Dragon Age Level Designer Interview

The BioWare Blog is hosting an in-house Q&A with level designer Kaelin Lavallee, whose work we’ve seen in both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, and will likely see in Dragon Age III whenever the company gets around to announcing and, inevitably, releasing it. A sampling:

What is the best part about your job?
KL: How do I pick one awesome thing about being a designer? I guess if I HAD to pick something, it would be the people I work with (which I suppose technically isn’t just one thing). Everyone is here for the same reason, because we love making great games. There is so much unadulterated creativity on my team, from every team really, that it makes my job that much more fun.

What does an average day look like for you?
KL: I spent a lot of time deciding how to answer this question. Then I realized, I don’t think that an average day here is average at all. Sure, I have meetings and paperwork to do. But my meetings usually involve what kind of creatures to make, or which way to make the door open. The thing is, depending on what stage of development we’re on, I do a lot of different things.

At the beginning of a project there is a lot of documentation, meetings and brainstorming. After that, we try to make everything on paper come to life. There’s a lot of back and forth, since what looks good on paper, doesn’t always translate well to gameplay. And at the end of the day, I brush my teeth and go to bed. Although, I’m not sure how that’s related to the rest of the answer.