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Interview: Ray Muzyka - Page 2 of 3 - SciFiNow

Interview: Ray Muzyka

The BioWare head honcho talks Mass Effect 2.

Picture 2Does that make for a more absorbing experience?
I think so. I think of games as an art form. There are other great art forms as well television and movies can be art, and literature obviously is, and there are many other kinds of art as well. But games are unique in the sense that they’re interactive fiction. They have choice and consequences – you’re the director of the experience and you’re the actor, you’re at the centre of the experience at the same time. And maybe even the creator of the experience when you consider user-generated content. So those are a couple of dimensions that just are not present in linear media. Non-linear media opens opportunities, but it’s also more challenging.

Was enabling players to use their game-save throughout all three games the plan from the very beginning?
It was always an idea that players would be able to bring their saves forward, and we’re happy we’re able to do that. It’s pretty innovative – I don’t think there are any other 360 titles that have done it. There were some technical hurdles we had to overcome, but in partnership with Microsoft we were able to do that.

Has the Mass Effect narrative changed from your initial plans?
This story is generally the same broad, ambitious, grand story arc of this epic trilogy that we always planned. This is the dark second act; it’s got a beginning, middle and end. You can experience it as a solo experience if you choose to do so, or if you want to have continuity from the first game, you can bring your saves forward – it accommodates both ways. We listen to player feedback and we make changes, try and tune the experience and story arc of course, but the grand vision is the same.

Is it easier to work on a sequel with an established universe?
Well we invest a lot of time upfront in the IP creation. We create an intellectual property bible at the outset of all our franchises and games. It takes six months to a year for a substantial amount of people – writers and designers, artists, animators – to create the look and feel, context and setting, design and characters, and history and timeline of a world, so that when you play through a game it’s almost like you’re looking at an iceberg where a certain amount of it’s visible to the player, but the remainder is below the surface – and it adds weight and gravity and depth and richness and incredibility to the experience. That’s true of all of our games and Mass Effect is no exception. So it is easier to write brand extensions, ancillary product extensions, and continue to have continuity with the story arc when writing sequels and post-release DLC and that sort of thing – because you have all that rich back-story and history and art, and we draw on that all the time.