Certainly games had cinematics, and a lot of times you'd see them at the beginning of a mission, at the end of a mission, but they were pretty much pre-baked animations, everything that you'd see. People really weren't pushing that, at least not in games. I think then the other thing I would call it is just this cinematic nature of it. We're going to have romances that carry from game to game, and that was original and new and people really hadn't done that. We said that this is a story that's going to go over three different games, your choices are going to matter. I think one of the things was right from the start we said that the trilogy anyway was going to be a trilogy, so that helped it stand apart immediately. You know, that's a really great question. What was it about Mass Effect that you think made it stand out amongst all those games? There's Call of Duty, Portal, BioShock, and a whole bunch of other stuff that defined gaming for the next following years. Mass Effect came out in an incredibly busy year where some of the greatest games of all time and most influential games of all time came out. It's one of the possible futures of Earth and of humanity, and I think it was important for us to stay grounded in that. This is something that's grounded in humanity.
That's something that we always took very seriously in the opening days of planning out Mass Effect was the science should matter. Star Wars is great, but it is very much science fantasy, right? Sort of being able to take science fiction seriously again I think was a big part of it. I know Casey Hudson was a huge fan of Aliens, Blade Runner, and that was a lot of his motivational space offers that sort of hearkening back to the 80s, and I think he wanted to do something that was a little bit more mature, a little bit more for the adult side of things, and something that was also a little bit more hard science.Ĭasey is an engineer. I think that just is one of the things that drove us. I mean it's so huge, and there's just so many stories you can tell in it. Yeah, you know I think a lot of the vision for Mass Effect: Andromeda probably was inspired by the fact that we got to work on something as amazing as a Star Wars franchise. Why was it a sci-fi RPG that you wanted to go into again? What was the thinking of from going from a massive sci-fi property into being like, let's make a massive sci-fi property? Surely that must have been like an incredible feat and daunting task for you guys to come up with. You guys started working on Mass Effect after KotOR. And now the helm of the ship at Mass Effect: Andromeda, so exciting times. Then on Mass Effect 2 and on Mass Effect 3 as well. I started as a senior writer on Mass Effect 1. I've been with it since the very beginning. I'm the creative director for the Mass Effect franchise.
Mac Walters: Just my history with it, the last 12 years of my life?Ĭan you just summarize that in about 10 seconds? Yeah, just a tiny small part of your life. Mac Walters: Just that little small thing? GameSpot: Can we start with an introduction and your history with the Mass Effect franchise?
Mass Effect: Andromeda Level Designer Chris Corfe Interview.Mass Effect: Andromeda Lead Designer Ian Frazier Interview.Mass Effect: Andromeda Producer Fabrice Condominas Interview.Mass Effect: Andromeda Level Designer and Space Lead Jessica Campbell Interview.Mass Effect: Andromeda Producer Michael Gamble Interview.Mass Effect Franchise Creative Director Mac Walters Interview.BioWare Montreal Studio Director Yanick Roy Interview.Further interviews are available through the links. The interview below features Mac Walters, creative director for the Mass Effect franchise.
In light of this, we decided to publish each of the interviews in full and make them available to anyone interested in reading more about the development of the game. While some of these interviews are featured in The Story of Mass Effect: Andromeda, a great deal of the interview material was unused. As part of this video feature, we travelled to Boston and spoke to various members of the development team, ranging from studio executives and writers, to designers and creative directors.
The latest in GameSpot's documentary series explores the story behind Mass Effect: Andromeda and its developer BioWare Montreal.