BioWare to Discuss Mass Effect 2 at GDC

January 10th, 2009, 01:51 Posted By: wraggster

BioWare has announced that it will showcase Mass Effect 2, the sequel to its critically-acclaimed RPG, at this year's upcoming Game Developers Conference. The developer revealed on the gaming event's web site that it would discuss what it learned from the first game's level design and how the second game would improve upon the formula.

GDC will once again take place at San Francisco's Moscone Center. This year's event will be held from March 23 - 27. BioWare Project Manager Corey Andruko and BioWare Lead Technical Designer Dusty Everman will lead the 60-minute lecture. The session's official description is posted below:

"Session Description
This session examines the BioWare Mass Effect team's new level-creation process, which is focused on maximizing iteration for quality while minimizing rework and cost. This approach to building levels strives to integrate the Design, Art, and Production teams such that the highest-risk level-creation issues are addressed early in the development cycle. Lessons learned from Mass Effect lead to a detailed description of the new level-creation process, and graphical examples of a level illustrate its progression through the necessary phases. The discussion also examines how BioWare is currently implementing this process using elements of Scrum and Lean Development.

Takeaway
Attendees will: - Gain insight into some of the major issues the development team encountered while building Mass Effect at BioWare; - Get a detailed look at the Mass Effect team's new approach to creating levels while avoiding these issues; - Find out how this new process is working for the Mass Effect team; - Learn about new pitfalls the team discovered that can potentially be avoided on future game projects.

Intended Audience and Prerequisites
This lecture is intended for producers, designers, or any game developer involved in planning, specification, or content creation for game levels. An understanding of modern video game development workflows is recommended."

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/942/942902p1.html

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