Dragon Age Toolset Seeks Interested Testers

BioWare is announcing that all those interested in getting their hands a bit dirty with a little videogame design work can now get the toolset Dragon Age: Origins. The only thing that people need to do is to go to the official forums, register an account and offer themselves for the beta stage, while answering some questions from BioWare. The toolset should then be theirs.

BioWare is saying that, in the beta stage, the toolset will not feature all of the content that is being integrated into Dragon Age: Origins, but it can still offer players and other interested parties a look at how the game is set up, which assets it uses and which monsters players can encounter.

It's a bit unusual to see a developer release a beta version of a toolset, which will basically be used to create mods for the game, but BioWare has been known for actively encouraging people to design new adventures tied in to the game universes it creates. Aurora, the toolset for Neverwinter Nights, has received several updates and people have created adventure models that rival the official campaign in terms of depth of narrative power.

At the moment, BioWare is saying that it is also actively looking into whether it is feasible to launch a toolset for those who will get Dragon Age on the Xbox 360 or on the PlayStation 3. Given that mods on consoles do not work, the possibility seems really remote.

Dragon Age: Origins is a role playing game that BioWare aims to ship at the end of 2009, for the big gaming consoles and for the PC. The title is set in a whole new universe, which mixes high and low fantasy. From what we've seen until now, the game looks really good and people are surely excited to play something that has been dubbed the spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate.