Developer Blog

Writing is complete on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. The last lines of dialogue are off for recording and translation; only pickups and polish remain. But at BioWare, a writer's job doesn't stop at the written word. I'm Ian Ryan, a Writer on The Old Republic, and I'm going to show you some of the many ways a BioWare writer continues to shape our game’s stories long after the writing is finished.

There are clearly many games that have deep, engaging back stories that designers and writers have worked tirelessly to develop, but in the game, the player only sees what their character sees. Often times, the rich back story is used only for the context of quests, and players never really get the bird’s eye view of the narrative. The ‘big picture’ can become even more confusing and incomplete if the player misses a quest or discovers key plot points out of order.

Hello everyone, my name is Michael Voigt, and I’m the Lead UI Artist here at BioWare Austin. In this blog, I’ll share some of our vision and goals for the user interface in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and the solutions that we used to achieve them.

Hello there, I’m Georg Zoeller, and I’m Principal Lead Combat Designer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. In my previous developer blog, I introduced you to the Advanced Classes Game System in the game. In today’s blog I’m going to explain how the system has evolved over the last few months based on iteration, gameplay testing and focus groups.

Hey everybody! My name is Blaine Christine and I’m proud to say that I am the Live Producer on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. I’ve been on the BioWare team for three and a half years now and I’m happy to report that all of the mental images you have of us working at a world class RPG development studio are true. Yes, we have rivers of chocolate running down the hallway, yes, a live animatronic ogre lives in the basement and of course, yes, we have LARPing parties from 5PM to midnight every weeknight.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Jesse Sky, and I'm a World Designer for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. My team builds Flashpoints. And in our spare time? We build more Flashpoints. Our job is to test the mettle of you would-be heroes. We work alongside some of the best creative talent in the galaxy to deliver unparalleled multiplayer story experiences.

Playing director in the Star Wars™ universe is one of the coolest jobs anyone could wish for. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, being able to visualize scenes with Bounty Hunters, Smugglers and Jedi harkens back to my days as a kid creating Star Wars films with a home video camera and a bin full of action figures. This passion for Star Wars filmmaking has come full circle – as I completed cinematic design work on Mass Effect 2, I was asked if I had an interest in working on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.