Dragon Age: Inquisition's Prologue Was Re-Written Seven Times

BioWare has revealed that the opening scenes in the recently-released Dragon Age: Inquisition were re-worked approximately seven times. BioWare creative director Mike Laidlaw, senior writer David Gaider, and actor Freddie Prinze Jr. discussed the scene and more at a storytelling lecture hosted by NYU Game Center, which is the Department of Game Design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Speaking about his favourite scene in the game, Mike Laidlaw described the moments in which the player's character first meets the character Chancellor Roderick.

"That scene is one that we re-worked probably seven times over the course of the game," Laidlaw said. In earlier versions of the scene, Cassandra was a lot more hostile towards the player. In other versions, Chancellor Roderick did not exist in the scene and had his role filled by Leliana. Other variations saw party members Varric and Solas more involved.

"It needed to setup that initial opposition… we needed the sense that people weren't willing to step up and solve the problem… I remember one of my clearer pieces of direction that I said to David [Gaider] and his team was that we basically needed that guy that shuts down the Ghostbusters containment unit," Laidlaw said. The lecture was live streamed and can be watched for a few days before the archive is deleted on NYU Game Center's Twitch channel.

Thinking about whether to pick up Dragon Age: Inquisition? Check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.