The hub of Dragon Age: The Veilguard was initially supposed to be something completely different, and it looks even cooler than what we ended up with…

It’s no secret that Dragon Age: The Veilguard went through a bumpy development process, to say the least. The fact that it hit stores as a complete, technically flawless, and overall solid piece of the beloved franchise is remarkable. Such long and tumultuous development cycles have been the death knell for many great games. But that wasn’t the case here. Despite that, the game has gone through numerous iterations and changes since its initial concept – even back when it was codenamed Joplin internally. One of the most exciting changes is the social hub.

BEWARE: SPOILERS!

Fans can get a glimpse into how the game’s concept has evolved over time with the help of the book The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, available on Amazon. It is divided into three parts: Post-Inquisition, Joplin, and Veilguard. The first part contains ideas developed before the release of Inquisition, up until the game’s official codename was Joplin. The second part contains ideas developed for the game until the team moved on to Mass Effect: Andromeda; and the third is all the ideas developed under the Morrison codename. Along the way, Dragon Age: The Veilguard dropped the live service element, several ideas for features like “Scoundrels,” and various companions that ultimately didn’t make it.

The hub design that stuck around the longest was a completely different one from Lighthouse.

One of the earliest ideas for Dragon Age 4’s community hub was a mobile base: a ship. Not only is there a ton of art depicting what the ship and the areas on it would have looked like, but there were also story threads surrounding the ship. For example, one concept art details the ship being stolen and the players having to go into enemy territory to retrieve it. This idea was further developed after Project Joplin, where another page mentions that the ship would have been a great backdrop for interpersonal conflict. Also, at one point, the idea was at least raised that the ship was a junked wreck that was acquired for the players by Dragon Age’s recurring character Isabela.

The Veilguard Evolution: From Ship to Submarine to Veil Whale to Lighthouse

At another point, the ship even had a name: Dumat (after the first archdemon). However, ships didn’t really fit into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s espionage theme at the time. So the team got to the point where they started considering a submarine. Of course, this presented challenges for the Dragon Age team: how would a submarine fit into a fantasy setting? This meant several iterations trying to fine-tune the submarine and hub: the art book featured one that looked more like a sea monster (called the Dragon Sub) that was made in Tevinter, an underwater castle on the back of a real sea creature, a castle on the back of a giant Veil Whale (that swam through the Veil), and Xenon’s island. As the story solidified and the team decided that Solas would be trapped in the Fade, giving players access to his base made the most sense – so the ship idea was dropped.

It was a long road to Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the excellent art book is full of ideas that probably wouldn’t have stuck. But there are also some that would have stuck. Even if the submarine didn’t work in the end from a story perspective, it still sounds pretty cool. BioWare currently has no official plans for the new Dragon Age DLC, though that hasn’t stopped many fans from asking. Whether BioWare will stick with this plan or change its mind remains to be seen, but the good news is that, hopefully, we won’t have to wait a decade for the next game…

Source: Amazon