The Dragon Age Keep lets you reshape Thedas in time for Inquisition
dmcdonagh
2014-10-07
Did you destroy the anvil in The Deep Roads in Dragon Age: Origins? Did you side with the mages or templars in Dragon Age II? Dragon Age fans have made some tough decisions over the years – choosing who to kill, who to save and how to shape their world. Your actions changed your Thedas, and BioWare is making it easy to bring those choices into the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Though you won’t be directly importing a save file from Dragon Age: Origins or Dragon Age II into Inquisition, you'll still be able to continue your personalised Dragon Age story using a new tool: the Dragon Age Keep. We caught up with BioWare’s Leah Shinkewski (Producer) and Fernando Melo (Director of Online Development) to ask them about the tool, which will let you generate your unique world history, eliminate inconsistencies and store multiple playthroughs.
"The inspiration for the Dragon Age Keep started many years ago," they explain. "For a franchise like Dragon Age, your impact on the world of Thedas is a core part of the experience – driven by the choices you make. And when Dragon Age II shipped, the complex nature of our plot flag system and the save import really hit home."
This presented a challenge for the team. As the games and choices got more complex, it became harder to import player decisions via a simple save file. There was also another issue: "what if someone played the games on different platforms?" A new solution was needed, one that would let you fine-tune over 300 choices to establish the nitty-gritty of your Thedas.
BioWare began to work on something during the development of Dragon Age II called the World Vault. "After many, many months this eventually became the pillar feature for what we today are calling the Dragon Age Keep. Since then, with the help of the community we've worked to ensure that, going forward, the Keep will stand as the record of your impact in the world of Thedas – dutifully preserved and accurately represented in future products, limited only by creative aspiration of the game team."
In The Dragon Age Keep you’ll recreate your story, answering questions that give context to the world you’ll explore in Dragon Age: Inquisition. But don’t expect some drab checklist. The experience is narrated by the one and only Varric Tethras, and takes you on an animated journey through the Dragon Age series using the Keep’s iconic artwork.
The result? A totally massive world-creation tool. According to BioWare, if you spent one second looking at every world state you’re able to create in the Keep, by the time you finished you would be 16,400 times older than the Universe.
You'll be able to explore the Dragon Age Keep in the weeks leading up to launch, so keep an eye on Origin's Facebook and Twitter to find out exactly when you can start crafting your world, and follow @DragonAgeKeep for news straight from the team. And don't forget – pre-ordering the Dragon Age: Inquisition Digital Deluxe Edition gives you access to a suite of fantastic gear, including exotic mounts, a skull-carved throne, and specialised gear from the Flames of the Inquisition Arsenal.
