BioWare blog Dragon Age: Inquisition progress, tease pre-alpha screenshots

A new BioWare blog from Executive Producer Mark Darrah details how the studio is getting on with Dragon Age: Inquisition, and explains they’ve been focusing on a ‘Holiday Build’ internally.

That’s where they try to get everything ”in as complete of a state as we can get it.” The blog is littered with screenshots of the pre-alpha version of the RPG.

It’s still early stages yet for Inquisition despite what BioWare has managed to show off at various events and functions. The new Dragon Age is powered by DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine.

”What have we been working on? Dragon Age: Inquisition has come a long way in the last three months. Today, I’m going to share with you some of what we have been up to since PAX. That way, when we dig in deeper a little later on, you will be up to speed,” began Executive Producer Mark Darrah in his blog.

”You may have heard some talk about a “Holiday Build” for Dragon Age: Inquisition. So, what is this? These types of builds go way back in BioWare’s history. Effectively, they are builds we create around the holiday break that are packaged in a way that allows the team, and other parts of BioWare, to play the game in as complete of a state as we can get it.”

Darrah then goes on to explain the focus points of their Holiday Build:

1. The main storyline completely playable from beginning to end: This allows the story to be experienced in an interactive state, and lets us get pacing and spacing right.

2. All of the gameplay systems working together: This means that you can experience the game as it is intended to be experienced, with each feature feeding into another.

3. Starting VO recording for large parts of the game style=greyItalic.

4. Getting music in style=greyItalic.

5. Making sure that each class has a distinctive feel: Making sure that the party is a necessary and exciting part of combat (More on this later).

6. Getting our tech locked down: For example, here is a tarnish shader going in.

7. Getting a lot more content a lot further along: Things like Trees, dead things, outfits, faces, and, of course, areas.

Check out Mark Darrah’s full blog for more on Dragon Age: Inquisition’s progress.