This interview is stuffed full! Executive Producer Mark Darrah talks about development choices made in Dragon Age 2, as well as broader topics, like what sets BioWare apart as a developer. Read on!

ZAM: To move on to more general questions, how do you go about creating these stories and characters that are quite different from pretty much anything else in the market?

Mark: I think that part of it is because we've been doing it for a long time. When I started at BioWare in 1997, we already had writers; and that was back in the day when most companies didn't do that. Most of the time, the writing was usually done by a producer or an artist. I just think we've got a lot of experience in the space, so that lets us experiment with it. As well, I think we have a different approach to developing our games: we have a story to tell, and that drives a lot of what we do. This is in comparison to a lot of other developers that build themselves around specific game play concepts or certain art directions. I think that games serve as a purpose, and our purpose is to tell a story.

ZAM: So video games are basically your medium.

Mark: I think that's right.

ZAM: You've been here for a long time then, and you've seen the evolution of BioWare as a game development company. BioWare does have a significant 'style' from a game play perspective. How would you characterize this evolution? More specifically, your flagship games these days are Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 - two very fast-paced RPG games. If you've looked at previous games like Neverwinter Nights or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you can certainly see the difference in speed and 'action' potential. Are you happy with this shift to faster paced game play?

Mark: I think I am happy with it. BioWare is known for making RPGs, but what we're really trying to make are interactive narratives. At the moment, the interactive narrative is associated with RPGs, but I don't think it has to be. So we've moved, in some cases, to more accessible game play, in the case of Mass Effect, or we've streamlined certain processes and experiences in other cases. So it's not that we're dumbing down our games, we're simply making our stories more accessible to as many people as possible.

ZAM: So I guess in the market, you've been typified as 'sticking' to RPGs, but if you were to talk about yourselves, you would simply say that you stick to creating stories, and you'll stick with whatever gaming genre best conveys that story.

Mark: That's exactly right. The most commonly accepted genre tied in with storytelling is RPGs right now, but everything is becoming more narrative in the industry. I think we're in a strong position because this is something we know how to do. This also means that the appetite for narrative games is growing.

ZAM: So you wouldn't be afraid to go into first-person shooters directly?

Mark: Yeah, although I think there is some danger in moving to some of the very heavily populated genres, like first-person shooters. This is simply because there are some big players there who have been doing first-person shooters for a lot of years. What we would end up doing is competing head-to-head on game play and narrative. I think we could win one of those fights, but it would be much more difficult for us to win the other.

ZAM: I suppose, as of now, RPG players are more invested in their games for the story, while FPS players are more in it for the game play.

Mark: Definitely.

ZAM: As a final question then, to get back to Dragon Age 2… In comparison to Dragon Age: Origins, would you say that your level of satisfaction and confidence in Dragon Age 2 is much higher than Dragon Age: Origins?

Mark: I'm actually much happier with Dragon Age 2 than I was with Dragon Age: Origins. Don't get me wrong, DA:O was a great game, but when you do development on DA:O for as long as we did (five years), the game starts to drift a little bit, in terms of overall vision. Dragon Age 2, because it was developed over the course of about a year and a half, has been able to stay a lot truer to its original vision, so it's a purer implementation, I would say.

ZAM: So it's like the writing process; if you write a book over five years, it can drift around as you chase different narrative threads, but if you write a book over the course of a year, you stay focused on the path you choose, and you end up with a cleaner story. Is this approach of more focused development going to be the path you plan to take with development in the future?

Mark: I'm not saying that we'll be doing a Dragon Age a year (chuckles), but I don't think we'll go away for five years again.

ZAM: Unless, I suppose, it's in the process of developing a brand new IP when you get tired of Dragon Age?

Mark: There is something to be said about letting an IP rest, but we'll make sure that we get the story to a specific place where it would make sense to set it aside for a while to let it recover, or ferment. It would be a very deliberate thing if we did that.

ZAM: Well, that's all the time we have, but that's fantastic. Thanks for answering all of my questions!

Mark: Thank you!