Oct 11, 2011

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GDC Online: The Importance Of Writers In BioWare Game Design

The second of three BioWare-manned sessions today at GDC Online in Austin, “Building A Bridge Between Design And Writing” gets down to business with BioWare writers Hall Hood, Blake Rebouche and Wynne McLaughlin discussing the BioWare way, and how integral writers are to the game design process.

Gamasutra once again provides comprehensive coverage, and kicks off with this from Senior Writer Hall Hood:

“BioWare writers are very different from other writers in the games industry. BioWare writers come on very early in development.”

This should come as no surprise to fans of BioWare games, but the extent of the collaboration with other functions on the design team is the real message here:

“Even when you don’t care about the thematic subtext … the fact that it’s there gives the narrative depth — that there’s [more of] a point to what’s going on than blowing up stuff.”

The full read is very interesting if you want a bit more insight into the BioWare creative process. Check it out!

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Sep 17, 2011

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GDC Online: BioWare Austin Contributes To Five Sessions [UPDATED]

Here at Ask A Jedi, we try to make our coverage of Star Wars: The Old Republic as comprehensive as we can. Most of the time it’s directly related to the game, and we really try not to wander too far off of that road (except of course, in our Off-TORpic column!)

But being the armchair game designers we are, we also like to follow BioWare’s developers in some of their other industry doings where we can. Wether it’s Damion Schubert and his regular contributions to Game Developer magazine, or attending industry conferences where various developers might be speaking or participating on a panel.

Every year in the fall, the Game Developers Conference holds court in Austin for their annual GDC Online show. As you might know, Austin just happens to be the city where BioWare Austin is located. :) Due to that, GDC Online usually gets some great participation from BioWare developers, and this year is no different – perhaps one of the best ever!

GDC Online has released their final schedule, and there are no less than four five sessions where BioWare Austin developers will be featured as presenters or panelists:

Of particular interest is the panel Full Immersion: Taking Your Game Everywhere. BioWare’s Erik Olsen will be on a panel along with ZAM’s Cody Bye and Curse’s Hubert Thieblot. Up until now, BioWare has been mum on how or even if they would be providing access to Star Wars: The Old Republic in some manner outside of the game itself, wether from your smartphone, tablet or the web. It will be interesting to see what Olsen shows and/or discusses here, as it might give us our first glimpse of BioWare’s plans in this area. Will we get a Crew Skills app? Guild Chat? It remains to be seen.

Personally, I feel there is no more important feature for a modern MMO than the extension of it  outside of the game itself, and I can’t wait to see this panel.

Ask A Jedi will be in Austin next month for complete coverage, so don’t forget to check back! We may even come back with a few surprises from the Lone Star State! ;)

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Jul 20, 2011

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GDC Online 11: BioWare Writing & Design Panel Revealed

Even though we’ve got our eyes laser-focused on San Diego Comic-Con this week, there’s information coming out about happenings at the upcoming Game Developer’s Conference Online, held each year in Austin, Texas during the month of October.

Last month we found out that forum superhero Georg Zoeller will be giving a lecture on metrics and analysis. Well, another panel facilitated by some of the BioWare developers working on Star Wars: The Old Republic has been revealed!

This time, BioWare Senior Writer Hall Hood, Senior World Designer Wynne McLaughlin and World Designer Blake Rebouche will be taking the stage to present “Building a Bridge Between Design and Writing.“:

In the quest to present both compelling narratives and great gameplay, conflicts sometimes emerge between the increasingly specialized and discrete creative visions held by game writers and designers. What steps can we as developers take to bring the worlds of writing and design closer together, even as these two groups are forced into increasingly specialized roles? Join three developers from Bioware Austin with perspectives from both sides of the issue for their thoughts on the topic and a group discussion with attendees.

Click here for the full session information.

The conference takes place October 10-13 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas and is open only to those working in the industry.

 

http://schedule.gdconline.com/session/5708/Building_a_Bridge_Between_Design_and_Writing

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Mar 12, 2011

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PAX East 2011: Hall Hood Interview

Yesterday here at PAX East 2011, BioWare Senior Writer Hall Hood was nice enough to take a few minutes with Professor Walsh to discuss Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

If you know the Professor, you know that he KNOWS his Star Wars (having read all 190 Star Wars novels) and asked some tough lore-related questions.

Hall is an awesome guy who we first met at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, and was able to provide some great insight into some of the more pressing matters. Just want to shout out to Hall for being such a great sport!

Enjoy!

 

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Aug 17, 2010

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Hall Hood Interview – Star Wars Celebration

Ask A Jedi spent all last weekend at Star Wars Celebration V, right here in sunny Orlando, Florida. There were all sorts of “Star Warsy” things to do and see, but it goes without saying that the highlights for us revolved around everyone’s favorite upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

For our first interview, we wanted to give you the discussion we had with Hall Hood, Senior Writer with BioWare. He’s a veteran writer who brings a lot of experience to the BioWare writing team. He’s also the main man behind the Smuggler class. To top it off, he really couldn’t have been a nicer guy.

So, we hope you enjoy the interview, and don’t forget to watch the video clip of Ask A Jedi team member Professor Walsh clearing up one of the great forum debates with Hall. Priceless!

Ask A Jedi: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background, and maybe some things you’ve worked on before?

Hall Hood: I am a mysterious man who came from the shadows to work on the greatest MMO ever created! Haha. No, actually, I started out as the staff screenwriter for an independent producer, and I spent numerous years developing feature films and television pilots, things like that. I managed to earn a living doing this, yet saw none of those projects ever make it to film. It became a little disheartening after a while. I dabbled in video games from time to time, I got to work a little bit on Ultima Online 2… right before it got canceled. So that was very exciting. I am determined to not crush this game, so this game is coming out even if I have to ship it myself!  I went to film school at the University of Texas at Austin, so it worked out. I managed to stay in Austin long enough to get a job here doing something that I love.

AAJ: How early were you involved in the TOR development project?

HH: I was involved very early on, and got to see it unfold from the beginning. I have many great stories to tell, none of which I can tell right now. Haha.

AAJ: Since you’re the Smuggler guy, could you give us a description of the Smuggler class in your own words?

HH:  The Smuggler is a wise-cracking scoundrel who never takes anything too seriously. He’s always on the lookout for the next great opportunity to get rich – but is also the best shot in the galaxy. And the ultimate survivor. Smugglers are awesome. I grew up wanting to be Han Solo…

Romance is a big thing. Fly around the galaxy, walk into the cantina, see the very attractive patron… that kind of thing. It’s humor, it’s romance, and it’s a lot of high-octane action.

AAJ: Other than for game mechanics and balance, how is it that the Smuggler aligns with the Republic when they’re an independent sort?

HH: Right, so stop and think about it for a second. You are an independent business person. You own your own ship, flying around the galaxy taking jobs from whoever you wanna take them from. Where would you want to do business? In the free enterprise, peace-loving, freedom-loving Republic? Or in the oppressive totalitarian Empire that controls everything that you not only can do, but also how you do it. So its kind of a natural fit for Smugglers to operate in Republic space. Which is not to say that you can’t occasionally work with the Empire. If you’re a particularly evil Smuggler, you’re gonna be looking for that opportunity to take jobs from anybody, and you’re not particular about who they serve. For me the evil Smuggler’s attitude is basically faction-shmaction as long as I get rich!

AAJ: Is there a Smuggler other than Han Solo that maybe served as inspiration for the Smuggler character?

HH: Well of course… there is a long tradition of the charming rogue in any kind of popular fiction, and I adore all of those characters. I’m a big fan of Firefly, Captain Mal… also a fan of Big Trouble in Little China. I love Kurt Russell’s character in that. He’s really fun. He’s more of a comedic fool character, who sort of blunders his way to victory. My Smuggler is slightly more competent than that. Here’s another one, it’s sort of esoteric so don’t go too far with it but Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit…

AAJ: We’ve heard statements in the past that as a Smuggler, you’re the best in the galaxy… as a Bounty Hunter, you’re the best in the galaxy. But in an E3 interview with Dallas Dickinson, we also heard that the Jedi will just be average Jedi; thousands of them running around out there. Can you clarify this?

HH: You’re not going to be average anything in our game. Where’s the fun in that? Why would you play the Jedi Knight if you weren’t going to be able to get the Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker experience? It has to be huge and epic! And as someone who has written for the Jedi Knight, I can tell you it’s huge… it’s epic… it’s amazing. You’re gonna get to places in the plot where you say “wait a minute, I get to do what? My quest is to do what?!” And that’s true of the Sith classes as well. The Sith classes are incredible. The Sith Warrior story is Vader plus a million. The Inquisitor – everything you like about Palpatine is there, and then some. Our idea has always been to start from what is great about the characters from the movies, and then add as much on to that as we possibly can.

AAJ: So, whatever class you play, are you the best of your breed in the galaxy?

HH: Absolutely. As an Imperial Agent, you’re the super best. As a Sith Warrior, the Emperor calls you personally. As a Jedi Knight, you are the last hope in the galaxy!

AAJ: Will you be able to communicate with members of the other faction?

HH: If by communicate you mean shoot at them, then yes! There are many forms of communication. Are you asking if its like WoW, where you can’t understand what the other faction is saying? I don’t think we would want to go in that sort of direction. I can’t really speak to exactly how the communication would happen between factions, but I think you’re on the right track.

AAJ: Will there be a common enemy or foe that represents a greater threat than each other?

HH: Occasionally, sure. I think that would be a really exciting story to have that opportunity to unite against a much more dangerous foe. I can’t answer wether or not we actually have that type of content, but I like the idea and I think its cool.

AAJ: Will we get to explore a story written about our species and our origin background?

HH: Well it’s always been a staple of BioWare stories to acknowledge players choices about who they are. We acknowledge gender. We acknowledge alien species. So it is important, and it does impact gameplay. It matters.

AAJ: Hall, thanks a bunch for taking the time to answer our questions and allowing yourself to be subjected to Professor Walsh!

HH: Glad to do it, any time at all!


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