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INSANE: David gaider | Rare Historical Photos

Dragon Age 2 was originally planned to be "much bigger" before EA made other demands, former series lead says, even though BioWare "did not know how to make a small game"

Quests were cut out wholesale

GamesRadar

Dragon Age creator says he 'had to take out half' of the quests in Dragon Age 2 once he found out they only had 16 months to make it: 'BioWare as a team did not know how to make a small game'

"We're going to measure twice, cut once."

PC Gamer

Playing Final Fantasy 7 "scared" Baldur's Gate 2's writing lead into adding romance to the RPG series: "These guys kicked our ass"

"This is how a game should be"

GamesRadar

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Baldur's Gate 2 writer was unconvinced anyone would care about romance in an RPG: "People don't come here to romance, they come here to fight s**t and battle dragons"

Hear me out: date the dragons

GamesRadar

"This is going to be horrible": BioWare's classic D&D RPG Baldur's Gate 2 looked like a "hacked-up monstrosity that was still full of bugs" as the devs crunched to get it finished in time for launch

"The crunch at the time was brutal"

GamesRadar

25 years ago today, Baldur's Gate 2 set RPGs on the path to becoming the industry-defining genre they are today: 'We were putting all the fantasies that we had into the game'

The game's original developers let us in on the story of its ambitious and turbulent journey to release.

PC Gamer

'Eager to move on from failure': Ex-producer Mark Darrah thinks BioWare suffered spinning plates for EA, starving itself for talent as it ate itself alive: 'We weren't getting the people'

"Within EA, you're better off being 'one game at a time'."

PC Gamer

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"Most players have no idea" how much games cost to make and "everything's more expensive than people think," devs say, as indie hits like Balatro are "the exception"

Dragon Age, Monster Train 2, and more devs reckon costs are misunderstood in game dev – sometimes on both sides

GamesRadar

Ex Dragon Age writer's new studio shrugs off a failed Kickstarter, chucks its exorcist take on Slay the Spire right onto Steam – and it's a cool roguelike with a mana system I don't think I've ever seen

Malys is an interesting, inky roguelike card game

GamesRadar

Even after EA let Dragon Age: The Veilguard out of multiplayer hell, BioWare reportedly still had to rush to target "as wide a market as possible," which feels like the opposite approach of great RPGs

EA doesn't seem to understand what makes a good RPG

GamesRadar

"It was not 'one guy', look at the dang in-game credits": Balatro's Localthunk joins team size discourse after Geoff Keighley fumbled it at Summer Game Fest by saying Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made by "under 30" people

For many reasons, no

GamesRadar

Former BioWare lead writer says the best level in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines gave him 'ammunition' to argue that story can be just as engaging as combat

Especially spooky stories.

PC Gamer

Ex-Dragon Age lead hopes Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 pulls an 'Expedition 33 or Baldur's Gate 3' by leaning into the combat-light, roleplaying-heavy gameplay of the tabletop version

Which sounds alright to me, but maybe isn't quite what we're getting.

PC Gamer

After waiting over 20 years for Bloodlines 2, ex Dragon Age writer says "the hope is that we would get a new Vampire game in the same line as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Baldur's Gate 3"

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has enormous potential even after many setbacks

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PC Gamer

Dragon Age creator says EA execs thought BioWare fans would eat whatever slop they were given since 'the nerds in the cave would always show up for an RPG, because it was an RPG'

Which worked out very well.

PC Gamer

'They're very determined, suddenly, to see your game fail': Former Dragon Age writer calls out 'anti-fans' who bet on games failing before launch

David Gaider criticized the way gamers have come to celebrate certain games' failures.

GamesRadar

Ex Dragon Age writer pushes back on RPG casts who are all romanceable and instantly into you: "That limits the different types of stories you can do"

Should you be able to date everyone in RPGs? David Gaider chimes in.

GamesRadar

Dragon Age maestro says EA always spoke about a hypothetical 'nerd cave' full of diehard RPG fans who would "always show up," so you "didn't have to try and appeal to them"

Maybe they were right, but they shouldn't have said it

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GamesRadar

Former Dragon Age lead writer says being at BioWare was "glorious," but under EA it "surrendered more and more of its independence until we got to where we got to"

David Gaider recalls the storied RPG developer's good and bad days

GamesRadar

Dragon Age legend says even if he didn't leave BioWare 9 years ago, he still would have dipped over EA's live service Dragon Age push: "What a devil's contract that would have been"

David Gaider wasn't hanging around for the Thedas battlepass

GamesRadar

Ex Dragon Age writer worries more fans are tying their identity to games and hoping to see games fail to prove a point: "See what happened to them? See how their game sold?"

"They're very determined suddenly to see your game fail as a sort of a lesson to others who would make games of the same type," says David Gaider

GamesRadar

"There's nothing about JRPGs that requires them to be made in Japan," says ex Dragon Age writer, speaking nothing but facts – and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 just proves it again

"It's not a Japanese RPG, it's a Japanese-style RPG. And so that can be made anywhere"

PC Gamer

Former Dragon Age writer says Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3 prove 'what's possible when a game is given time to cook'

Truly exceptional games don't just appeal to their audience, David Gaider says, they expand it.

GamesRadar

Ex Dragon Age writer says Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 prove publishers wrong on how successful RPGs can be "when the game is good," and "what's possible when a game is given time to cook"

"They appeal very, very strongly to that one audience, but it's so strong that it ends up growing that audience," says David Gaider

GamesRadar

Former Dragon Age lead David Gaider would love to make an RPG at his new home, but "our last hope to keep the studio alive" comes first – and it looks like a very promising roguelike

Malys is a slick roguelike deckbuilder from folks who can't help but put a little RPG in everything

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