Dragon Age: Origins Interview

Dragon Age: Origins lead designer Mike Laidlaw answers a couple pages worth of questions about the RPG in a new interview at Eurogamer. An excerpt to follow:

Eurogamer: The violence and lust from earlier, and entirely up front about it. The usual way critics describe trad-fantasy is twee. However… well, what would you say to someone who played Baldur’s Gate and thought that, no, I quite liked this. I don’t need it any more mature.

Mike Laidlaw: To my mind, what was very compelling about Baldur’s Gate was that it was a fun cool tactical experience – how do I use these characters together? Which ones do I pick? It’s all about the compelling choices. When do I drop the fireball. All those elements are still there. I’m not sure the level of maturity is the difference – but the depth, the experience itself. Does it all hang together on a single theme? Because I think our greatest failing could be it’s just a standard oh-look-a-unicorn fantasy… also, this guy’s head just popped off. For it to feel tacked on, and not part of the experience.

Making a decision early, deciding to make a mature game, to target an older audience, then knowing that all the way through… you play and it’s like, “that’s really challenging. I wasn’t expecting that kind of motivation for these characters”. That mixes up with, “I wasn’t expecting to have that much sex”. It goes into the same space. It works as one cohesive unit. It’s kind of like having a blue period.