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What BioWare Has Learned
Okay, I originally started writing this earlier in the week after receiving several queries, in regards to Dragon Age 3 – Inquistion. So, I didn’t know when I began writing this that Ray and Greg were retiring from BioWare. So I want to start this post with wishing Ray and Greg good luck in their future endeavors. Without Ray and Greg’s passion for game development there never would have been a BioWare and consequently I probably never would have entered game development. For ten years I worked and learned and thrived in an environment that is really impossible to describe. It was Ray and Greg who made that possible. If…
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Dragon Age Redemption
I’ve finally gotten around to watching the six episodes in the web series “Dragon Age Redemption” starring Felicia Day. What did I think? Well I’ll qualify what follows with two points: I don’t like web series. I find they have too much preamble and postamble for a few minutes of entertainment. I don’t generally go out of my way to watch them. Having been involved with the development of Dragon Age Origins I cringe a bit when I see the Dragon Age world used by outsiders. But… Overall I enjoyed it. It was less campy than I feared (though still somewhat campy). The production values were higher than I had…
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A Box of BioWare
In this box… all the ‘written stuff’ I accumulated during my years with BioWare. While most of the paper is related to the two sales that occurred while I was with BioWare (selling a company generates a lot of paperwork!) there is some interesting stuff in here too. The black notebooks are full of ‘to do’ lists, daily roll-call for the designers, and design plans. I also have books full of initial Dragon Age ideas, including one of James Ohlen’s early design books for Dragon Age. Anyways, I have no idea what to do with all this stuff. I’ll hang onto the business paper and contracts and whatnot for a…
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Interview with me has gone live at Blogcritics
If you are absolutely dying to know more about me I recently did an interview over at Blogcritics. http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/an-interview-with-brent-knowles-writer/ I have to admit being called an emperor does good things for my ego.
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Dragon Age 2 Demo
Several visitors to this blog asked me to check out the Dragon Age 2 demo and I finally had the chance to do so last night. (Note: I played it on the xbox360… for comparison I never played Dragon Age Origins on a console, only the PC) Please keep in mind that this is only my opinion based on playing the demo. And that I’m keeping this short, I’m too busy with the novel to go into any kind of detailed analysis. Overall: I thought the demo showed promise — without playing the full game I can’t say whether that promise was fulfilled. Some Good Things I am impressed at…
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Auroras, Stories, and More
Just a reminder that my story ‘Digital Rights’ is free right now as part of a Smashword promotion. If you are Canadian and enjoy it please consider nominating it for an Aurora reward. If you are not Canadian and liked it please consider writing a Smashword’s review (and if you are on Empire Avenue let me know and I’ll go buy a wack of shares in you). Smashword Stories Amazon Stories And my latest story, ‘Stealing Death’ is in Necrotic Tissue. Fantastic magazine, check it out. And for those of you who are here looking for game design advice or my thoughts on Dragon Age 2, check out the Lazy…
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Dragon Age Wins Big At Canadian Videogame Awards
Just noticed that Dragon Age won both Game of the Year and the best writing award at the Canadian Videogame Awards — see the Edmonton Journal article for details. Sending a huge congrats to the Dragon Age team. Well done!
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BioWare-Brent Year 6 (Fall 2004 – Summer 2005)
This is the sixth of ten posts, one for each year that I worked for BioWare. And Along Came Jade So there I was busily working away on Dragon Age, settling into a good routine when one day I’m drawn into a Serious Discussion. Now these are always worrying, they usually mean something is up. Later on when BioWare was sold, first to Elevation Partners, and then later to EA, these Serious Discussion would become more common place. But back here, mid-way through my career with BioWare, they were still relatively rare. This particular discussion turned out to be one of the best moves for my career, though at the…
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Dragon Age Review at Tor.com
I was pleased to stumble across a Dragon Age review on the Tor.com blog. Mur Lafferty, the blogger, is enjoying the game and has written an entertaining review. http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58659
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BioWare-Brent Year 5 (Fall 2003 – Summer 2004)
This is the fifth of ten posts, one for each year that I worked for BioWare. Conquering the Hordes of the Underdark As summer 2003 turned into fall, the Hordes of the Underdark team was hard at work on the second Neverwinter Nights expansion. We were fast approaching our deadlines and I was able to poach writer Drew Karpyshyn from Knights of the Old Republic and have him join the team. The extra writing manpower, plus all the hard work from the existing team members powered us through and Hordes went gold in November. I am still very proud of the effort we put into Expansion Pack 2 — the…
