Dragon Age Dreadwolf Passes Major Development Milestone

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has passed a major development milestone. BioWare GM Gary McKay said in a blog post that the title has now passed the "alpha" stage of development, which is a "huge step" for the game.

Alpha, for the purposes of Dreadwolf, means the game is playable from beginning to end. "Up to this point, we've been working hard on the various parts of the game, but it's not until the Alpha milestone that a game all comes together," McKay said.

"Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience."

Dreadwolf's development is not complete, of course. Next up, the team will continue to work on gameplay features and improving the game's visual fidelity to its "final form," McKay said. Now that Dreadwolf is in an Alpha state, the studio can also take a look at pacing, player progression, and how the game's relationship systems work.

"We can take the story we've written and see if we're expressing it well through the characters, dialogue, cinematics, and ultimately, the player's journey," McKay said. "Now that we have the ability to do a complete playthrough, we can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to our fans."

"The Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done. We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we're crafting," McKay said.

Very little is known about Dreadwolf, though the title of the game suggests it's connected to Solas, the Dread Wolf, who is a well-known character in Dragon Age lore.

Dreadwolf is just one of multiple games in development at BioWare. The studio is also working on the next single-player Mass Effect game, with McKay adding that the studio has plans to celebrate the Mass Effect holiday--N7 Day--on November 7. Additionally, the Star Wars: The Old Republic development team are still working on more updates to the long-running MMO.

For more, check out GameSpot's breakdown of everything you need to know about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.