There have been ten years between the most recent release in the series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, in 2014, and the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and the latter has a lot to say about it. It’s a sequel to a beloved game from a decade ago in one of BioWare’s most beloved series, and it’s the first BioWare game since 2019’s Anthem, a live-service multiplayer game that EA shut down less than two years ago.
Curious about the pressures surrounding the launch of Veilguard, we spoke to BioWare about the lessons they learned working on the Inquisition sequel and their feelings about revisiting the series after so many years.
“We start in pre-production,” says BioWare general manager Gary McKay when asked about the guiding principles behind BioWare’s development of Veilguard. “We spent a lot of time iterating, experimenting, and innovating on different things. At one point it was multiplayer. We looked at multiplayer closely, but we felt like we couldn’t go back to our roots. And when we asked ourselves, ‘What kind of game do we want to make? ’ we wanted to go back to our roots. It’s about incredible storytelling. It’s about unforgettable characters. And it’s about the opportunity to impact the world.
“And we really didn’t think multiplayer was going to be the thing. But the single-player RPG is where we wanted to spend our time, so after spending time in pre-production and really focusing on what the vision for this game was and having the opportunity to deliver on the creative promise of this game, we’re (now) really excited about what’s coming.”
McKay said Veilguard mixes seasoned veterans with new voices and perspectives, which “is really important for this game.” For example, former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah and creative director John Epler, who left the studio in 2021 but now consult on Veilguard, have decades of experience at BioWare. They work daily with people like game director Corinne Busche, who joined BioWare shortly after Anthem launched (but has had a love of Dragon Age since the series began in 2009), to develop the game you’ll be playing this fall.
“(You) want different perspectives, different backgrounds,” says MacKay. “If you just put people together who know one thing, that’s not where you’re going to see creativity. Innovation doesn’t come from that. Innovation comes from (…) mixing in new voices and perspectives with that history.”
Darrah has been involved with BioWare since the early days of Baldur’s Gate, and when asked how the studio has evolved from that series to the next Dragon Age, he said he’s been amazed. “The most amazing thing about Veilguard is that it’s a game that finally said out loud that BioWare’s greatest strength is telling stories through characters. If you go back to Baldur’s Gate 1, Baldur’s Gate 2, those games told stories through characters, but there wasn’t any intent behind it. And in this game, we’re finally putting that intent first, putting characters first, and building a game around those character moments. That’s the best way for BioWare to tell stories.”
I asked Darrah if Veilguard was doing something BioWare wanted to do in their previous games but couldn’t, and he said it was “storytelling through animation.” In the previous games, each character moved “exactly the same way,” and everyone was homogeneous in that way. “You put the armor on Alistair and you looked exactly the same standing next to him.
“Now we can express characters visually and physically, and even customize them, which was not possible in the past.”
He also mentioned BioWare’s confidence in Veilguard’s game development engine, which, like Inquisition, uses EA’s proprietary Frostbite. “Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II did what they could with the technology they had. Dragon Age: Inquisition did a great job with their respective engines, Frostbite,” Darrah said. “But this game has a much deeper understanding of the engine over a much longer period of time, and the hardware that it’s being played on is capable of doing a lot more, visually, than it could have done in the past.”
About the Inquisition
With a decade between Inquisition and Veilguard, BioWare has to balance satisfying longtime fans of the series with newcomers jumping in for the first time. Epler says the studio worked to make sure Veilguard was made in a way that respected and referenced the previous games, but didn’t make it feel like you could fully understand what was going on without having played Inquisition, Dragon Age II, or Origins.
“So there are references, there are moments where there are callbacks, but it’s really its own story, its own continuation with a different cast and different characters,” he says. “Historically, Dragon Age has always had a different cast from game to game, so that gives us a lot of freedom in terms of what we want to lean into the past and what we want to bring in that’s new and forward-thinking.”
Darrah adds that the events of Veilgaurd serve as a storytelling goal for the future of the series. “This game takes the ball that Inquisition had, puts its own spin on it, has its own characters, takes its own direction, but continues on its path to the future,” he says.
“Dragon Age has always been about change. Every game has had a new protagonist, always exploring their own space, and this game is no different. (Vailguard) does a great job of bridging that gap. The really diehard fans of Dragon Age have actually made a lot of educated guesses, and some of them have been pretty right about where the franchise is going. What we need to make sure is that people who may have only played Inquisition understand what the franchise really is. It’s about a new protagonist, it’s about change, it’s about evolution. And to make sure that they don’t come expecting a direct sequel to the game they played and be disappointed. This game is new, it’s evolved, it’s greater than the game that came before, and it’s the same as the game that came before (…).”
For Busche, balancing newcomer and fan expectations in Veilguard is a matter of managing assumptions. She says Veilguard takes place in parts of Thedas that BioWare has only hinted at. The team has hinted at the Grey Warden stronghold of Weisshaupt, the depths of the Arlathan Forest, the Rivain Coast, the Grand Necropolis of Nevarra, and Minrathous, but now players will finally be able to go to these story locations.
“We have a rich history of world-building within our IP, so existing players will be familiar with these locations and very excited to go there and explore their mysteries,” Busche told me. “But for new players, we don’t assume you know anything about these locations. I would say that extends to the characters as well. We’ve been very thoughtful about how we introduce each of the companions and key story figures in the game (with that in mind).”
Eppler said that what sets Veilguard apart from Inquisition and other Dragon Age games is that the player character, Luke, cannot save the world without the characters he meets along his journey.
“Dragon Age has always been about characters, but to a certain extent, I think we’ve been lucky enough to get into that,” he says. “Inquisition is ultimately a story where you, as the protagonist, have the biggest role. This time, we wanted to tell a story where these characters can’t save the world without you. But beyond that, we wanted to give them their own arcs that could run parallel to the main story and provide the kind of deep storytelling that fans really enjoy.”
Although he’s obviously biased, Epler says Veilguard is his favorite Dragon Age game he’s worked on (and he’s worked on all of them, starting as a quality assurance tester on Origins). He says one reason is the storytelling of the characters, companions, and relationships.
“They have camaraderie and rivalry, and they lean into that concept,” he told me. “You’re not just gathering people who will listen to everything you have to say. You’re gathering families, and that’s what Veilguard is all about. It’s about taking this group, this found family, and working with them to save the world.”
For more information on the game, exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.
