Dragon Age: Journeys Interview
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"Our intent is to build a loyal online community for this title," said Hawley, "But that is not a distinct proposition set apart from the Dragon Age franchise. We think fans of Origins will enjoy Journeys. And, hopefully, Journeys will introduce new gamers around the world to Dragon Age and BioWare. There's cross over in the forums, and in the game." With that in mind, how involved with the game was the Dragon Age team at BioWare? Journeys has been developed by a completely different team, so are the leads on Origins overseeing this too? "They have been involved and supportive from the beginning ? collaboration is the key," Hawley insisted. "Ray [Muzyka] and Greg [Zeschuk] are some of the most innovative leaders in the gaming industry, and they share our passion for browser games." Spenner then explained that the core of the project was driven by talented indie developer Daniel Stradwick, who is best known for his Flash-based dungeon crawler Monster?s Den. "Daniel was the driving force behind the design with guidance and input from BioWare," Spenner explained. "At EA 2D, our goal is to get back to the spirit of 'Electronic Artists' and be supportive of the high quality independent developers we work with, such as Daniel Stradwick, Brad Borne, Mike Swain and Adam Phillips, we're actually just a very small production team. Daniel was the driving force behind the vision and execution of the game and Adam [Philips, best known for the Brackenwood series of online animated shorts] made the game absolutely beautiful. We built a support team around these two talented artists to make the vision a reality. When EA formed 25 years ago, 'We are an association of Electronic Artists' was one of the guiding statements. That still stands, and we love that thinking."I'll be headed over to dragonagejourneys.com at 2:00 CST to find out if it's as good as it sounds. See you there.
After spending some time playing Dragon Age Journeys, it's clear that it's far more than a brand extension exercise. While the gameplay is certainly of a different style, the exploration is done Diablo-style by clicking around a beautifully drawn scrolling environment and the combat is hex and turn based, it draws on much of the lore and story of Origins. "We tried to stay true to the incredible characters and story of Origins that BioWare developed," Spenner explained. "But we wanted to introduce these in a more accessible way, suited to the browser platform; players expect quick fun in the browser. We deliver that, but it is also awesome to watch people get sucked in and get comfortable in their seats when they realize that this is a game above and beyond what they've seen in terms of depth and progression."
