The Road to Summerfall - Part 2 I guess the best place to start is with leaving BioWare. Right off the bat, I'll say I enjoyed working there - a lot. Until I didn't. I started in 1999 with BG2 and ended in 2016, 2 years after shipping DAI and after spending a year on the game which became Anthem. - ThreadSky

davidgaider.bsky.social • 1 day ago

The Road to Summerfall - Part 2

I guess the best place to start is with leaving BioWare. Right off the bat, I'll say I enjoyed working there - a lot. Until I didn't. I started in 1999 with BG2 and ended in 2016, 2 years after shipping DAI and after spending a year on the game which became Anthem.

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knight1029.bsky.social•1 day ago

What do you think began the conflict between the Dragon Age and Mass Effect team?

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

I honestly have no idea. Competition for resources, I suppose? One team's plans were always being cut short because the other team suddenly needed all their team members for an upcoming release.

knight1029.bsky.social•1 day ago

That makes sense. I can't imagine how it must feel to have your project side lined or reduced because of another team. Do you think the ME team were more entitled because they perceived their franchise as having a bigger cultural impact?

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

I never got that sense, though I was never in the meetings where these things were hashed out. They tended to always get what they needed, however, because EA always expected that each ME game had way more *potential* for huge sales than DA did.

knight1029.bsky.social•1 day ago

Well that sucks to hear. Its so funny to me how DAI sold more than Mass Effect yet it was able to just do whatever. I love Dragon Age so much and wish it was able to get the resources it deserves. I hope we get more Dragon Age spiritual successors.

knight1029.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thank you for making these threads. They are always insightful and I love hearing more about my favourite games by the people who made them so well. Looking forward to your new game Malys!

jenvalka.bsky.social•1 day ago

I'm sorry for how things turned out. They didn't deserve your heartfelt efforts. I've been wondering how DA would have ended if you could have been part of its conclusion, but I hope you've managed to find your way and move on. DA will always be magical and nobody can take it away. Take care David<3

momijimii.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thank you for sharing. The recent happenings at BioWare, with the callously off-handed decimation of the entire DA team after putting them through so much during the Veilguard development makes even more sense after reading about how they treated you. Your work is amazing & they never deserved you.

momijimii.bsky.social•1 day ago

I'm glad that you were able to create a studio where you feel more fulfilled and at home. The fact that these people could even understand such things says a lot about their character. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Kickstarter!

slandered.bsky.social•1 day ago

This was a hard read but thank you for sharing. I cannot believe your tenure at Bioware ended in that fashion. Glad Summerfall worked out for you though and I look forward to playing Malys. :)

foxeareddevil.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's really encouraging to see that other ppl in corpo environments have the same experience as me. I am at the same crossroads: do i stay in my "good job" with no perspective? Or do i "risk it all" and quit? Thank you for sharing, it rly helps to hear from "the elders" on this.

talltapper.bsky.social•1 day ago

what if bioware had done a racing game... really makes you think...

mischiefmermaid.bsky.social•1 day ago

As someone who worked somewhere they loved until suddenly they didn't - I'm glad to hear you're coming out the other side in a better way. I love DragonAge, as a female gamer it was such an inspiration for me growing up. While I miss your input for the DA games, I'm excited to see what you do next.

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

Things at Bio felt like they were at their height when the Doctors (Ray & Greg, the founders) were still there. We made RPG's, full stop. We made them well. Sure, there were some shitty parts... some which I didn't realize HOW shitty they were until after I left, but I'd never worked anywhere else.

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

To me, things like the bone-numbing crunch and the mis-management were simply how things were done. I was insulated from a lot of it, too, I think. On the DA team, I had my writers (and we were a crack unit) and I had managers who supported and empowered me.

Or indulged me. I'm not sure which, tbh.

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's funny that Mike Laidlaw becoming Creative Director was one of the best working experiences I had there, as initially it was one of the Shitty Things.

You see, when Brent Knowles left in 2009, I felt like I was ready to replace him. This was kinda MY project, after all, and who else was there?

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

Well, it turned out this coincided with the Jade Empire 2 team being shut down, and their staff was being shuffled to the other teams. Mike had already been tapped to replace Brent... Mike, a writer. Who I'd helped train.

There wasn't even a conversation. When I complained, the reaction? Surprise.

electrumleopard.bsky.social•1 day ago

Hold up. Jade Empire was gonna get a sequel? How did that not happen?

knight1029.bsky.social•1 day ago

Another Bioware developer, Mark Darrah, made a video on the sequels of Jade Empire. He makes a lot of great stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mfCIcx0Rjw&ab_channel=MarkDarrahonGames

deckard-red.bsky.social•1 day ago

Such a great game and IP unbelievable that it’s not received any follow up or even a remaster / remake

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

The team worked on it for quite a while. First it was Jade Empire 2, and then they rebooted it as a different game altogether which was kind of "modern Jade Empire but minus anything Asian"... and then they cancelled it. Happens a lot to projects as they spin up.

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

It was the first indication that Bio's upper management just didn't think of me in That Way. That Lead Writer was as far as I was ever getting in that company, and there was a way of Doing Things which involved buddy politics that... I guess I just never quite keyed into.

I was bitter, I admit it.

davidgaider.bsky.social•1 day ago

But, like I said, this turned out well. Mike WAS the right pick, damn it. He had charisma and drive, and he even won me over. We worked together well, and I think DA benefited for it.

I think I'd still be at Bio, or have stayed a lot longer, but then I made my first big mistake: leaving Dragon Age.

paercebal.bsky.social•1 day ago

Quoting the motto of a well-loved, but defunct company: "You create worlds".

Dragon Age is my favorite fantasy setting after Dragonlance (and sometimes, I feel like I'm willing to make Dragonlance more Dragon Age-y).

That's your fault, and for it, you have my thanks.
🙂

paercebal.bsky.social•1 day ago

(Also, you redeemed Loghain, in your novel The Stolen Throne. Which was no small feat, because there was so little positive things to him in Dragon Age: Origins... I mean, playing DA:O before reading the novel, and after, is NOT the same thing.

Conclusion: Perspective IS important.)

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