Greg Zeschuk Interview

A third interview (in as many days) with Greg Zeschuk is now available over at Eurogamer, during which the BioWare co-founder tackles some questions about their small scale MMO plans, developing for Nintendo’s 3DS, and the changes they’re making in Dragon Age II.

Eurogamer: You revealed Dragon Age 2 recently. The art style has changed and you now play a pre-determined hero. Why have you decided to make those changes?

Dr. Greg Zeschuk: It’s a weird way to say it, but part of it’s the passion of the team. The art style example is an interesting one. We changed art directors. The art director on Dragon Age 2 is the same guy who was the art director on Jade Empire. He worked somewhere else for a while then he came back. He’s a fan of our stuff, but he also has his own ideas on how to take it.

There was some commentary that Dragon Age could have been more visually unique. We said, ‘Okay! You want visually unique? Here’s visually unique.’ It’s usually a combination of things that drives our decision-making. It’s not like we’re designed by committee. Nor are we beholden to fan and press feedback. But we really do look at all that stuff.

We like changing it up. We like challenging the players. We’re not the kind of group that wants to deliver the same thing over and over. What tends to happen on that is you get two or three iterations and then you’re dead. The interest is lost. In some ways it’s keeping it fresh and challenging the player.

We had a lot of commentary on Mass 1 to Mass 2. Mass 1 to Mass 2 is a radical shift. We just felt it would make a better game. That’s largely what we’re thinking in terms of the Dragon Age 2 stuff. And then we’ll see what people think of it and then do something different again probably.

It’s almost like a twist on what Square does. Square keeps the gameplay largely the same but everything else changes. We, in a sense, are going to keep the world the same, but we’ll change the gameplay around. But in a smart, careful way. People will be pretty happy with what we’re doing with gameplay, largely.

You can’t please everyone. But we’re largely trying to make sure we’ve got something that stands out and is competitive. The team is really excited about it. They’re the biggest fans of the game that there are. Some of the fans out there are pretty huge, but they’re big fans as well.

Maybe I missed it, but who were these people clamoring for a more “visually unique” Dragon Age after playing through Origins? Graphical enhancements, yes. Entirely new visual style, no.