Dragon Age Community News Page

Dragon Age Origins coming to New York City

Hello East Coast Dragon Age fans! Want to come out and see DAO live in person?

BioWare and EA are going to be bringing Dragon Age: Origins to the New York Comic Con from Friday February 6 till Sunday Feb 08 at the Jacob Javits center in Manhattan.

We'll have more DAO details in the near future, but make your plans now to come out and see us at the NYCC.

You can learn more about the New York Comic Con, including the celebrity artists, writers and guests here: NYCC Info

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Grey Wardens: The Defenders of Ferelden

We have a cool new update showing off the Grey Wardens now available on the main Dragon Age: Origins page along with new information and new wallpapers.

The Grey Wardens are an ancient order of elite warriors charged with defeating the darkspawn Blight. The centuries of peace have left the Grey Wardens all but forgotten.

Reacquaint yourself with the lore with a new video, information, and wallpaper here: Grey Wardens

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Dragon Age Origins Polish language forums

I know we have a lot of Polish speaking fans of both BioWare and Dragon Age here on our forums, and we're glad to have you with us.

However, I also know some times it is fun to speak with people in your own language. Now, for people who speak Polish, there is a forum ran by some fellow DAO fans where Polish speakers can get their Dragon Age info in their native language.

If you're looking for a Polish language forum to discuss Dragon Age Origins in, you should check out Mówią w język polski tutaj

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

The strange goings on in the BioWare Parkade

As an employee here at BioWare, I have seen some odd stuff. When you work at an office like BioWare’s office, you get used to seeing some odd stuff that would be out of place at a less “nerdy” office. We have a generally relaxed atmosphere here at work with a casual dress code so a person in shorts, even in the winter doesn’t make you blink an eye. In the lunch room, we’ll often see people playing foosball, ping pong, setting up some sort of collectible miniatures game or waiting away on any number of arcade machines or video games on the big screen TV. Even just walking the halls you stumble across people having heated discussions about the superiority of Firefly over Farscape or planning their next raid. I’ve even been caught in the crossfire of a nerf battle between QA and designers a time or two.

Still, yesterday goes to show that no matter how jaded you are to your work environment, you can still be surprised when you least expect it. I had a mid-afternoon coffee craving so headed down to the parkade to drive over and get some hot bean juice when I caught site of 2 BioWare staffers doing something I had never seen before. Take a look at this picture:

These are animators Steve Gilmour (at the controls) and Stefano Marchesini (in the suit) testing out the new BioWare Motion Capture suit. This was so cool I delayed my coffee trip to watch Stefano go through a series of poses and walks while Steve calibrated the system and started to record Stefano’s motions.

For those of you who do not know, a motion capture suit like this enables video games to “record” the movements of the person in the suit through a complex system of built in sensors that send the movement data to the computer, which allows us to have more realistic animation in our games. You can see the sensors on Stefano’s arms and legs and all the wires hooked up to send the data back to Steve’s lap top. And it works really well. The figure on the screen accurately moved, stopped and turned just like Stefano did, right down the pause to scratch his… umm… nose.

When I asked Steve why we were using Motion Capture, he said “Non-optical motion capture suits are ideal for rapid pre-production prototyping. You can experiment, get the data, and test it in the game engine. Long-term, this will allow us to develop more specific, contextually correct animations for all moments of gameplay. Which means, no more repetitive animation cycles. People will always look like they fit in the world.” I’m just glad I had my trusty cell phone camera with me to take these images; because this is something you don’t see everyday, not even here at BioWare. And, from the looks of it, Stefano has no trouble walking around the parkade in a form fitting spandex suit.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Facebook group for the 10th Anniversary of Baldur's Gate

I just noticed there is a group on Facebook who are planning a "play Baldur's Gate to celebrate the 10th anniversary on Nov 30".

Dragon Age is, as we have said, the "spiritual successor" to BG, so I think it is only fitting that come Nov 30 we all play a bit of the classic to remind us on the fun that we had and to refresh our memories as we all learn more about Dragon Age.

You can join the group with your Facebook profile and sign up as a player over at the Facebook group page here: Click here for a play down memory lane.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Dragon Age featured in Portuguese in BGamer Magazine

Olá! Senhoras e cCvalheiros.

I know we have many fans in our community who speak Portuguese who are craving some information on Dragon Age in their own language. Well, the fine folks at BGamer magazine have heard your pleas and their newest issue (on stands now) is full of cool Dragon Age art and information no Português.

So run out and pick yourself up a copy of their latest issue before they disappear from the shelves. And, to make sure you don't miss any future word, you can head over to their website to stay up to date on the latest gaming info all in Portuguese.Estale a ligação.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

German website Gamestar has a new 5 page DA:O Preview

Guten Tag meine Damen und Herren.

Today we’re giving a shout out to some of our German Community members by calling out a cool new 5 page preview of Dragon Age: Origins done by the fine folks over at Gamerstar.de.

In the article they give their early thoughts on Dragon Age and call out some cool new information on things like the four schools of magic, the seven attributes of your player character and much more.

You can check out all 5 pages of the Gamestar article here: Klicken Sie Hier.

And if you aren’t fluent in German, you can always join the thread discussing it on our forums here: Click here for English discussion.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Halloween Fan Art

You fine community people have sent in some great fan art. Whether it was a custom creation, some altered art, or a rather hawt looking Morrigan, the submissions are all excellent.

If you look carefully at some of the images, you may even see a few zombie kittens roaming around.

You can check out all of the images on our Flickr account here: Click here to see the Halloween coolness.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Ben WH gets hands on with the Dragon Age Toolset

Community Member, and toolset smart guy, Ben WH was recently one of the people invited to come to BioWare HQ here in Edmonton to be among the first people to get their hands on the Dragon Age Toolset as part of the Toolset Event.

Now that he has returned home and had time to collect his thoughts on the Toolset and the event itself, he has posted his impressions over at the Academy for Modding Excellence website.

You can read about his hands on with the toolset and his close encounter with David Gaider here: Click here to read Ben WH's Toolset impressions.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Horror Games

I’m starting up a new campaign with a few friends of mine this week which seems to fit very nicely into the Halloween/ dark fantasy theme that is ramping up in these parts. The story teller is a fellow named Ray who asked if a small group of us would want to play a short campaign that takes place in Vietnam during the war. So a modern game with 40 year-old technology, political crisis and a chance to explore a variety of hard topics like race, democracy and civil unrest. And zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.

You see Ray is using the game system All Flesh Must Be Eaten which I have never played, but is entirely dedicated to the zombie apocalypse in its infinite forms. Sign me up I say.

Anyone play a campaign based around horror? I know there has to be some fierce Cthulhu fans out there...

Jay W, Community Manager

Halloween Rules!

I have to say that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I play an awful lot of games and have a great group of friends of like mind who ensure I am always kept topped up with games to join. Something about this particular time of year, one dedicated to games, costumes and fear seems to strike a cord. I have organized a few horror games and played in countless others and enjoyed each one. Nothing like planning a Cthulhu-themed game and during the big finish ordering a large group of my friends dressed as virally-infected zombies to attack my girlfriend (playing the only medic) and watching her scream and run away.

Sweet.

From games like the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series I have watched technology improve only to the benefit of increasing the atmosphere and silly thrill of fear while playing these chilling games in the dark at home. Alone….so…very…alone.

To celebrate this very coolest of all the outrageous pagan holidays I want you to send in your pictures of Halloween photos, costumes, cakes, wallpapers, pumpkin carving and all the rest with a Dragon Age theme. If I don’t see at least one real live Morrigan costume I will be sad.

Send all your pics to bulletin@bioware.com and we will find a gallery to show them off.

Jay W, Community Manager

Dragon Age Toolset for Luddites

I completely loved the Neverwinter Nights toolset and I can’t script to save my momma. Yes, anything super fancy like making modules or creating sweet special effects was well beyond me but I did end up taking nearly all the screenshots you see that feature NWN. I got pretty handy with the toolset from a visual point of view and spent many hours setting up screenshots.

I’ll admit I was leery when they told me that the Dragon Toolset had far more technical depths should I care to venture. I was wondering if I would be able to duplicate my sweet faux-skillz or had I finally met my match? As it turns out after some fiddling around with the interface (which is quite similar to the old school NWN toolset) I can scratch out some pretty cool things without a jot of programming or technical talent at all.

Fear my weak skills!

Login to view fab new screens of the toolset

Jay W, Community Manager

BioWare PAX Minion videos are now up on YouTube

Some of you may remember that VThornheart was the winner of the "Who Wants to be the BioWare Minion" contest we held this summer. Part of his minion duties was to take video of PAX so we could make some videos of his and our experiences there this year.

The videos are now ready and have been posted on the all new BioWare Community YouTube channel. These are our first videos uploaded onto YouTube, but they won't be the last. Make sure you subscribe to our channel in case we sneak some tasty surprises up there in the future.

You can check out all three of the videos and subscribe to our channel here: Click here to view the BioWare Community channel.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Hey Neverwinter Toolset Users!

We have released a whole mess of videos to introduce the Dragon Age: Origins toolset. At PAX BioWare did a live, on-stage, full contact presentation of that very toolset performed by Fernando Melo, one of the Dragon Age Producers and a fellow so organized he would cut you with the surgical precision of his Excel spreadsheets. Cut you bad.

So for the module maker-inclined take a peek at the new toolset because we all secretly wish to be a merciless puppet masters. It is sometimes better then pie even.

Jay W, Community Manager

World Makers- do you wish to create worlds of unspeakable, mewling horror or something with high-gloss rainbow unicorns?

The choice is yours.

Dragon Age developer thrown to the PAX wolves

Scott Meadows, one of the DA:O Senior Programmers came all the way to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle to help the community team show off Dragon Age: Oringins.How was working at a booth at PAX?

It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. The biggest part of the work was making sure that the equipment was working and at any time something may blow up. I can’t believe how much that part of it stressed me out. Playing the game and showing it to people was a blast. It may sound weird but it never got boring, even after the 10th time running through the game, it was still fun. Working the front door was also a blast, answering questions, playing the role of a barker, telling people that we were full, watching the line come back around the other side of the booth. My only regret was that I only had about 2-3 hours to actually enjoy PAX. Oh well, gives me incentive to go back next year.

Most remarkable PAX sight?

Watching them open the doors on the first day and seeing people run, yes run, through the con to get to their favorite booth to see what they have this year.

Coming in a very close second was the reaction of people upon seeing my “hardcore” tattoo sleeve on my arm. I am sure there are some people to this day who think I have a permanent tattoo on my arm.

Jay W, Community Manager

All conference news and pics

Who wants to see our PAX pictures?

Did you want to see Community Manager Jay Watamaniuk in his home made armor? How about Jason Barlow readying for battle? Or even me, Evil Chris, passed out dru.. er.. resting on the floor?

Now's your chance as we've posted our PAX pictures up on our Flickr account.Click here to see the pictures.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Winners of the Grey Warden Shields announced!

For those who were able to attend either Gen-Con in Indianapolis or PAX in Seattle we at the BioWare booth were giving away a very cool grand prize, a shield signed by the Dragon Age Origins team.

We are now pleased to announce Mr Chris Fernandez and Mr Tristan McKay as the winners of the shields givin away at the booths.

We also had 2 online draws available for signed shields available only to convention attendees. We have now drawn the winning names, so check your emails to see if you are a winner!

Click here to check view the shield and see the winners.

Thanks to everyone who came to our demos and everyone who entered the draws. And, once again, congratulations to the 4 winners of the signed shields.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Putting together all our stuff

Back to the cushy chairs in the game development coal mines today after all the exotic travel to foreign climes. Stay tuned for a raft of pictures from PAX, more toolset goodies, sweet videos and tales of high adventure and survival in the coming weeks.

Spotted: A Dragon Age shirt in Seattle airport and on the streets of Edmonton, Alberta.

Evil Chris discusses Dragon Age on I Game Radio

While the Community team was down in Seattle for PAX I had a chance to sit down and record an interview with Omaha Sternberg of I Game Radio.

Omaha is a huge fan of role playing games and had just seen the DA:O demo in the booth so she had a ton of questions about the game, how it works and where the team got it's inspiration for the story and art. We even discussed the possibility of a console or Mac version of Dragon Age: Origins.

Click here to check out the podcast.

Evil Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator

Media, mistaken Morrigan and more media

Evil Chris conducted several interviews over the course of the next day including G4 television. We had a huge crowd gathered around while they shone the lights and glamour on Chris out in front of our booth as the curious looked on. "Single-player focused, PC exclusive, return to our roots as a developer dark, heroic fantasy...."

We did a complete audio overhaul Saturday morning and the day went perfectly after that. Let me say doing the presentation without a microphone was an impressive feat and community taskmaster Mr. Jason Barlow handled it with the aplomb of a seasoned carnival barker.

We had a special helper in the booth all the way from Edmonton, Alberta as well on Sunday who was asked many, many times if she was the one who posed for the Morrigan posters we were giving away. Full of Canadian integrity, despite all the rowdy peer-pressure to the contrary, she reassured the fans that she, in fact, was the booth bouncer and not the booth babe.

Booth shout-out: Shave your head, get a free copy of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Right on.