Dragon Age Keep Tool Revealed, Blog Update

In a new blog post, BioWare has officially revealed the Dragon Age Keep, a new tool that will allow us to track the decisions we’ve made throughout the role-playing video game series and “redesign the world to match our choices.” I’m not entirely sure how it’s going to function, but it’ll apparently debut later this month:

The inspiration for the Dragon Age Keep started many years ago. For a franchise like Dragon Age, your impact on the world of Thedas is a core part of the experience – driven by the choices you make. And when Dragon Age II shipped, the complex nature of our plot flag system and the save import really hit home.

The challenge was not only the complexity and subjective nature of the data itself, but also that having the import logic (or evaluation rules) happening inside the game client meant it would be very difficult – if not impossible – to fix. We tried, but usually ended up introducing new ripples into the data sets.

The team knew this was a serious problem, and one that would only continue to grow exponentially. That’s why throughout Dragon Age II we began to work on a concept called the World Vault. After many, many months this eventually became the pillar feature for what we today are calling the Dragon Age Keep.

Since then, with the help of the community we’ve worked to ensure that going forward, the Keep will stand as the record of your impact in the world of Thedas – dutifully preserved and accurately represented in future products, limited only by creative aspiration of the game team.