// PC GAMER — GAMING
'I'm forever grateful to BioWare': 16 game developers share the moment a BioWare game inspired them to join the industry
BioWare was the catalyst for a generation of game development careers.
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When my party approached Redcliffe Village in Dragon Age: Origins, my reluctant sidekick Alistair stopped the party for a big confession about a secret he'd been keeping from me. I finally realized how massive and complex the story was, how many contingencies had been planned, written, and voice acted. That's the moment I knew I wanted to join the games industry. After BioWare's closure was announced this week, I reached out to other industry professionals to share their memories of the BioWare game that led them into their careers—some at BioWare itself.
Back in the early 2000s, when I was just starting my game writing career, I was a huge fan of Neverwinter Nights. I heard that BioWare was running a NWN writing contest with the prize being a chance to work for them, and I thought "Why not?" Although I did not win the big prize, I did place 2nd in the community vote category. I'm forever grateful to BioWare for giving me the opportunity to put my work in front of so many supportive players. The encouragement I felt gave me the confidence to successfully pursue this career that I love.
It was actually Jade Empire that made me think "I want to be a game designer." Watching the credits roll, I was astonished by the plot twists and cinematography and music, and how the overall experience (which certainly wasn't perfect from a gameplay perspective, looking back) ignited the feeling in me that I had just witnessed a kind of magic that could not be replicated in any other medium. I actually applied for a Senior Writer position at BioWare a month or two later. I was nowhere near ready for such a role and thankfully didn't get it—but, for the first time in my life, I had felt a calling.
Neverwinter Nights provided a toolset to create my own stories, and in doing so, I learned that I possessed some rough degree of talent. In the crucible of the Neverwinter Vault and the judgment of my peers, I sharpened that rough talent into something more refined until I was given my very first professional game contract by Neverwinter Nights lead designer Rob Bartel. That led to me joining Ossian Studios, eventually going on to write a successful fantasy trilogy, and of course, eventually coming full circle and returning to Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition to continue the story of the OC.
KotOR: Even more than the reveal, talking Evil Bastila down. Her lines about how Jedi must not have attachments because "there is no emotion, there is peace," but her love for me transcended those rules: nothing made her feel more safe and at peace. It was 2004-ish and I thought it hit harder than the stories Lucas was telling with the prequels. And KotOR did what no movie could do: The player completed the story. Was the past too powerful, or was redemption possible? My wife and I, a screenwriting team back then, applied to be writers at BioWare at GDC 2005. We started work late September.
BioWare entered my life alongside an Xbox and a selection of video games I inherited, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. KotOR, and its sequel, Obsidian's The Sith Lords, unlocked in my mind that games could impact you beyond what's on the screen. Hope, redemption, hurt, conflict, an epic story about choices and change and living through the consequences not just for Revan or the Exile, but their companions and the world around them. I made it my goal to help share those stories. I still want to.
The reveal of Revan in Knights of the Old Republic put me on the path to writing. I wanted to write something that would make someone feel true shock, but in that wonderful way that doesn't kick them out of a story and makes them feel like a real character in a world being greeted with a huge revelation that impacts everything they knew.
I remember playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Rep