Apr 28, 2011

Posted by in News | 1 Comment

FSS 2011: BioWare Austin Studio Tour

I’m sure I speak for all of the fan sites when I say that one of the highlights of this week’s Fan Site Summit was the tour of the BioWare Austin studio.

Given the situation, I felt like Charlie Bucket visiting the Wonka Chocolate Factory. There were so many things to see… so much to take in… and so many closed doors begging to be opened! The only thing missing was a glass elevator ride at the end.

The group of 30 attendees was split into two, one led by Stephen Reid and the other by David Bass.

As we wound through the maze of hallways that connected all of the workgroups, it was amazing to see works of concept art hung on the walls throughout. Some of these we’ve seen already, and some we haven’t. But all of them were printed and boarded in large-format (2×4 feet or more) and were just jaw-dropping to view in-person.

There were also a few extra-special places that we got a tour of, including the NOC. The NOC was a darkened room with more monitors per-square-foot than I’ve ever seen in one place. They keep track of the health of the game infrastructure from here, and it was quite impressive!

It was very interesting to see how the environment was set up for collaboration; the environments were very open, and almost every workstation had a whiteboard on wheels that offered any staffer to jot down their ideas and take them with them anywhere else in the building! I really hope that Alyson Bridge‘s decapitated Barbie head makes it into the game somehow…

While we couldn’t take pictures or video some areas, we hope the gallery below gives you a feel for the place and the culture of BioWare Austin. We can’t thank BioWare enough for the hospitality and for the invite into their home.

Enjoy!

  1. MrFester says:

    Great shots of the studio, thanks for sharing.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. SWTOR Fan Site Summit: Today’s New Information Compiled #swtour #swtor « - [...] Audio: FSS 2011: Group Q&A Sessions w/ Developers FSS 2011: Damion Schubert Video Q&A Images: FSS 2011: Bioware…
  2. Новости недели: - [...] Studio Tour [...]
  3. SWTOR Fan Site Summit: Today’s New Information Compiled #swtour #swtor | GodtierGaming - [...] Audio: Group Q&A Sessions w/ Developers Video: Damion Schubert Q&A Images: Bioware Austin Studio Tour Exclusive Screenshot: Trooper…

Leave a Reply