top of it.

What we actually got was something else entirely—Dragon Age: Inquisition did turn out to be a great RPG, but much of what we saw during that first preview session never actually made it into the game.

[Lebanese Dude]

It's important to note that extra content had to be cut due to time constraints.

 

It's always better to think big and cut back later. That's the mantra in game design.

 

Rest assured that if that content was released in DAI's current state, it would have been underwhelming in practice with limited scope.

[Kantr]

I suppose thats the problem when shifting to a new engine. Much of your time is spent actually building the game from scratch.

[Dreamer]

It's important to note that extra content had to be cut due to time constraints.

 

It's always better to think big and cut back later. That's the mantra in game design.

 

Rest assured that if that content was released in DAI's current state, it would have been underwhelming in practice with limited scope.

 

You mean had they stuck to the arbitrary deadline. They choose when they want to release their games and deadlines are no fault of the consumer.

[Lebanese Dude]

I suppose thats the problem when shifting to a new engine. Much of your time is spent actually building the game from scratch.

 

That took a significant portion of development time yes, especially since they had to adapt Frostbite 3 to work for an RPG.

[Melca36]

That took a significant portion of development time yes, especially since they had to adapt Frostbite 3 to work for an RPG.

They said future patches could add some of the content back in.

[wolfhowwl]

You mean had they stuck to the arbitrary deadline. They choose when they want to release their games and deadlines are no fault of the consumer.

 

They had plenty of time. Blame management for wanting a project scope that was beyond their ability to deliver.

[Kantr]

They said future patches could add some of the content back in.

Not the crestwood burning boats stuff though.

[Lebanese Dude]

You mean had they stuck to the arbitrary deadline. They choose when they want to release their games and deadlines are no fault of the consumer.

 

The deadline was a year before release. The game you ended up getting was very likely much better than the game that was supposed to be released a year earlier.

[wrigleyviller]

Some of this stuff looks really cool, but there's no guarantee that 1) it always worked, 2) was always fun, 3) was worth the effort to put in there. I can clearly hear the alternate universe wailing of the people on the boards because they didn't know they were supposed to bring antivan fire for that section and thus couldn't burn down the boats, or - even worse - that they HATE timed missions and never want the defense of their keep to be tied to a timer. While, yes, I probably would've preferred a little more environmental destruction and side quest choice, I'm still extremely happy with the game we got.

[Lebanese Dude]

They had plenty of time. Blame management for wanting a project scope that was beyond their ability to deliver.

 

You can't predict how things will work out in development. As I said, they think big then cut content later according to priority and instability.

Still, DAI is nothing if not ambitious. Perhaps the mistakes made during its development will be avoided in the next iteration.

[o Ventus]

Some of this stuff looks really cool, but there's no guarantee that 1) it always worked, 2) was always fun, 3) was worth the effort to put in there. I can clearly hear the alternate universe wailing of the people on the boards because they didn't know they were supposed to bring antivan fire for that section and thus couldn't burn down the boats, or - even worse - that they HATE timed missions and never want the defense of their keep to be tied to a timer. While, yes, I probably would've preferred a little more environmental destruction and side quest choice, I'm still extremely happy with the game we got.

All of this.

 

People always like to clamor that they would have wanted X or Y for more features on paper, but rarely do they consider what those features would have entailed in practice.

 

"It would have been cool if we had to defend Skyhold being besieged from the Red Templars!" (just a made up example) would have turned into "Wow, I really hate this part, all you do is fight waves of enemies until the timer goes down".

[Nohvarr]

They had plenty of time. Blame management for wanting a project scope that was beyond their ability to deliver.

I'm sure Management feels bad for trying to provide their customers with a great game, and failing to achieve some of their own desires due to events neither you or I know much about. Hopefully next time they will abandon lofty ambition and stick to the triple A formula, and avoid any thing that could cause them to deviate from the schedule.[/sarcasm]

[Cyonan]

Unfortunately cut content is just a reality of game development in general. Plenty of games have content that gets cut for a variety of reasons, you just don't hear about most of the time.

 

In some cases like with what happened for KotoR 2, the developer leaves the unfinished content in the game files because they don't want to take the time to actually remove it and the modding community can restore it.

[Fiery Phoenix]

Just read that earlier. Pretty fascinating insight. Crestwood is basically only the same by name now.

[OdanUrr]

I just read that article. It looks like a different game for sure; more reactive (environment) in the alpha. Some things like the timers were probably kept to a minimum due to feedback. Even so we do have timers in the templars' quest and at Halamshiral. It does, however, serve as a cautionary tale not to take previews at face value, even if A:CM already took care of that.

[Kantr]

I just read that article. It looks like a different game for sure; more reactive (environment) in the alpha. Some things like the timers were probably kept to a minimum due to feedback. Even so we do have timers in the templars' quest and at Halamshiral. It does, however, serve as a cautionary tale not to take previews at face value, even if A:CM already took care of that.

Aye. I'll definitely be more skeptical in the future of anything I read about DA:4 (when it starts development and they talk about it). Although I'll probably still buy it.

[RawToast]

It would have been awesome had they included it in-game, but ultimately **** gets cut. I dunno if it would've been worth the effort to include it, or what other content would be cut had they.

 

I hope they do implement it in future iterations of dragon age though. I love being able to interact with the world around me and use it to my advantage in fights. And more choices are always good.

[Elfyoth]

I suppose thats the problem when shifting to a new engine. Much of your time is spent actually building the game from scratch.

Well lets hope DA4 will be using  Frostbite 3 so they wont have probs with it. 

[Scofield]

Said it afor an will say it again, never ever show things that wont be 100% in the game, if you dont know for certain that something is in the game, dont bloody show it

[Dreamer]

Said it afor an will say it again, never ever show things that wont be 100% in the game, if you dont know for certain that something is in the game, dont bloody show it

 

Interesting philosophy, considering BioWare virtually said the same thing going into Inquisition.

[Aaleel]

I completely forgot this demo lol.  I really would have liked people attacking your Keep to diminish your control in an area.  

 

Wait so they took us weakening the keep by poisoning the water and made it into that water tastes funny side quest?

 

I really wish the tac cam worked that well lol.

 

They really need to release an Enhanced Edition later on with all this stuff put back in.

[MACharlie1]

Sometimes things sound better then they end up being. Like the Reapers in the galaxy map. I first heard it and said oh neat...but that got old REAL fast. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to be constantly returning to the keeps to ward off baddies every 10 minutes?

[Dio Demon]

Sometimes things sound better then they end up being. Like the Reapers in the galaxy map. I first heard it and said oh neat...but that got old REAL fast. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to be constantly returning to the keeps to ward off baddies every 10 minutes?

I think the purpose of the sieges was to be a one off thing. Red Templars, Venatori, kitchen sink, lay siege onto your keep you break it they learn not to touch your keep again.

[In Exile]

While I lament that we did not get more complex side-quests, there are no words for how pleased I am that DA:I had exactly 0 timed quests (well, with one exception).