Halo 4 Lead Writer Working On Next Mass Effect

Ahead of the special Mass Effect livestream today, BioWare officially announced some of the key developers working on the upcoming Mass Effect game. Among them is Chris Schlerf, who was the lead writer at 343 Industries on 2012's Halo 4. He's now working at BioWare as the developer's lead writer on the upcoming and untitled Mass Effect game that we may hear more about today.

"Every day is a revelation and every day I get to play in a new corner of the universe," Schlerf said in a blog post. "To be able to look three steps ahead to, 'Where does this take us and how does it add to the way we look at the Mass Effect trilogy?' You couldn't ask for a better playground."

BioWare hasn't said much about the next Mass Effect, but we do know that Commander Shepard, the hero of the first three games, will not be involved.

Another key developer on the next Mass Effect is senior development director Chris Wynn, who teased that the game will be a major "leap" forward for the franchise.

"You tend to think of the next [game in a series] as the next step, but really we are taking a leap," Wynn said. "We have familiar races and familiar starting points, but since we are telling a new story and a different story, it's like you're discovering it all over again. But while there are new characters to meet and new places to visit, we're also bringing back what made Mass Effect so good."

Producer Fabrice Condominas is also going to play a major role in the development of the fourth core Mass Effect game. He said it's important that BioWare take risks to push the series forward in a meaningful way.

"If we were just doing Mass Effect 4, we would be failing in a way" -- Mass Effect producer Fabrice Condominas

"If we were just doing Mass Effect 4, we would be failing in a way," he said. "You can see even in the trilogy how the games differ from one to the next, and if we were less ambitious we could have just done the same thing and it would have worked. But we want to take the risk and deliver something new and exciting."

Finally, Mass Effect creative director Mac Walters said the new game will hopefully give players a feeling of "wonder and sense of exploration" like they experienced in the original trilogy.

"And while we're making a next-gen title, we want to ensure that we’re stepping our game up so that this isn't just Mass Effect with shiny new features. And we do that by having deep characters and a compelling story with choices that matter," he explained.

With Shepard out of the picture, Walter teased that the main hero for the next Mass Effect will be someone completely new, who may have a more wide-ranging story.

"With Shepard, you arrived on the scene as a hero, and you were called forward from there," Walters said. "For the next Mass Effect, however, we've been looking at more of a hero's journey: how you become a legend and what it takes to get there."

Be sure to watch the special Mass Effect livestream starting today at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern for lots more about the next Mass Effect.