Dragon Age/Jade Empire Interview

There’s a Q&A with BioWare’s Matt Goldman on GameZone this weekend, during which they quiz the art director about his work on Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, Jade Empire, and more. Since we don’t hear nearly enough about BioWare’s foray into Orient-inspired territory, here’s a bit on Jade Empire:

DG: With Jade Empire – that whole oriental, Asian, kung-fu/Martial Arts vibe – was that mostly your creation or ideas that you’ve learned from your life?

MG: Well, I actually have fond memories from that project. That, to me, seemed like a pretty crazy thing to ask a bunch of prairie boys from Northern Alberta to try and do an epic Asian kung-fu game. Basically that was an incredible amount of research trying to even learn the basics of the design aesthetic and some of the primary literature. I spent three and half years watching nothing but kung-fu movies and reading Outlaws of the Marsh three times, trying to get a handle on it and make something that was remotely credible.

DG: How do you feel with the end result from your perspective of the concept to full creation for Jade Empire?

MG: Well Jade was nominated for an Interactive Academy of Science’s art direction award. So I think the art direction was pretty decent. It was pretty fun to build it. I would revisit the world in a second, given the opportunity.