Creative Game Development: How We Do It At Bioware

Things! They were said by Bioware’s co-founder, Dr. Greg Zeschuk in today’s opening keynote at the Develop Conference. We’ve compiled a list of these things, which may be of interest to you.

• Bioware thinks ‘consoles are the past.’ Accordingly, Bioware is looking to dip their toes in all sorts of game development, from iPads to the 3DS. “The future isn’t necessarily on console,” Zeschuk said. “That’s the past.” For us traditionalists that abhor the very idea of playing Mass Effect 4 on iPad, don’t worry. “We’re going to continue to do triple-A console, but we’re also going to be exploring pretty aggressively.” Incidentally, we also learn that Bioware is currently at work at a small scale MMO…what could it be?

• Bioware does not rest on its laurels. You are only as good as your next game. Also, Bioware goes out of its way to make sure that people are working on something they’re actually interested in, and this is the reason why they’ve always got more than one project in the works at any given time.

• Bioware is obsessed with review scores. Could this be the real reason behind the Mass-Effication of Dragon Age? Dragon Age may have sold more than Mass Effect/2, but ME2 has higher review scores. “We’re really driven by our commitment to quality in that way,” says Greg. “”some would say we’re obsessed with review scores.”

• Bioware does not think that developing Triple A titles is the correct route for new developers to take. “Striving to do triple A game development right now is the wrong goal for most developers,” says Greg. For my generation it was the one thing we wanted to pursue, but the opportunities are getting narrower and narrower.