Dragon Age creator admits 'honouring previous game choices' is 'a sucker's game' because 'you will never be able to deliver divergent plot'

Dragon Age's lead writer reveals the challenges of importing player choices across games, calling it a 'sucker's game' due to resource constraints and the difficulty of creating truly divergent plots, impacting the number of choices carried over in later installments like Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Former Dragon Age lead writer and series creator David Gaider has shared some insights into the difficulty of importing player choices from previous games in a series into the new entry, calling the practice "a sucker's game."

Over on Bluesky, Gaider shared a lengthy thread about an issue that arose during development on Dragon Age: Inquisition. There was a decision from all the way back in Dragon Age: Origins which can lead to Morrigan having a baby that has the soul of the Draconic Old God Urthemiel, and Gaider knew players who made that choice would expect to see "monumental" and "world-shaking" consequences in Dragon Age: Inquisition. 

Gaider and the other writers came up with "like, three different designs of the DAI ending where OGB Kieran could cause complete divergence: new path, cutscenes, the whole nine yards," but ultimately BioWare lacked the development resources to bring it all to life, especially since it would fly right over most players' heads. 

"It was a decision from two games ago that only a small minority (hello telemetry) would even choose," Gaider said. "To the rest, they probably neither knew about it nor cared... so how many resources could you invest? To do what? Set up an even bigger divergence for the NEXT game?"

Gaider then spent three days writing "probably the most complicated scene" in his career in an effort to fix the Old God Baby Problem. The Dragon Age: Inquisition scene tackled Morrigan's reckoning with Flemeth and the ensuing fallout complete with three fully fleshed out branching paths for Old God Baby Kieran, normal baby Kieran, and the option with no Kieran at all - each with their own branching sub-paths. And even that Gaider said was "underwhelming," but he said it's "about as good as it gets" when it comes to creating a truly divergent plot.

"Here's the thing about honouring previous game choices, from a design perspective: it's a sucker's game. What many fans picture, when you mention it, is divergent plot -- the story changes path based on those major choices. How exciting! But you will never be able to deliver divergent plot.

"You can deliver flavour differences (usually in the form of divergent dialogue), character swaps (character X appears instead of Y), and extra content (such as a side quest) -- but plot branching, particularly the critical path? It's a question of resources, and there's never enough to go around."

Although Gaider left BioWare in 2016 after 17 years at BioWare, all of this likely explains why Dragon Age: The Veilguard only carries over three decisions from Inquisition; it sounds like a huge pain in the behind.

I just spent nearly 80 hours in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and somehow already desperately want more.