Frostibte switch allows developers to deliver a beautiful game

Nov 16, 2012 10:35 GMT  ·  By

Video game developer BioWare is already working on Dragon Age 3: Inquisition and the team is now ready to show the first in-game art, giving fans of the fantasy-based franchise the first look at the style of the new game in the series.

Neil Thompson, who is the art and animation director at the developer, showed the first piece of art during the Bradford Animation Festival and talked about the ideas behind it.

The developer said, as reported by an attendee on the official forums, that “This is Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s the first time anyone has seen a frame of it outside BioWare studios”

Thompson then went on and explained why the team chose to use a new engine to create Dragon Age III.

He said, “Mass Effect was done on Unreal of course. Dragon Age was done on the proprietary engine Eclipse. I think anyone who played Dragon Age 2 would agree that engine was starting to creak a little bit by the time that was released.”

The move to Frostbite 2, the engine created by DICE for the Battlefield series, allows the team to create more beautiful environments and more detailed art for the various game characters.

Thompson said that such quality was usually only seen in the days before a game went gold and that it was highly unusual to get such a level of detail during the pre-production period.

Frostbite also makes it easier for designers to see how their ideas would look in Dragon Age 3, which leads to better quality when the game is launched.

Dragon Age 3: Inquisition is set to arrive during the autumn of 2013.

BioWare has not offered any details on the game mechanics or the plot, but the name suggests that players will finally be heading to Orlais and that two main characters will be involved.