Former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah said bad processes should be thought of instead of magic.

A few years ago, Kotaku wrote a detailed article about the development of Anthem, pointing out that as bad as the situation seems within BioWare, somehow things can come together to create games worthy of the studio’s name that continue to be loved by gamers. And that’s where Darrah comes in, who in the latest episode of his Old Game Dev Advice series talked about another angle that could turn what seems to be a tide at BioWare.

Darrah says that game development can be compared to a hockey stick: a long arm that doesn’t mean much in itself, but a sharp jump makes a lot of things happen, and that rise is where the magic happens, and he sees that as what people are talking about. “This last little jog up, that’s what people at the studio are talking about when they say ‘BioWare magic’. Things come together really late, and things get better late.” It’s a horrible process because you can’t see in advance how sharp the uphill climb is. The long arm should be lifted, i.e. the overall development process should be accelerated so that developers can see what they are doing before the crunch comes.

“BioWare magic is sh_t process. It’s putting a name on something that’s saying, ‘Don’t worry, don’t freak out, because we know that at a future date, it’s all going to get faster, and it’s all going to work out. But the reality is that ‘working out’ is where the crunch comes from, and that’s where delayed games come from because you can’t predict with a hockey stick. You don’t know where the pivot point is. You don’t know what the angle is. There’s no predictability there at all, so you’re making it up by delays and crunch time. BioWare magic is bullshit. But within the studio, within the development process, when people say ‘BioWare magic,’ they mean this f_cking thing,” he added.

Darrah, who has spent more than 20 years at BioWare, working on many games from Baldur’s Gate to Anthem, is very familiar with the development process. “Don’t say BioWare magic to refer to this because this isn’t BioWare magic. This is a bad process. So stop it. Make the process better. You’ll never have to say this again,” Darrah concluded. We can trust his words.

Source: PCGamer