BioWare Co-Founders Discuss Mass Effect
Since its formation in 1995, BioWare has amassed one of the strongest track records in game development. In the last decade, the Canadian game designer has created the highly popular RPG series Baldur's Gate, the MMO franchise Neverwinter Nights, and arguably the finest Star Wars game ever produced in Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare notched another hit for its collection with last year's Xbox 360 science fiction opus Mass Effect, which has sold more than 1 million copies and become one of the top titles for Microsoft's platform.
Never being one to leave the PC gamer crowd behind, BioWare is currently working on a much-anticipated PC version of Mass Effect that's slated to arrive in May. BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka (CEO) and Greg Zeschuk (president) spoke with Tom's Games at GDC 2008 and discussed the making of Mass Effect for the PC, as well as their response to the recent sex scene controversy at Fox News. Muzyka and Zeschuk also talked about the evolving PC gaming market ("We're not going to drop the platform," Muzyka said.), how BioWare is grappling with piracy, and what projects the developer has lined up next.
TG: Was a PC version of Mass Effect always in the back of your minds or did you decide to port the game late in the Xbox 360 development phase?
Ray Muzyka: It was always in the back of our mind, but it wasn't a firm idea until late in the development. And really, it's only crystallized in the last few months, which is why we've been able to take the feedback for the 360 version and figure out what we wanted to change in terms of the interface and optimizing the experience.
Mass Effect is coming to the PC in May.
TG: Was there any one thing that stuck out about the Xbox 360 version that you wanted to change or improve?
Greg Zeschuk: We actually took all the feedback we got back, and we literally had this itemized list, categorized and cross-referenced against the feedback from reviews, forums and other sources. We certainly cherry-picked some of the stuff on that list, but there wasn't anything that truly stood out on its own. Really, our focus was about getting the controls right. We put a certain amount of effort into getting that right for PC, as well as making a great PC game experience with the resolution, quick-saving, and the interface. Because I think in large part, Mass Effect's content was really well-received, so we didn't have to change anything there. The cool thing is, having Mass Effect on the PC allows us to show it off even more. So there are a few changes and tweaks here and there, like with the inventory page, the individual squad commands, run-and-gun capabilities and other stuff.
Ray Muzyka: When I first played Mass Effect - I played through it three times before the launch - I went through about 90 percent of the content and it took me about 40 to 50 hours to go through all of it. So it's a big game when you look at all the content. And people experience different parts of it in different ways.
Greg Zeschuk: A lot of people didn't realize there was that much discoverable content in the game.
Ray Muzyka: We didn't put a percentage meter in the game, which was an interesting idea and would have shown how big the game was in terms of content. But we also wanted people to be able to play through it quickly. It's not like we wanted people to have to play through 40 or 50 hours of the game. You can finish it 20 hours or less. We tried to make the game accessible. And the point is, we knew there would be plenty of content that 360 players haven't even seen yet. So it was more about making sure our investment is focused around optimizing it for the PC.
TG: For the sequel to Mass Effect, are you planning on doing simultaneous development on both the Xbox 360 and PC or will you follow the same path as the first title?
Greg Zeschuk: We know we're making a trilogy, and that's about as long as we've thought about it. We tend to focus on the next project, because I think if you try to juggle too many things at once, you end up getting bogged down. So our focus right now is getting this PC version really good, and working on Dragon Age, which we're getting ready to start showing. Then Mass Effect 2 stuff we'll strategize on later. It's not incredibly urgent that we do that now.
Ray Muzyka: We have a lot of teams, and obviously there is stuff in development now that we haven't announced yet. We'll have a lot more information to reveal about those in the future. But right now, the PC version of Mass Effect is our primary focus. The PC is really important to us. Our games have all been approached the same way. On KOTOR, it came our on the Xbox and then the PC, but both versions won game of the year awards on both platforms. And that's because of the attention we paid to customize the experience. It was generally the same content for both versions, but fans were able to play it different ways. We really spent the time making sure it was a good game for both formats rather than just the game for a particular platform. We don't see the PC as an after-thought; we see it as a really important audience. And we have a big brand in that audience that's associated with quality. They're important, loyal consumers and we don't want to let them down.
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