The Future of Mass Effect

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BioWare's co-founder talks sequels, downloadable content and - yes - more KOTOR

Now you've built the game engine will the sequel be developed much quicker than the original?

Zeschuk: I think that's absolutely true. The guys at BioWare have done a great job of creating all the tools and technology to make game creation easier. That's one of the reasons we cross our fingers and hope that this console cycle lasts a long time because we've created a great suit of tools and tech that allow us to build stuff. What took people to make a year can sometimes now be done in three or four days.

What's your take on the whole DVD versus Blu-ray disc storage issue? Has it made a difference to Mass Effect?

Zeschuk: The DVD format is a tricky one. We're on one DVD and we're a truly massive game and that'll speak for itself as far as how we got it all on there. Rendered movies take up a lot of space and we're doing a lot in engine, in real time.

You have to be very judicious and smart with compression. I don't think that DVD is going to make the worst game. This is a good game, Bioshock was a good game. I think that speaks for itself.

Zeschuk: I can't say anything about that at this point. There's some interesting stuff on the game that's a little bit different. I'll leave it at that.

Last question then, when are you going to announce KOTOR III?

Zeschuk: (Big laughs all round) I don't have an answer to that question. It's been talked about for a while. When I played Mass Effect I got a strong KOTOR feel. You know we loved the KOTOR games and it's always been a soft spot in our hearts.

In some ways this could be the spiritual successor to those games, but I'd say it channels some of the feel of those games. Maybe that's because Mass Effect is made by many of the same guys that worked on KOTOR...

Courtesy of CVG