Mass Effect 2 Development Director Dorian Kieken Interviewed

Written by: J. F. Amprimoz • Edited by: M.S. Smith
Updated Jan 4, 2010 • Related Guides: Mass Effect 2 | Bioware

Mass Effect 2 is one of the most anticipated games around, so a chance to talk to its development director was not one we would miss. We talk about UI, platforms, main and side content, as well as nudity, of course.

When Bioware brought its pausable action/RPG mechanic first seen in Knights of the Old Republic to their own original IP in Mass Effect, gamers were wowed. Bioware had made great games before, but this time there was no Star Wars or Dungeons & Dragons material in there: it was all them from the ground up in Mass Effect. The sequel will come out January 26th, so it was kind of Development Director Dorian Kieken to sit down and talk with me about the new game he's working on.

Mass Effect 2: What to Expect

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Dorian's speech at the Montreal International Games Summit, where I caught up with him, was about creating and maintaining plans that everyone working on a game can access and, depending on their role, edit or add to different areas. One point I was left with was that you should never be in love with a plan. I asked what points about Mass Effect 2 that, despite the fluid nature of a “Living Plan,” were present from the start. First, Dorian explains the point from his lecture: “I was really referring to a plan in the sense of scenario management, on the multiple things that may happen, never be attached to a future which is an unknown.” He then discusses the overarching goals for the game:

“What happened from a design point of view is: we had a strong vision of what we wanted to improve right from the beginning, that didn't change. The fact that we wanted to up the shooting aspect, for example; the way we wanted to totally refactor the inventory system; the fact that we wanted to have a dark story; all those elements have been always present in the beginning of the game. They haven't changed, and we have been tweaking to make them, just better.”

Mass Effect 2 GUI Refinements

During his seminar on “Living Plans” Dorian mentioned that Mass Effect 2 has been through seven major graphical user interface revisions. I asked about what kind of improvements this had lead to.

“One of the great things we do, in a sequel, is you have the feedback from everyone: players, critics, reviewers in general. So we just went through the forums and looked at all the major critiques of the game. We had a lot of very good feedback about where we should move our shooting part of the game. One thing I can say is the interface of Mass Effect 2 is a lot slicker than Mass Effect 1. There is actually, to some extent, less information; but better presented. A little like the type of interface you can see in the Call of Duty series: very slick, very simple. And I think that fits very well with a game that puts a lot more emphasis on the shooting aspect.”

GUIs and Ammo in Mass Effect 2

The updated GUI in Mass Effect 2 lets you change ammo types without pausing

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The original Mass Effect came with an excellent selection of special ammunition that would inflict all kinds of bonus damage or debuff. But, it was trapped behind a layer or two of inventory UI, and many players weren't too keen on having to suspend disbelief for that long. Just because you can pause combat doesn't mean you want to do it often. Gameplay videos of Mass Effect 2 have shown something that looked a lot like grabbing and switching ammo from the on screen hud. I asked about the UI improvements' related to the ammo.

“That was exactly the feedback we had on Mass Effect 1. Not only was the inventory system a little heavy once you had to go to it and it was not very intuitive, but the thing is it breaks the flow. You're just moving around, shooting different elements, and then 'Oh, okay. You're grabbing something: you're going to inventory, changing elements, and then coming back to the game,' and just general flow breaks. All the effort was put, actually, on Mass Effect 2, into having a very nice, slick, flow in general. More specifically referring to the ammo system, its exactly answering that question. You never have to go to a specific UI, for example to change your ammo like you had to do in Mass Effect 1.”

Next Page: Weapon Overheat and Exploration Changes; XBox 360 and PC platform differences.

Link to complete audio on page three.

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